Open Stack

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.