SL Certification

Hiya, Scripters!
A bunch of us Lindens have decided to create a Second Life Certification. Obviously, this involves every last one of you since you are the most knowledgeable Residents in SL. We would love it if you would help us shape this project. To facilitate Resident participation, we have created a SL Certification wiki, which can be found at http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/SL_Certification. Please visit, edit, and discuss. Thanks for your time and consideration.

This is going to be a very difficult undertaking. There is no set or even prefered way of doing most things in SL making testing to a standard almost impossible. My way of generating a menu dialog will be different than someone elses and will refect what I consider important for my products and their use as well as my own logic on how to accomplish what I want. Until LL sets a firm standard for how any particular task should be accomplished there is no way you can develop a certification standard for it. Aty this stage in SL's development setting rigid standards may actually be detrimental to the futrure of SL as it would hinder some of the innovation found now.

Will extra credit be available for LSL bug workarounds (aka hacks)?

So will the next step be to disallow those who do not have certification from scripting?

@Newgate:

That would be against any logic.
You cannot get a certificate without practice.

true but you can drive a car with a provisional license, so will uncertified scripters be restricted to sandboxes where they can be monitored?

I'll rephrase though, how will certification, or rather the lack of it, effect me personally?

To be able to certificate any scripters within SL would require that the certification board/panel have a greater level of skill and understanding of both the structural and dynamic aspects of LSL than those they are qualifying. Since the scripting community as a whole has for the most part worked out the best practise despite the lack of information and support from LL I will watch with interest while any external body catches up.

And an external body isnt likely to supply certifcation for free is it?

Well I don't expect the certification to be mandatory to be allowed to script! It would be against any logic.

I guess those who get certified will try to raise their price for custom build.

If certifications, in general, are useful as an indicator for quality is an entirely different topic.

Rael

My experience with Microsoft, Cisco and Novell is that their exams are petty and pedantic, requiring you to rote remember lots of detail.

I remember the first Novell queston was to list the 15 routines that ran when a client first connected. Not something I have ever made use of so pretty useless.

Programmers use compilers to tell them the petty details they got wrong. Very difficult to test if someone is using too many listeners or laying out their code badly.

I guess there could be some profit in testing familiarity with good programming principles, but even they would be subject to argument.

In RL these qualifications are generally used to reduce the number of job candidates that need to be interviewed. This process overlooks many capable people.

It's a process that's just as pointless as basing the capabilities of a person on their GPA in school. Information "learned" through the certification process is likely to be a collection of memorized facts and processes that creates no inherent value.

On the flip-side, it's a great comfort to the ignorant (read 98% of the population of any area). These persons will look at the certification and 'trust' it. It will--in the end--lead to a more professional atmosphere where at least the implication of qualification allows pricing of work to approach more realistically-survivable levels.

As always, however, true qualification is shown in actual product performance and customer satsifaction.

There is something faintly comical about designing a certification program for a language where the documentation is in fact a user-created wiki.

Something has to replace the AV Profile Ratings.... So, instead of other people's feedback, we take a test!

The charter of this isn't even really defined yet and people are already trashing it?

I'll be the first to admit that, when given the choice of doing business with someone fresh out of college versus someone with 20 years experience in the same field, I will most definitely choose the candidate with experience. No school or certification program can take the place of real life experience. However, if I'm new to SL and want a thing-a-majig scripted and have no clue where to go, nor how to discern who out there really knows how to script the best thing-a-majig of all time, having a pool of certified scripters to pull from is certainly a plus for the community as a whole.

Bartiloux Desmoulins

I'm more interested in seeing the content. All of the scripting categories would need a big section on performance considerations (avoiding lag). It'll be interesting to see how much nonsense gets written before it gets cleared up with real information.

Regardless of the certification aspects, the instruction information and discussions should be interesting. And this might be a chance to find out how some things really work, to help us write more efficient code without resorting to testing hypotheses (a dangerous practice, since implementations can change).

Whether there's a real value to certification, well, I'm skeptical. I know folks who can pass tests like crazy but write code I wouldn't trust, and folks who can write code I'd trust in a heartbeat that are poor at passing tests.

I've also seen a lot of real silly exams.

Ah well, it's worth a try; let's see what they come up with.

Ayn Rand would tell you this is a complete waste of time. But then, she said a lot of things that I disagree with.

