9 people for sysadmins to follow on Twitter

Follow these accounts to gain a wealth of knowledge about being a better sysadmin.
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While Twitter certainly isn't the most open source platform, the open source community on the social network brings a lot of great minds together on a daily basis. The site, as I see it, also democratizes access to these brilliant minds since we're all just one @ away.

Here are nine people whose Twitter accounts are making my pursuit of sysadmin knowledge, and its continued evolution, better. They fall across the spectrum of technology with the one thing they have in common being their passionate, informative, and thoughtful perspective. They share a wealth of knowledge from explaining Linux commands through comics, to applying a PhD's worth of knowledge to making DevOps make sense.

Julia Evans @b0rk

Julia has found a beautiful way to combine her love for sysadmin skills with her talent in drawing. She teaches the skills you need to be a deeply knowledgeable sysadmin through "zines" (online magazines) that are as playful as they are brilliant.

Nicole Forsgren, PhD @nicolefv

If you have ever asked, "Is there data that supports DevOps' effectiveness?" then you need to be following Nicole. She has led DORA's annual State of DevOps Report from its inception and is the lead author of the new book Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps.

Jessie Frazelle @jessfraz

If you're into kernel hacking, NASA nerdery, and honest thoughts from a self-defined weirdo, you will be very happy to follow Jessie's exploration of the intersection of technology and culture. You will become smarter on a regular basis if you investigate the projects she's exploring.

Jess Dodson @girlgerms

Jess is a passionate, open, and witty sysadmin-focused tweeter.

Angie Jones @techgirl1908

If you've ever wondered what the evolution of manual testing looks like, go no further than Angie's tweets. She's deep in that space and exploring topics that all sysadmin-minded people can appreciate. You'll be smarter for doing so. Bonus: If you're ever wanted to learn Java, she's recently released a free course to help you do so (and it has a great testing angle to it). 

 

Bridget Kromhout @bridgetkromhout

Bridget is the person who first introduced me to container technology. She continues to share her expertise in DevOps, Kubernetes, and many other IT ops topics. She also is the DevOpsDays international lead and the local Minneapolis lead, and an expert-level live-tweeter of talks.

Vallery Lancey @vllry

As I see it, Vallery is live-tweeting, amongst other things, her pursuit to be an expert Kubernetes administrator. She goes *deep* on the topic on a regular basis and is a textbook example of how to engage with the open source community. This thread will give you an idea:

Ashley McNamara @ashleymcnamara

Some joke that a Sysadmin who learns Go is now an SRE. f you have wondered about the programming language Go, follow Ashley to keep up-to-date on its maturation and new uses. She's also an excellent curator of internet memes.

Nina Zakharenko @nnja

Similar to the Sysadmin + Go meme is a Sysadmin that knows Python is now a DevOps Engineer. Nina continuously shares her expertise in Python with incredible storytelling. She's an inspiration.

Bonus: Follow sysadmin topics and companies

While I find the most value from Twitter by following real human beings that inspire me on a regular basis, there are some wonderful companies and projects that can also add to your day-to-day fun on the site. Here are a few: 

  • Reading IT Revolution Books has greatly improved my knowledge of DevOps; it's worth following on Twitter, too.
  • Hackaday.io bills itself as the "world's largest hardware + software community. It looks pretty fun. 
  • Lists can also be a great way to avoid following lots of people, but still seeing their work. Chris Short has curated a fantastic list of Twitter accounts about sysadmin topics.
  • I love podcasts, and The Changelog is a mix of new episodes, open source news, and tech memes. 
  • The best conference to attend as an open source enthusiast is All Things Open, and they curate a fun set of content.

And finally, to enjoy Twitter more as a work tool, don't forget about muting the noise you don't want to see there. It's made all the difference for me personally. 

Have questions? Ask in the comments or DM me @mbbroberg.

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I'm happiest at a microphone
Matt was an EMC storage expert, VMware vExpert, and former fan of other proprietary technologies. He now focuses on open source and DevRel adoption.

3 Comments

Thanks. Great recommendations!

Great article and great suggestions. I was already following @nnja. I decided to follow the rest and already have learned some. I agree that Twitter is a great learning tool.

I personally was going to tweet this until I realized I wasn’t on the list. Lol

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