Competency Assignment
Who Is a Professional?
The central question of the weight system: how to determine who is a professional in a given field? A two-stage system is proposed: initial bootstrapping through formal education followed by peer-based determination.
Stage 1: Bootstrap
Before the system launches and during the initial period, professionals are determined through formal education:
- Having a diploma from a college, institute, or university in the relevant specialty determines the initial competency level
- A diploma is a mandatory requirement for entering the competency system
- The level of education (bachelor's, master's, PhD, doctoral) may affect the initial competency level
Example of initial distribution:
| Education Level | Initial Competency Points |
|---|---|
| Bachelor's / College | 1 |
| Master's | 2 |
| PhD (Candidate) | 3 |
| Doctoral | 5 |
Stage 2: Peer-Based System
After the system launches, competency determination transitions to a peer-based model — professionals themselves determine each other's competency levels.
Mechanism
Each year, a professional already included in the competency system receives the ability to give 2 competency vote points to any other person.
Rules:
- 2 points per year — each professional receives exactly 2 points to distribute
- Field restriction — competency points can only be given to specialists in one's own or adjacent fields. A programmer can evaluate an IT architect but not a construction architect or energy systems architect. The list of adjacent fields is determined based on international specialty classifiers and can be adjusted through professional community voting
- Diploma required — the recipient of points must have a diploma in the corresponding or adjacent field
- Full transparency — everyone can see who gave their competency votes to whom
- Annual renewal — points are allocated anew each year
Examples
Example 1: Professor of genetics Ivanov believes that his graduate student Petrov has shown outstanding results. Ivanov gives both of his points to Petrov.
Example 2: Economist Sidorova sees that her colleague Kozlov is an excellent specialist in agricultural economics, and young researcher Volkova is a promising investigator. Sidorova gives 1 point to each.
Example 3: Biologist Smirnov doesn't believe anyone in his circle deserves additional points. He is not obligated to use his points — unused points are simply not distributed.
Transparency
A key principle of the system is full openness of competency assignment:
-
Public information:
- Who gave competency points to whom
- How many points each professional has
- On what educational basis a person entered the system
- History of competency changes over time
-
Why transparency is needed:
- Preventing collusion and "trading" of points
- Enabling public oversight
- Building professional reputations
- Detecting anomalies and abuse
Protection Against Abuse
Limiting "Circular Boosting"
To prevent a group of people from exchanging points to artificially inflate competencies:
- Transparency makes such schemes visible to everyone
- Statistical analysis can detect anomalous patterns in point distribution
- The community can challenge a competency level through voting
Education Requirement
The mandatory diploma requirement:
- Prevents entry into the system by people without basic professional knowledge
- Creates a minimum threshold of competence
- Is not the sole criterion — the peer-based system supplements formal education with real peer evaluation
System Evolution
Over time, the competency system should evolve:
- Initial period — formal education predominates (diplomas)
- Transition period — coexistence of formal criteria and peer-based evaluation
- Mature system — peer-based evaluation carries primary weight; diplomas remain as an entry threshold
It is expected that as the system develops, peer-based evaluation will become a more accurate indicator of real competencies than formal diplomas.
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