Thursday, September 15, 2005
Everybody Is A Sysadmin.
And everybody is a user. Almost every single day, a customer teaches me something about UNIX, Linux, software, and computers in general. (Today was an object lesson in Webmin acls. True story.) Sysadmins get schooled, too...
As a sysadmin, I don't want to just fix problems and maintain systems. I want to enable people to play, create, solve, and invent. But I'm a lil uncomfortable with the term user education. I want somethin' more dialogical, less curriculum. (Not to get all Paulo Friere, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. But oops, I just did.)
Maybe we can call the practice of giving information to users, information sharing? Two-way, information sharing. Givin' and takin'. Sometimes I.T. folks get a little uncomfortable with giving users too much power and information. Sometimes I hear system administrators worry that too much information will enable users to create chaos in an environment. But I don't see how information on how to use those tools they already have can be a bad thing. And wait. Let's back up. Has there ever been an instance in the history of humanity where it was cool for anybody in a position of authority to suggest that it'd be better that other people didn't have access to certain kinds of information? Do I need to go there, people? I just did.
And everybody is a user. Almost every single day, a customer teaches me something about UNIX, Linux, software, and computers in general. (Today was an object lesson in Webmin acls. True story.) Sysadmins get schooled, too...As a sysadmin, I don't want to just fix problems and maintain systems. I want to enable people to play, create, solve, and invent. But I'm a lil uncomfortable with the term user education. I want somethin' more dialogical, less curriculum. (Not to get all Paulo Friere, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. But oops, I just did.)
Maybe we can call the practice of giving information to users, information sharing? Two-way, information sharing. Givin' and takin'. Sometimes I.T. folks get a little uncomfortable with giving users too much power and information. Sometimes I hear system administrators worry that too much information will enable users to create chaos in an environment. But I don't see how information on how to use those tools they already have can be a bad thing. And wait. Let's back up. Has there ever been an instance in the history of humanity where it was cool for anybody in a position of authority to suggest that it'd be better that other people didn't have access to certain kinds of information? Do I need to go there, people? I just did.
