Certification

One of the more interesting features of Squeak People is its mechanism for certifying Squeak users and developers. The current system recognizes the combination of talent and dedication in three levels: Apprentice, Journeyer, and Master. All these levels are determined by peer certification. These certificates are entered in individual records from the People page. This document explains what the levels mean, and guidelines for deciding what level of certification to use.

Please feel free to certify all of the Squeak people you know who have accounts here, especially those without many certificates to begin with. The trust metric used to evaluate the certificates is most robust when the certificate graph is dense.

All of these levels are based on Squeak contributions only. In general, you should base the level on work done in the last year. So if Linus Torvalds joins - he's an Observer, Squeak-wise. You get the idea.

To certify someone, make sure you're logged in, then go to the person's page and use the pulldown form.

Master

A Master is an Extremely Important Figure in the Squeak community. Typically you're talking about someone from Squeak Central, a Squeak Guide, or similar. Generally, a Master works equivalent to full time (or more) on Squeak. Ideally, a Master writes clearly about the work and its broader context, and serves as a mentor to others in the Squeak community.

Journeyer

Journeyers are the people who make Squeak happen. A journeyer contributes significantly to an important Squeak project, or is the author of a useful or technically innovative project. A Journeyer is generally a competent programmer, but significant contributions of documentation, artwork, or other non-code goodies counts too. Ideally, a Journeyer works with others in the community to polish and refine Squeak. While not necessarily the equivalent of full time, a Journeyer spends a significant amount of time on Squeak.

Apprentice

An Apprentice is someone who is still striving to acquire the skills and standing in the community to make significant contributions. Ideally, the Apprentice is in touch with either an individual mentor or a community that helps to gain these skills. An Apprentice has at least shown to be willing to participate in the community, most often by presence on one of the Squeak-related mailing lists.

Observer

If you're nothing else, you're an Observer - not (yet) an accepted member of the community, just visiting. Of course, we'd like this to be a temporary situation - become active, do some stuff, and you'll become at least an Apprentice soon enough!

Evaluation of the certs

The certificates are evaluated using a trust metric, which is documented here

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