[logs] List transition

tbird@precision-guesswork.com

Hi all -

Many list readers - not to mention folks who aren't subscribed to this list
- have commented on the fact that the Log Analysis Web site seems to have
fallen into hibernation. Marcus and I have also noticed that meaty
discussions on the list are less and less frequent than they were several
years ago.

It's unlikely that this slump is due to the fact that everyone's figured out
what to do with their logs.

I've certainly got lots of reasons for why I'm not as involved with it as I
was in 2004, primarily related to changes in my job focus and (mostly
negative) changes in my health. At the moment, I have a mailbox bulging with
site updates, at which I stare guiltily at least twice a week, and a list
moderation queue almost entirely filled with spam, this week's discussion of
data base auditing notwithstanding.

After much discussion, review of the much-evolved "enterprise log
management" space (please substitute your own favorite description for
commercial products that do the things we're all trying to do with our
logs), and my experience in working with the Patch Management mailing list
(which has maintained its vendor neutrality despite being sponsored by
Shavlik, one of the patch management product vendors) Marcus and I have
entered into a partnership with Splunk for the support and management of
this mailing list and loganalysis.org.

This decision was not made lightly, and on my part at least is mostly based
on Splunk's determinimation to build a publicly-available knowledge base for
log messages and end-to-end event log management. Those of you who were here
in the early days will remember that that has always been one of my goals
for loganalysis.org; but as it turned out, we didn't have the time or
resources to devote to building it a community exchange and database. My
discussions with Splunk - and their dedication to a "community commons" type
of arrangement for Splunkbase - convinced me that the partnership will
benefit everyone involved.

Splunk has acquired both loganalysis.org and this list. Within the next few
days, we will be migrating the mailing list from my shmoo.com listserver to
their dedicated loganalysis.org list serv installation. If you are currently
subscribed, you don't need to make any changes - we're just migrating the
list of subscribers directly from the old to the new server. The list will
now have the address loganalysis@private (which probably should have
happened years ago).

I will maintain the server at the old address for a while, in order to
capture any genuine posts to the list which accidentally get sent to the
wrong address. I will remain a moderator; Dee-Ann LeBlanc, the content
manager for SplunkBase, is my moderator-in-training; and depending on how
things go we may recruit another external expert to assist. We will continue
to moderate the list in the same fashion I've done since its inception; the
discussions will remain vendor neutral, and all discussions of particular
commercial and open source products will emphasize the technical
capabilities of the applications, as well as "real world" experience from
list members.

The loganalysis.org site is being maintained independently from Splunkbase,
at least for the foreseeable future, and I may be contacting the list for
assistance with its maintenance at some point in the next couple of weeks.
It seems to me that I'd save myself a lot of time (and subsequent guilt) if
we morphed it into a Wiki, an option which didn't really exist when Marcus
and I first set things up.

Please feel free to contact me off-list if you have questions or concerns
about this change. My access to email is somewhat intermittent, because of a
family health crisis, but I will make every reasonable effort to respond to
messages in a timely fashion.

As we make the transition to the new server, we may send out one or two test
messages. These will be marked as such in the subject line; please disregard
them. 

Thanks very much for your ongoing support of this list.

cheers -- tbird

_______________________________________________
LogAnalysis mailing list
LogAnalysis@private
http://lists.shmoo.com/mailman/listinfo/loganalysis