Hi all, Having played a tiny part in the discussion on professionalization (discussing on LOPSA Discuss mailing list, then chairing a BoF on it at LISA ’14, then acting as a member of the resulting LOPSA Professional Content Committee, which sadly went nowhere, to which I accept partial blame due to a workload increase at the time...) I think Aleksey’s post is spot-on. LOPSA could gain real direction by taking a leadership role in advancing this effort. But I don’t really care who does it, just think that it should be done. As a profession (trade, whatever) our role in society is becoming more and more important as things all around us become more computerized. I’d like to see us become more professional via structured training and peer evaluation, and someday be like the electrical or plumbing etc. trades (maybe minus the union aspect...) on up to P.E. level with the requisite training and testing. I believe this will be very hard, as I see most sysadmins as cats that cannot be herded :) So a big +1 for supporting JESA and subsequent professionalization efforts.
Best, Will From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Aleksey Tsalolikhin Sent: Friday, June 26, 2015 12:05 PM To: LOPSA Discuss List Subject: [lopsa-discuss] Professionalization and the future of LOPSA Hi, I did some reading in Sociology on professionalization when we created the LOPSA Professional Content Committee a year and a half ago. I did not submit my findings in a timely manner (my apologies) and now the committee is dissolved (we set it up with a TTL). However, I would still like to share my finding: The most successful transitions from trade/craft/semi-prof to full profession occur _in cooperation with educational institutions_. Therefore: Support JESA and academic initiatives toward professionalizing system administration. LOPSA can't do it alone. The seminal work on this is: The Professionalization of Everyone? Harold L. Wilensky American Journal of Sociology Vol. 70, No. 2 (Sep., 1964), pp. 137-158 Published by: The University of Chicago Press http://www.jstor.org/stable/2775206 I got it for free from JSTOR with registration. It's only 22 pages and a great read. The section "Is there a process for professionalization?" lays out a common roadmap for professionalization: 1. Get people actually doing the work full-time. (That's what LOPSA members are doing. Educational/mentoring activities of LOPSA support getting people doing the work full-time. THEY ARE WORTHWHILE AND SHOULD BE CONTINUED AND SUPPORTED.) 2. Get training happening and a professional association THAT INVOLVES SCHOOLS. "Where professionalization has gone farthest, the occupational association does not typically set up a training school; the schools usually promote an effective professional association." 3. "Those pushing for prescribed training and the first ones to go through it *combine to form a professional association*." This paragraph is so relevant to us now! It talks about soul-searching by the association, and possibly changing the name of the profession (e.g. "infrastructure engineering" rather than "system administration") 4. Win support of law for protection of job territory (Legal protection of the title.) 5. Eventually rules to eliminate the unqualified and unscrupulous, protect the client and emphasize the service ideal will be embodied in a *formal code of ethics* Quote: In sum, there is a typical process by which the established professions have arrived: men being doing the work full time and stake out a jurisdiction; the early masters of the technique or adherents of the movement become concerned about standards of training and practice and set up a training school, which, if not lodged in universities at the outset, makes academic connection within two or three decades; the teachers and activists then achieve success in promoting more effective organization, first local, then national -- through either the transformation of an existing occupational association or the creation of a new one. Toward the end, legal protection of the monopoly of skill appears; at the end, a formal code of ethics is adopted. The next section is "Barriers to Professionalization". I see LOPSA as a proto professional association. I expect it will evolve or be replaced as we mature. I am excited to be part of this evolution. Thank you for everything you do to keep the world going. Please continue. Your work is valuable. Yours truly, Aleksey Tsalolikhin
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