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Recently many Sun campus ambassadors expressed the intention to establish Sun Clubs in their colleges / universities, and leverage the Sun Clubs to promote Sun’s product and technology. Within Sun, some of my colleagues also share the same thoughts. In this article, I would like to share with you my opinions on this aspect.

In recent years, more and more companies are building their communities in university campuses. The earliest adventure seems to be the Microsoft Clubs sponsored and advised by the university relationship unit of Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA). The most recent attempt is Google Camp, which is advocated and promoted by Dr. Kaifu Lee, the founding president of Google China. Before discussing the possibility of establishing Sun Clubs, I would like to review the experiences from our friends such as Microsoft and Google, which can be of references for our future work.

The first Microsoft Club was founded in Sichuan University in October 2000. By May 2004 there were already 34 Microsoft Clubs in China. To support the variety of events in universities, MSRA launched several programs such as “Imagine Cup” software development competition, “Tomorrow’s Star” internship, student MVP (Most Valuable Person) selections, summer / winter camp, and practicing projects. It was through these programs that club members, especially the leading members, came to realize the value of participation and leadership in a Microsoft Club. In 2003 MSRA university relationship unit began to recommend outstanding club members for the MVP selection process. By 2007 there were 35 club members recognized as Microsoft MVP. The Microsoft student practicing project program was started in 2002. By 2008 Microsoft received 1700+ project applications, sponsored 450+ projects, and 30+ students became employees of Microsoft through this program. In execution, Microsoft provides funding and engineering resources (engineers to deliver technical presentations, equipments, books and CD’s) for the student activities (including technical exchange, software development, team building, and outing), while the club leaders are responsible for event planning, delivery, and reporting. The goal-oriented management method significantly stimulates the enthusiasm and creativity of club leaders, which results in very active club activities, and Microsoft Clubs becomes famous among student communities. During the past two years the activity and influence of Microsoft Club appears to be declining – possibly due to personnel changes at MSRA. However, most of the Microsoft Clubs in China are still in healthy shapes.

The first Google Camp was founded in Beijing University of Aerospace and Aeronautics in June 2006. Dr. Kaifu Lee attended the inauguration ceremony and delivered a keynote on “7 Most Demanded Qualifications in 21st Century”. During the next 6 months, like bamboo sprouts after a heavy rain in spring, 20+ Google Camps – along with Dr. Lee’s preaching, fermented campuses across China. As compared to Microsoft, Google seemed to have a different point of view regarding the future of Google Camps. As said by Dr. Lee, “Google Camps should be run by its members, and we expect good ideas. Google is responsible for provide funding.” Well, after the honey-moon fantasies, most of the Google Camps became silent and miserable. Except for several clubs that maintain a google relationship with Google, most of the clubs do not know what to do, or do not have the resource to do what they want. It seems to me that the country-wide inauguration of the many Google Camps across China in 2006 was simply a public propaganda, with a clear objective to promote hiring for the new-born Google China. Well, Google did achieved its hiring goal through these events, but might actually harvest an negative impact to its image in the long run.

What do we learn from Microsoft and Google? The most obvious is – money alone is not enough in building campus communities. Being one of the most valuable companies in the market, Google does have the money needed to build student communities. The problem with Google Camps was: Google set its goal too close. As we all know, the objective of any investment of a commercial company is to fulfill the interests of its share holders to the maximum. The interests mentioned here can be the elevation of the image of the company, the adoption of its key technologies, or the sales of its products, etc. However, this process, while maximizing the interests of the share holders, needs to provide benefits for the participants. The benefits mentioned here can be the acquisition of new knowledge, being known or respected by others, or increasing competitiveness in related fields. A cooperation relationship can not survive in the long run unless it brings value for both sides. In the case of Google Camp, Google achieved its goal before a trustworthy and reliable relationship can be established between Google Camp and Google. Because the lack of a long term vision, Google was reluctant to inject more fuel to the camps, and the relationship was discontinued. It is fair to say that the destiny of Google Camps was predefined on the very first day.

I don’t want to re-emphasize the importance of campus communities for Sun, which should be self-explaining. We have been thinking about the possibility of building campus communities for a while, but our approach will be different from those of Microsoft and Google. Microsoft and Google chose to established their own communities, while we will choose to join existing communities. In specific, we will joint the existing science and technology society, open source club, Java club, and Linux clubs, and provide the necessary resources for their activities. For example, we will provide funding for community activities, provide training for their major members, send engineers to deliver technical presentations, and provide internship opportunities for outstanding community members. In other words, by cooperating with existing campus communities, we provide students the opportunity to learn and use Sun’s product and technology, therefore acquiring new knowledge and enhance self-competitiveness. At the same time, Sun’s product and technology will be promoted and adopted in universities. Win-win, that is the word we would use to describe this relationship.

Microsoft Clubs and Google Camps are both exclusive communities. In other words, their subject matters are limited to the the product and technology from Microsoft or Google. This exclusiveness is similar to that of a religion – when a person is tagged with a certain religion, he/she will automatically reject thoughts and believes from other religions. We believe that this exclusiveness is incompatible with the open source spirit we are promoting. There are both pros and cons in different product and technologies from different vendors either in design, implementation, or application. All companies tend to demonstrated the best side of their product and technology, and avoid their shortcomings during the show. As a students, he/she should study the product and technology from various vendors without preference, and form his/her own option through comparison and critic. If a student decides to love Sun’s product and technology, we hope that this is not because he/she has only the opportunity to study and use ours.

So, Sun campus ambassadors, you should start looking for your community right now. Find an active organization in your campus – science and technology societies, open source clubs, or Java clubs. Join them, become part of them, and contribute to their growth. Tell them that recently you have learn something on OpenSolaris, MySQL, VirtualBox, or Java, and are willing to share with your fellow members. When the members of your organization have learn the basics of OpenSolaris, MySQL, VirtualBox, or Java, you will also be able to invite engineers from Sun to deliver more technical presentations and workshops. I believe, other than those exclusive organizations, no one will reject a sharing heart.

I like Korean movies, especially Dae Jang-Geum featuring the famous royal chef and the first royal woman physician during Li’s Empire in Korea in 16th century. When talking about cooking, Dae Jang-Geum mentioned that the most important qualification of a chef is sincerity – a chef needs to consider the needs of his/her patron at all times, even if he/she is simply presenting a glass of water. We as technology evangelists needs to possess the above-mentioned sincerity. Even if we are presenting a very simple topic/subject, we need to consider the needs of the audience. Take OpenSolaris for example, a student wants to know how to provide FTP service with OpenSolaris, how to create websites with OpenSolaris, and how to build applications for OpenSolaris. For any operating system, its users can be roughly categorized into four groups: desktop users, system administrators, application developers, and kernel developers. This is a pyramid-like structure. All system administrators, application developers, and kernel developers are desktop users. Both application developers and kernel developers need to know about system administration, while kernel development can be regarded as a special breed of application development. I am not suggesting that kernel developers are superior as compared to other users. Rather, I am suggesting the importance of desktop users, system administrators, and application developers, because they represent the majority of our audience. Therefore, we should introduce more content related to desktop usage, system administration, and application development, and less content related to kernel development – simply because this is not what the audience want. As to the question of whether OpenSolaris is much better than others, we should leave this to the judgement of our audience.

I believe that the team in China has began to possess the sincerity as defined by Dae Jang-Geum.

