The Business of LinuxWorld ...
As I previously mentioned in my first blog entry, Server Hardware at LinuxWorld, it is rare I make these events. My main purpose for attending was the semi-annual Advisory Council and inaugural Technical Advisory Council with the Linux Professional Institute (LPI).
Boston ... Looks Nice ... But Damn It's Cold!
The rumor is that the eastern US LinuxWorld Expo moved to Boston in praise of the state's moves towards open standards over the past year. I think New York would have continued to be a better avenue, and the attendence clearly reflected that. People are friendly in New England, you just have to be prompt and direct in your questions and conversations and not waste their time.
It's no New York, although it's still priced just as bad downtown ...
Since this was out of my own pocket, I didn't feel like shouving out $250+/night to stay downtown. I stayed well out in Waltham, MA, and took the 70A bus route to the MTBA Red+Silver lines. Yes, it was a good 90+ minute route each way every day, but it also meant I got my roundtrip flight + 3 night hotel stay for less than just 2 nights downtown.
I didn't want to lug my executive coat, so I'd normal opt for my Corvette Racing breaker. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring it, and those bus stops quickly became 30+ minutes of weathering sub-40F cold at 6:30am in the morning without any coat.
At least wearing business attire kept me warmer than normal.
The Boston Convention and Expo Center (BCEC) might be dwarfed by the Orange County Convention Center, but it was very easily accessible from the Silver Line (unlike Orlando's sprawling mess) ...
The Floor (Yes, This LWE Was Pretty Dead) ...
The Expo's Floor wasn't heavy with activity, and even far less on the last day, Thursday (when I snapped these pictures), than even on Wednesday. But there were still enough people around to keep the vendors busy enough. I had to avoid some booths because they were way too much marketing coughUnisyscough, but O'Reilly, Red Hat and a few others kept the presentations going with more than just marketing. Of course it seemed no amount of marketing or technobabble by Red Hat could keep everyone from joking that Red Hat's cowboy attire promoting their upcoming Nashville event was actually the Brokeback Mountain theme.
Red Hat and AMD were front'n center. Despite Intel's sponsoring resulting in their name on the badge neckless, the green Tyan-AMD bags were far more popular than the Blue Tyan-Intel ones.
Who I'm Here For ... LPI Day 1 ... Business
The not-for-profit Linux Professional Institute (LPI) has been cleaning some house as of late, and they have reorganized. Gone are the days of just anyone being a sponsor, and exam development now has a formal and full-time lead. Unlike just about any other professional organization in the technology industry that focuses on credentials and certification, LPI does not make a dime on training, which is where the money making pyramid is for most certification-focused organizations. That's why LPI holds the greatest level of international integrity and recognition -- not only in the Linux industry, but for the entire IT industry.
Dr. Strager of Prosoft Learning Corporation, the Master LPI Affliate for North America, mans the LPI booth on Wednesday
The Wednesday morning LPI session was the semi-annual Advisory Committee (AC). Previously, this was a combined business and technical committee. But starting at this LWE, it was purely business. Japan continues to be the leading region for LPI credentials and revenue -- with 55% of LPI's total revenue (more everyone else combined). Germany and then the US fill out the top 3. The concerns and interests of how LPI is addressing the needs of Japan, as well as how LPI can further infiltrate the US and other, emerging markets for Linux, like Brazil, were also discussed.
I stayed largely quiet the first 45 minutes, until alumni and user group involvement was discussed. After hearing a good half dozen viewpoints, I chimed in and introduced myself. I introduced the fact that Linux user groups are very different than any other technical user group -- they are support lists and technically-focused, and not so much social and people networking lists (even programming lists, like Java, are typically social). This also produces a backlash against the certification industry, which causes most people to dismiss LPI as just another "training as a profit scheme."
My initial suggestion was to start leveraging the alumni as "ambassadors" to their local user groups. This wasn't an original idea, but something I plainly stated I stole from the Fedora [Project] Ambassadors effort that uses the few Fedora users to ensure each and every user group is aware of Fedora users in their local group. This offers indirect advocacy in seeing that Fedora users are helped by other Fedora users. LPI's indirect avenue to interest from user groups is to show how the involvement of such LPI Ambassadors can boost attendance and, eventually, membership. If the surrounding industry and their professionals are aware the local user group has certified individuals who can help introduce them to the LPI programs, possibly with some free training, they would be interested in attending. That additional attendance should then translate into "more membership," as I've never seen a knowledgeable IT professional deny him or herself any avenue to "flex their geekdom." Everyone wins.
