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

Thu Sep 25 01:49:59 PDT 2014

There seem to be two good ideas here for different markets: there's a
difference between the ECDL and, say, authorised Microsoft training &
certification. There seems to be room for technical capabilities
certification, which might be better run by companies, and user
proficiency certification that certainly universities could offer as short
courses or part of their degrees but maybe others could offer too.  Either
leads to the question of who comes up with and/or authorises curricula or
"learning outcomes"?  As Phil says, the UK body that accredits GIS degrees
(the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, RICS - don't ask why them:
like many things in the UK we're in a "well you wouldn't start there"
situation due to history) has partnership meetings annually and a periodic
review. They list competencies that they expect but aren't too
prescriptive about the detail of curricula and this seems to work pretty
well (for us and, it seems, for the relevant parts of the industry
interested in RICS accreditation).  The technical training might want to
be more specific about course content, but the more that's the case the
more work the OSGeo people would have to agree the specifications and to
keep them current with the rapid pace of change in some of the projects.

Regards,
Jeremy

-- ------------------------------------------------------------ --
Jeremy Morley
Geospatial Science Theme Leader, Nottingham Geospatial Institute,
Triumph Road, University of Nottingham. NG7 2TU, United Kingdom.
Web:   http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/ngi     Twitter: jeremy_morley
Tel.:  +44/0 115 84 68411
Email: jeremy.morley at nottingham.ac.uk

On 24/09/2014 14:51, "Philip James" <philip.james at newcastle.ac.uk> wrote:

>A really interesting idea.  From our perspective with a largely diverse
>Undergraduate intake who access jobs across the spectrum of the
>geospatial and surveying industries it would make sense to also consider
>a broader, perhaps less technical perspective towards certification  I
>was thinking along the lines of the European Computer Driving License
>(ECDL) for OSGEO products - demonstrating to potential employers an
>awareness and a certain level of competence in core open source geo
>technologies.   There would be potential here for institutions to
>substitute their own preferred OSGEO software (eg. QGIS or GVSIG) whilst
>maintaining the same level of accreditation.  For our current
>professional accreditation of our programmes we provide evidence
>periodically (every 3 or 5 years) to demonstrate that our courses are
>suitable to be accredited by external bodies.   Something along these
>lines with OSGEO would be an ideal scenario.
>
>Phil
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------
>Phil James
>Senior Lecturer in Geographical Information Science
>School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences
>Newcastle University
>#geoanorak
>https://github.com/geoanorak
>
>Geospatial Engineering:           http://research.ncl.ac.uk/geospatial/
>ICA-OSGEO Lab @ Newcastle:        http://research.ncl.ac.uk/osgeolab/
>Geospatial Engineering Blog:
>https://research.ncl.ac.uk/geospatial/blog/
>Football tweet map:               http://ceg-sense.ncl.ac.uk/footballtweet
>City Dashboard:   
>http://ceg-research.ncl.ac.uk/uo/dashboard
>  
>
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
>[mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Dr.
>Franz-Josef Behr
>Sent: 24 September 2014 14:28
>To: ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org
>Subject: [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
>http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ica-osgeo-labs
>_______________________________________________
>ica-osgeo-labs mailing list
>ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org
>http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ica-osgeo-labs

This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it.   Please do not use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in any attachment.  Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham.

This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment
may still contain software viruses which could damage your computer system, you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation.