USENIX Blog

Interview with LISA14 Chair Nicole Forsgren Velasquez

Some things are clearly a lot of work, even to people on the outside; organizing a conference the size of LISA is a good example. Sysadmins, though, can find it difficult to explain the importance of their work -- how do you point to invisible scaffolding that users only miss when it's gone? LISA14 Chair Nicole Forsgren Velasquez wants to give us the tools to show and justify the efforts we make when speaking to our customers.

Navigating Conferences as an Unusual Attendee

It’s great to see LISA paying attention to the diversity of its attendees and speakers, with talks like Building the Women@Work Community and the Ally Skills Workshop. This post will discuss how conference attendees can contribute towards creating a conference environment that’s comfortable for everyone.

The LISA Hallway Track: A Study in Social Brownian Motion

It's your third day at LISA, and the morning session just broke for coffee and muffins. The tutorial has been every bit as good as you hoped it would be, and you have a ton of notes to decipher when you get back to $WORK. There's a workshop in the afternoon, the BoF in the evening...it's incredible how much rushing around there is! The muffin is about done, and you're about to find a quiet place to check email, maybe see how the rest of the team's doing back at $WORK....but hold that thought: you're about to miss one of the best resources at LISA.

Interview with Matt Simmons

I got to interview Matt Simmons, a veteran LISA blogger and attendee as well as a member of this year’s organizing committee. Matt is also the Standalone Sysadmin - if you haven’t read any of his work there yet, go do that now! Then come back and see what he has to say about LISA14.

LISA Labs: Learn by Doing

I'll tell you a secret: I have a weakness for clever. If it's new, if it's smart, if it's a clever hack I've never seen before that makes me raise a toast to my fellow tool-using primates, then I'm in. This sort of thing happens all the time at LISA; that's one of the reasons I love it. But sometimes I need to slow down, ask some questions, figure out what it means -- and you know what happens next, right?

Getting $WORK to pay for LISA

The LISA conference is an incredible value: six solid days of tutorials, workshops, presentations and new research, all in a vendor-neutral setting and with more than a thousand of your peers in attendance. But I'll be straight with you: it's also a significant cost. Wouldn't it be great to get your employer to pay for the trip?

LISA Workshops: The Round Table of LISA

Originally we hoped to have an article from Noah Meyerhans about what an experienced sysadmin can gain from going to LISA.  Unfortunately, family commitments have kept Noah away-- but we're pleased Mark Lamourine has stepped in with an article on an underappreciated feature of LISA.  We wish Noah all the best.  Enjoy the article! -- Ed.


Mark Lamourine <markllama@gmail.com>

Why I'm Going to LISA

The LISA conference is packed full of incredible value, not just for industry veterans but for newcomers as well. Here's what a first-time LISA attendee is looking forward to about this conference experience.

Introducing the LISA14 Blog Team

We've already touched on some really notable changes in this year's LISA program. Over the next few weeks, our diverse team of bloggers will be bringing you more details about the changes to the program, the people who drove the changes in the various planning committees, and the current state of the conference in general.

LISA14: More craft, less cruft.

The schedule for LISA has just gone live.  You're looking at it, wondering idly if you'll go this year.  Scroll around, look for the usual...huh, it's not there.  Weird.  Scroll around some more.  Click some links.  Where's that talk that's there every year?  Where's the tutorial that always shows up? And what's this "LISA Labs" business?  It's like...It's almost like...

Pages

Subscribe to USENIX Update