LPI has largely ignored its alumni and this is a great avenue, with virtually no cost or effort, to not only re-involve them, but market themselves as well. As Ross Brunson of Novell pointed out, Red Hat really does ignore its alumni far worse -- even corporate partners -- and that's something we could address, possibly via the same program. Despite my common tendency to deploy Red Hat solutions, even I couldn't resist disclosing the fact that after I plunked down $749 of my own money to just take the RH302 exam-only, Red Hat didn't even send me a hardcopy of my certificate. They sent me a PDF -- yeah, that really does say something (very wrong)! Especially when a non-profit can even manage that, at 1/5th the 2-part exam cost!
Who I'm Here For ... LPI Day 2 ... Technical
The final day of LWE saw the inaugural LPI Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), with Matt Rice taking over the lead role of Product (formerly known as Exam) Development. Matt Rice and Dr. Stanger were the two individuals who wanted me to make the sessions. We had many off-line conversations about both of our previous involvements (we were both involved with writing LPI exams in years prior).
Dr. Stanger kicks off the inaugural TAC on Thursday in slightly less formal attire
The primary product development in 2006 is the development of LPI Certified Level 3 (LPIC-3). This is very much intertwined with both industry and federal drive in Japan, the region that is clearly leading LPI's proliferation (and revenue). Specialization was regularly brought up, from development to security, but it was partially dismissed as too specific and too time consuming when the goals are to not only define solid objectives for the level, but have much of the exam development completed by year's end.
My largest fear is that with the existence of already 2 levels of "generic/broad" coverage, it's difficult to get any more advanced and more depth at level 3 without getting more specific in application. My suggestion was to take the objectives the Japanese region feels are most important, categorize them into specialized exams that could go to the depth expected at a level 3, and then select those 2-3 exams as the first 2-3 level 3 exams (301, 302 and, possibly, 303). My 2-3 examples were Enterprise Directory/File Services, Security and possibly Internet Services, with another 4-5 specialized exams planned for the future. That would solve my fear that broad and generic 301 and 302 exams could not reach the depth required, while leaving room for specialization, expansion and additional titles (which could result in additional revenue). I'm not sure I made the point in a way all understood where I was coming from, and fear some thought I was "shooting for the moon" in limited time, but I was really trying to "hit the moon now, while still being able to go to Mars in the future."
SELinux came up which seems to be a hot item in Japan. Skills in applying Mandatory Access Controls (MAC) and other Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC) are needed in both enterprise and defense environments, as I can second the Japanese on. But SELinux could be a single, specialized exam on its own. LWE presenter and security expert David Allen also involved himself in the conversation at that point.
As noted by Matt Rice, I had previously recommended that a level 3 LPI "task driven" Security-specific exam adopt the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium's (ISC2's) existing security Common Book of Knowledge (CBoK) as its conceptual foundation. In other words, we should take several domains from their CBoK and map them to real-world, task-driven Linux application -- since the ISC2 domains themselves are conceptual and not specific, and that's where LPI would come in. This not only gives LPI an immediate blueprint using domains to create task-driven Linux questions, but the mapping gives it a sense of completeness and industry acceptance (something Microsoft completely botched with their Security specialties, by completely ignoring most of the domains in the security CBoK).
While most people at least know of the generic Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP) and its ten (10) domains generic, most completely ignore the existence of the System Security Certified Practicioner (SSCP), which uses 7 very "real-world" domains when it comes to system security. That includes auditing, [network] authentication (which complements Enterprise Directory and File Services), cryptography, MAC/RBAC (also complementing the same) and 3 other, real-world Linux task-driven mappable domains.
Additional commentary also arose from several organizations providing Linux training from outside the US and Japan, such from individuals with the emerging Linux leader Brazil. With only a half day and so much input, it was difficult for everyone to come to terms on everything, but I believe Matt was made aware of where many professionals and organizations are coming from in their industries.
