Re: Formal Member Registration

["Ravikant K.Rao" <ravikant@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

>>>>> "Soumyanath" == Soumyanath Chatterjee <soumyac@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

    Soumyanath> And why not --- CSI has it, IE has it, ORSI has it,
    Soumyanath> INVEST has it.  You name any professional society and

	What are all these socities anyway? I know that CSI ==
computer society of india or somesuch... but the rest?

    Soumyanath> I think instead of money LUG membership should focus
    Soumyanath> on knowledge.
    Soumyanath> 1. A LUG member must be a registered Linux user.

	As in? At linux.{com|org} ? Get himself a "registered linux
user #<blah> ? Of what use is this? *anybody* can get this -- and it
hence defeats your statement/purpose of getting only "knowledgeable"
people in the fray.

    Soumyanath> 2. Must clear some formal examination or demonstrate
    Soumyanath> some proficiency in Linux This may be some free tests

	I *strongly* oppose this -- face it, we all know who the gurus 
are, at our local LUGs -- must we make it *obvious* and
harrassing/uncomfortable to everybody by doing this? I can see this
happening,.... 

(humourous) situation 1:
	<foo> "hey dude, help me with bar"
	<baz> whats your skill level?
	<foo> 3.42
	<baz> you suck -- I got 4.x -- you're too dumb for me.

(humourous) situation 2:
	<foo> "hey dude, help me with bar"
	<baz> whats your skill level?
	<foo> 3.42
	<baz> what? I have only 2.43 but i happen to know more about
bar than you do -- the certification sucks! 

	[ note: read the complete email and come back to this bit ]

	 <baz> the certification sucks, and the guys that chose to
"certify" $training-institute suck! I rule! the LUG sucks!
	
	[/note]

	What gives? Well, I know people are gonna say stuff like,
"hey, we're civilized, blah blah and this isn't going to happen in
*our* lug" .... if that isn't going to happen, why force people into
doing all this? 

    Soumyanath> as available from www.brainbench.com or some formal

<PERSONAL OPINION>
	<HINT: the above statement means you needn't *have* to agree>

	brainbench's certification method sucks. okay, with a choice
between no certification and free lousy certification, many of us are
lead to the latter ... the guys have a great idea going,.. I love the
concept of keeping certification, *.edu related stuff free ... *BUT*
the *way* in which their exam(s) are conducted sucks. 

	My personal cribs (sent in a mail to admin of brainbench,
too):

	1] 40 questions is *NOWHERE* **NEAR** enough to prove a guy's
ability.

	2] Questions are not based on categories wide enough -- in the 
Linux administrator test .. there were like 4 questions on GPL that I
answered ... 10% of the questions on "knowing the GPL" makes me a
great sys admin? hell no... *I* disagree ... you don't have to even
know what a license is,.. but be great with *configuring*
apache/whatever ... you might not be the "ideal" or a "knowledgeable"
sys admin ... but if you are going in for *certification* .. its for
the $$$ and for *commercialisation* .. which brings in the concept of
*productivity* and *efficiency* ... and IMHO, a sys admin who doesn't
know what the GPL is can function with greater ease (!) 

	3] the questions are too weird/OT/easy .. 

</PERSONAL OPINION>

    Soumyanath> course.  3. LUG may certify the training institutes
    Soumyanath> offering Linux courses (for this a fee may be charged)

	Again, this decides, "who *inside* the lug will comprise of
the commitee that decides where $training-institute is to be
certified" ? 

	will you say, 

		1] the guy with max. score on brainbench (which, imho
is not a true representation of your skillset) is going to head it?
		2] the richest guy, without whom the lug *could*
theoritically die?
		3] the most interested/enthu guy in the lug? 

	Why all this *NEEDLESS* commercialisation/formalisation ?!?!
Who cares if $institute is good/bad ? I don't understand this , at
all..

    Soumyanath> 4. There may be a category of corporate members --
    Soumyanath> which can use the knowledge available with LUG for
    Soumyanath> corporate gains

		
    Soumyanath> Point 3 & 4 IMHO will take care of the LOGISTICS part.

    Soumyanath> And YES, please issue ID card but only the
    Soumyanath> knowledgeable lot.

	Yeah, what about the enthu lot, without knowledge, but wanting 
to learn? What about newbies? What about me?!?! <g> 

    Soumyanath>  For squatter and bystanders who
    Soumyanath> come to LUG meeting just for the free samosa and tea
    Soumyanath> -- sorry! to be a LUG member you got to be using
    Soumyanath> Linux.

	We don't get free samosa/tea at our LUG.
	And no, we have people who use *only* BSD who come to our LUG
-- they're usually the guys who give out lectures too... so we kick
'em out 'cause they aren't using Linux? :) We have some very
knowledgeable people who (these days) use *only* windows, too .. 

								--ravi
-- 
Ravikant K.Rao : http://www.symonds.net/~ravi/
Primary Email  : <ravi@xxxxxxxxxxx> | PGP: 9544A4A1   GPG: 1024D/C2FC752D