🚀 go-pugleaf

The ICCP is a recognized accreditation body, founded under the aegis of
the ACM, DPMA, and similar organizations. Their main certification is
the CDP designation (`certified data processor'), though they also have
a CCP (`certified computer programmer') designation. (I thought that
data processors were inanimate, and I'd be dubious about hiring anyone
who was certified, or certifiable, but...) 

Most CDP's tend to have business backgrounds, rather than technical
ones. (In fact, I had a recent discussion with an executive member of
the Canadian Information Processing Society, whose accreditation program
coordinates with the ICCP one. I remarked to him that these programs
don't seem to have much to do with computer science per se; he said that
apparently there are some new initiatives under way to address software
developers and the like.) 

I would tend to see certification and free software as almost completely
orthogonal, except insofar as certification programs could stifle
creativity (e.g., `you can't be certified unless you can pass this exam
on JCL'). 

--
\    Vincent Manis <manis@cs.ubc.ca>      "There is no law that vulgarity and
 \   Department of Computer Science      literary excellence cannot coexist."
 /\  University of British Columbia                        -- A. Trevor Hodge
/  \ Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1W5 (604) 228-2394