Results tagged “conferences”

Update: Someone else said it very well here

When I last mentioned LISA, I forgot to mention the big news! This year submitting papers is a lot easier! Less work for the authors!

Rather than having to submit the entire, nearly finished, draft in advance, you can submit a briefer summary. If it gets accepted, then you have to write the entire thing. This saves a lot of time in case your submission is not accepted (how would that happen?). It also lowers the bar to submitting, which is important. I think more submissions is better. If this is your first time submitting a paper, this is a good opportunity to go for it.

There are three things you might consider proposing:

• Refereed papers: Did you invent something? Prove a new theory? Create a new tool or software system? Submit a paper. Submissions are simply extended abstracts, 500-1500 words plus an outline of what the final paper will look like. (Details here.)
• Practice and Experiences Reports: NEW! This is a new category. It's a bit different. This is a story telling category. Have you completed a major project and would like to share what experience they gained? I think of it as "Here's what we wish we had known before we started." Very useful. (Details here.)
• Invited Talks: A lot of people don't realize this, but some (not all) invited talks are proposed by the people that give them. Hey, the Invited Talk chairs don't have ESP nor are the omnipotent. So if you have a hot topic that you are an expert at, or would like to put together a panel of debating debutants, propose it as an I.T. or a "Guru Session". (Details here.)
• (Other things you can submit)

The deadline is May 17, 2010 (The 2011 deadline is June 9, 2011.). Less than 2 months away!

This year I'm on the committee that will be judging the papers. I thought it would be useful to tell people my personal process for evaluating papers.

I've been on the Usenix LISA program committee a few times. People ask me for advice about submitting papers a lot. Usually I tell them to read the CfP, pay attention to the deadlines, etc. But the real important advice is what I'm about reveal below.

Tom will be the Saturday opening keynote, plus he will be teaching his two most popular half-day classes: Time Management for System Administrators, and "Help! Everyone hates our IT department!". LOPSA NJ PICC is in New Brunswick, NJ, May 7-8, 2010. It is a regional conference, everyone is invited. For more information: http://picconf.org

(PICC is a regional sysadmin conference to be held in central NJ on May
7-8, 2010. I'm on the planning committee. http://picconf.org)

Today is the deadline for proposals for papers, talks, and such.

We're a little low on submissions so I'd like to make one more "beg". We'd love to have a talk about PHP for sysadmins, something fun you've done with Arduino, your favorite JS
library, a walk-through on setting up Google Apps. Demo your favorite open source project, or propose a panel of people to talk about something you find interesting (I can help find others for your panel). It is an excellent way to spread the word about a project you are involved with.

We've tried to make the proposal process really easy. Just send your
contact info and topic plus a 1-2 paragraph description to
[email protected]

For more info IM me and/or view:
http://lopsanj.org/events/picc10/cfp

Tom

P.S. Today is the deadline but we can grant extensions to anyone that writes and asks.

As I start to pack for my trip to Australia, I'm getting really excited about attending the SAGE-AU 2008 conference.  I just got email with the preliminary registration numbers for my workshops (note: more people will sign up "day of"):

• Interviewing/Hiring Technical People: 8 registrations
• Time Management for System Administrators: 31 registrations
• "Help!  Everyone hates our IT Department!": 24 registrations

I interpret this to mean a few things: 1) not a lot of people plan on hiring in the next year or not a lot of people are coming that early to the conference. 2) a lot of people want help with their time management.  3) there is no shortage of people concerned about fixing their IT group.

By the way... I've completely revamped the Time Management slides.  Previously I've tweaked them between conferences.  This time I took a hard look at what people found useful, didn't need, and the way I was presenting the information.  I refocused the slides around the more streamlined version of "the cycle", dropped the parts that got the most yawns or "why would anyone want that?"-looks.  I also made sure that the more entertaining parts were retained and are spread evenly throughout the presentation.  As I learned from mjd's "Presentation Judo" talk says, "Your primary goal should be to entertain".  Each slide should educate and entertain, but if you have to pick just one, choose to entertain: people are sitting in the same seat for 3 hours, they deserve nothing less.

Now I have to get back to packing.  For the last few months any time I've thought of something to bring I wrote it on my todo list for August 6th.  Packing is less stressful when you have confidence that you won't forget anything.  Now I just have to fit it all in my luggage!

It's not too late to register for SAGE-AU 2008.  I look forward to seeing you there!