Re: About PostgreSQL certification

On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 04:41:03PM -0500, Theo Schlossnagle wrote:
> On Jan 23, 2007, at 4:33 PM, David Fetter wrote:
> >On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 11:52:08AM -0200, Iannsp wrote:
> >>Hello,
> >>I did like to know what you think about the postgresql
> >>certifications provided for
> >>
> >>PostgreSQL CE http://www.sraoss.co.jp/postgresql-ce/news_en.html
> >>
> >>CertFirst http://www.certfirst.com/postgreSql.htm
> >>
> >>My question is about the validate of this certification for the
> >>clients. Make difference to be certified?
> >
> >Clueful clients will look unfavorably on any "PostgreSQL
> >certification" you have. They will instead insist on experience
> >and references, as clueful clients do. :)
>
> I don't believe that's true. Oracle certification means quite a
> bit. Cisco certification is excellent. Sun certification is
> decent. If the PostgreSQL certifications don't mean much it is a
> problem with the particular vendor of the certificate and you (as a
> PostgreSQL entity) should contest their right to use PostgreSQL name
> in their advertising or marketing.

Sadly, at least in the U.S., PostgreSQL is unlikely to be a defensible
trademark. I am not an intellectual property attorney, and if I were
one, my opinion would not be as weighty as a court case.

> Certification programs can and should mean something.

I'd love to see a good one for PostgreSQL. What I've seen so far has
been somewhere between dismal and rotten.

> We offer training programs here and have considered offering OmniTI
> certifications in the future. I wouldn't offer then unless I
> thought it meant something that companies "out there" could rely
> on.

Great :)

> Many other certifying entities have the same approach.

99% of them give the rest a bad name ;)

Cheers,
D
--
David Fetter <david(at)fetter(dot)org> http://fetter.org/
phone: +1 415 235 3778 AIM: dfetter666
Skype: davidfetter

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