Better to have word of mouth reputation. If you think its going to stop me scripting to my standards (coder for twenty years) you must be joking

I share Newgate's concerns, and I very clearly remember "prevent most people from scripting outside of the sandboxes" being presented as a possible cure for grey goo attacks a while back, with a fair amount of approval.

Please please PLEASE Heretic, tell us what this is going to be for. Even if it's just an LL-sanctioned "seal of approval", it could have a huge negative effect on the viability of new (end existing) businesses, save The Anointed Few who get certified by whatever this process turns out to be. IMHO, the last thing SL needs is having groups of people singled out (in a positive or negative light), particularly by some faceless third-party provider, based on some testing methodology which *must* be doomed to be at best incomplete due to time and space constraints, and particularly at this time when LL is more and more widely seen as fleeing from becoming involved with possibly contentious issues in favor of keeping hands off and letting the residents sort it out (never mind whether we have the tools to do so).

I apologize if I'm overreacting over what may very well be intended as a "fun" thing, or a process to simply assist people in learning the SL tools. But past experience has left me a bit cynical here, as every policy change by LL is invariably presented in the most positive light possible, with us as blog- and forum-reading residents left to suss out the true meaning and implications.

I don't get the impression that this is going to be used to restrict access to scripting or other tools, which would be a major change in LL's philosophy. I think this is more to do with registering developers for potential employers without the latter having to go around checking references.

But unfortunately, as anyone who has interviewed and hired developers in RL will tell you, certification is only an initial sign that someone isn't just inventing their experience (and they could be inventing the certification! stranger things have happened) and doesn't really tell you anything about how they will perform in practice. Portfolios, questioning and checking performance are what you need to look at. I have seen some appalling people with excellent paper credentials and vice versa.

Personally speaking, if it is part of some sort of wider educational initiative, it could be a good thing; one needs to have a curriculum to have an exam after all. But I would need to see an awful lot more detail before coming down on one side or the other, because at worst (if resident-moderated) it could end up being a method for experienced creators to winnow out competition, and I don't see that as fair at all. If it is used to restrict access to SL tools I will be leaving.

I'll be interested in becoming "Certified"
however, I have no interest in teaching others to become certified.

When I first read this, I had the same fears that Newgate listed. It wasn't so long ago, that Grey Goo attacks were used as reason to justify denying scripting ability to new members, or to unverifieds, or whatever. As it always seems to.. the probnlems were "blamed" on power in the world being too easy to acquire.

Sadly though.. the same tools that allow someone to take all your money in 10 seconds, are the tools that allow you to write a tipjar. The same tools that allow you to create a grey goo attack are the tools used to create Artificial life, or any of a number of interesting projects and useful devices. Bullets and vehicles are very close cousins, that rezzer you love that makes footprints where you walk, is the same one that creates cages. The cute flying pixie that follows you everywhere, is only one step removed from a particles spawning cyclone designed to crash your client.

I really dread a world in which you must become certified for your scripts to work outside of designated areas.. and while the buzz surrounding this threat has died down.. I still remember it.

That said.. the only value I see in "LSL Certification" (or SL Certified Builder" is just some lame thing to slap on your business card when whoring for work. So then, why would I be interested in becoming certified?

Because, while I adore the term "Mad Scientist and Prim-bender"... as SL grows to become more of a "business platform" more businesslike people will enter, looking for "a good scripter" or "a good builder"... and while both building and scripting are artforms to a large degree, a "certification" grants a small amount of legitimacy.

Anyone who's ever linked two prims can call themselves "a builder"... anyone who has ever made an object say "ouch" when touched, can call themselves "a scripter".

So, yes, some certification.. if only for the sake of the paper... is a good thing for business. Like having that Underwriters Laboratories "UL" on your product in RL.

But I am WHOLEHEARTEDLY AGAINST the concept of limiting script abilities/access/etc to "only certified scripters"

Winter - thats my main beef/fear too - limits on who can script/build. I didn't sign up for a year to have my abilities damn well limited. If people need little bits of paper then fine. I'll stand by my work by myself.

What's the point?

I mean, come on, now, is there really that much demand out there for some kind of lame "certification" process (certification of what, exactly?), that LL feels it has to spearhead a program of professional exclusion?

