[Lopsa-regional-project] tasks

[der.hans]

Am 06. Feb, 2006 schwätzte Jim Hickstein so:

>>> I'm looking for a reason to take time during my local group meeting to
>>> mention LOPSA. If I can't tell our members why I think LOPSA will
>>> benefit *them*, I won't waste their time talking about LOPSA. I think
>>> that's a vital part of the information packet.
>
> I second Adam.  As I said after a recent local-group meeting (talking about 
> LOPSA): "I'll give them fifty bucks ... once."  After that, I need to be sold 
> to continue to support it.  Just now, I can't stand up and tell anyone else 
> they should throw in their fifty bucks.  Not yet.
>
>> OK. The question still stands. We haven't yet come up with anything
>> that works as justification for you and several others, I think.
>
> I think the general heading of "education" is where the value will be, and 
> specifically under the subhead "deals".
>
> Discounts on relevant training programs and materials, and certifications 
> (Cisco, for instance; I think I can pass the CCNA cold but I could use a 30% 
> discount to help motivate me).  Discounts on books, if people still buy 
> books: Amazon sends a kickback to the affiliate site; how about passing that 
> back to the member?  In cash. (OK, PayPal.)  Amazon will send me a kickback 
> for a $4000 laptop. (www.imap-partners.net/links.shtml)  As a LOPSA member, I 
> should be able to arrange this through LOPSA and get a piece of that action, 
> if not the whole thing.  As a member, I should be able to create a link to 
> anything I want to buy on Amazon, technical or not (maybe subject to 
> editorial review).  CafePress items at cost (and not just LOPSA), including a 
> $12 allowance/gift-certificate there just for joining (making the first 
> t-shirt or coffee mug effectively free).

I know the board is looking at sponsorships and partnerships. I will point
this suggestion out.

> The possibilities are endless, and the figures can be astounding. Jennifer 
> Davis has done some of this kind of thing in the BayLISA orbit: A $45 
> membership there is potentially worth thousands, just this year. Her talents 
> at cold-calling people for such sponsorships and discounts should be 
> harnessed at the national level.  If my $50 to LOPSA could easily be worth 
> > $200 in training discounts in a year, and potentially worth >$500, it 
> becomes a no-brainer.  LOPSA need not be in the business of defining or 
> proctoring certifications, any more than BayLISA does.  A whole business of 
> related (if not exact) certifications has grown up while SAGE argued about 
> it.  Leverage them.
>
>> Do you think the standards project ( building a heirarchical list of
>> standards from different organizations ) would be worthwhile?
>
> Doesn't strike me positively.  I'm not sure I understand it.

A searchable directory with information about standards. Would have
standards from multiple organizations, e.g. IETF, W3C, IEEE, etc. Not
trying to replace the standards, just trying to make it easier to find
the standards.

>> Do you think the Pretty Good Practices project ( documenting good
>> practices and why they're good practices ) would be worthwhile?
>> I think you like the short topics books ( enough to write one anyway :).
>> Is that a direction you'd like to see LOPSA go
>
> I think the literature is good enough already: TAL's books, and now ITIL 
> (maybe), and the web itself.  ITIL training/certification is another area I'm 
> interested in, but underfunded for at the moment.

Well, if most people agree we'll point at the book and ITIL and that'll be
a fast project :).

Do either provide a description of how to setup a good, stable mail
infrastructure for a small to medium organization?

>> https://lopsa.org/projects
>> 
>> The jobs board?
>
> Already reasonably well served by outfits with better economies of scale 
> (Dice, Monster), though sage-jobs-offered is a useful niche player that LOPSA 
> could replicate.  (Mirror? Cross-post? Cross-promote?  Someone needs to tell 
> recruiters this is someplace they should post to get the cream of this 
> specialized profession.)

Making LOPSA the place to advertise for sysadms would be cool. See below
about the major problem with getting there.

