BSD Professional Job Task Analysis Survey

The first step in getting the BSD Professional exam underway is the Job Task Analysis (JTA) Survey. What is a JTA? It's an online survey where you can help define what skills are important for a BSD systems administrator at the "Professional" level.

The survey presents a collection of tasks organized into Knowledge Domains. Each task includes two rankings- one for Importance and the other for Frequency. These rankings are used in Psychometric Analysis to identify the key skills that should be tested on the exam.

The survey takes about 20 minutes to complete and contains several opportunities for you to express your thoughts on the selection or description of tasks for each Knowledge Domain. Your comments are very important, as they help form the direction and style of the exam.

The survey will be provided in other languages besides English as soon as our translation teams get finished. We hope to have the survey available for 30 days in each language.

As soon as the survey is complete, we'll start compiling the results.

One of the questions asked is about whether the BSD Professional exam should be just a multiple choice exam, just a hands-on lab, or both. We are very interested in your opinion on this issue. There are those who say certifications are useless. But if you can really assess skills, like you can with a hands-on lab exam, this makes the certification verifiable, and provides real value to potential employers.

Let us know what you think. Give the BSDP JTA Survey a go and express yourself.

Update on the BSDA Exam

The BSD Associate Exam is now over a year old! Here are some interesting stats so far:

• 12 Events in all of 2008; 14 events in just the first half of 2009
• Over 1000 people have registered for a BSDCG ID (needed to register for an exam)
• The exam has been held in US, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Japan, France, Denmark, Ukraine, Netherlands, Argentina, and the UK
• So far, 66 people have passed the BSDA exam and received their certificates
  

As of April, 2009, there are 6 exam locations coming up: Canada, Germany, Argentina, UK, Netherlands.

If you know of an upcoming conference near you, let us know (send email to www AT bsdcertification.org) and we'll get in contact with the conference organizers to see if they will provide a time and place for the BSDA exam. We'll bring the pencils, you bring the know-how.

In Other News...

We're in the process of reviewing the exam for the next version. Our psychometrician, Dr. Sandra Dolan, has provided us with a report of the exam results for the first year. BSD subject matter experts, drawn from the BSD community have helped modify some the the questions to increase the accuracy of the exam.

The Winter 2008 DVD is out. This edition includes the QEMU virtualization software (and the AQEMU front end) that enables working with multiple BSD systems at the same time. Additional information on using the software is here [bsdwiki.reedmedia.net]. Purchasing a DVD is an excellent way to prepare for the exam, helps fund the exam development effort, and helps keep the cost of the exam globally affordable (still just $75USD).

Planning for the BSD Professional Exam (BSDP) is underway. We will start with a Job Task Analysis (JTA) survey similar to the JTA we produced for the BSDA exam. The BSDP JTA should be ready in a month or two, and we will announce the survey through all our regular media channels. Stay tuned for the next level.

BSD Associate Certification Adv. in BSD Magazine

If you are in your local Barnes and Noble or Borders book store, you might see a copy of a new magazine devoted to all things BSD- BSD Magazine.

Published by the same folks who put out Hakin9, an excellent magazine devoted to information security, the new BSD Magazine has several cutting edge articles about BSD. Some articles in the current issue include:

• Pushing BSD as an open source desktop...
• PC-BSD overview...
• Sguil 0.7.0 on FreeBSD 7.0...
• How to Dual-Boot Vista with BSD – a step-by-step approach...
• Keep smiling, waste spammers' time...
• OpenBSD pf – the firewall on fire...
• Instant Messaging with Jabber/XMPP...

and more. The issue includes a DVD containing FreeBSD 7.0, documentation, and some extra applications.


And if you happen to look closely, you'll see the very first advertisement for the BSD Certification Group. The ad is for the recently released BSD Associate certification.

Special thanks go to the fine folks at iXsystems who helped developed the professional quality graphics and layout. That's their logo in the lower right corner.

We hope to have more advertisements in BSD Magazine in the future.


The BSDA certification is gathering steam. We've presented the exam at conferences in Los Angeles, Ottawa, Krakow, Brussels, Toronto, Berlin, Ede, and Chemnitz. So far, over 400 people have registered for a BSDCG ID, which you need to do before you register for an exam. Some of the comments we've received from the exam said it was "harder than I thought it would be" and it "made you think". Be sure to read the Exam Objectives, currently available in English, Mexican Spanish, and Russian.

