Re: OT: vendor contacts after list posting

[Sarah Stevens <sarah () STEVENS-TECHNOLOGIES COM>]

Hello,

I realize that you may not appreciate the cold calling from vendors regarding their products and services.  I can 
understand that this can become overwhelming.  However, there is another perspective to look at here as well.  I own an 
information security company.  Thus, I suppose that I am in the category of "vendor scum".  However, I have offered 
this listserv many hours of free advice and services.  I have spoken at security conferences as a SME (not as a 
representative of any product or service).  I have reviewed security documents prepared by the educational institutions 
that participate on this list.   TruthfulIy, I find the conversation both stimulating and informative.  However, this 
donated time has always seemed to be beneficial to me (I really enjoy helping system owners meet security objectives.), 
and the help I provided was well received by the institutions I assisted.  I do not use this board to get more 
business, I use this board to share information about appropriate solutions and learn about issues faced by education 
institutions.  I'd like to believe that I provide a valuable service and that I can continue to participate on this 
listserv as a valuable asset instead of "vendor scum".
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

----- Original Message -----
From: Cal Frye <cjf () CALFRYE COM>
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
Sent: Wed Apr 11 10:19:43 2007
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] OT:  vendor contacts after list posting

Tim M. Crawford wrote:
> David,
> I agree with you. I have had the same issue. Interestingly, it came up
> in two discussions just yesterday here at the Educause Security
> conference too. In one case, the discussion was around creating a
> separate (non-Educause) list to discuss issues without the fear of
> vendors engaging those in the discussion.
>
> One option would be to require .edu addresses in order to participate on
> these lists. But I don’t know how viable that solution would be.
>
> Tim
>
> On 4/11/07 8:51 AM, "David Boyer" <David () BVU EDU> wrote:
>
>     For what it's worth, not long after making this posting I was
>     contacted by Bradford Networks about their NAC products. 

The trick comes in keeping the mailing list from having web-searchable
archives anywhere. I've been surprized by what mailing lists I
participate in turn up in Google sometimes.

Mostly I consider vendor contacts like mosquitos. You can't really avoid
them, and if they get pesky enough you swat 'em. That said, once in a
while that cold call has been useful, but they have to be nice about it,
which many really are.

(Said by one who just distributed several business cards to vendors at
the SecPro conference not an hour ago. But that was my choice...)

-- 
Regards,
-- Cal Frye, Network Administrator, Oberlin College

   www.calfrye.com,  www.pitalabs.com

"On the other hand, the early worm gets eaten."