> given that a computer science degree does not mean that you can program > only that you have some basic knowledge and an ability to learn. Grumble, grumble, grumble. A computer science degree SHOULD say that you know something about computer sciences - the mathematical support structure of our field of knowledge. As with many physicists who don't know how to build a sand castle, not to mention mathematicians who can't reliably do arithmetic and balance checkbooks, I know some excellent computer scientists who really don't do any programming. Anybody can program. Many "computer science" degrees are, in fact, just degrees in programming - which mean that the person who has them can write programs. But cannot design, debug, re-use, plan, lead a team, or do any of the things that a proper software engineer - yet a different category! - should be able to do. Ob. on-topic: just as the field is not yet sufficiently mature that these different categories are correctly distinguished, so possibly the field of computer security is not sufficiently mature that the title of "expert" can be sufficiently tested for. I am told I'm a computer security "expert" - "Because you know more than most of the people here." And yet before many of you I'm as a rank amateur. And it may turn out that there IS no one certification or test that can show a person's professionalism. In the classical model of a software development team, there are many different roles to play; and one of the marks of a good team leader is that he or she will be able to use people's strengths in those different roles. In system administration, SAGE has just had a long argument about whether to be for or against CNE-type certification of system administrators; and the view that had the most support was to have exams in various sub-topics that would show a person's relative strengths and weaknesses, perhaps at first primarily so that a person could do a self-evaluation on how much more they should study a topic before they feel that they understand it. [These sub-topics were called "merit badges". ;-)] And in computer security, perhaps something similar would be useful. -- Joe Yao jsdyat_private - Joseph S. D. Yao COSPO Computer Support EMT-A/B ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This message is not an official statement of COSPO policies.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Apr 13 2001 - 12:58:13 PDT