[Lopsa-regional-project] tasks

[Ben Rockwood]

Adam S. Moskowitz wrote:

>"der.hans" asks:
>  
>
>>What can LOPSA do that you think would benefit individuals and make it
>>worthwhile for them to join?
>>    
>>
>
>So far as I can tell, *NOTHING*. I'm a member of LOPSA because of what I
>can offer to LOPSA and it's members, namely, my experience and expertise,
>and I'll continue to be a member for as long as I think LOPSA is doing
>something "good."
>  
>
I agree completely.  LOPSA has a lot of promise but whether or not
we can turn that into something useful is up in the air.  The aims
as currently outlined for LOPSA's goals seem come off, imho, as
"SAGE 2: The Revenge".  The organization needs to seek fresh ground,
and thus far things are, I think, headed in that direction.  The "LOSPA
SA of the Week" is a nice fresh idea.

>See, here's the problem: It's been way too long since I was a junior or
>mid-level sysadmin; even when I first started doing sysadmin I had over
>ten years experience as a programmer. I've long since forgotten what
>helped me in my career, and even if I could remember, the technology has
>changed so much that what helped me back then may not help younger
>sysadmins today. For example, the web didn't exist back then; Usenet and
>NetNews were the closest we had. When I had a question about a problem
>with a Sun box, I posted to comp.unix.wizards and Guy Harris would reply
>(usually with snippets of Sun's kernel to illustrate the problem -- or
>with a note saying he'd fixed the problem and it would go out in Sun's
>next patch).
>  
>
I disagree here.  I think all of us, Jr or Sr, can still relate if we 
choose to.
Just think of how you'd feel making a change from one field
of expertise to another.  In truth, the field of system administration is
so vast that the simple title "Sr UNIX SA" is somewhat too broad,
because you might be Sr. when it comes to large systems and storage,
but feel like a Jr. working on large scale mail systems.  The only diffrence
tends to be that as a mature Sr. admin you know where to look and
how to approach a given subject that you haven't kept up on, quickly
becoming proficient... it is those techniques that we developed ourselves
that can benifit new admins.  Many of us are old seasoned veterans, and
by sharing our successes, failures, trials and tribulations with the LOPSA
membership we can save them from making many of our mistakes and learn
from the pro's how to approach a problem or tricks for tackling a steep
learning curve.

The trick is amassing this information and presenting it in a way that 
doesn't
turn off or bore to death those persons that could benifit from it.

The solution, imho, is a LOPSA PodCast.  This is an idea I pitched to 
SAGE/USENIX
but they never went beyond "Ya, thats a great idea..." with it.  The 
project is simple
to implement, we encourage members to submit podcasts that are no more 
than 30 minutes
long.  We can hack up some intro music or something for them to use to 
make each
of them seem unified.  Whoever is making the podcast can talk about 
implementing
some technology, overviews of certain technical subjects, or talk about 
recent events,
but even more useful would be personal stories about what its like to 
actually be
a SA.  Tales of love and loss, lessons learned and how to keep from 
making the same mistakes.
These podcasts would be, I think, both highly informative and 
entertaining.  I love
hearing about other peoples experiences, and thats what LOPSA needs to 
focus on imho.

I think that LOPSA (or SAGE or whoever) needs to address the following 
core needs:
1) Providing a sense of organization and unity to an otherwise 
independant and lonely career path.
2) Sharing information that could benifit other SAs, particularly of a 
non-technical nature.  (You can learn how to setup Sendmail anywhere.)
3) Empowering SAs and giving them a unified voice in the industry.

I think a PodCast, not by a single person, but by many, can help address 
these needs.  PodCasts are easy to make, anyone with a sound card, 
microphone, and a copy of Audacity or GarageBand or whatever, can make 
one.  They don't have to be really professional, in fact, the less 
professional (and more "real") the better.  I'd love to hear from other 
SA's on topics like:

- Dealing with retiredment and rolling 401k's from here and there.
- Consulting Do's and Don'ts.
- When its time to fight your manager and when you ought to just go with 
the flow.
- The LOPSA/SAGE/USENIX Code of Ethics and why they have value.
- Tackling new subject: Finding information, due dilegence, 
completeness, and resources.
- When Systems Explode: What NOT to do when you f*** something up at 3am.

So on and so forth.  Taking this form of exchange and the parlaying it 
into a personal setting (ie: the user group) is a logical extension that 
could evolve over time, but is of less importance because of the fact 
that unlike a PodCast, a physical gathering is inherently non-inclusive.


benr.