11-Year-Old Becomes Network Admin for Alabama School

Slashdot: “alphadogg points out a story about 11-year-old Jon Penn, who took over
control of a 60-computer school network in Alabama after the old
administrator suddenly left. Penn provides technical support, selects
software, and teaches his classmates about computers. From
NetworkWorld: “The first thing Jon found as he leapt into the role of
network manager was that he had to map out the network to find out what
was on it. He bought some tools for this at CompUSA and realized there
was an ungodly amount of computer viruses and spam, so he pressed the
school to invest in filtering and antivirus protection. ‘These
computers are so old they don’t support all antivirus programs,’ Penn
says. The school took advantage of a Microsoft effort called Fresh
Start that offers free software upgrades for schools with donated
computers, switching from Windows 98 to Windows 2000.”