If you would like to see the exam at a conference near you contact us, and we'll try to arrange for an exam at that conference.

Certificates, Seals, and More BSDA News

The certificates are back from the printer, and they look good! They have a blue border with dark blue and black printing on a heavy, light grey card stock. The seals are embossed gold foil and are applied separately. The seals look very sharp. The actual certificate doesn't have the dark brown border, but it is positioned so you can use a nice frame for your wall or desk. The whole thing looks very attractive.

We've held the BSD Associate Exam at three conferences so far- SCALE, FOSDEM, and Linux-Tage Chemnitzer with over a dozen candidates. All the exams haven't been scored yet, but they should be finished in a few days. Those sharp enough to pass will get one of these certificates as soon as we can send them out.

The next conferences to host the BSDA exam are Flourish (Chicago, IL, April 4-5, 2008), IT360 (Toronto, Ontario, Apr 09, 2008), NLUUG (Ede, The Netherlands, May 15, 2008), and CONFidence (Krakow, Poland, May 15, 2008).

See the list of upcoming conferences, and register for a BSD Associate exam at https://register.bsdcertification.org//register/events. Cost of the exam is $75 USD (or half that if you took the beta exam). More conferences are being added all the time, so check back frequently to see if there is a conference near you. If not- let us know! Select the Info subject through the "Contact Us" page at http://submit.bsdcertification.org/contact.

Remember, you have to obtain a BSDCG ID before you register for an exam. The BSDCG ID is free, and we keep your ID information private. It is not shared with anyone.

As always, more information on the BSD Certification Group and the BSDA exam is found at www.bsdcertification.org.

BSDA Exam Launched!

The BSD Certification Group launched the first BSD Associate Exam at the Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) conference held in Los Angeles, Ca. , last weekend. As it was, there was not enough time to promote the first exam, so the number of candidates was limited.

The next BSDA Exam will be held at FOSDEM in Brussels, Belgium, on Saturday, Feb 23, and Sunday, Feb 24. Seating is limited, and you must pre-register. We already have over 30 registrations for FOSDEM. Also coming up is Linux-Tage Chemnitzer(link in German) in Chemnitz, Germany in March, 2008. All exams are paper based and are in English. Cost is only $75 (or half that if you participated in the beta exam.)


So, we're underway with the first exam! Sign up for a BSDCG ID and get to a conference near you to take the BSD Associate Exam.

Get Involved. Get Certified. Get Ahead.

BSDA Certification Moves Forward

Last weekend, members of the BSD Certification Group met in New York to finalize some standards for the BSD Associate exam. The exam is now in its final form- all that is needed is to select the actual 100 questions to be used in the first version. Our psychometrician, Dr. Sandra Dolan, is pleased with the progress so far. We will have a psychometricaly sound exam, that will provide a solid basis for determining the skill level of all candidates.

And the latest news: we now have two slots for the exam at SCALE- the Southern California Linux Expo. A big "Thank You!" to the folks at SCALE for allowing us to hold the exam during their conference. This is our inaugural exam, and we are looking forward to it!

Several other conferences have generously allowed us to hold exams. See the list, and register for an exam at https://register.bsdcertification.org//register/get-a-bsdcg-id

Thanks to all our supporters and friends for getting us to this point!

News on Credit Cards, the Beta Exam, and More

We've cleared another hurdle- we're now accepting major credit cards for payment on the website. If you've been wanting to purchase the Summer 2007 Courseware DVD with a credit card instead of PayPal, you can now do so.

There are also two more brochures on the Resources Page- one in German, and the other in English. These are attractive tri-fold giveaways, suitable for use at conferences, BSD User Groups and anywhere a bunch of BSD folk hang out.


We're slowly getting the first certification ready. Psychometric analysis is underway, and we expect to have the first exam ready in the first quarter of 2008. There is still a long way to go. Subscribe to the BSDCert email list and send in your thoughts and ideas.

We're Back!

Although you might think this blog is dead, it's actually just been in hibernation :-) Not so the certification effort itself.

A lot has happened since the last post on Feb 2006. If you've been following news on the BSD Certification Group website, you'll know most of these news items. We've:

• Held a logo design competition (see the new design on the BSDCG home page)
• Held a fund raising drive among BSD user groups, that helped us raise money for our new psychometrician
  
• Selected a psychometrician, Dr. Sandra Dolan, to help develop the exams
• Completed the Test Delivery Survey, showing the number and location of interested test takers
• Completed the first round of psychometric analysis with a beta version of the BSDA (BSD Associate) exam. Almost 100 individuals participated in the exam on three continents. The results will help improve the final BSDA exam coming soon.
  

