Some great points, Adam. Definitely some stuff to chew on there. I think it bears considering that we are having this discussion via email. We should certainly look at new and better ways to support online sysadmin communities (augment and not bottleneck) but also be careful not to lose the momentum around the communication methods that do appear to work for at least some sysadmins.
Matt On 11/30/11 7:07 PM, Adam Moskowitz wrote: > Matt Disney wrote: >> Anyone have more suggestions or recommendations for how >> LOPSA can improve communication among attendees at LISA or other events? > > Since you asked . . . I think the thing is for LOPSA to present itself > as a resource to be used and not try to "dictate" how the communication > should happen. Look at Twitter as an example -- they pretty much said > "here's what we've got to offer, use us however you see fit." Hash tags > aren't really part of Twitter proper, but their use is now ubiquitous > and Twitter exercises little (if any) control over them. All they did > was promote their use then got out of the way. > > I don't think LOPSA should be competing with Twitter or Facebook to > carry people's communications; for something as ephemeral as a > conference, I'm not even sure LOPSA should be in the business of > offering mailing lists; surely people can spin up a Google or Yahoo! > group on their own. I think a better use of LOPSA's resources, or even > just a better role for LOPSA, would be as either a "clearing house" or > "gathering point" by giving people a place and way to say "hey, the > conversation is happening over there" and let them pick wherever seems > to be working at the moment. Some (most?) conferences seem to "happen" > on Twitter; others on IRC, and maybe a few on email. Maybe LOPSA could > be a "repeater" and watch all the venues, posting messages to the > "uncool mediums" (as defined for any given event) saying things like "it > seems most of the conversation is happening on 'cool medium'; you may > want to go there for more interaction." > > Or whatever -- my point is to offer tools then get out of the way and > let people decide how to use them. Particularly with ephemeral events, > but even in a day and age where "the cool way to communicate" changes > with the seasons, I think a fair bit (even a lot) of "organic-ness" is a > good thing. Just let it happen, *then* figure out what LOPSA can do to > help it happen better. > > Mind you, I'm not sure how best LOPSA can do this, given none of it is > really our "core strengths," but I do know that saying "here, do it this > way" isn't likely to get a lot of traction. > > Adam > _______________________________________________ > 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/ _______________________________________________ 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/
