Location..

Thu Oct 13 00:24:08 PDT 2005

Bill,

You are correct. Most people in attendance of BayLisa are in the  
"Silicon Valley" region.  I cannot personally speak for them, but
my guess is that Systems Administrators in San Francisco, the  
Peninsula, the North Bay, and the East Bay would love to have a
professional organization filled with peers that they could network  
with. I know I would.

Just from a financial point of view, sysadmins are not buying housing  
in the over-priced silicon valley. The SAGE salary survey is
proof that most systems administrators cannot afford the valley  
anymore.  Almost every sysadmin I know who has purchased housing
in the past 5 years has. They've all moved to Dublin, Pittsburg, San  
Ramon, even Santa Rosa.

Beyond housing problems, not all companies with technology needs are  
in the "Silicon Valley" (man I hate that term). A lot of our  
colleagues work
in the further reaches of the east bay at security companies,  
financial institutes, etc.  These are all people with great potential  
contributions to BayLisa,
none of whom have the time to commute to BayLisa. Cupertino is not  
central to anything but Santa Clara, San Jose, or Sunnyvale.

Is the goal to inject some new blood into BayLisa, or to maintain the  
status quo? If it's to maintain the status quo of a stodgy, decades  
old group content
with sitting around and playing remember when,  then by all means,  
keep the meetings at Apple, but consider changing the name to  
SouthBayLisa?If the
goal, however, is to reinvigorate this as a professional group for  
networking, information exchange, collaboration, and professional  
advancement, then consider
that the other 3/4 of us will never find Cupertino convenient for  
anything (except pot shots).

(BTW, this rant wasn't directed at Bill, just at the notion that the  
world revolves around Sunnyvale. It doesn't.)

On Oct 12, 2005, at 10:44 PM, Bill Ward wrote:

> On 10/12/05, Danny Howard <dannyman at toldme.com> wrote:
> Eh?  Location is up for debate?
>
> I vote for "anywhere on the BART network, especially Oakland or  
> Berkeley"
>
> That would be a great idea except I think most people who would  
> attend are in the Silicon Valley region.  If near BART is a key  
> criterion, why aren't there a lot of successful user groups in SF  
> and the East Bay?  Or are there, and we just don't hear much about  
> them?
>
> Public transport is great, and it sucks that we don't have BART  
> 'round the bay.  Caltrain's pretty good too.  But they don't go to  
> Cupertino.  I don't know any big companies willing to host BayLISA  
> that are near rail in the south bay.  Oracle in Redwood Shores is  
> close to Caltrain though, and I might be able to arrange for  
> BayLISA to meet there if there was a lot of demand for it, however.
>
> -- 
> Help save the San Jose Earthquakes - http:// 
> www.soccersiliconvalley.com/

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