SANS

[Jon maddog Hall]

aluminumsulfate at earthlink.net said:

> Are they for real? !

> I'll go in with 19 other people from this list, record the presentation on
> one of those laptops they seem to let everybody bring in, and divy the cost
> up among us... that way, it'd only be... oh, $354 per person(!)

Actually, you would not have to record the presentation, as they supply you with
mp3s of each presentation.

Yes, SANS is real.  SANS is a privately owned institution that does security and
systems administration training and certification.  As far as I know it is not a
non-profit, although a lot of the information and papers it generates are freely
available.

It offers a graduate level course in Security and Systems Administration, and estimates
that it would cost someone between $28,000-30,000 to complete it.  If you think that
is a lot of money, then take a look at what Harvard and Yale charge for a master's
degree.  Harvard's undergraduate tuition is $28,700+ dollars per year.  You can argue
which is worth more.....

While Chris calls the event in Portsmouth a "conference", I would really call it
a "training session".  This appears to be much more of a structured teacher-to-student
transfer of information than a "peer-to-peer" transfer that a conference affords,
but I could be wrong.

I will note that USENIX, an organization that I recently retired from the board,
has a charge of $3075. for five days of "training" for their upcoming LISA event,
and a charge of $675. for one day of "training".  A lot of the time the USENIX training sessions do not have
"hands on" training, with equipment.  So SANS is not out of line with what they charge.

Both of these organizations provide "professional" handouts for their tutorials,
supply lunch, rent venues to put their events in, pay instructors, pay for LCD
projectors, audio/visual equipment, etc. etc.  In fact, SANS goes on to give you:

    * Printed and bound course materials
    * Mp3 audio files of course lectures
    * 2 sets of practice certification exams
    * Certification attempt
    * Continental Breakfast
    * Lunch
    * Two daily breaks with refreshments

And I can vouch for the fact that a "Lunch" at one of these events can be really
expensive,

You typically get 20-40 people in each training session, not the 500-2000 people you
get at a "conference".   I will note that USENIX's charge for the three day
CONFERENCE is $860, and while USENIX is a non-profit, they do have a full-time
staff that has to have its costs covered, etc.

I know that a lot of people are used to the types of conferences like the Ohio
Linux Festival or the Atlanta Linux Symposium of years ago.  But those were
volunteer planned and staffed.  They sometimes had "glitches" in them, but people
understood the "glitches".  Nevertheless, those conferences which were sometimes
"donation and sponsor" powered, held in low-cost venues, were (and are) real gems.

Maybe now when you go to one of the volunteer events you will have even more gratitude
that the volunteers put on such an event.

md
-- 
Jon "maddog" Hall
Executive Director           Linux International(R)
email: maddog at li.org         80 Amherst St. 
Voice: +1.603.672.4557       Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A.
WWW: http://www.li.org

Board Member: Uniforum Association
Board Member Emeritus: USENIX Association (2000-2006)

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