The proposal below is from a group which has criteria for inclusion.
This document is being proposed to government as a criteria for reducing
professional indemnity insurance for the IT sector. ie There will be a
relationship between the government getting cheaper insurance and
hiring people who match this kind of profile.
The group has projects which talk about ethics and being in the public
interest, They also have specific criteria for inclusion as a member
and their subjects they recognise tend to be more business computing
than computing science. MS product features strongly. FOSS stuff less
so.
It has been said by one of their people that this is because the
members do not have an interest in the foss subjects, or that the foss
things might be considered if they were of interest to members, but
this is sort of a closed loop, ie if youre in youre probably in
because you match the standard degree with msce kinds of training
which they match against.
The group disagrees with my concerns.
I feel they are scoping peoples' right to participate in the IT sector
by excluding people from their criteria because their criteria suit
the interests of members and also because the process of choosing
people by matching a standard process is a better match for broadcast
software liks ms. Following a standard path is something to do if
youre working with a supplied tool set. If youre a member of a
community which participates in constructing the tool set the sources
of reference and strategies for developing solutions will be more
diverse, informal learning from niche specialists in our communities
is a good fit for this kind of skill development.
It is a bad fit for distributed communities. FOSS groups often have
diverse experience and the act of participation in an open community
of development is the means of improving people.
There are other groups in AU following the same line of thinking.
Defining a scope for who is trusted in IT around a normal route to skills.
In my opinion at least in this form this is basically MS marketing in
a fancy frock. I think membership is a poor alternative for
transparent and reviewed
practices possible with open code.
Because these groups are interested in describing people who do not
fit their model as untrusted I am thinking about ethics and free
software and how we reflect the kinds of ethics we do have. Personally
it is my experience that foss people are the most authentic and direct
people i have met. There is nowhere to hide in foss.
Would be interested in other people's ideas about this kind of document and
whether groups where you are are doing the same kinds of things.
What kinds of approaches can foss communities use to provide a
constructive alternative conversation which does not exclude people
but which focuses on recognising the strengths of open collaboration
and peer review.
Probably the scoping will provide only one flavour of person and folks
will soon need to look beyond that source? tbh It just feels very old
fashioned.
Janet
---------- Forwarded message ----------
The Australian Computer Society have released a Discussion Paper
"Redefining And Building The ICT Profession: Core Body Of Knowledge
Review" (21 June, 2007 Version 2.0).
In January the ACS combined its Accreditation, Assessment and Appeals
Board and Membership Standards Board into a new Professional
Standards (PS) Board. The new Board is reviewing the ACS Core Body of
Knowledge (CBOK) by June 2008. The Board has invited comment on the
Discussion Paper (details in the paper):
<http://www.acs.org.au/attachments/acs_CBOK_Position_Paper.pdf>.
Contents:
List of Acronyms
1. Introduction
2. Core Body of Knowledge revision process
3. Defining the ICT/Computing Profession
4. Rationale for the ACS Core Body of Knowledge
5. Current Core Body of Knowledge
6. Some initial common ground
7. Moving forward
8. Remaining issues
9. References
Appendix A Professional Standards Board Membership
Appendix B ACS Qualifications Framework for ICT Professionals
I've just received notice that if we want to make another submission to
the NSAI (National Standards Authority of Ireland) relating to the
OOXML issue, it must reach them by July 11th.
That's tomorrow fortnight!
Malcolm.
Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
The monthly IFSO meeting will happen in Mahaffey's Pub at 20h00.
http://www.ifso.ie/images/mahaffeys.png
Among other things, we will be discussing the possibility of finding
a new venue for future meetings. Mahaffey's is getting kind of noisy.
Feel free to mail suggestions to the list.
Good luck,
Malcolm.
Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
1. FSFE and Digicomp announce Free Software Licensing course
2. Meeting Libre 2007 in Miraflores, Spain
3. FSFE at eLiberatica 2007 in Romania
4. Richard Stallman in Sweden
5. ConfSL, LUGConf and Fellowship meeting in Cosenza, Italy
6. Linuxtag in Berlin
7. Linuxwochen tour through Austria
8. Donations now tax-deductable in Switzerland
1. FSFE and Digicomp announce Free Software Licensing course
The Swiss training academy Digicomp is now offering Free Software
licensing courses delivered by FSFE's Freedom Task Force Coordinator
Shane Coughlan. The courses are intended for project managers,
developers and technicians who wish to become more knowledgeable
regarding code distribution options and give practical examples of
integrating Free Software into business models. These courses will take
place for the first time on the 25th and 26th of June, with additional
courses being offered on the 10th and 11th of September and the 10th and
11th of December 2007. More information can be found here:
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/trainingcourse
2. Meeting Libre 2007 in Miraflores, Spain
FSFE's associate organisation in Spain, the Free Knowledge Foundation,
has organised the LibreMeeting 2007, the first International Free
Knowledge Meeting of Madrid. Georg Greve presented the FSFE while
Ciarán O'Riordan spoke about the GPLv3.
3. FSFE at eLiberatica 2007 in Romania
Brasov, Romania right in the heart of Transylvania was the place that
the Romanian Free Software community chose for its 2007 eLiberatica
conference to share knowledge and build awareness for Free Software in
Romania. FSFE president Georg Greve gave one of the keynotes on Open
Standards and freedom of competition and also participated in the
panel on the future of knowledge regulation.
4. Richard Stallman in Sweden
On the 16th of May 2007, Richard Stallman held a speech in Gothenburg
(Sweden). The speech, Free Software and Beyond: Human Rights in the Use
of Software and Other Published Works, can be downloaded (audio) here:
http://www.fsfe.org/en/content/download/32738/202513/file/rms-speech-gbg-sw….
On the 17th of May 2007, Richard Stallman held a speech in Linköping
(Sweden). The speech, Copyright vs Community in the Age of Computer
Networks, can be downloaded here:
http://www.lysator.liu.se/upplysning/film/20070517_RMS/RMS_2007-05-17_Digif…
5. ConfSL, LUGConf and Fellowship meeting in Cosenza, Italy
The Italian Free Software community met in Cosenza for three events at
the same time: the ConfSL2007, the LUGConf and a Fellowship meeting.
In total, everyone enjoyed three days of talks, workshops and plain good
fun. Stefano Maffulli and Shane Coughlan were there representing FSFE
and during the LUGConf Fellow Marco De Rossi presented the recently
formed Milan Advocacy group.
http://fsfe.org/en/fellows/maffulli/rants/(tag)/cosenza
6. Linuxtag in Berlin
Like the years before, FSFE was present with a booth at Linuxtag in
Berlin, where people from FSFE and volunteers informed about Free
Software and answered lots of questions.
7. Linuxwochen tour through Austria
"Linuxwochen" is the name of a series of events in Austria that take
place every year around May. This year, FSFE was present in Eisenstadt,
Graz, and Vienna.
8. Donations now tax-deductable in Switzerland
FSFE is glad to announce that donations are now tax-deductable in
Switzerland after it has been recognised as charitable public interest
organisation by the authorities in the Kanton of Zürich, where FSFE's
Swiss offices are located. Your donation is essential to make our work
possible, for more information please take a look at
http://fsfeurope.org/help/donate-2007-ch
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html