I reserved myself to write a whitepaper proposal, which I should complete this weekend, that makes all of my prior points in writing. It will summarize most of the technical and development costs (largely in time and considerations of time-to-market), while leveraging much objective focus and exam developments to existing, common practices. I hope it will address the immediate needs of our LPI leading Japanese region, as well as leave room for both expansion and partnerships. LPI has to move beyond just merely revisioning existing exams and there is great difficulty in developing exams at a level 3 depth without detail and specialization. The most sought after skills -- my suggestions (based on my notes from the meeting) being Enterprise Directory and File, System Security (including Enterprise Authentication and other network services) and possibly a 3rd focus in Internet Services -- should be the first 2-3 exams that will make up the initial LPIC-3 certification. Even if they are not branded as specialized exams, but just 301, 302 and possibly 303 to start.
I gaze at the peers to my right as Matt Rice (not pictured) gets the TAC rolling into discussion ...
Hitting the Dot-Org Pavilion
I finished off my Thursday by discussing many aspects of LPI and industry developments with Ross Brunson. I also visited several of the Dot-Org Pavilion booths where the real technical groundwork is not only laid, but written and implemented, by the geeks who make Linux a reality.
The Fedora Project was showing off what Fedora Core 5's new 3D acceleration support can do. Their Composite OpenGL approach (using existing X servers), which is also preferred by nVidia, which is a bit different than the Novell's Xgl OpenGL (completely OpenGL-based server) approach. Both are attempting to bring the features of Apple's QuartzExtreme (also OpenGL-based, only for its native Cocoa-Aqua) to the Free Desktop world. Microsoft's Windows Graphics Foundation (WGF) 2.0, based on former DirectX 10 developments, has been pushed back from Windows Vista (NT 6.0 "Longhorn" Client), and they are going with a far less complete WGF 1.1 release for the "Avalon" presentation, based on existing DirectX 9.
The Fedora Project (founded and sponsored by Red Hat) and Gentoo Foundation (founded by Daniel Robbins, a gentleman I share publication credits with) are the two projects that influence much of my Linux development, integration and usage ...
More on the development front, the GNOME Project (a leading Linux Graphical User Interface system) and related its related Mono (.NET Development for UNIX, founded by the same founder as GNOME, Miguel deIcaza) are two developments I also track closely (especially as I do more Java/.NET development in my career) ...
Boston ... Looks Nice ... But Damn It's Cold!
The rumor is that the eastern US LinuxWorld Expo moved to Boston in praise of the state's moves towards open standards over the past year. I think New York would have continued to be a better avenue, and the attendence clearly reflected that. People are friendly in New England, you just have to be prompt and direct in your questions and conversations and not waste their time.
It's no New York, although it's still priced just as bad downtown ...
Since this was out of my own pocket, I didn't feel like shouving out $250+/night to stay downtown. I stayed well out in Waltham, MA, and took the 70A bus route to the MTBA Red+Silver lines. Yes, it was a good 90+ minute route each way every day, but it also meant I got my roundtrip flight + 3 night hotel stay for less than just 2 nights downtown.
I didn't want to lug my executive coat, so I'd normal opt for my Corvette Racing breaker. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring it, and those bus stops quickly became 30+ minutes of weathering sub-40F cold at 6:30am in the morning without any coat.
At least wearing business attire kept me warmer than normal.
The Boston Convention and Expo Center (BCEC) might be dwarfed by the Orange County Convention Center, but it was very easily accessible from the Silver Line (unlike Orlando's sprawling mess) ...
The Floor (Yes, This LWE Was Pretty Dead) ...
The Expo's Floor wasn't heavy with activity, and even far less on the last day, Thursday (when I snapped these pictures), than even on Wednesday. But there were still enough people around to keep the vendors busy enough. I had to avoid some booths because they were way too much marketing coughUnisyscough, but O'Reilly, Red Hat and a few others kept the presentations going with more than just marketing. Of course it seemed no amount of marketing or technobabble by Red Hat could keep everyone from joking that Red Hat's cowboy attire promoting their upcoming Nashville event was actually the Brokeback Mountain theme.
Red Hat and AMD were front'n center. Despite Intel's sponsoring resulting in their name on the badge neckless, the green Tyan-AMD bags were far more popular than the Blue Tyan-Intel ones.
