LISA11 Next Week - Meet your blog team!

It's the Friday before LISA, and I'm sure hundreds of you are getting ready for next week. I know that I'm busy getting things in order for a week in my absence.

Because you're going to be hearing a lot from the USENIX LISA Blog Team over the next week, you should really get to know us first.




Ben Cotton

I'm excited for my second year at LISA. Last year's conference was exhausting, but rewarding. I'm looking forward to a second go, now that I've got the general idea. There's just so much to try to take in, even when you're busy blogging it all. The other 51 weeks a year, I'm a systems engineer at Purdue University, working on high-throughput computing projects. I write a weather blog for my local newspaper (www.jconline.com/weatherblog) and my own anything-goes blog at blog.funnelfiasco.com. Since I apparently enjoy writing, I'm also a contributor to Fedora documentation. When I'm feeling pithier, I tweet like mad as @FunnelFiasco.

I can be socially awkward penguin sometimes, but if you run into me around the conference try to say hi anyway. Especially if you follow that up with an offer of coffee or pastries.



Marius Ducea

Hi, my name is Marius Ducea and this will be my second year as a member of the LISA blogging team. I had such a good time last year, and I definitely wanted to do it again, even though this time it will no longer be close to me here in the Bay Area, but in on the other side of the country in Boston. I'm really excited about the theme of this year, "DevOps" as I've been involved with this movement from the beginning. I'm looking forward to meet again old friends and make many new friends from my tribe: the sysadmin tribe. I normally write on my blog MDLog:/sysadmin (www.ducea.com) and tweet from @mariusducea

You will probably find me at the conference at tracks about configuration management, monitoring or performance, that are some of my current interests. See you all in Boston.



Rikki Endsley

I'm a freelance tech writer from Lawrence, Kansas, and the community manager for USENIX. In the past, I was the managing editor for Sys Admin magazine and UnixReview.com, and the Associate Publisher of Linux Pro Magazine, ADMIN Magazine, and Ubuntu User until 2011. I've attended LISA in 2000, 2002, 2007, 2008, and 2009. I like the right tool for the right job, but I can MacGyver the right tool when necessary. Find me in a hallway track or follow me on Twitter at: @rikkiends



Matt Simmons


<voice="Troy McClure">Hi, I'm Matt Simmons. You may remember me from such educational films as "Stop (or my motherboard will shoot)" and "Hard Drives, Soft Music".</voice>

Seriously, though, this is my third year being a part of the LISA blogging team, and I can't wait to get started on this year's event. I've been a sysadmin for over 10 years, and being able to attend LISA has been one of the most valuable experiences in my career. Since I left my full-time systems administration job earlier this year, this is going to give me a great chance to meet up with old friends and keep current on the technology we all use. I normally write at http://www.standalone-sysadmin.com and tweet with @standaloneSA.

At the conference, I love the hallway track and the BoFs, so if you see me running around, make sure to say hello. In real life, I'm actually pretty friendly! I'll see you next week in Boston!

So that's us! Make sure to say hello when you run into one of us. We don't bite!

Have a great conference, and let us know if you need anything in the meantime!