Linux Professional Institute (LPI) is launching Open Source Essentials, a certificate and education program targeting the fundamental knowledge open source professionals should have.
“Open source is nowadays used in professional settings more than ever. This implies that professionals with very different backgrounds, from developers and technicians to project managers, lawyers, and account managers, do work related to open source. With Open Source Essentials we establish a common set of knowledge and a common vocabulary to enable professionals of all sorts to collaborate with each other and consider the most important aspects of Open Source,” said Fabian Thorns, director of product development at LPI.
The learning objectives are designed to cover all major domains that affect Open Source. They include software fundamentals, open source software licenses, open content licenses, open source business models, and project management as well as collaboration and communication. The combination of knowledge from these realms will, for example, allow a lawyer to understand what a ‘merge request’ is and a technician to understand what exactly constitutes a ‘derivative work’ in the sense of copyright, explained Thorns.
The exam is part of LPI’s Essentials certificate track. The exam consists of 40 multiple choice questions that must be answered within 60 minutes.
The Open Source Essentials certificate is designed to complement other professional qualifications that benefit from or require knowledge of open source software, open content, and other kinds of open technologies.
Along with the exam, LPI provides comprehensive learning materials to allow candidates to prepare for the exam. The materials are designed to support self-studies as well as training and teaching. The materials are free for personal use by anyone and available to LPI partners.
The initial set of lessons is available at https://learning.lpi.org/en/learning-materials/050-100/. Additional lessons as well as first translations will be added to the learning materials within the next few weeks.
The Open Source Essentials exam is available on the Pearson Vue testing centers and the Person OnVue testing platform.
More information is available on the LPI website at https://www.lpi.org/ose.