Bring your favorite system administration story to LISA.
Raging success or epic failure? Either of these can make a good experience report. A great report tells an interesting story (faulty assumptions going into a project? poor business decisions? a time when "best practices" failed you?). The speaker(s) will energize the audience by sharing the ups and downs of a substantial system administration project that concludes with lessons that advance the knowledge of the audience on a particular topic.
Many of these experiences will have a basis in technical requirements, but will also have components that may span planning and social issues as well. Insights on all of these topics are welcome. Remember, the project need not have been a success to make for a successful experience report; sometimes spectacular failures are considerably more instructive.
A submission will be judged by three (3) criteria:
Applicability to a LISA audience
Insight into or illustration of the complexities of the world of system administration
The educational value to attendees of the lessons learned
The scope of experience reports is as wide as the scope of the work our attendees are called upon to perform, ranging from highly technical to social processes, such as building consensus and planning. Here are some examples:
Need help with your submission? Never submitted to a conference? Unsure if your submission meets the criteria? You're not alone or in the dark. For help and more information on experience reports, see the author guidelines and assistance page.
NEW! We are offering an authors' review and response period, June 7–13, 2012, to allow authors to provide clarifications on their submissions. This is your chance to answer questions asked by the program committee during their initial reviews.
Submissions
Authors must submit one or both of the following as a proposal:
Your proposal should include a clear description of the problem you are addressing, its relevance, the approaches and trade-offs made, and the lessons learned. Authors may submit both a video and a written draft report.
Specifics for Written Submissions
All submissions must be electronic and in PDF only via the Web submission form. The submission form will ask for contact information for the report/video. Please do not email submissions.
The first page of each written submission must include the name, affiliation, and email address of the author(s). (LISA reviewing is single blind.)
Authors should make sure that the written part of their submission prints properly on U.S.-style 8.5"x11" paper.
Submissions should include a list of appropriate topic keywords or tags:
e.g., "Tags: security, research, IPv6"
Previous tags include DevOps, networking, infrastructure, security, research, case study, backups, configuration management, database, Web, printing, filesystem, authentication, and VMs.
Authors may include additional tags as well.
The list should appear above the body text of the draft report.
See the section "Applies to All Submissions" below for general criteria.
Specifics for Video Submissions
All video submissions must be electronic and in video in avi or m4v format and submitted via the Web submission form.
Video submissions must address the following questions:
Why is this topic relevant to a LISA audience?
Why was this a challenging or difficult issue to attempt to solve?
What lessons or takeaways are there for attendees?
The submission form will ask for contact information for the report/video. Please do not email submissions.
See the section "Applies to All Submissions" below for general criteria.
Applies to All Submissions
Submissions whose main purpose is to promote a commercial product or service will not be accepted.
Submissions may be submitted only by an author of the report. No third-party submissions will be accepted.
All accepted reports must be presented at the LISA conference by at least one author. The author(s) will give a 20-minute presentation immediately followed by a 10-minute Q&A session.
One author per report will receive a registration discount of $150. USENIX will offer a complimentary registration for the technical program upon request.
The author(s) of an accepted report must provide a final written report for publication in the conference proceedings. Final reports should be 4–10 pages long, including diagrams, figures, and appendices. Complete instructions will be sent to the authors of accepted reports.
To aid authors in creating a report suitable for the LISA audience, authors of accepted proposals will be assigned one or more shepherds to help with the process of completing the report. Authors can also review the author guidelines and assistance page for help creating a written report. Accepted authors will be expected to make a dress rehearsal presentation with their shepherd prior to the conference.
Written reports will be available online to registered attendees before the conference. If your report should not be published prior to the event, please notify production@usenix.org. All selected reports will be available online to everyone beginning on December 12, 2012.
Reports accompanied by nondisclosure agreement forms will not be considered. Accepted submissions will be treated as confidential prior to publication on the LISA '12 Web site; rejected submissions will be permanently treated as confidential.
Reports are due by 11:59 p.m. PDT on May 17, 2012.
Authors will be notified by June 21, 2012, whether their proposals have been accepted. The final reports and presentations are due September 19, 2012.
If your report is accepted and you need an invitation letter to apply for a visa to attend the conference, please contact conference@usenix.org as soon as possible. (Visa applications can take at least 30 working days to process.) Please identify yourself as a presenter and include your mailing address in your email.
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