[Ica-osgeo-labs] BOF in Portland: Some Ideas of certification

Mueller, Thomas Mueller at calu.edu
Tue Jan 13 10:19:55 PST 2015


Hello everyone

My name is Tom Mueller and I am a GIS Professor at a small school just southeast of Pittsburgh, called California University of Pennsylvania. I teach courses in GIS, remote sensing, Demographic Analysis, Emergency Management, Crime Mapping, etc.  This means that I am a jack of all trades master of none.  So I am relatively new to Open Source GIS, our campus has a site wide ESRI license.  However a few years ago we converted one of our lessons to QGIS to test it out.

Due to my inexperience, I signed up for Phil’s GeoAcademy.  My goal is to convert my crime mapping course into using QGIS and then possibly using QGIS or other open source software in our Intro to Remote Sensing class.  The crime mapping course will be part of the GeoTech Center’s model courses (it will have interchangeable ArcInfo labs and QGIS labs).  I know it is not a lot, but I figured I would introduce myself

Tom Mueller


Thomas R. Mueller, Ph.D., GISP
Advisor: Geography Major with GIS and Emergency Management Concentration
Co - Director: Pennsylvania View
Department of Earth Sciences, California University of Pennsylvania
"A man never gets to this station in life without being helped, aided, shoved, pushed and prodded to do better." - Johnny Unitas

From: ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Charles Schweik
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 10:37 AM
To: Phillip Davis
Cc: Bill Hodge (bhodge at gisci.org) (bhodge at gisci.org); ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [Ica-osgeo-labs] BOF in Portland: Some Ideas of certification

(I've mentioned this to Phil already.)

On my end, over the next 6 months I plan to work on a grant proposal to support our GeoForAll\OSGeo efforts at the university-level that would look to implement a "flipped classroom" model, where the MOOC content is used by the students outside of class and the in-class experience is more project and team-based. I'd like to include a webinar component of this as well. I'm still looking for the right funding program but it would be great to offer such a program in coordination with other institutions.

I also will be working with Maria Brovelli to hold a GeoForAll meeting co-located at FISS4G EU in July, and hopefully we can devote some time to the certification issue with many of us face-to-face.

Cheers,
Charlie Schweik

On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 9:26 AM, Phillip Davis <pdavis at delmar.edu<mailto:pdavis at delmar.edu>> wrote:
I will speak with Bill Hodge, Executive Director of GISCI this week to see if they are interested in taking lead in assisting OSGeo in developing certifications along the lines proposed by Arnulf with his Metaspatial Institute.  One major barrier will be to make certain this is recognized as a global effort, not just US-based, if it is to have credence outside North America.

Phillip Davis

-----Original Message-----
From: ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> [mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>] On Behalf Of Suchith Anand
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 7:41 AM
To: Arnulf Christl; ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>
Subject: Re: [Ica-osgeo-labs] BOF in Portland: Some Ideas of certification

Hi Arnulf,

Thanks for all your efforts that you put in for the certification ideas  and inspite of good ideas and discussions it is disappointing that we had not made  progress in implementing this. One of the reasons why Proprietery vendors are running successful certification programs for their software is that they invest lot of time and effort for this as they see the importance of this for their business and expansion.

I think, as a group we have a strong educational programs now in place for starting this. For example, the Geo Academy program that Phil and others are offering which is based on essential curriculum of  Geospatial Technology Competency Model (GTCM) covering  both the background theory of geospatial science as well as the hands-on application using Open Source GIS software should be used to launch the Certification program for Open source GIS. Any student who successfully completed all the five courses of this program should be offered the Open Source Geospatial Certificate  or similar along with the university certificate offered by GeoTech.

So i suggest that Phil should take the lead on this and contact GISCI for this. Hopefully GISCI can advise us on the best way to move forward. We can provide  Letter of support from Geo for All for this.

Phil and all - please let us know your thoughts and how we can help you for this.

