Desktop
Support
When the Burning Man volunteer staff moved into an office in 1999, there
was, for the first time, a centralized computing system that need to be
managed. A call for volunteers was met, and the Desktop Support team was
created.
In 2001 the team managed a network of dozens of desktops and laptops. The
office is mostly Mac-based, all the way down to our database (FilemakerPro)
and backup servers (Retrospect), with a Windows 2000 based bookkeeping department
and Linux based networking services.
The Desktop team has worked with a very small budget to ensure that
the organization has standardized operating systems, software,and
procedures across the board. Our Mac collection includes G4's, G3's,
various iMacs, iBooks, and Powerbooks, and even some older beige 7200,
8500, and 9600 models still in play.
The office is an active environment with over 30 volunteers and staff
members running in and out of it every day, each is dependent upon his/her
computer. The Desktop Support team is small and ususally invisible to
the end users, but also dedicated and good-humored enough to find satisfaction
in knowing that they are the unsung heroes of the office. 