The annual USENIX LISA conference is the meeting place for professionals who make computing work and understand how it fails. Every year, LISA attracts system administrators, architects, site reliability engineers, software engineers, and researchers, from organizations ranging from small IT-shops to the largest computing infrastructures in the world. Attendees learn from industry experts about emerging trends and topics in software, hardware, and operations strategy and methodologies. The LISA community is very diverse; attendees have responsibilities in a range of areas, including system and site reliability, security, cloud, high performance computing (HPC), Web, networking, and storage administration.

At LISA, systems theory meets operational practice. This is an ideal environment for both researchers and practitioners to identify the key operational and system problems being faced by industry today, and to form partnerships within the community. Presentation at LISA is a path to real-world impact for leading research. Submissions in research areas such as cloud computing, software-defined networking, DevOps, large-scale computing, distributed systems, security, visualization, and management methods are encouraged. Alongside the LISA refereed papers track, posters and work-in-progress sessions provide a valuable avenue for early researcher feedback. USENIX supports open access to research via its conference publications and also awards grants to enable participation by students.

The LISA program is a rich mix of technical talks and training, panel discussions of important topics, ask-the-experts Guru sessions, and presentations by people who make things work—just like you. In addition, attendees can network with experts in a variety of fields. These relationships provide great value to organizations as they encounter subtle technical issues. The expertise gained by LISA attendees has a long-term impact on their careers and organizations. These factors make LISA the premiere event for our community.

New in 2013! LISA Labs: New this year is a "hack space" available for informal mini-presentations by seasoned professionals, participation in live experiments, tutoring, and mentoring. This will bring a hands-on component to the conference, where attendees can investigate new technologies, apply what they have learned, and interact with other attendees in a participatory technical setting. Send ideas tolisa13labs@usenix.org.

We will provide early feedback on ideas for papers, talks, or conference activities. Beat the deadlines—email lisa13chairs@usenix.org now!

Get Involved!
We welcome participants willing to share their research and experiences. This is your conference and an opportunity to give back to the community.

First, one of the most important ways to participate in the conference is simply to attend it. Find out about the many important reasons organizations have for sending their emloyees to LISA here.

The technical program also seeks submissions in the following areas:

Refereed Papers: These are written papers, 8 to 18 pages long, describing work that advances the science or practice of system administration. These papers are held to high research standards and are evaluated based on their conceptual development, contribution to the field, or extension of previous work to new contexts. If accepted, the paper will be published in the proceedings and the author(s) will give a 25-minute presentation followed by a 5-minute Q&A session. These are original works which must not be submitted concurrently to another publication venue in whole or in part.
Practice and Experience Reports: Bring your favorite system administration story to LISA. These can include successes as well as failures, as long as there are useful lessons imparted to the audience. Initial submissions can be in the form of a 4–10 page report or a short (5–7 minute) video submission with slides. Your proposal should include a clear description of the problem you are addressing, its relevance, the approaches and trade-offs made, and the lessons learned. Please note that we are including video submissions to make it easier to produce a PER proposal without the upfront effort of writing a report. Accepted video proposals still require a final written report for the conference. If accepted, the author(s) will give a 20-minute presentation followed by a 10-minute Q&A session.
Talks: Talks are 45- or 90-minute presentations by experts on a single topic of interest to system administrators. We are seeking suggestions from people who wish to give talks or to propose topics. Talks may focus on the emerging technologies or may be retrospective, be serious or funny, cover a spectrum of related issues or dive deeply into one specific topic. We also accept proposals for panel discussions, especially when accompanied by a tentative slate of panelists. Send ideas to lisa13it@usenix.org.
The Guru Is In Sessions: Q&A with an expert! Are you a guru? These sessions are a chance to share your expertise with your fellow system administrators. For the audience, these are a chance to get your questions on a specific topic or technology answered by an acknowledged expert. Submissions are in the form of a half-page description of the topic. Send ideas to lisa13guru@usenix.org.
Lightning Talks: Talk about a recent success, energize people about a pressing issue, ask a question, start a conversation! Lightning talks are 5-minute opportunities to get up and talk about what's on your mind. You can give several lightning talks if you have more than one topic. Send ideas to lisa13lightning@usenix.org.
Poster Session: This is your chance to share an idea that could turn into something more formal at next year's conference. Posters are a good way to get feedback on research that may not be ready for formal publication. Submissions are in the form of a 1-page abstract. Send poster ideas to lisa13posters@usenix.org.
In addition, LISA welcomes proposals for the following:

Workshops: Workshops are half-day or full-day sessions for small groups (typically no more than 30 people) to share ideas and knowledge. Workshops are intended to be participatory, not instructional, and familiarity with the specific topic/area is expected of the attendees. Proposals are in the form of a 1-page description. Send ideas to lisa13workshops@usenix.org.
Training Program: Tutorials are also half-day or full-day sessions but, unlike workshops, tutorials are generally intended for an instructor to share knowledge, not to be open discussions. We welcome (and encourage) suggestions or requests for new classes from anyone! Email tutorials@usenix.org with suggestions/requests or find out how to submit a proposal here.
Birds-of-a-Feather Sessions (BoFs): Birds-of-a-Feather sessions are informal gatherings held in the evenings. BoF groups range from users of particular software packages or products, through those interested in discussing current problems or issues, to people interested in a particular aspect of computing. Time slots are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis before and during the conference. See theconference Web site for submitting your BoF topic and time slot.