Suchith

________________________________________
From: ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> [ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>] On Behalf Of Arnulf Christl [arnulf.christl at metaspatial.net<mailto:arnulf.christl at metaspatial.net>]
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2015 11:04 AM
To: ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>
Subject: Re: [Ica-osgeo-labs] BOF in Portland: Some Ideas of certification

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Folks,
I have been following the long and broad discussion around certification last year. Again. Lots of fantastic ideas and then - nothing. It feels a bit like "same procedure as every year" [1] mixed with Groundhog Day[2].
Which is why this time round I did not bother to join the choir.

Ah, admittedly, I am somewhat frustrated.

So where do we go from here? I have spent considerable time and effort trying to push this forward as a privately funded initiative but to no avail. So I am closing this project as failed and try not to mourn the loss. It will not work in the way I though it would. Shit happens.


The last question before this thread died was whether OSGeo would give its blessing to approach GISCI to lead such an effort. Answering Phillip's question: Please go ahead.



But. Without somebody taking the lead nothing will happen (Q.E.D.). Who will step up and finally get this going? I am happy to support anybody who can push the right buttons but will not continue on my own account.



Have fun,
Arnulf


[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boisQwkK7rs
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day_%28film%29


On 27.09.2014 15<tel:27.09.2014%2015>:33, Phillip Davis wrote:
> My feeling to. The new executive director of GISCI that manages US
> GISP is fellow Texan Bill Hodge.  He's one of the easiest people to
> work with ever. Bill served on my advisory board for GeoTech when we
> assisted US DOL in completing GTCM now used to create the 2015 GISP technical exam.
> Bill currently serves on our Business Industry Leadership Team for the
> NISGTC that funded the QGIS courses so he knows our work intimately.
>
> With OSGeos blessing we could approach GISCI to lead such an effort?
>
> On Sep 27, 2014 8:25 AM, Chris Pettit <cpettit at unimelb.edu.au<mailto:cpettit at unimelb.edu.au>> wrote:
> Hi All
>
> Interesting discussion.
>
> I have had quite a bit to do with certification in Australia and you
> might be interested to know that we have GISP-AP (Asia Pacific) which
> is linked directly to GISP so there is a model for GISP to work internationally.
>
> In my humble opinion I think we should further explore working with
> URISA and GISP and see if can  get something that meets our needs but
> is delivered in an existing certification program like GISP.
>
> Cheers
> Chris
>
> On 25/09/14 5:08 AM, "Phillip Davis" <pdavis at delmar.edu<mailto:pdavis at delmar.edu>> wrote:
>
>>I would like to add Mr Bill Hodge of GISCI into the conversation.
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Maria Antonia Brovelli [mailto:maria.brovelli at polimi.it<mailto:maria.brovelli at polimi.it>]
>>Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2014 11:36 AM
>>To: Phillip Davis; Alex Mandel; Strobl Josef;
>>ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>
>>Subject: RE: [Ica-osgeo-labs] BOF in Portland: Some Ideas of
>>certification
>>
>>Phil, 89 labs as of today!
>>I agree with you.
>>Maria
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>----------------------------------------------------
>>Prof. Maria Antonia Brovelli
>>Vice Rector for Como Campus and GIS Professor Politecnico di Milano
>>
>>FOSS4G ASIA - Don't miss it!
>>http://www.foss4g-asia.org/2014/
>>
>>ISPRS WG IV/5 "Web and Cloud Based Geospatial Services and
>>Applications"; OSGeo; ICA-OSGeo-ISPRS Advisory Board; NASA WorldWind
>>Europa Challenge; SIFET
>>
>>Via Natta, 12/14 - 22100 COMO (ITALY)
>>Tel. +39-031-3327336<tel:%2B39-031-3327336> - Mob. +39-328-0023867<tel:%2B39-328-0023867> - fax. +39-031-3327321<tel:%2B39-031-3327321>
>>e-mail1: maria.brovelli at polimi.it<mailto:maria.brovelli at polimi.it>
