Around twenty years ago, as a revolution in open source development transforming how companies approached their technology platforms and programs, IT managers realized that there was a lack of people with the identifiable and relevant skills necessary to grow their businesses’ open source use and deployment. It wasn’t necessarily that useful open source know-how and skills didn’t exist in their development talent pools. There was more a concern that no one had standardized, or defined, precisely what the necessary skills were.

 

To address this problem, the Linux Professional Institute(LPI) was formed in the late 1990s by a group of open source advocates and educators. Their mission was to document and structure the open source knowledge and skills needed by businesses, and to develop certification programs against those attributes so businesses could better identify and train IT professionals as they built stronger open source capabilities into their technology teams.

 

A Tremendous Success

Since it was founded, LPI has administered over half a million exams and certified more than 150,000 IT professionals in over 180 countries, helping both IT pros and employers get more out of the open source technologies they use. The success of LPI’s certification programs has also given the organization grand ambitions: its stated mission is “to enable economic and creative opportunities for everybody by making open source knowledge and skills certification universally accessible.” Being true open source advocates, LPI is in the process of further opening up its organization and rewriting its non-profit by-laws to make its entire board electable by its membership, which will be composed of LPI’s certification holders.

 

“Trust,” is how LPI’s Executive Director G. Matthew Rice  explains the organization’s success. “Trust in the quality of our exam development, trust in our lack of agenda to use certification to sell software or training, and trust in our core commitment to serve the needs of those who advocate for and work with open source technologies.”

 

Protecting Innovation

As an open source organization, it’s no surprise that LPI’s journey eventually found its way to LOT Network. Open source’s success is largely built around its innate ability to drive innovation – and to share innovations – from within the greater community. Patent trolls and their aggressive lawsuits are completely antithetical to this, in that they help stifle innovation by making potential targets out of new innovations. LPI is developing a new set of certifications that align strongly with LOT Network’s own mission, and as Rice says, “LOT Network’s efforts in combating patent abuse is a crucial part in keeping innovation from being stifled.”

 

So if you’re a subject matter expert who would like to help LPI shape its programs and certifications, and if you believe in LPI’s open source mission, reach out to Rice and offer your help. As a non-profit, they’re always looking for a few good know-it-alls to help them define the skills and standards they need to keep business and IT professionals ahead of the open source curve.

 

What was the initial need filled by LPI’s founding members?

IT managers in business worldwide identified the lack of people with identifiable and relevant skills as a substantial obstacle to the growth of open source use and deployment. Open source advocates and technology educators collaborated to create LPI as an organization to develop skills standards required by employers and would-be implementers, as a path to increase the use of open source techniques and improve the opportunities for practitioners in their career and entrepreneurial opportunities. At the same time, we sought to break from the mold of IT skills certification as simply a product in support of loyalty to a specific vendor or selling software and training.

 

Can you please explain the value of an LPI Linux certification in your own words?

In a word; trust.  At its heart, a certification is a piece of paper, a verification that someone has acquired the skills that 1,000s or Open Source professionals have identified as important and passed our exams to demonstrate competence in those skills. As such, LPI’s primary product is:

  • Trust in the quality of our community-based, psychometrics driven exam development;
  • Trust in our lack of agenda to use certification as a way to sell software or training;
  • Trust in our core commitment to serve the needs of those who advocate for and work with open source

To date, over 150,000 open source professionals have placed their trust in LPI over the last 20 years.  As have their employers and peers.

 

This question is probably a little too vague, but what’s the difference between the five tiers of certifications LPI offers? (Please answer for non-IT people, such as myself or the majority of LOT Members.)

It’s not quite so complicated as that. There are a number of subject areas in which we have developed (or are developing) certification programs for both technical and non-technical practitioners:

  • Linux operating system and services, our initial program now offered at three career-targeted levels depending on one’s desired depth in the field;
  • Open source technology beyond Linux such as the BSD operating system and DevOps tools
  • (later this year)Non-technical programs for managers, policy makers and others on factually understanding open source licensing, distribution and deployment models

In addition, we are expanding our Linux Essentials educational certificate into a series of entry-level programs called “Essentials” in a number of open source/technology realms. They’re not full certifications as they are more for people to demonstrate basic awareness of these realms before choosing whether or not to continue their studies.

 

Can you please explain why Linux and its open source characteristics are so vital and have had such staying power over decades?

This staying power has multiple explanations.

For commercial vendors, it enables lowered costs of development for infrastructure and tools, while allowing commercial enhancements in services and support. Participants in open source projects can have confidence that fellow collaborators who may be competitors will be able to enhance the project without proprietary locking it away for their own use. This fosters the concept originally coined as “co-opetition” to the benefit of all, a concept without which the Internet as we know it could not have emerged as it did.

For independent developers and end-users, the benefits are related if not identical. Open source offers to users a level of transparency and accountability not available otherwise, and to developers more freedom to create or, as applicable, build upon the existing work of others.

 

As a certification company, what is the goal of your exams? Is it to help people prove they’re able to do the work required of being a Linux professional? Is it to give ambitious IT pros a framework to study around so they learn how to become a Linux professional? Something else?

Given the length of the previous answers I am delighted to come across a question to which a simple answer of “yes!” applies to all of the above.

 

LPI’s mission statement is bold and grand, with a stated goal of leveling the playing field and creating opportunities for all. As a non-profit with industry certifications at its core, what about LPI’s services or business model makes that mission statement possible?

It was always the intention of the LPI founders that governance of the organization rest in the hands of the people that we certify.

Now that we have achieved the trust and support of the hundreds of thousands of people who hold LPI certifications in more than 180 countries worldwide, LPI changed its non-profit bylaws to enable our open source professionals to become members of LPI and elect the entire Board. This evolution in governance is directly in service to our mission and is currently being designed by one of LPI’s co-founders.

We’re formally launching this membership program for its certifications holders near the end of the year.

 

Why should a member of LOT Network choose to have its tech team get Linux certified through LPI?

Quite simply, because we focus on the needs of open source professionals and the people who would hire or contract them. Our policies of technology neutrality lead to our certification holders being comfortable with any version of Linux (or Unix). Indeed, we are neutral about Linux itself as we also do certification for BSD. We don’t sell training – partners and educational institutions provide that – and our certification goals are in support of our certification holders and the general advancement of open source technology.

What about LPI’s Linux certification exams sets it apart from other certification programs?

I hope I’ve addressed this in previous answers but the summary answer is that our exams are in service to the open source professional and to the growth of open source.   That drives what we do and how we do it.

 

What attracted LPI to LOT Network? Why did LPI decide to join?

The issues concerning IP ownership, especially patents, are becoming increasingly important as open source technology permeates through every business and consumer sector.  This is why we are creating an education and credential program covering these and related topics. It’s also the reason that we are reaching out to and establishing relationships with organizations like LOT Network.  In particular, LOT Network’s efforts in combating patent abuse is a crucial part in keeping innovation from being stifled.

 

Is there anything you think we should cover in the article that I didn’t ask about?

There’s a lot (pardon the pun) that we could discuss but having people read this far into a corporate profile would already be considered a win by me. 🙂

Actually, I would like to add that we are always looking for more subject matter experts (aka know-it-alls) that would like to help shape and contribute to the education and skills standards that we create for everyone.

By G. Matthew Rice, Executive Director, Linux Professional Institute