After finally reading through this entire thread an idea struck me:

Taking ideas from Chris, Dave, Robert, and the notion that "A good SA
doesn't need to use Google" I think LOPSA could become a repository of
systems management documentation (and/or links to), man pages and the like,
with professional "best practices", horror stories, and general advice from
real people who manage those systems.

Say I want to implement a configuration management system at some company
when I don't have any real experience with all the latest systems. How do I
decide which one is best for that organization? I could Google-guess and
get random information from blogs of people who may or may not know what
they are talking about; or I could go to a professional organization that
has a well-reasoned pro/con of each system along with introductions from
the authors and stories from professionals who manage said systems.

Or maybe I need a crash course on data-center HVAC or I need to know some
obscure command for a product from a dead company that hasn't been
supported in a decade. Google-guessing isn't going to help but a
professional organization with the right members might.

Perhaps if LOPSA could sell itself as the authoritative place for
professional systems administration information we could built the
mind-share that builds membership that builds the organization. Such a
purpose doesn't need an official BoK publication or even a definition of
what an SA is, it just needs useful information than SAs need. That is
something that everybody can contribute to.


On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 3:11 PM, Chris Ess <[email protected]> wrote:

>
> If LOPSA shouldn't maintain something like SA-BOK, who would?
>
> * Will Dennis mentioned a recommended reading list, which I think is a
> great idea.
>
> * We could also document practices and, if possible, explain why and
> when they're good and why and when they're bad.
>
> * We could maintain a curated collection of experiences or thoughts.
>


On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 9:34 PM, Dave Close <[email protected]> wrote:

> In contrast, LOPSA is unlikely to
> advance much of anything until it has enough members to get attention.
> If those members are enticed to join for unrelated reasons, it hardly
> makes a difference to the organization's objective.
>



On Sun, Jul 7, 2013 at 6:31 AM, Robert Brockway <[email protected]>
 wrote:

> I'm hoping that pracops.com could be turned in to a central repository of
> operational knowledge and experience.
>

-- 
Perfection is just a word I use occasionally with mustard.
--Atom Powers--
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