[openlp-dev] OpenLP Certification

[Raoul Snyman]

Hey everyone,

Recently I came across the website of someone named Johnny Fowler who 
advertises OpenLP support as pretty much his main line of business (with 
other church-related stuff too). It got me thinking, what with me doing 
the majority of support, of a way to direct people to other support 
options. Less support for me to do, yay! I've even had a few people 
e-mail in and say, "call me!" - and I'm not going to waste my money 
giving them free support over the phone. Sorry, not sorry :-P

Many technology companies offer certification for people who want to 
provide support that is officially recognised by the company, and I 
thought that we could do something similar for OpenLP. This way we could 
offer our users more support options from companies who have been given 
the OpenLP stamp of approval.

In terms of the actual certification, someone who wants to become 
certified would have to write a certification exam (for free). If they 
pass, they get a PDF certificate (Daniel, I'll need your help with this) 
and a button/badge to display on their site (Daniel). Certifications 
would only be valid for 3 years, after which the exam would need to be 
re-taken to renew the certification.

I've set up LimeSurvey (open source online survey software) on 
https://certification.openlp.org/ and I have been working on a 
certification exam based on support issues I see on a fairly regular 
basis. This way there would be minimal impact on us, we could just 
"mark" the exams and then e-mail the applicant their certificate.

Let me know what you think.

-- 
Raoul Snyman
+1 (520) 490-9743
raoul at snyman.info