[Asterisk-biz] Asterisk training andcertification::AstriconTraining

[I put the Who? in Mishehu]

With regards to the following comments and the parent comments, see below
please:

> You have it wrong!
>
> First, I am not making anything off my comments.  In fact, I should be
> charging attorney's fees for my advise but I am not in this case.
>
> Second, I don't have a gang.
>
> Third, start your own certification course and issue your own
> certifications.   If you do then please issue me a certification so I can
> hang it up on my bathroom wall.
>
> Steve
>

<SNIP SNIP Brian's and other previous comments clipped for brievity>

Personally, and professionally, I think of certifications as something
that you print on a cylindrical paper roll that goes into said bathroom. 
I hold no certifications for any technology, and I would not give better
notice to a person who has certifications (I've trained too many to know
better).  Anyway, my 2 cents worth for this thread are:

1.  The community, though currently, is a family, may not be one day in
the future.  It seems that radical/groundbreaking projects start off tend
to have a very familial nature due to the need to survive.  I fear the day
that the project is too well known and keeping its family like community
status becomes very difficult.  It seems that the more opportunists that
are attracted, the more they'll erode at the community.  And no, I cannot
actually consider myself as "part of the family" as I have not yet been
able to contribute something back.

2.  Certifications, as I stated above are mostly bunk.  They are useful to
human resources personel and interviewers, but they mean little in the
real world.  Being an active or previous developer or being the person who
can help others who need it/train other users are, in my opinion, of a
higher calibre than any Joe Sixpack who took a crash course and passed a
test.  I have not read the entire thread from origin, as I just recently
had time to sign up, but I'm not seeing how this would alienate the
developers.

3.  If Digium is putting their "signature of approval" on this as being
the defacto Asterisk certification test program, then I would expect that
they'd be making a nice royalty off of it, instead of somebody else
stealing the thunder.  However, it would be nice if Digium and/or the
community sets down training and testing guidelines that would be an open
standard and recognized.  A local college in my area is interested in
including Asterisk in its business and technology department coursework. 
It'd be nice if they could follow the same guidelines as others without
having to pay royalties and deal with a lot of legal mumbo jumbo.  In the
end, it would most likely benefit Asterisk and the community better if the
training was offered at more colleges/universities.

Hope I don't sound like an idiot.  ;-)  I started off with my two-cents
worth and it ended up as a quarter... of thought soup...

-mishehu