LISA ’11: Lee Damon on 25 Years of LISA

Lee Damon, a founding member of the System Administrators Guild and the League of Professional System Administrators, has attended all but one LISA event since 1989.  "The focus on 'Large' was very strong in the first few conferences, but had pretty much fallen by the wayside by 1993-1995," he says. "If I recall correctly, Large was defined as '1GB of disk or 100 users'. By that definition, my cellphone is a large site with well over 32GB of 'disk' available to it."

In addition to giving talks, Lee has been active in planning many LISA and USENIX events:

• Chair LISA '04
• Program committee member, LISA VII, XII, '05
• BOF Coordinator, LISA V, LISA VIII
• BOF & Guru Coordinator, LISA IX
• Guru Coordinator, LISA '97, '98, '99, '00, '01, '02, '03, USENIX ATC '01 USENIX ATC '02 USENIX ATC '03
• Workshop Coordinator, LISA '07, '08, '09.

"Some of the basic themes we addressed early on — backups, printing, user management — are still with us," he explains. He says that admins started looking at what is now known as Configuration Management sometime in the early 1990s and says, "I believe I gave my first invited talk on it in 1992.  We were doing CM for a site with a central computer or three and a few desktops. Now we deal with orders of magnitude more computers, real or virtual. That said, the tools are vastly improved but the basic problems are still fundamentally the same."

Lee notes that over the years, system administrators have dealt with a variety of fads. "We've also seen things like IPv6 'coming soon' for a very long time," he adds. "This leads to not inconsiderable cynicism on the part of some of the more experienced attendees."

If Lee had to pick a favorite moment from a LISA, what would it be?

"The thing that most sticks in my mind when I think of LISA isn't a moment, it's a concept: We are a community," he explains. "Sure, we have squabbles and we have disagreements but when the chips are down, we work together to solve problems.  LISA is a huge community gathering that helps reinforce those common bonds."

Like all attendees, Lee has had opportunity to network and meet other admins at USENIX events. "Every year I get a chance to talk with hundreds of people," he says. "Some I've spoken with before, some I haven't. Every one of them is interesting in some way or other."

When Lee started attending conferences, he felt welcomed by people he never expected to be able to talk with, and now many of them are his friends. "Every year I make a point of meeting new people to the conference. I try to welcome as many as I can, but there's always more than I can possibly interact with in a week's time."

He says that he wants new attendees to recognize — and be recognized by — the LISA community and to know they are welcome and are part of a larger group.  "Many of us are outsiders or otherwise have a very small support circle," he says. "Being part of the LISA community can be a lifeline at times." Lee recommends first-time attendees find "old timers" like him to talk with, and he suggests that experienced conference attendees reach out to new people.

He says that the hallway track is his main focus at LISA because it is where attendees discuss and address the technical and professional problems they might be having and also a good place to network. "LISA is a huge gathering of like-minded people who have faced the same problems and dealt with the same issues that are vexing you," he says. "It is a place to see how other sites work. It's an opportunity to learn from some of the best and brightest in the community. Every day you will be inundated with ideas and concepts and methods that will change how you view system administration. It requires you being willing to get in there and interact with people. Talk with others in the hallways, in the tutorial spaces, in the presentations. Get involved and you will be changed for the better."