Sysadmin of the Year 2009 -- nominations open

By Cory Doctorow at 9:55 pm Thursday, Sep 10

Once again it's time for the annual Sysadmin of the Year award, and nominations are open. Of course, my vote -- as always -- goes to our very own Ken Snider, the very epitome of everything wonderful about sysadmins. Ken is level-headed and calm, technically skilled, bright and quick, tireless and impassioned. He cares about the systems and he cares about the people who use them. He has beaten DoS attacks, tuned and maintained our hardware to a startling level of reliability, and has gotten out of a warm bed more times than I can count to battle demon entropy. What's more, Ken cares about systems in general, with a deep commitment to justice and freedom on the network. Thank you Ken, you're the sysadmin of the century in my books.

We're talking about sysadmins here--the unsung rock stars of IT. The kind of sysadmin that plays the network blindfolded and upside down like Stevie Ray Vaughn, makes ch, ch, changes faster than David Bowie, smashes hackers like Pete Townsend does with guitars, keeps the show going like Bill Graham, and does it all with Ringo's good humor.

Sysadmins can really rock your world. Now it's time to rock it back.

The 2009 System Administrator of the Year contest is your opportunity to launch your organization's sysadmin rock star to superstardom. Simply nominate your sysadmin or IT rock star here. Be prepared to write a thoughtful, detailed description of why your sysadmin rock star deserves global acclaim.

About - Sysadmin of the Year Contest (Thanks, Barak!)