RE: Money spending, questions for the candidates

["Bastian, Waldo" <waldo bastian intel com>]

> > o. What is your opinion on an examination that could carry the
title:
> >    "GNOME Mobile certified software developer exam"
> >
>
> If the examination is offered by a third party, then I would say they
> are violating the trademark guidelines :).
> But if you suggest that GNOME via the Foundation could offer a
> certification, I wouldn't like to see that, sadly certifications tend
> to mean nothing with time due to people taking them "just to pass the
> test". I think it would be more healthy to have easier ways for
> contributors to show their work and prove how much they have given to
> the project, hence showing their possible employer that they surely
> rock.

Although the company that I work for surely employs a few rock stars,
more often a project team or company is just looking for someone who
knows how to use GTK+ widgets (think bellcurve). I believe the objective
here would be to make it easier for commercial companies to develop
solutions based on GNOME and part of the problem that such companies
face is finding developers that are familiar with the technology.
Reducing that hurdle will help to make the technology more popular. I
don't think the Foundation should offer certification itself but maybe
it could work together with an existing institute on expanding its
training offerings around Gnome technology. Just my 2 ct.

Cheers,
Waldo