Certification in SL?

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/SL_Certification

Wonder what the Lindens are going to try and charge for this now? I don't think its a bad idea however you know they are going to charge for it. Wish they would put some of these efforts into fixing things instead of coming up with new ways to charge us more money.

Obviously my opinion here varies by how much we're talking about, but I think a nominal fee would be perfectly appropriate. After all, certification will (among other things) make you more attractive to clients looking to hire a scripter, while a hobbyist would still be able to script normally without paying the fee.

I would be interested to know how this idea got started. Is it connected with the push to get SL used by government education systems? What outside agency proposed it to what Linden employee or which Linden employee got the notion that this was worthwhile.

If there is to be certification of modelling skill in architecture and weapons, shouldn't genitalia be added to the list?

Certification authorized by a company that can't produce legible text on a computer screen after 4 or more years of learning time would not impress me much.

LL's certification hunger might be better satisfied seeking employee's certified in such things as writing programs that don't crash very often or having some grasp of how big the sun looks in the sky.

This, by the way, would probably be the time for the folks getting new accounts to use the first name "Certified".

I have to laugh, because the first question that comes to mind is how many Certified Software Quality Engineers (CSQE) Linden has on staff in their QA department. And if the answer is one or more, the next question is why don't they have the authority and/or budget to make a visible difference.

I no longer have the CSQE certification, and haven't for years, for various reasons. But I did get to see how the very first exam for it was developed, and it is serious, hard work. I suppose Linden could enlist the help of a certification company whose business is selling certifications, and maybe get it done by the target date of this fall. That would be because a profit-making certification company has the goal of getting it out there as quickly as possible, so they can start collecting more money. The CSQE certification is issued by the American Society for Quality, a non-profit, and their goal was to create a certification that actually meant something, not to just have another income source for the ASQ. It took a couple of years, pilot exams, multiple meetings, a diverse participation, and a lot of give and take to produce the exam.

The fact that Linden has set a target date of the fall for this certification, with no real plan or timetable, suggests that no CSQE was involved with that. That's because people who understand processes know that you don't pick dates and then produce a corrupted schedule to match. But software managers who insist that software has to be released on schedule, with no regard to whether or not it actually works, don't understand rational scheduling.

I really see this more as a self regulating guild system. Something that residents organize amoung themselves to give a clear sense of accomplishment as one acquires expertise. It will make it easier for educational institutions as well to tailor their courses to guild requirements. These requirements are determined within the guild in meetings that have democratic and procedural processes.

The only fee would be the membership fees that the guild would collect to run its internal process.

Do we really need a certification system? If you wish to hire and architect, surely you look at their previous builds first to see if you like their style. Objects you look in their shop if you want custom work etc.

Will a certificate that says someone can build a house/furniture etc make that supplier trustworthy and ethical? Surely the biggest problems are not if the person can make something, but how they treat their customers?

I have known in RL many people that have more certificates then snowflakes in December (UK Zone), none of which made them easy to deal with, or more proficient, able to meet deadlines, stay within budget or even acheive what you employed them for. It just meant that they were good at taking exams.
For my money, a portfolio of work, references that can be taken up and a good manner is as equal to any certificates.

SL's platform is one of innovation, passion and accessibility, it's not an institution. Certificates suit the corporate market, which is only a small percentage of SL's activities. So many talented people who don't have RL credentials or even a background in the trade they use SL for, are able to express their abilities without constriants, thats worth preserving, not for RL technological advances, but for inner creativity and acheivement.

A healthy capitalistic economy requires a robust flow of information.

Or, it's hard to be an educated consumer when there is no way to learn about the things for which you are paying.

How do you research a builder's or scripter's credentials or qualifications in Second Life before hiring that person? There doesn't seem to be any good way.

A certification system would be one way to address that problem. Of course, to be really useful, the certification system would need credibility. If the certification system just handed out a certification to everyone who paid a fee, then it becomes worthless. (Actually, worse than worthless, it gives out misinformation in the form of false credentials.)

Whether this particular certification system is actually helpful or not, I don't know.

I suppose it's remotely possible that a well designed certification program could, to some degree, enable the talented Joe Resident to compete with the big guys like Electric Sheep, Millions of Us, etc. The folks who work for these companies are among the most talented builders and artists in Second Life, but that doesn't mean Joe Resident isn't also among that crowd.

Will it level the playing field? Most likely not. But holding the certs, and having a portfolio of work to back them up at least demonstrates that Joe is just as competent and capable as the "big guys".