[openstack-dev] use of the word certified

Anita Kuno anteaya at anteaya.info
Mon Jun 9 15:12:20 UTC 2014


On 06/09/2014 03:38 AM, Eoghan Glynn wrote:
> 
> 
>> So there are certain words that mean certain things, most don't, some do.
>>
>> If words that mean certain things are used then some folks start using
>> the word and have expectations around the word and the OpenStack
>> Technical Committee and other OpenStack programs find themselves on the
>> hook for behaviours that they didn't agree to.
>>
>> Currently the word under discussion is "certified" and its derivatives:
>> certification, certifying, and others with root word "certificate".
>>
>> This came to my attention at the summit with a cinder summit session
>> with the one of the cerficiate words in the title. I had thought my
>> point had been made but it appears that there needs to be more
>> discussion on this. So let's discuss.
>>
>> Let's start with the definition of certify:
>> cer·ti·fy
>> verb (used with object), cer·ti·fied, cer·ti·fy·ing.
>> 1. to attest as certain; give reliable information of; confirm: He
>> certified the truth of his claim.
>> 2. to testify to or vouch for in writing: The medical examiner will
>> certify his findings to the court.
>> 3. to guarantee; endorse reliably: to certify a document with an
>> official seal.
>> 4. to guarantee (a check) by writing on its face that the account
>> against which it is drawn has sufficient funds to pay it.
>> 5. to award a certificate to (a person) attesting to the completion of a
>> course of study or the passing of a qualifying examination.
>> Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/certify
>>
>> The issue I have with the word certify is that it requires someone or a
>> group of someones to attest to something. The thing attested to is only
>> as credible as the someone or the group of someones doing the attesting.
>> We have no process, nor do I feel we want to have a process for
>> evaluating the reliability of the somones or groups of someones doing
>> the attesting.
>>
>> I think that having testing in place in line with other programs testing
>> of patches (third party ci) in cinder should be sufficient to address
>> the underlying concern, namely reliability of opensource hooks to
>> proprietary code and/or hardware. I would like the use of the word
>> "certificate" and all its roots to no longer be used in OpenStack
>> programs with regard to testing. This won't happen until we get some
>> discussion and agreement on this, which I would like to have.
>>
>> Thank you for your participation,
>> Anita.
> 
> Hi Anita,
> 
> Just a note on cross-posting to both the os-dev and os-tc lists.
> 
> Anyone not on the TC who will hits reply-all is likely to see their
> post be rejected by the TC list moderator, but go through to the
> more open dev list.
> 
> As a result, the thread diverges (as we saw with the recent election
> stats/turnout thread).
> 
> Also, moderation rejects are an unpleasant user experience.
> 
> So if a post is intended to reach out for input from the wider dev
> community, it's better to post *only* to the -dev list, or vice versa
> if you want to interact with a narrower audience.
My post was intended to include the tc list in the discussion

I have no say in what posts the tc email list moderator accepts or does
not, or how those posts not accepted are informed of their status.

Thanks Eoghan,
Anita.
> 
> Thanks,
> Eoghan
> 
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