Chinese Version: 2008.05.10, midnight, on flight CA 986
English Version: 2008.05.13, Tsinghua University

很多Sun 校园大使都希望在自己的学校建立Sun 技术俱乐部，以Sun 技术俱乐部为依托来宣传和推广Sun 公司的产品和技术。在Sun 公司内部，一些和我一起工作的同事也有类似的想法。因此，我希望通过这个帖子来和各位分享一下我个人在这个问题上的一些想法。

近些年来，在大学校园里建立俱乐部的公司是越来越多了。最早的一家，似乎是微软俱乐部，由微软亚洲研究院高校关系部负责资助和指导工作。最近的尝试，是Google Camp，现任Google公司全球副总裁李开复先生亲自为之且鼓且呼。在讨论Sun 技术俱乐部之前，我想首先回顾一下微软和Google等朋友的经验，看看是否能够为我们将来的工作提供一点借鉴。

第一个微软俱乐部于2000年10月成立于四川大学，到2004年5 月的时候迅速发展到34个之多。在支撑平台层面，微软亚洲研究院推出了“创新杯”软件开发大赛、“明日之星”实习生、学生MVP评选活动、学生夏令营／冬令营、学生实践项目等多个项目，让微软俱乐部的成员 －－ 尤其是负责人 －－意识到参与和领导一个微软俱乐部的价值所在。举个例子来说，微软亚洲研究院高校关系部从2003年开始推荐表现突出的俱乐部成员参加微软MVP评选，到 2007年就有35名俱乐部成员当选为微软MVP。微软学生实践项目从2002年10月启动，到2008年一共收到1700多份项目申请，超过450个项目获得微软的资助，30多名学生通过此项目成为微软公司的员工。在实际操作层面，微软采取了“给钱，给人，放权，要数”的管理方法 －－俱乐部负责人策划和组织学生活动（包括技术交流、软件开发、同城联谊、踏青郊游），微软亚洲研究院则为俱乐部提供资金、资料（光盘、图书、设备）和工程师支持。这种以目标为导向的粗放式管理方式充分调动了俱乐部负责人的积极性和创造力，微软俱乐部也因此成为各地高校比较活跃技术类俱乐部之一。最近两年，可能是由于微软亚洲研究院方面的某些人事变动，也可能是在发展过程中遇到了某些瓶颈，微软俱乐部的活跃程度和影响力与过去相比稍有下降，但仍然是一个良性发展的学生社团。

第一个Google Camp于2006年6 月成立于北京航空航天大学，李开复先生亲自主持北航Google Camp的成立仪式，并做题目为《21 世纪最需要的7种人才素质》的主题演讲。 在接下来的6 个月时间里，全国各地的大学校园里雨后春笋般涌现了20多个Google Camp，而李开复先生的21世纪人才观也随之传遍大江南北。Google Camp的发展和运营理念与微软俱乐部完全不同，用李开复先生的一句话来概括就是：“更多的事情要由我们成员来决定，有更好的点子也可以，Google主要负责资金支持。”在经过最初6 个月的狂热之后，大部分的Google Camp开始陷入沉寂和迷茫。除了极少数几个和Google公司维持着良好关系的特例之外，其他高校的Google Camp基本上都不知道应该做些什么，或者是想做一些事情也没有资源去实现。纵观这两年来Google Camp的发展，2006年下半年在全国各地发起成立Google Camp的行动，更象是Google中国公司为了招聘新员工而推出的系列公关宣传活动。从短期来看，Google公司确实达到了宣传和招新的目的；但是从长期来看，这种“始乱终弃”的做法可能会对Google的企业形象造成负面的影响。

比较微软和Google两家公司的经验和教训，我们注意到仅仅依靠资金并不足以维持学生社团的健康成长。毫无疑问，作为IT行业最值钱的公司之一，Google并不缺少建设学生社团所需要的资金。Google公司的问题在于Google Camp在一开始便表现出过度的功利性。在这里我使用了“过度的功利性” 这样的描述，想要说明的是问题在于“过度”而不在于“功利性”。任何一个商业公司的投资行为，都是为了实现其股东利益的最大化 －－这个利益可以具体化为公司形象的提升，对公司至关重要的技术被普及，或者是公司的产品被市场所接受。关键在于，在公司实现其股东利益最大化的同时，需要给这个过程中的参与者带来价值 －－这个价值可以是获得新的知识，被他人所认识和尊重，或者是提高自身的竞争力。如果某种合作关系不能够给合作双方都带来价值，这种合作关系通常是无法长久存在的。在Google Camp这个特例中，在Google Camp和Google之间的相互信任和相互依赖关系尚未建立起来之前，Google公司已经完成了它招新的目的。由于缺乏远期规划的缘故，Google 在达成预定目标之后没有能够持续地为Google Camp注入活力，从而迅速破坏了Google Camp和Google之间尚未成形的信任和依赖关系。可以这么说，从Google Camp诞生的第一天起，就已经注定了它今天的命运。

