Friday Plenary

I Got My Jet Pack and I'm Still Not Happy
David Blank-Edelman, Northeastern

Systems administration needs your help. Over the last twenty-four years or so I've watched the tools we've used just barely be able to keep up with the challenges of our field. New advancements in interfaces get promised, offered, adopted and then shed with nothing but temporary relief. In this "from the trenches" talk we'll look some of the challenges that have thwarted our best efforts. I'll also show you some of my puny attempts to poke at the beast from new directions and see if I can enlist your expertise in our battle.

David N. Blank-Edelman is the Director of Technology at the Northeastern University College of Computer and Information Science and the author of the O'Reilly book Perl for System Administration. He has spent the last 24+ years as a system/network administrator in large multi- platform environments, including Brandeis University, Cambridge Technology Group, and the MIT Media Laboratory. He was the program chair of the LISA 2005 conference and one of the LISA 2006 Invited Talks co-chairs. He delights in finding how creativity can further the field as demonstrated in his off-the-beaten-path invited talks, keynotes and tutorials at USENIX and other professional conferences.

Saturday Plenary

Human-Centered Design: Finding the Sweet Spot Among the Many Stakeholders in the Design of a Complex System
William B. Rouse, Tennenbaum Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology
Human-centered design is a process of assuring that the concerns, values, and perceptions of all stakeholders in a design effort are considered and balanced. Human-centered design can be contrasted with user-centered design. The user is a very important stakeholder in design, often the primary stakeholder. However, the success of a product or service is usually strongly influenced by other players in the process of design, development, fielding, and ongoing use of products and services. Human-centered design is concerned with the full range of stakeholders. This range can be substantial when designing complex systems that have to be operated, maintained, supplied, etc. All of these stakeholders have human abilities, limitations, and preferences. This presentation will provide an overview of approaches to finding the “sweet spot” among these many influences to create successful products and services.

Bill Rouse is the Executive Director of the Tennenbaum Institute at the Georgia Institute of Technology. This university-wide center pursues a multi-disciplinary portfolio of initiatives focused on research and education to provide knowledge and skills that enable fundamental change of complex organizational systems. He is also a professor in the College of Computing and School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. His earlier positions include Chair of the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, CEO of two innovative software companies – Enterprise Support Systems and Search Technology – and earlier faculty positions at Georgia Tech, University of Illinois, Delft University of Technology, and Tufts University.
Rouse has four decades of experience in research, education, engineering, management, and marketing. His expertise includes individual and organizational decision making and problem solving, as well as design of organizations and information systems. In these areas, he has consulted with well over one hundred large and small enterprises in the private, public, and non-profit sectors, where he has worked with several thousand executives and senior managers.
Rouse has written hundreds of articles and book chapters, and has authored many books, including most recently People and Organizations: Explorations of Human-Centered Design (Wiley, 2007), Essential Challenges of Strategic Management (Wiley, 2001) and the award-winning Don’t Jump to Solutions (Jossey-Bass, 1998). He is editor of Enterprise Transformation: Understanding and Enabling Fundamental Change (Wiley, 2006), co-editor of Organizational Simulation: From Modeling & Simulation to Games & Entertainment (Wiley, 2005), co-editor of the best-selling Handbook of Systems Engineering and Management (Wiley, 1999), and editor of the eight-volume series Human/Technology Interaction in Complex Systems (Elsevier). Among many advisory roles, he has served as Chair of the Committee on Human Factors of the National Research Council, a member of the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, and a member of the DoD Senior Advisory Group on Modeling and Simulation.
Rouse is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, as well as a fellow of four professional societies -- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science, and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. He has received the Joseph Wohl Outstanding Career Award and the Norbert Wiener Award from the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society; a Centennial Medal and a Third Millennium Medal from IEEE; the Best Article Award from INCOSE, and the O. Hugo Schuck Award from the American Automation Control Council. He is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in Engineering, and other biographical literature, and has been featured in publications such as Manager's Edge, Vision, Book-Talk, The Futurist, Competitive Edge, Design News, Quality & Excellence, IIE Solutions, Industrial Engineer, Innovation, and Engineering Enterprise. Rouse received his B.S. from the University of Rhode Island, and his S.M. and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.