By now, visitors to www.bigfix.com will be aware that we have snagged the prestigious role of corporate sponsor of the 2009 Sysadmin of the Year competition. Needless to say, we jumped at the chance to do this when we learned that the previous sponsor had lost interest after an unsuccessful attempt to turn the contest into some kind of viral video fest.
While we certainly view the SAOTY contest as celebration of sysadminhood, we’re going back to fundamentals by recruiting a panel of judges to soberly weigh the qualifications of entrants in the balance. We’re not sure just how many judges we need, but thus far, we are very pleased with the panel. Amrit Williams, current BigFix CTO, former Gartner research director and IT security blogger is our chief justice. Other bench warmers include Johnny Long, founder of Hackers for Charity; Ryan Russell, author of “Stealing the Network” and other books; Robert Scoble, whose Scobleizer blog has become essential reading in Silicon Valley and beyond; Ben Kus, instigator and founder of the BigFix User Group; and Aeleen Frisch, author of Essential System Administration and a living legend in the USENIX SAGE community.
As it stands, we have rules, a court, and rewards for the virtuous. What we really need are more claimants for the prize. Who can draw the Sword of SAOTY from its stone? Or more realistically, who take home a complete “Guitar Hero” gaming set up to amuse oneself when not writing new chapters of sysadmin history?