And those are just the highlights. Additional news on all of these items and more will be forthcoming in the next several weeks. Good things are (still) happening!

News Bits from the BSDCG

BSD Certification Group Acting Chair Dru Lavigne will be speaking on BSD Certification at the UKUUG Spring Conference in March 2006. Dru will bring the audience up to date on our activities, and highlight plans for this year. Hope you can join the fun.

Currently, we're looking at the best way to publish a study guide. If you've ever written a book, you know how daunting it is to navigate the content, schedule and the publisher all at the same time. We have a good grasp on the content, and right now, the schedule is open. It's the publishing piece we're trying to nail down. Send us a note on the mailing list if you have any suggestions for effective publishing.

Another research topic right now is in the area of OSS test delivery and administration systems. A few solutions exist, though none really meet our requirements. One that comes close is the MARTest system, developed by the Zope Corporation. Other suggestions are welcome.

Our application for 501(c)(3) status with the IRS was sent several weeks ago. No word yet, but we are hopeful. We'll post an announcement when we get the word.

Look for an announcement about our BSDCG elections soon too. Details are not yet finalized, but we should have an announcement this month about our first meeting, and our election of officers.

Happy New Year!

It's a new year- and I'll bet I'm the last one to wish it to you...

Wow- it's amazing how fast the weeks fly by. This is the first post since November! In addition to the holiday stuff, I've moved my own apartment and relocated to a different city for a project. So my apologies for not getting back to you all sooner.

Time for a quick update...

We're actually receiving donations now. Our donation button is active and we're receiving money. Please donate! Our success in producing the first certification is directly tied to your support. Thanks!

We're also investigating Open Source test delivery mechanisms. If you know of a good delivery system let us know. Our goal is to have the system handle as much of the test question delivery, scoring and statistics as possible. Give us a shout if you know of a robust, secure system.

There are also some 'research groups' springing up on topics like researching what companies use BSD, contacts, and other assorted topics. If you have some time and want to contribute to these research projects send a note to the BSDCert email list. (Subscribe here.)

We're looking forward to a lot of work and progress in 2006. Stay tuned for more news.

Tracking Donations

The BSD Certification Group Donations Button is now officially open for business! Please join us in supporting BSD Certification. We're hard at work on the certification standard and we need your help to continue making it possible. If you would like to be listed on the donations page, let us know. Or if you would prefer to remain anonymous, we can do that too. Contact donations@bsdcertification.org for more details.

BTW- we're thinking of adopting a donations thermometer to track our progress and give visibility to the generosity of all our sponsors and contributors. Here's a sample (not the real one yet) of what it looks like. The script is written in perl and uses GD::Simple for the graphics stuff. It was fun to write. Let us know at info@bsdcertification.org if you think it's a good idea, or would like a copy of the script.

Donations, Sponsors and Plans- Oh My!

The BSD Certification Group website will be modified in the coming days to add a donations button through PayPal. We're in the final stages of testing with four major credit cards as well as other PayPal accounts. Hopefully, this will enable everyone to donate to our project. And right now, donations are sorely needed! We're trying to engage a company for psychometric analysis for our exams, and the projected cost is over $30,000. So, when the donation button is ready- please be generous.

We are also continuing to look for sponsors. If you would like to help sponsor this effort, or know someone who might be interested in being a sponsor, please send an email to info@bsdcertificationgroup.org.

In other news, I'm sorry I haven't been able to keep the project plan updated recently. My DSL went out at about the same time my wireless card broke. As a result, I'm without Internet on my BSD box that has the plan. As soon as this is fixed, I'll update the plan.

Speaking of plans, the business plan is ready. If you would like a copy of the plan, please drop a note to info@bsdcertificationgroup.org. We're going to send it out and follow up with those who request it.

BTW- there have been several interesting articles about BSD systems in the news lately. Good all around.

BSD Usage Survey Released!

Well, the Usage Survey is out the door. That's good news! There aren't very many sources of BSD usage information- and we hope this fills that gap. Maybe we can make it an annual thing. We'll see...

The survey is pretty comprehensive as far as determining how BSD systems are used and who uses them. But, as you'll read in the report, there are ways we can make it better. For example, just pre-screening who receives and processes the survey makes it much easier to determine if there are duplicates from the same company.

