Yet Another Reason to Dislike Certifications

It’s no secret I’m not a fan of ~95% of the certification industries that sprout up, GIS ones included. One of the lesser reasons, but perhaps the most irritating to me personally, is this: certification industries often breed the worst kind of elitist nonsense.

Case in point: Citizen activist grates on state over traffic signals.

"Only we that bear The Certificate can do the Smart Thing. That\'s why we bear The Certificate. Duh.

In a nutshell: citizen group gives a study of the need for traffic signals they made to the state, the state in turn runs to the N.C. Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors and files a complaint against the citizens for vaguely trying to resemble engineers (an honest to goodness misdemeanor in North Carolina, thank you lobbyists). The only basis for that complaint - the citizens work looked too good.

Had it ended there with a quick shoot down from the cert industry involved, it wouldn’t have been so bad. Guess what’s coming.

Andrew L. Ritter, executive director of the engineers licensing board, said it will take three or four months to investigate Lacy's allegation against Cox. He said there is a potential for violation if DOT and the public were misled by "engineering-quality work"- even if the authors did not claim to be engineers.