GNU Herds: avoid promoting Non-Free Software

[Davi Leal]

An user has added "LPI Certification" to his skills list.
The Skills administrators are trying to classify it,

MJ Ray wrote:
> The "LPI Certification" skill is probably "Abstract" on the list
> shown below, but obtaining LPI Certifications means using and
> paying for non-free software, as well as not waiting/pressing for
> LPI's free vapourware Xamnet, so it's a bit of a mixed blessing for
> free software development. 
>
> It's a difficult classification to decide.
>
> On the one hand, the LPI Certification criteria at levels 1 and 2
> is all about free software as far as I can tell and it's only
> level 3 that requires workers to learn MS Active Directory.  Also,
> the use of non-free software at their testing centres has been
> no worse than the old SAIR Linux and GNU certification.
>
> On the other hand, LPI.org has behaved badly IMO, Xamnet is the
> worst kind of non-free-software, that is to say, software that will
> be free, eventually, one day, some day, never, sitting there as a
> deterrent to other project which might have solved this problem
> already - and what the hell is MS Active Directory doing in a Linux
> certification at all? 
>
> Personally, LPI Certifications raises as many questions about
> someone's ethics as it answers about their technical skills. I'd
> be interested to know what others think.

To avoid promoting Non-Free Software, GNU Herds do not show Non-Free or 
Pending to classify skills in qualifications and offer views.


As "LPI Certification" is not Software, Hardware, Documentation, Data or Art, 
we propose to add the new "Non-Free Abstract" tag to avoid showing in 
qualifications and offer views skills which _promote_ Non-Free Software.

Richard,  let us know if you think adding the new "Non-Free Abstract" tag is 
not the right solution, or if you disagree about tagging the "LPI 
Certification" skill as "Non-Free Abstract".

Best regards,
GNU Herds work team member



--
Skills classifycation guide
===========================

  Initial flag
    * Pending

  General flags
    * Unknown
    * Abstract
    * Non-Free Abstract (NEW)

  Classifying Software
    * Free Software
    * Almost-Free Software
    * Partially-Free Software
    * Non-Free Software

  Classifying Hardware
    * Hardware

  Classifying Documentation
    * Documentation
    * Free Documentation
    * Non-Free Documentation

  Classifying Data
    * Data
    * Free Data
    * Non-Free Data

  Classifying Art
    * Art
    * Sharable Art
    * Non-Sharable Art


If we do not want invest time to check if a documentation item is free or not, 
we can just tag it as Documentation, without specifying its freedomness; same 
for Data and Art.

About classifying a skill as 'Abstract', after trying to classify a skill we 
conclude it does not reference a specific Software (program, language, 
protocol, specification, software distribution, etc.), Hardware, 
Documentation, Data or Art.  For example, the "IP Networking protocols" 
skills is classified as 'Abstract'.