[Freegis-list] GIS Certification Using Free Software

[Arnulf Christl]

Sunburned Surveyor wrote:
> Free GIS Software Users/Developers,
> 
> I have noticed that most academic or certificate programs in the United 
> States focus on commercial GIS software, and are very expensive. I was 
> curious if there are others interested in establishing an 
> "apprenticeship" program that would result in a certificate for 
> participants regardless of their financial status. This certificate 
> would be equivalent to a 2-year college degree.
> 
> The apprenticeship program would involve on-line education, testing, and 
> internships with volunteer projects. Each student would be assigned a 
> "mentor" that would guide them through the program.
> 
> The apprenticeship program would focus, not on commercial software, but 
> open technology and open standards. It would also focus, not on the 
> professional setting of one nation or region, but strive to establish 
> global acedmic standards for GIS.
> 
> If you are interested in such a program, please contact me at:
> 
> sunburned.surveyor at gmail.com <mailto:sunburned.surveyor at gmail.com>
> 
> Respectfully,
> 
> The Sunburned Surveyor

Hi,
yes we are already under way, the Geo-Consortium is planning to set up a 
curriculum for Free GIS Software. At this early stage we are still 
discussing it internally but your request was just yet another one which 
got us to think that we should continue the discussion in Wiki fashion 
asap. Drop us a note if you think this makes sense.

Initially it was planned to join with universities here in Germany but 
they are rather slow to react. They do not want to advertise software 
products because a university has to stay independent which is OK. But 
what they don't see is that they are already extensively doing just that 
- promote proprietary software by running courses and educating people 
in using it.

So then we planned to come up with a first short-term certification 
(just a few weeks of work) around september this year which would 
involve a rather heavy fee for those of us who can't wait and need to 
spend money. Because all relevant material is licensed under the GNU/FDL 
*and* online access to most e-leraning environments is also free (would 
that be the GNU/FSL - Free Service License?!?) this should be a stable 
basis to create a free-of-cost appreticeshiop as you have in mind. We 
get our funding from the commercial lectures (for those who can't wait) 
that we have in our commercial curricula for years now. Hopefully there 
will always be enough people who need know-how quick and are willing to 
pay.

We alredy have a lot of e-learning components up and running, that part 
is technically stable but we still lack an access provider that will not 
suck us dry if we should be slashdotted. Therfore it is not made public 
just yet. (Which made us think again on how to convince universities, 
but now that we are competitors of a sort it will not make things easier).

We had quite a few discussions on this topic at the Open Geospatial in 
Minnesota and most everybody told us to push on to close the gap with 
some sort of official certification with or without university backup.

You can contact Torsten (brassat at geo-consortium.de) or me if you are 
interested in further details.

Best, Arnulf.