OS and certification

Birgitt Bolton birgitt at worldchat.com
Wed Jun 9 11:21:46 PDT 1999


The last group that came through a training program with me asked if they
could have some kind of certification. I haven't been doing this and I
listened to what they had to say. They said that in keeping with OS being
very different, that those of us doing OS training ought to understand that
there is a very changing world of work in which even the past way of doing
resumes is no longer the way of choice. People are doing personal profiles
which are complete binders that they take to job interviews through which
they visually walk the interviewer in terms of demonstrating their life
accomplishments and passions. In this format, certificates are an important
visual.  I was shown such a binder and was so very, very impressed. It was a
well done way of telling a life story that is much more than just the
standard education and job experience. I was challenged to face that a
certificate was congruous with the person wanting to tell their life story
which is congruous with story telling and Spirit which is congruous with
Open Space.

I am not qualified nor is anyone to "certify" someone as an OS facilitator.
With the assistance of my friend and colleague Michelle Cooper, I did
consider that I could present "certificates of accomplishment" which
honoured the persons and didn't bring me into a position of "certifier".


Warmest regards,
Birgitt

Birgitt Bolton of Dalar Associates
www.openspacetechnology.com
55 Ravina Cres., Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
 L9G 2E8
phone: 905-648-5775  fax: 905-648-2262

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]On Behalf Of Peg
Holman
Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 1999 11:04 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: OS and certification


I was checking out a new search engine and entered Open Space Technology.
What did I stumble across but this:  http://www.ourfuture.com/oscert.htm

(it's a consulting firm -- Cornerstone Consulting -- that offers
CERTIFICATION in doing OS)

I asked Harrison Do you know who these people are???

Here's his response:

<The answer is yes and no. I can't remember the names, but I do remember
having some contact with them. I am pretty sure one of the group came to a
training program. As for "certification" I suggested that even I wasn't
prepared to certify anybody. Always seemed like consignment to a mental
institution to me. Anyhow, they obviously didn't take my suggestion. But I
don't know that they are doing any harm, and maybe they are doing some good.
Anyhow, there isn't too much  I could do about it, and Open Space seems to
take care of itself pretty well. Strange world.>


This is still bothering me so thought I see what others think.

Peg Holman

>From  Wed Jun  9 12:13:20 1999
Message-Id: <WED.9.JUN.1999.121320.0400.>
Date: Wed, 9 Jun 1999 12:13:20 -0400
Reply-To: rhodes at smsys.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Rhodes Hileman <rhodes at smsys.com>
Organization: Small Systems Company
Subject: Re: OS and certification
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Peg Holman wrote:
>
> What did I stumble across but this:  http://www.ourfuture.com/oscert.htm
> (it's a consulting firm -- Cornerstone Consulting -- that offers
> CERTIFICATION in doing OS)
> This is still bothering me so thought I see what others think.

The need for certification of expertise on specific products, and the
outfits who pander to it are a plague in our civilization.  It has been
recently written about in another context, computer systems, by Les Bell
in the May 99 issues of "Extended Attributes" published by the Phoenix
OS/2 Society http://www.possi.org/ . Les asserts that, "the current
drive for vendor-specific certification is a blight on our society."  He
goes on the explain that spending money to obtain certification of
expertise in a particular system has the effect of marrying you to that
system, so you will recommend it to your customers, consistently
overlooking other choices.  This makes the likes of Mr. Gates even
richer. "It's all about vendor lock-in."

When something works, it has a tendency to be sold, which creates an
opportunity for paid consultants, which creates an opportunity for the
certifiers.  Open Space Technology is a lot like the Open Software
movement, now most prominently represented by Linux: everyone involved
is an expert, the work is done for the pleasure of seeing a better
result, the technology is pretty much bullet proof because it has been
through so many hands.

And the commercial folks are just itching to make some money off it.

--
Rhodes Hileman . http://www.smsys.com/smaladdr.html



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