In a prior discussion on possibly publishing a "LOPSA sanctioned" opinion with respect to the WikiLeaks scandal, the following quote from https://lopsa.org/AboutLOPSA was brought up:
"The second benefit of joining LOPSA is to advance the profession as a whole. LOPSA aims to bring a voice to system administrators to society beyond. We want to educate the public, influence policy both corporate and legislative, and ensure that our voice is heard. We will reach this goal with outreach, research into sysadmin issues, and active efforts to expose the media and public to our viewpoints." This implies, in my opinion, that there might have been a desire for LOPSA to be an activist organization..._beyond_ providing education and/or a common body of knowledge. I thought, this being a new year, it might be a good time to start analyzing this goal to hopefully give it direction. To that end, I think it's best to define the "problem", before considering what "solution" LOPSA might provide. So I think it would be appropriate to start with a question: ********** Particularly with respect to corporate and public policy, in what way is the system administration profession _not_ being advanced at this time? (Note: "My boss/family/neighbors/Representative/priest doesn't understand my job," probably isn't a good answer. First of all, that's just life. Second, that is more of an educational issue, not a public policy issue.) ********** And I ask this question because, in all honesty, the answer is not clear to me. If I were asked that question, the only answer I would be likely to muster on short notice would be, "My boss doesn't understand my job." And as I noted, I don't think that is a good answer. It certainly doesn't help determine a concise, actionable issue for any sort of public policy activism. Regards, --Aaron McCaleb _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