>>e-mail2: prorettrice at como.polimi.it<mailto:prorettrice at como.polimi.it>
>>
>>
>>________________________________________
>>Da: ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>
>><ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>> per conto di Phillip Davis
>><pdavis at delmar.edu<mailto:pdavis at delmar.edu>>
>>Inviato: mercoledì 24 settembre 2014 18.23
>>A: Alex Mandel; Strobl Josef; ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>
>>Oggetto: Re: [Ica-osgeo-labs] BOF in Portland: Some Ideas of
>>certification
>>
>>Correct Alex except the EU and other representatives at the meeting
>>stated flatly the GISP and our US DOL GTCM are not going to be widely
>>recognized beyond our own geographical borders.  I agree.  What I
>>would say is the Process and Procedure that was used to arrive at
>>them, the DOL Competency Model and the DACUM or Developing a
>>Curriculum, methods are easily applicable to any workforce in any
>>nation.  I recommended URISA be the international organization to
>>perhaps lead this effort, but that too was poo-pooed as not being
>>truly internationally representative of the global FOSS
>>community...which sorta leads back to GeoForAll under OSGeo as the
>>only recognized organization to pull this off, globally.  With 85
>>nodes in every continent, no other organization has such broad representation.
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>
>>[mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>] On Behalf Of Alex
>>Mandel
>>Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2014 11:16 AM
>>To: Strobl Josef; ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>
>>Subject: Re: [Ica-osgeo-labs] BOF in Portland: Some Ideas of
>>certification
>>
>>Without the "Open" part these already exist and we don't want to
>>compete
>>with:
>>GISP  http://www.gisci.org/
>>Master of GIS Science
>>
>>The issue from the community has been that neither of these indicate a
>>person has any experience with more than a single software, or that
>>any of that software is OpenSource by an opensource.org<http://opensource.org> approved license.
>>
>>So yes one way to go would be a Certificate in OGC standards. Another
>>is to push/recommend that other orgs require demonstrated competency
>>in more than 1 GIS technology.
>>
>>Now from the software industry side, there are certifications is just
>>about everything, down to specific software.
>>MS Exchange Cert
>>Oracle Cert
>>Postgres Cert
>>
>>So I see a few ways forward, 1. a general FOSS4G cert or 2. Specific
>>subproject certs, or 3. If you do enough project specific certs you
>>become FOSS4G certified.
>>
>>The role of OSGeo playing the standards body that issues the
>>certificates or accredits institutions to do so.
>>
>>
>>Questions to think about:
>>What about an OSS cert is different from just any old cert on a
>>particular software?
>>
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Alex
>>
>>
>>On 09/24/2014 08:50 AM, Strobl Josef wrote:
>>> Interesting discussion, and I am glad to see it popping up again - a
>>>good indicator that it might not just turn into a fluke ...
>>>
>>> My view is that a certification with 'open' as a defining criterion
>>>is hard to argue and justify - the only area where I could see this
>>>to work is in open specs like in OGC. Overall, individuals might be
>>>certified in software-specific competences (of course these can be
>>>FOSS), or in generic geospatial skills, knowledge and competences
>>>(this already is being done, though). Thus individual products,
>>>technologies and architectures, or workflows (implementation of
>>>services-based workflows, integrated portals etc) could be suitable
>>>targets for certification, but not so much their 'open' characteristics per se ...
>>>
>>> Avoiding 'open' as _the_ defining characteristic also would help
>>>navigating a terrain with sometimes fuzzy boundaries.
>>>
>>> .josef
>>>
>>> Prof. Dr. Josef Strobl | Josef.Strobl at sbg.ac.at<mailto:Josef.Strobl at sbg.ac.at> University of
>>> Salzburg
>>> | Department of Geoinformatics - Z_GIS
>>> Phone: +43 (0)662 8044 7503<tel:%2B43%20%280%29662%208044%207503> | http://jstrobl.zgis.net
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