> Another discount idea: Outplacement services.  I have a fat booklet in front 
> of me from an outfit called Lee Hecht Harrison, on loan from a friend who 
> went through their mill a while back on an ex-employer's nickel.  I might pay 
> some cash (but not full price) for such a thing myself.  (P.S. I'm in a job 
> search just now.)

Maybe we could put up a rating system for head-hunters. Rate them on being
able to get people placements, cluefulness, etc.

> Speaking with my IMAP Partners hat on for a moment, we (the royal "we") would 
> be interesting in partnering (you should pardon the expression) with LOPSA to 
> offer their members ongoing discounts on hosted email service, starting with 
> our existing "RIF special": It's free for up to 3 months if you're between 
> jobs.  For unemployed LOPSA members, we could make that indefinite (for the 
> term of membership).  Having your own domain looks better on a resume than a 
> yahoo address, ne?  For the rest, we could throw in a year of domain 
> registration ($15) if we see that much cash up front for the other services. 
> (Pay for ten months, get twelve and a domreg.)

I'll ask someone from the board to follow up with you on that offer :).

>> Putting on ( and giving membership discounts when appropriate ) localized
>> conferneces and events?
>
> Possibly.  Again, leverage: What's the stance for USENIX conferences? Any 
> discount for LOPSA members?  SANS?  EDUCAUSE?  Other such outfits? Vendors? 
> These can be events that are only tangential to system administration per se; 
> people have other interests.  Graphics Press (for instance)?  Toastmasters?

Dunno. No discount for Camp SysAdm because it was already free. LOPSA
will have a booth at SCALE in SoCal this weekend. Looks like there might
be comps for SCALE for people willing to staff the LOPSA booth for a
day.

> Often they will give a substantial discount simply in exchange for having 
> their event promoted to your membership.  The -announce list could carry a 
> monthly forecast of all the cool ways you can benefit from your memership,

Good idea.

> including upcoming events.  BayLISA's biggest problem (and it's not serious) 
> is letting the supplier authenticate someone as a BayLISA member without a 
> membership card: currently, if you know the password ("BayLISA") you get the 
> discount.  Being on the -announce list, however, should not get you all the 
> member benefits; this needs stronger enforcement at the national/worldwide 
> level.

I'm certain we can come up with some way of validating memberships. Maybe
that's a FOAF app waiting to be written :).

>> We also have a project from Trey to come up with some resume standards for
>> sysadm.
>
> Who will pay attention to them?  Who are they for?

Hopefully everyone doing sysadm hiring will pay attention to them :).

> I asked my brother, who has recruited high-level IT people for a living for 
> 15 years, "Have you ever heard of SAGE?"  "Only from you" was the reply. 
> That's pretty pathetic^Wdiscouraging.  My $50 should help fund some serious 
> promotion activities at the national and worldwide level, getting in front of 
> employers and contracting firms.  The job-description booklet was long ago 
> and far away, and is still apparently a secret known only to a few.  (It 
> could probably stand to be updated, I suppose.)

Here's the below part mentioned above.

We're not going to be well-known if everyone keeps saying "Prove LOPSA is
worth something." We need to build the value. We need to promote LOPSA, so
that it does get recognition. Unlike SAGE we have the ability to make
things happen.

In the 2 months LOPSA's been public we've probably had more web site
content additions than SAGE got on its web site in all the years it had
one ( or more ).

With LOPSA we *can* do something. We have a motivated board working to get
results. A long, long way to go, but I see the Camp SysAdm and SCALE
activities as successes.

Heck, getting sysadm of the week going is an improvement over SAGE.

Not trying to trash SAGE, but it was really frustrating to try to
participate there.

Give LOPSA time to accomplish some goals, but also participate and help
LOPSA accomplish those goals.

Your ideas above about partnerships and member discounts are good, I think.
That was help, IMO, but we also need help building the projects that'll
add value to LOPSA.

Tasks...

ciao,

der.hans
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