BSD Certification: A Case Study in Open Source Community
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The document summarizes BSD certification provided by the BSD Certification Group (BSDCG). It describes the BSDCG as a non-profit organization that offers two certifications, the BSD Associate (BSDA) and the upcoming BSD Professional (BSDP) certification. Over 1,200 candidates have taken the BSDA exam across 16 countries, with a 76% pass rate. The BSDCG relies on volunteers and aims to make certification globally affordable and available through community partnerships.
BSD Certification: A Case Study in Open Source Community
- 1. BSD Certification: A Case Study in Open Source Community Dru Lavigne Chair, BSD Certification Group Inc. NYCBUG, August 5, 2009
- 2. Outline Certification 101 BSD Certification Group (BSDCG) BSDA (BSD Associate) BSDP (BSD Professional) Works in Progress How You Can Help
- 3. Certification 101 Popularized in mid-90s by Novell, Microsoft, Cisco Associated with braindumps, paper MCSEs Very expensive to launch—domain of large, established companies with alternate revenue streams who can afford to wait ~2 yrs before certification program starts making money
- 4. Certification 101 Traditional exam delivery costs: $75,000 USD annually to participate, extra fees for changing exam Monopoly on exam delivery (VUE/Prometric) --this is just starting to change Exam delivery software is proprietary, currently no open source solutions exist
- 5. Certification 101 LPI started out as commercial/community based, current focus is commercial Zend for PHP, EnterpriseDB for PostgreSQL certification, Canonical for Ubuntu Other open source communities (Apache, Gnome) have expressed interest Cost, time, and expertise are huge barriers
- 6. BSDCG Non-profit incorporated in the state of New Jersey in 2005 Mission is to create and maintain certifications to assess skills of BSD system administrators Community based with a legal governance infrastructure Relies on open source methodologies and volunteer contributions of time and money
- 7. BSDCG Internal Structure: 5 Board of Directors (voted in for a term) 21 BSDCG members with voting rights (volunteer to join) 5 Advisory Board members (invited) 9 SMEs (subject matter experts) 1 (paid) psychometrician Network of trusted exam proctors
- 8. BSDCG Community Structure: ~700 subscribers to 2 mailing lists 125 members of 2 Linkedin groups ~90 translators for 22 languages Donated hardware, bandwidth, system administration, and web development Maintains ongoing relationships with other certification bodies and educational institutions
- 9. BSDCG Community Based: Remains separate from, but supports the other BSD projects and Foundations Works closely with employers and sysadmins to keep exam current and “real” Advocates integrating exam objectives into existing diploma programs (rather than bootcamp style learning)
- 10. BSDCG Psychometrically Valid: Ensures exam is fair, unbiased, and understandable, even if English is not your first language SMEs who are working sysadmins keep the exam practical Use of ongoing metrics keeps questions current and spots anomalies
- 11. BSDCG Exam goals: Globally affordable ($75 USD) √ Available in local community Encourage trainers and training materials
- 12. BSDA Process: Job Task Analysis (JTA): April - July 2005 Exam Requirements published: October 2005 Beta Period: May - August 2007 Angoff Session: January 2008 Available Since: February 2008
- 13. BSDA Exam: Target audience is junior sysadmin with 6 months experience Covers 7 knowledge domains Scored for 100 questions Passing score is 500 of scale between 200 and 700
- 14. BSDA Venue: Community based: exam events hosted by conferences, user groups, employers, and schools Slowly building a network of trusted testing centers who promote BSD (FreeBSD Brasil, Systemics Poland)
- 15. BSDA BSDA Candidates: ~1200 BSDCG IDs issued (residing in 104 countries) 101 have taken exam (residing in 16 countries) 76 have passed exam average score: 68%
- 16. BSDP Process: JTA to be launched August 2009 Expected time frame between Exam Requirements through Beta Period to Angoff Session is 9-12 months Exam delivery expected to be virtualized lab- based environment
- 17. Works in Progress Improved Availability: Building network of trusted testing centers Working towards an online solution in a proctored environment (preferably open source)
- 18. Works in Progress Study Materials: Wiki is available for user generated content Exam objectives translated to more languages (currently English, Russian, Spanish) Creation of study labs Formation of study groups
- 19. Works in Progress Sponsorship Suggestions: Fund to assist proctors' travel expenses Purchase of DVD helps to fund creation of BSDP ($9,400 in psychometric costs) Fund to assist exam candidates who can't afford exam or travel costs to exam Startup costs for an online test delivery solution
- 20. How You Can Help Spread the word—tell your school, employer, user group, write an article, blog, twitter, etc. Read our publications Take the exam Donate time (assist with study materials, marketing, etc.) Donate $ (e.g. purchase study DVD)
- 21. How You Can Help Host or proctor an exam event Become an SME Help us develop an open source exam delivery solution