>>> Von: ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>
>>> [mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>] Im Auftrag von Dr.
>>> Franz-Josef Behr
>>> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 24. September 2014 15:28
>>> An: ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>
>>> Betreff: [Ica-osgeo-labs] BOF in Portland: Some Ideas of
>>> certification
>>>
>>> Dear colleagues,
>>>
>>> during the BoF meeting in Portland we discussed the topic of FOSS4G
>>> certification and Arnulf shared some of his thoughts and insights
>>> (see also his talk/discussion [2] which I unfortunately missed, the
>>> slides at
>>> [3].)
>>>
>>> After the BoF meeting I had a further informal discussion with
>>>Philip Davis.
>>>
>>> One idea:
>>>
>>> ***
>>> The participating Universities (faculty members) could elaborate a
>>>set of prerequisites to award an FOSS4G certification and try to
>>>achieve an agreement amongst the academians as well with the OSGeo foundation.
>>> ***
>>>
>>> The certificates could point out that they are acknowledged by the
>>>faculties/Unviersities who joined the Ica-osgeo-lab movement plus OSGeo.
>>>
>>> The certificate could be granted by these Universities (for their
>>>respective students/for participants in courses9 and by other
>>>acknowledged institutions (i.e. MetaSpatial).
>>>
>>> I found some keywords for Postgres certification [1], see below.
>>>Such keywords could be transfered easily to our aimed fields of certification.
>>>
>>> Arnulf lists some types of certification [4]:
>>>
>>>      Open Source Geospatial Software Developer
>>>      Open Source Geospatial Software Professional
>>>      Open Geospatial Standards Expert
>>>      Open Geospatial Data Expert
>>>      Open Geospatial Consultant
>>>
>>> Further/other types could be:
>>>
>>>      Certified OS GIS Technologist
>>>      Certified QGIS/... developer
>>>      Certified Web GIS solution architect
>>>      Certified PostGIS Associate ...
>>>
>>> We could start with one of them...!?
>>>
>>> Regards
>>>
>>> Franz-Josef
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> --
>>> ------------------------------------------------------
>>> Postgres Plus Associate Certification
>>>
>>>
>>>      PostgreSQL System Architecture
>>>      Installation
>>>      Configuration
>>>      Creating and Managing Databases
>>>      Introduction to PSQL
>>>      pgAdmin III
>>>      Security basics
>>>      SQL
>>>      Backup and Recovery
>>>      Point-in Time Recovery
>>>      Routine Maintenance
>>>      Postgres Data Dictionary
>>>      Moving Data
>>>
>>> Postgres Plus Professional Certification
>>>
>>>      PostgreSQL System Architecture
>>>      Transactions and Concurrency
>>>      Performance Tuning
>>>      Table Partitioning
>>>      High Availability & Replication
>>>      Connection Pooling
>>>      Monitoring
>>>      Procedural Languages
>>>      Add on Utilities - Contrib
>>>
>>>
>>> [1] http://www.daseq.de/schulungen/enterprisedb/edb-pgac/
>>> [2] http://vimeo.com/106231984
>>> [3]
>>> http://www.metaspatial.net/conferences/metaspatial-institute.html#/3
>>> [4]
>>> http://www.metaspatial.net/conferences/metaspatial-institute.html#/8
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> ica-osgeo-labs mailing list
>>> ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>
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>>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>Alex Mandel
>>
>>Geography Graduate Group
>>University of California, Davis
>>http://geography.ucdavis.edu
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- --
Arnulf Christl (Director)
The metaspatial Institute Certification:
Open Source - Open Data - Open Standards http://www.metaspatial.net/en/institute
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--
Charlie Schweik

Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Dept of Environmental Conservation and Center for Public Policy and Administration

Personal website: http://people.umass.edu/cschweik
Publications: http://works.bepress.com/charles_schweik/

Author, Internet Success: A Study of Open Source Software (MIT Press, 2012) - see http://tinyurl.com/d3e4545

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