So- read and enjoy; especially the comments. Again- very good responses from all over the world. BSD truly is international!

Survey Report, Web Site, and Incorporation News

The Usage Survey Report is coming along. A bit slower than the last couple of documents, as we've all been busier than usual with $REAL_JOB. Hope to get more done this weekend on the Report.

The new website is up now, and everything works. We had some problems with the contact form, but it should be working now.

Incorporation is complete! We got our offical papers from the State of NJ. We can now open a business account and get ready for the flood of donations. You are going to donate aren't you? Hope so... :-)

BTW- the business plan is ready for publication. Use the Contact Us form on the website if you want a copy. Or just post to the mailing list. We'll get started on a wider distribution this soon.

BSDA Certification Requirements Document Completed!

After some last minute scrambling, we finally got the BSD Certification Requirements Document done. The document lists seven different study domains and has over 100 different topics. Here's the PDF copy. And a humorous note- even after all that checking, the first version we put up had an 'ipconfig(8)' in one of the entries! Thanks to Hugo Silva, one of our translators, for pointing it out.

Also- the Business Plan is now available. We're releasing it to our Advisory Board first, then to the general public. If you want an advance copy- send an email to info AT bsdcertification dot org.

We're now looking for sponsors. If you or your company has benefited from BSD, and would like to sponsor development of the certification, please contact us. We need your help!

Next up is the report on the BSD Usage Survey. We're drafting that right now. And just like the first survey (Task Analysis Survey), this survey is loaded with comments. There are hundreds of comments. Here are a few samples:

• We're a small start-up. The BSD family of OSes has enabled us to create products and provide an on-line store using no-cost systems. Without BSD we would never have got off the ground. A big thank-you to everyone who has contributed in whatever way. We've been supporting the cause for several years now and hope to be able to increase funding as our business grows.


• BSD, in any form, is an excellent product and a very robust OS. I am forced to use Windows for one program, but, everything else is done in BSD.


• And my favorite: Hurry up :-)

Rest assured, we are working as fast as we can!


Side note- Unfortunately, I've had to turn on word verification to prevent spam commenting. My apologies, but it will save me quite a bit of time to remove them. But please don't let that prevent you from commenting :-)

A Hectic Two Weeks

It's been a hectic two weeks. There is a lot going on right now.

We've just finished up the BSD Usage Survey. The data needs some massaging before we are ready to publish a survey report. That will be a few days yet. Over 4000 people responded to that survey. Wow! I was impressed when 500 responded. The survey was very popular, and there were many comments. We'll devote space to the comments again, like we did for the Task Analysis Survey Report. The comments are really refreshing to read.

The BSD Associate certification requirements document is nearing completion. This has been a huge effort. Many people contributed ideas and suggestions, and it's up over 50 pages now. The document contains seven "study domains" that contain about a dozen or so exam objectives each. It's quite detailed. One nifty feature is in the appendix- a chart listing the four BSD projects and common administrative commands and files among them. This should be quite useful to BSD students, young and old.

A lot of time has gone into getting the Business Plan shaped up. The plan is done, and is now being reviewed by the Group. It contains an operating plan for the next two years, and shows three revenue streams- sponsorships, donations, and exam fees.

Speaking of business, that's where more time went- into researching and drafting articles of incorporation and bylaws. We've decided to incorporate as a non-profit organization and we plan on submitting an application to the IRS as a 501(c)(3) scientific and educational charitable organization. If the IRS accepts our application, contributions may be tax deductible. That's good news for us, and for donors too! More details as they become available.

And if all that wasn't enough, I'm transitioning into a new role at my company. More responsibility, and (probably) more work to do.

And that starts in just a few hours- so I better get some sleep!

Live from NYCBSDCon

Dru Lavigne gave a comprehensive talk on BSD Certification at NYCBSDCon. She introduced a couple of members of the group, gave a status on progress to date, and also introduced the BSD Usage Survey. See the news page on our website for information about the Usage Survey. She also discussed some details about the new website, and and how you can help.

Wow- what a difference a few days makes! We are now at almost 500 responses on the Usage Survey. Europe has pulled ahead of the US for responses (53% v. 40%). Also, many, many different types of uses for BSD are turning up: firewalls, hosting, SAN, streaming video, IPv6, attack and penetration platforms, AAA. Very interesting!

