[Lopsa-regional-project] tasks

[der.hans]

Am 11. Feb, 2006 schwätzte Ben Rockwood so:

> 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.

I hope at least some of the projects count as new ground. The projects are
getting started.

>> 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.

Good. Please do :).

> 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.

Wanna start by making one about something and putting it in a blog on the
web site?

Lots of videos going up on Google video as well, I think.

How about making a blog entry about video/audio streams/files that are
sysadm related?

We already have Limoncelli's presentation.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7278397109952382318&q=limoncelli

Some stuff like
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6104490811311898236&q= as well.

But, there's got to be more to system administration than SQL Server!!!

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=system+administration

If you do the blog entries please remind people to volunteer to volunteer
to be site editors.

https://lopsa.org/node/228

> 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.

Working on that. One of LOPSA's primary goals.

> 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.

1 leads to 3, I think.

> 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.

We have 9 people signed up to do local group presentations. 1/3 of us are
in Phoenix, so the other 6 are going to be really busy covering the rest
of the planet :).

I mentioned recordings a couple of weeks ago. A great way to get speakers
to more local groups. Doesn't work for all subjects, but can work nicely
for some. We showed the Novell Xgl videos at PLUG last week. They went
over really well.

ciao,

der.hans
-- 
#  https://www.LuftHans.com/        http://www.CiscoLearning.org/
#  Join the League of Professional System Administrators! https://LOPSA.org/
#  Hope has two beautiful daughters: Anger and Courage. Anger at the way
#  things are, and Courage to struggle to create things as they should be.
#  -- St. Augustine