I've been in the computer industry since before Microsoft was Microsoft. I hold ZERO certifications. I work on Windows, Linux, Unix, Netware, IOS, etc, charge 3 figures hourly for my efforts, and have plenty of customers tell me that they feel they get their money's worth every time I leave site. I can (and do, occasionally) TEACH better courses than those lousy certification exams cover (which most of them are 90% memorization of techno-trivia; useless in real life situations). I laugh every time someone comes to me, proudly wearing their certification "badge" on their shoulder (or wherever). Most of the people I encounter that are "certified" are the ones who f*ck up things that customers end up paying me the big bucks to come clean up after. They know just enough to royally screw something up and don't know how un un-screw it.

*sigh* Oh well, I guess until we know more of what LL is on about, we'll just have to gird our collective loins and see how badly THIS train is gonna wreck.

Obviously the value of a vendor or industry certification is often debated. Many unqualified individuals manage to get certified, while conversely, many actual experts never bother to take exams.

However, certifications in general can still be beneficial.

For candidates, the effort in preparing for a certification exam itself can be very worthwhile. Often a certification forces us to learn parts of a technology we would otherwise not touch. In LSL terms, suppose someone has a lot of experience with particles, but haven't been exposed to vehicle physics. Studying for the certification is then a good way to learn about vehicles (and other facets of LSL) the student is not yet familar with. Plus certifications help get past HR resume text-filters when applying for a new job.

For employers, a potential employee's certification record can provide some baseline insight of his or her abilities. For example, when I interview someone, if notice that person's resume lists a series of advanced qualifications over the years, I'd dispense with the 101-level questions and proceed with the tougher, probing queries.

For consultants, having certifications can obviously be a differentiating factor.

For Linden Labs, having a growing community of certified developers (individuals), and perhaps certified solution providers (companies), can help alleviate concerns real life companies have in investing their effort into Second Life. Due to increasing demand, some might say it's already getting harder and harder to find good scripters and builders.

A certification programme also helps 'legitimize' Second Life as a technology platform. With increasing competition from other platforms, and the future open-sourcing of the server code, having a certification program in place is not a bad strategic move.

-peekay

Does it create any accountibility? Does a "certified" scripter have liabilty if he/she screws up and costs somone their lindens? I have had this happen by someone who was deemed the best by everyone i consulted with, to go to for a scipted object of this type. His reputation was fantastic, his work was/is everywhere, he has been inworld since the early days of SL, and one day he makes a new product which I buy. It appears to work fine, till I wake up the next morning and found my entire account empty. He did not steal them, but left a hole so large anyone that came up to this thing could simply take whatever they wanted. After discussion with this scipter about the issue he admited it was his fault, but said he was sorry for my loss (of linden money) but thats it.

My question:

Will this "certification" make someone like that liable for damages? Or will this certification simply create an elite class of user with no more responsiblities thsn anyone else but more clout?

And whats to stop a "bad guy" form gaining certification. and therfore trust, and then scamming people?

Vendor certifications do not create additional liabilities, nor do they provide increased accountability.

-peekay

So then the certs simply create a caste society? An "upper class"? A "union"? The beginings of a political power? I thought that the one thing that LL has been all about was
a level playing field for all to realize what they can be.

Sorry but I cant belive in any certificate if there is nothing to back it up. In RL, in many industries, being licensed or certified means being held to a highger standard, and bigger penalties for doing wrong. Without the penalties anyboidy can be certified.

I like the idea of being able to prove you know what your doing. But unless that means something its going to be a big mistake when the "certified" people make mistakes and ruin the name of the cert. Unless the whole idea is just to make money from selling certs......

Hi, certification is different from licensing.

A certification only means you've exceeded some requirement: such as completing some courses, passing certain exams, or having a certain amount of industry experience. For example, in the food-service industry I can take courses to become a Certified Wine Professional (a Sommelier), or in the computer industry I can become a Certified Java Programmer.

Certifications do not by itself create any exclusions. You and I can still serve and drink wine even though we are not Sommeliers. Anyone can learn and create programs in Java regardless of any certifications held or not.

Should a Certified Wine Professional be held to a higher legal standard when serving wine at your local French restaurant? I hope not.

For public good, some jobs are regulated and do require licensing, which is entirely different from certification. One must be licensed to practice medicine, for example, or to perform certain engineering duties.

Unlike certificates, licenses are mandated by law, and conferred either by governments (usually at the State level) or by certain legally-recognized associations (such as a State Bar.) The practice of software development is not regulated in most jurisdictions, although some states require Software Engineers to hold suitable Professional Engineer licenses.

With very few exceptions, certifications are not recognized by law.

-peekay