Who I'm Here For ... LPI Day 1 ... Business
The not-for-profit Linux Professional Institute (LPI) has been cleaning some house as of late, and they have reorganized. Gone are the days of just anyone being a sponsor, and exam development now has a formal and full-time lead. Unlike just about any other professional organization in the technology industry that focuses on credentials and certification, LPI does not make a dime on training, which is where the money making pyramid is for most certification-focused organizations. That's why LPI holds the greatest level of international integrity and recognition -- not only in the Linux industry, but for the entire IT industry.
Dr. Strager of Prosoft Learning Corporation, the Master LPI Affliate for North America, mans the LPI booth on Wednesday
The Wednesday morning LPI session was the semi-annual Advisory Committee (AC). Previously, this was a combined business and technical committee. But starting at this LWE, it was purely business. Japan continues to be the leading region for LPI credentials and revenue -- with 55% of LPI's total revenue (more everyone else combined). Germany and then the US fill out the top 3. The concerns and interests of how LPI is addressing the needs of Japan, as well as how LPI can further infiltrate the US and other, emerging markets for Linux, like Brazil, were also discussed.
I stayed largely quiet the first 45 minutes, until alumni and user group involvement was discussed. After hearing a good half dozen viewpoints, I chimed in and introduced myself. I introduced the fact that Linux user groups are very different than any other technical user group -- they are support lists and technically-focused, and not so much social and people networking lists (even programming lists, like Java, are typically social). This also produces a backlash against the certification industry, which causes most people to dismiss LPI as just another "training as a profit scheme."
My initial suggestion was to start leveraging the alumni as "ambassadors" to their local user groups. This wasn't an original idea, but something I plainly stated I stole from the Fedora [Project] Ambassadors effort that uses the few Fedora users to ensure each and every user group is aware of Fedora users in their local group. This offers indirect advocacy in seeing that Fedora users are helped by other Fedora users. LPI's indirect avenue to interest from user groups is to show how the involvement of such LPI Ambassadors can boost attendance and, eventually, membership. If the surrounding industry and their professionals are aware the local user group has certified individuals who can help introduce them to the LPI programs, possibly with some free training, they would be interested in attending. That additional attendance should then translate into "more membership," as I've never seen a knowledgeable IT professional deny him or herself any avenue to "flex their geekdom." Everyone wins.
LPI has largely ignored its alumni and this is a great avenue, with virtually no cost or effort, to not only re-involve them, but market themselves as well. As Ross Brunson of Novell pointed out, Red Hat really does ignore its alumni far worse -- even corporate partners -- and that's something we could address, possibly via the same program. Despite my common tendency to deploy Red Hat solutions, even I couldn't resist disclosing the fact that after I plunked down $749 of my own money to just take the RH302 exam-only, Red Hat didn't even send me a hardcopy of my certificate. They sent me a PDF -- yeah, that really does say something (very wrong)! Especially when a non-profit can even manage that, at 1/5th the 2-part exam cost!
Who I'm Here For ... LPI Day 2 ... Technical
The final day of LWE saw the inaugural LPI Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), with Matt Rice taking over the lead role of Product (formerly known as Exam) Development. Matt Rice and Dr. Stanger were the two individuals who wanted me to make the sessions. We had many off-line conversations about both of our previous involvements (we were both involved with writing LPI exams in years prior).
Dr. Stanger kicks off the inaugural TAC on Thursday in slightly less formal attire
The primary product development in 2006 is the development of LPI Certified Level 3 (LPIC-3). This is very much intertwined with both industry and federal drive in Japan, the region that is clearly leading LPI's proliferation (and revenue). Specialization was regularly brought up, from development to security, but it was partially dismissed as too specific and too time consuming when the goals are to not only define solid objectives for the level, but have much of the exam development completed by year's end.
My largest fear is that with the existence of already 2 levels of "generic/broad" coverage, it's difficult to get any more advanced and more depth at level 3 without getting more specific in application. My suggestion was to take the objectives the Japanese region feels are most important, categorize them into specialized exams that could go to the depth expected at a level 3, and then select those 2-3 exams as the first 2-3 level 3 exams (301, 302 and, possibly, 303). My 2-3 examples were Enterprise Directory/File Services, Security and possibly Internet Services, with another 4-5 specialized exams planned for the future. That would solve my fear that broad and generic 301 and 302 exams could not reach the depth required, while leaving room for specialization, expansion and additional titles (which could result in additional revenue). I'm not sure I made the point in a way all understood where I was coming from, and fear some thought I was "shooting for the moon" in limited time, but I was really trying to "hit the moon now, while still being able to go to Mars in the future."
