[OpenAFS-devel] OT: bringing in openafs ( was OpenAFS.org web site design project )

[Jason Edgecombe]

Doug Hirsch wrote:
> Jeffrey,
>
> The "New to FreeBSD" link is a wonderful model.
>
> Just to remind you of my situation, I have followed these mailing
> lists for nearly two years, I consider myself an AFS groupie (love you
> guys!), almost ready to stand up my own reference demo system in spite
> of not being a programmer and having most of my system administration
> experience twenty years behind me.  I'm not quite a suit--maybe a
> sports coat, with much of my time spent defending budgets and how
> people spent them.  I'm still trying to get people interested within
> my organization in what AFS could do for us and our customers, having
> spent six months almost twenty years ago as a junior AFS admin
> elsewhere.
>
> My boss just told me over lunch a bunch of the reservations he has
> about AFS, the essence of which is that he thinks AFS is "past it",
> like Beta versus VHS, though I'm not sure how much of his opinion is
> based on understanding of what AFS is, versus the things he thinks it
> is like.  In my project's environment, I see a need for a nice, neat,
> manageable wide area file system with which we could share VM images
> with our partner developers in three facilities, as well as with our
> customer's test group.  I think I see an opportunity to introduce and
> make use of OpenAFS in a controlled, small audience environment, where
> a dozen or so people can get experience using it and seeing its worth.
>  Want to talk me out of this effort?  Otherwise, I'm trying to figure
> out how to show that this *can* work, in spite of my fumbling with it
> for over a year (several reasons beyond my incompetence, like being
> across the country from my lab where I have routable IP addresses on
> machines I can repartition to my needs), and how to get the
> decision-makers in each of the organizations enough on board to have
> the necessary support to make a demo.  Just yesterday, I asked for a
> subdomain from my company, so I could set up the DNS support for my
> demo KDC.  Thankfully, our head of IT has been wanting someone to
> explore AFS for him, so I get bits of cooperation here and there, if
> not overt support.  Please pass me a current sysadmin, with time to
> take on this project for me...
>
> I'm not ready to supply a case study to the archive, but I'm building
> the case itself to study, hopefully not as a demonstration of a path
> to avoid.
>
> Doug
>
> On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 12:14 PM, Jeffrey Altman
> <jaltman@secure-endpoints.com> wrote:
>   
>> summatusmentis@gmail.com wrote:
>>     
>>>> One of the things I'm finding useful about Richard Campbell's book,
>>>> Managing AFS: The Andrew File System, is the chapters on business case
>>>> studies and the chapter on building the business case for AFS.  I hope
>>>> there will be some room in the new web site for people to pay
>>>> attention to the human logistics of AFS in addition to the
>>>> technology--how do people get their organizations to embrace it, and
>>>> how do you keep it financially supported in the IT budget.
>>>>         
>>> This is one of the things we'd like to have as part of the site, how
>>> people have moved their organizations to AFS, what it took for them
>>> convince their superiors, etc. We'd like to have this website
>>> multi-targeted, in that it has information for both current users and
>>> potential users needing to make a case for it.
>>>       
>> The existing site already has a case studies section.  If your
>> organization is willing to discuss its use of OpenAFS, please
>> forward text to openafs-gatekeepers@openafs.org.
>>
>>     
>>>> Of course, I got very excited in Monday's discussion when someone
>>>> proposed a button for newbies.  It is much, much too hard to figure
>>>> out how to stand up a reference demo system if you're not already a
>>>> programmer or AFS groupie.  Unfortunately, I don't see reference to
>>>> that in your project page notes.
>>>>         
>>> It's a distinct possibility that I missed  that as part of my notes
>>> from Mondays meeting. We are currently still in the early planning
>>> stages, there is absolutely room for community involvement and
>>> suggestion. Let me go back and see what you mean by "newbie button"and
>>> I'll modify the project page.
>>>       
>> See the "New to FreeBSD" link on http://www.freebsd.org/
>>     
Doug,

I think that the book "Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New 
Ideas" (ISBN 0201741571) might be helpful for you. It's about bringing 
change to organizations. It might help with bringing AFS into your 
organization. For easy reference, the patterns are also available on the 
author's web site.

Jason