We had a bad glitch yesterday with the Survey- a fiber channel interface and then some SAN problems. This was right after Axel Gruner announced us on the popular German BSD site BSDForen.de. The survey is back up and we hope that our German friends will take the German Usage Survey. Thanks to Axel for translating as well.

Usage Survey, Incorporation Details

The BSD Usage Survey is out! Help promote BSD by taking and advertising this short (19 questions) survey. This page has information and links to the survey and press releases in four languages. More languages as the translation teams get them ready. We've only just released the survey and already there have been 106 responses! That's amazing! Tantalizing tidbits from the first day: FreeBSD and NetBSD are almost neck and neck (62 to 53); major users are IT, academic, ISP; 46 responders have greater than 76% of all servers are BSD; Europe and North America lead the locations- but there still is no response from Antarctica. Wonder why? Hmmm... lot's of penguins there....

The survey will run at least through Sept 30th. Please help us promote this important survey! Thanks!

Looks like we will be incorporating in the US as a non-profit. There are still some details left, but looks like we'll do the Delaware route, and file with the IRS as a non-profit 501(c)(3) after that. More details next week.

NYCBSDCON is right around the corner. Dru will be giving a talk on BSD Certification. If you're in the city- come on over. There is a small registration fee of $40 (ok, maybe not that small but hey- you should have registered before Sept 10). Check out the rest of the lineup here.

Some good progress this week on the Certification Requirements document and business plan. Still major work to go there.

This Weeks Progress

Several more conversations with vendors regarding testing, test preparation, psycometrics, etc. We're in contact with at least a half-dozen organizations. So far, they've all expressed an interest in working with us. Several have offered to help us with a 'writers workshop' where they show us how to write good questions for tests; how to keep track of them in an 'item bank' (database); and how to move things from creation to analysis to preparation to delivery. Some are exclusively based on Microsoft products, and while that doesn't turn us completely off, it make things awkward from a usability standpoint. Discussions are continuing and we hope to narrow the field late next week.

We've also begun the process of incorporation. We're looking at both the US 501(c)(3) model, and the Canadian Incorporation:Not-For-Profit model. Both have advantages. We're also checking with both the NetBSD Foundation and the FreeBSD Foundation to learn from their experiences. So far, we don't see any reason we can't be a 501(c)(3). More to come on this important topic soon.

The BSD Usage Survey is ready. The English version has been sent to the translation teams. We hope to have at least a couple of translations ready by the release of the survey on Monday, Sept 12. This is an important survey and we want to get the word out about it. It's much shorter than the first survey- only 19 questions. Look for the announcement on Monday.

There were some lively discussions on the email list this week on both a code of ethics and on the business plan. Check the archives for details.

Just a followup note on the business plan- yes we do have a plan. Yes, we are actively developing it. Yes, we will publish it. If you have questions, comments, concerns or would like to help, send an email to the public list. Most of what needs to be done is to research the market in three specific areas- BSD usage (hence the above survey); other Unix certifications (Solaris, HP, Linux, others) for recent certification numbers; and finding a good gauge of employer interest. If you have info on these topics please send us a note.

The NDA is ready- the only outstanding item is the jursidiction. We will have to wait for incorporation for that. We'll post the text to the public list for comments this weekend.

Finally, the Certification Requirements document for the first certification is starting to take shape. Here's a question- would you like 75-100 hard questions, or 50 harder questions? Ahh, the pain of testing... :-)

NDA, Online Testing, Certification Names, Usage Survey

Progress on several items:

The NDA is in final draft. A lawyer prepared it, but it still needs some tweaks about contact info, jurisdiction, and use of public keys for exchange. Group members are reviewing now- it should be finished in a few more days.

Several conversations this week regarding online testing. We're researching partners to help do curriculum development, psycometric analysis, and test delivery. So far, discussions have been good, but this will take a while. One candidate looks promising, but we're pursuing several others for our due diligence.

The final vote for the initial certification names has been distributed to BSD Certification Group members. We had to have a preliminary vote to narrow down the possibilities from around 60 (Section 3.2.9 of the Task Analysis Survey Report) to eight or nine. The vote closes next weekend. Results will be announced on Sept 12. The names are part of the Certification Requirements Document for the initial certification outlined in the Certification Roadmap.

Finally- we've released a test version of the BSD Usage Survey to the BSDCert mailing list today. We wanted the BSDCert list members to have a chance to make comments and suggestions before the final copy of the BSD Usage Survey is released next week.