SELinux came up which seems to be a hot item in Japan. Skills in applying Mandatory Access Controls (MAC) and other Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC) are needed in both enterprise and defense environments, as I can second the Japanese on. But SELinux could be a single, specialized exam on its own. LWE presenter and security expert David Allen also involved himself in the conversation at that point.
As noted by Matt Rice, I had previously recommended that a level 3 LPI "task driven" Security-specific exam adopt the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium's (ISC2's) existing security Common Book of Knowledge (CBoK) as its conceptual foundation. In other words, we should take several domains from their CBoK and map them to real-world, task-driven Linux application -- since the ISC2 domains themselves are conceptual and not specific, and that's where LPI would come in. This not only gives LPI an immediate blueprint using domains to create task-driven Linux questions, but the mapping gives it a sense of completeness and industry acceptance (something Microsoft completely botched with their Security specialties, by completely ignoring most of the domains in the security CBoK).
While most people at least know of the generic Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP) and its ten (10) domains generic, most completely ignore the existence of the System Security Certified Practicioner (SSCP), which uses 7 very "real-world" domains when it comes to system security. That includes auditing, [network] authentication (which complements Enterprise Directory and File Services), cryptography, MAC/RBAC (also complementing the same) and 3 other, real-world Linux task-driven mappable domains.
Additional commentary also arose from several organizations providing Linux training from outside the US and Japan, such from individuals with the emerging Linux leader Brazil. With only a half day and so much input, it was difficult for everyone to come to terms on everything, but I believe Matt was made aware of where many professionals and organizations are coming from in their industries.
I reserved myself to write a whitepaper proposal, which I should complete this weekend, that makes all of my prior points in writing. It will summarize most of the technical and development costs (largely in time and considerations of time-to-market), while leveraging much objective focus and exam developments to existing, common practices. I hope it will address the immediate needs of our LPI leading Japanese region, as well as leave room for both expansion and partnerships. LPI has to move beyond just merely revisioning existing exams and there is great difficulty in developing exams at a level 3 depth without detail and specialization. The most sought after skills -- my suggestions (based on my notes from the meeting) being Enterprise Directory and File, System Security (including Enterprise Authentication and other network services) and possibly a 3rd focus in Internet Services -- should be the first 2-3 exams that will make up the initial LPIC-3 certification. Even if they are not branded as specialized exams, but just 301, 302 and possibly 303 to start.
I gaze at the peers to my right as Matt Rice (not pictured) gets the TAC rolling into discussion ...
Hitting the Dot-Org Pavilion
I finished off my Thursday by discussing many aspects of LPI and industry developments with Ross Brunson. I also visited several of the Dot-Org Pavilion booths where the real technical groundwork is not only laid, but written and implemented, by the geeks who make Linux a reality.
The Fedora Project was showing off what Fedora Core 5's new 3D acceleration support can do. Their Composite OpenGL approach (using existing X servers), which is also preferred by nVidia, which is a bit different than the Novell's Xgl OpenGL (completely OpenGL-based server) approach. Both are attempting to bring the features of Apple's QuartzExtreme (also OpenGL-based, only for its native Cocoa-Aqua) to the Free Desktop world. Microsoft's Windows Graphics Foundation (WGF) 2.0, based on former DirectX 10 developments, has been pushed back from Windows Vista (NT 6.0 "Longhorn" Client), and they are going with a far less complete WGF 1.1 release for the "Avalon" presentation, based on existing DirectX 9.
The Fedora Project (founded and sponsored by Red Hat) and Gentoo Foundation (founded by Daniel Robbins, a gentleman I share publication credits with) are the two projects that influence much of my Linux development, integration and usage ...
More on the development front, the GNOME Project (a leading Linux Graphical User Interface system) and related its related Mono (.NET Development for UNIX, founded by the same founder as GNOME, Miguel deIcaza) are two developments I also track closely (especially as I do more Java/.NET development in my career) ...
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