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LibreOffice Certification is now available to FSF Members

Yesterday, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) announced that the opportunity to apply for LibreOffice certification for migrations and training is now available to FSF Associate Members. In 2015, TDF began offering LibreOffice certification to certify “individuals actively promoting LibreOffice deployments, thanks to their competence in specific areas” including development and L3 support, migrations to LibreOffice, and LibreOffice training. In 2017, TDF Certification Committee decided to open the certification process to members of other FLOSS projects, starting from those sitting in TDF Advisory Board.

People certified in LibreOffice migrations and training are able to help companies and government offices make the switch away from proprietary office suites, and that raises the value of a deep understanding of LibreOffice. Italo Vignoli, Chair of the LibreOffice Certification Committee, said: “By extending LibreOffice certification to FSF members, we are widening the reach of our program to foster migrations to LibreOffice. In several geographies, the availability of certified professionals has triggered a number of large deployments in public administrations and enterprises.”

The Document Foundation opens LibreOffice Certification for Migrations and Trainings to all project volunteers, to members of not-for-profit bodies, and to individuals of proven competence

LibreOffice Certification represents a business opportunity for value added resellers, based on the proposition of consultancy and training services

Berlin, December 27, 2016 – Effective from January 1st, 2017, access to LibreOffice Certification will be extended to volunteers active at global and local levels, members of not-for-profit bodies sitting in the Advisory Board (namely, FSF, FSFE, Gnome Foundation and KDE), and for individuals whose competence and commitment are demonstrated by facts (successful migrations and trainings). In addition, Members of the Certification Committee can invite people to apply for certification, even if they do not belong to the approved categories, based on their direct relation, and to the competence and commitment of these individuals.

So far, LibreOffice Certification was limited to TDF Members who were active on a regular basis, in order to test the process with candidates already acquainted with the project.

In any case, every individual who applies will have to go through the same certification process, based on a first analysis of pre-requisites and documents, a second optional written questionnaire, and a third face-to-face discussion with the Certification Committee. The second optional written questionnaire is at the sole discretion of the Certification Committee.

“LibreOffice Certification for Migrations and Trainings has been received in a different way in different geographies. In Italy, where it has been more successful, the availability of certified professionals has triggered a number of migrations in public administrations and enterprises”, says Italo Vignoli, Chairman of the Certification Committee.

Lothar Becker, Eliane Domingos de Sousa, Sophie Gautier, Olivier Hallot, Thomas Krumbein, Marina Latini, Gustavo Pacheco and Italo Vignoli have been renewed as members of the Certification Committee. In addition, Franklin Weng – a certified professional from Taiwan – has been added to the Certification Committee, with the objective of helping to increase the number of LibreOffice certified professionals in Asia.

The LibreOffice Certification website is available at the following link: http://www.documentfoundation.org/certification/program/.

Behind the scenes at TDF: Certification Project, an update

Italo Vignoli is one of the founders of The Document Foundation, and has been a member of the first Steering Committee and then of the first Board of Directors until 2014. He has been active in marketing since the launch of the project, and has created the LibreOffice certification project from scratch. He is a member of the staff, in charge of certification and now also of marketing and public relations.

2015 is another year packed with exciting projects and ideas around LibreOffice and The Document Foundation, so we want to continue our behind-the-scenes series, to share achievements with our community and our generous donours, to whom we’d like to express our sincerest gratitude and thanks for their incredible and wonderful support and their invaluable contributions!

The LibreOffice Certification Project has seen a number of improvements since January, when we have had the first session at FOSDEM.

First, we have added Edmund Laugasson from Estonia and Carlos Rodriguez from Spain, who have gone through the peer-to-peer review process in early May, to the list of certified TDF members.

We have also leveraged the experience of the review sessions to improve the process, in order to make it more dependable for the future. Thanks to several contributions from Sophie Gautier, Lothar Becker and Thomas Krumbein, we have a hugely improved questions & answers document which will help reviewers to keep a high level of consistency between sessions.

In the future, we can easily keep track of the questions which have been asked to each candidate, to check – for instance – if weaknesses have been addressed since the previous review.

Also, we have introduced a face-to-face (via videoconferencing) meeting with Sophie and myself before the peer-to-peer review session, to meet the candidate in a more relaxed way and discuss informally about his certification related activities.

This meeting is not included in the existing review protocol (published online) but will be introduced in the new version released in June, which will become effective for the next peer-to-peer review session.

In June, most documents published on the certification website will be updated, based on the experience gained so far. In addition, other documents will be published, to improve the governance of the process.

Last, but not least, we are working at the first training session for third parties applying for certification.

The training has two objectives:

  • first, to teach candidates free software and related licenses, TDF governance, LibreOffice development and quality assurance,
  • second, meet the candidates face-to-face, and discuss their motivations to get LibreOffice certification.

LibreOffice certification is on its way to become a solid foundation for the ecosystem. The objective is to make it easier for certified professional to get rewarded for their competence, and for the value they can add to migration and training projects.

TDF welcomes eight new LibreOffice certified professionals

Peer-to-peer review session at FOSDEM in Brussels
Peer-to-peer review session at FOSDEM in Brussels

The Document Foundation welcomes the eight new LibreOffice certified professionals who have successfully passed the first peer-to-peer review during FOSDEM in Brussels: Adriano Afonso from Portugal; Osvaldo Gervasi, Gabriele Ponzo, Enio Gemmo, Sonia Montegiove and Alfredo Parisi from Italy; Douglas Vigliazzi and Valdir Barbosa from Brasil. The eight TDF members have been certified for Migrations and Trainings. Their certification will expire on January 31, 2017.

Reviewers for the first peer-to-peer session have been Marina Latini from Italy, who has attended the eight review sessions; Lothar Becker and Thomas Krumbein from Germany, who have attended four sessions on Saturday morning; Cor Nouws from the Netherlands, who has attended two hangout sessions on Monday afternoon; Eliane Domingos, Olivier Hallot and Gustavo Pacheco, who have attended two hangout sessions on Monday afternoon (it was late morning in Brasil).

tdf-infoprofessionals“Peer-to-peer review sessions are the final step of a rather lengthy certification process, where we discuss with candidates – once we have checked their pre-requisites – about their experience, and we ask to provide the relevant documents to attest their migration or training related activity”, explains Italo Vignoli, chairman of the Certification Committee, who has coordinated the sessions. “For different reasons, we rejected more applications than we have accepted. Some of them are on hold, others were missing the pre-requisites. This ‘funnel’ approach allow to bring in front of the review committee only those people who are likely to qualify for certification, and the peer-to-peer review is the final step to discuss face-to-face with the candidates”.

The eight new certified professionals join the 44 certified developers and the 13 certified migrators/trainers who have been appointed by the Board of Directors of The Document Foundation based on their code contributions, or on their experience and their contribution in setting up or improving the certification program.

Until the end of April 2015 the program is open only to TDF Members. From May 2015, certification will be open also to third parties, provided they meet the pre-requisites and follow a two day training course. LibreOffice Certification Program is extensively described at http://www.documentfoundation.org/certification.

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