by I joined Lopsa because I feel that it is important to “professionalize” the practice of System Administration. So what does “professionalize” mean? According to Webster it means “to give a professional character to” where professional means “characterized by or conforming to the technical or ethical standards of a profession” and “having a particular profession as a permanent career”.
System Administration is not a profession yet. It has no technical standards and I suspect that most system admins (think of all the windows system admins) have never heard of the Lopsa/Sage/Usenix Code of Ethics. It is a collection of sole practitioners who are either self-taught, or if lucky, provided some on-the-job training via a mentor. While there are specific training courses and certifications for particular aspects of system administration (e.g. CCIE, MCSA, LPIC, SCSA, etc.), there is very limited training and no certifications for the system administration profession as a whole.
There is no national organization that can serve as a forum for the increasingly complex issues of system administration or advise lawmakers on the impact of proposed legislation. As such, we do not have a voice in “making the rules” in the game of life we participate in every day. This is critical because computers touch all aspects of modern society and uninformed decisions can have disastrous consequences.
System admins are silo’ed based on the type of systems they maintain such as Sun, Microsoft, Cisco, etc.. There is no national organization that brings all these types of people together in one forum to better understand each other’s issues and concerns. We can learn from each other’s mistakes and successes if we had a common forum.
Finally, when have you ever heard a child say “I want to be a system administrator” when I grow up”. I hear this about doctors, policemen, firemen, businessmen, teacher, and attorneys; but never system administrators because we are not yet a profession. You can count on one hand the number of colleges that offer degrees in Systems Administration.
I joined Lopsa because Lopsa is dedicated to making Systems Administration a profession; to resolving the issues I have identified above. A profession that my grandkids and great-grandkids someday may be excited enough to join.