我无须深入讨论学生社团对于Sun 公司的重要性，这种关系应该是不证自明的。我们确实一直在考虑如何切入学生社团的工作，但是我们的做法可能与微软和Google都不一样。微软和Google，一致选择了创建新的社团，而我们则会选择参与已有的社团。说得详细点，就是我们会参与各地高校院系科协、开源俱乐部、Java俱乐部、Linux俱乐部等等学生社团的活动并提供必要的资源支持。我们可以为社团的活动提供必要的活动经费，提供针对社团骨干力量的技术培训，派遣Sun 公司的工程师为社团举办技术讲座，并且为社团活动中表现突出的同学提供进入Sun 公司实习的机会。换句话说，通过与学生社团的合作，我们使得更多的学生能够有机会深入学习和掌握Sun 公司的产品和技术，从而获得新的知识并提高自身的竞争力，同时也达到了我们技术推广的目的。用一个比较时髦的词来形容，就是双赢。

微软俱乐部和Google Camp，从根本上来说，都是一种排他性的社团。也就是说，其活动的主题局限于讨论与微软和Google相关的产品和技术。这种排他性就犹如宗教，当一个人被贴上某个宗教的标签之后，便会自觉地拒绝来自其他宗教的思想。我们相信，这种排他性与我们所推崇的开放、开源的理念格格不入。来自不同公司的产品和技术，在设计、实现、应用等方面各有其优点和缺点。王婆卖瓜的典故大家都听说过，每一家公司都倾向于展示自身最完美的一面，对于不足之处则尽可能避而不谈。一个学生只有不带偏见地去学习不同的技术，才能够通过比较、批判和选择形成自己的观点。假如一个学生最终喜欢Sun 公司的产品和技术，我们希望这不是因为他只有机会接触我们的产品和技术的原因。

因此，Sun 公司所有的校园大使，从现在开始就要找到自己的组织。找一个本校比较活跃的学生社团，可以是院系科协、开源俱乐部、Java俱乐部、开源俱乐部。加入他们，成为他们的一分子，为他们的成长贡献自己的力量。告诉你的组织你最近学习了一些OpenSolaris、MySQL、VirtualBox，或者是Java方面的知识，并且愿意和同学们一起分享自己的经验和体会。当组织里的成员已经具备了关于OpenSolaris、MySQL、VirtualBox，或者是Java的一些基础知识之后，你也许还能够邀请Sun 公司的工程师来给同学们做一些深入的讲解和答疑。我相信，除非是一个排他性的社团，没有人能够拒绝一颗乐意分享的心。

我喜欢韩剧，而尤其喜欢《大长今》。大长今说过这么一句话：做食物的人最需要的是诚意，哪怕是端上一碗水，也要考虑喝水的人的需要。我们做技术推广的，也需要具备这种诚意，哪怕是讲一个最简单的主题，也要考虑听众的需要。以OpenSolaris为例，学生想要学习的是如何用OpenSolaris去搭建FTP，如何用OpenSolaris去搭建网站，如何在OpenSolaris上开发应用。任何操作系统的的用户，都可以大致地分为四个群体：桌面用户，系统管理员，应用开发人员，内核开发人员。这是一个金字塔形的结构。所有的系统管理员、应用开发人员和内核开发人员都是桌面用户。应用开发人员和内核开发人员要具备系统管理的知识，而内核开发其实是在开发一种特殊的应用。打这个比方并不是为了强调内核开发人员的与众不同，而是强调桌面用户、系统管理员和应用开发人员的重要性，因为他们在全体听众当中所占的比例最大。因此，我们的技术讲座要增加使用、管理和开发类内容的比重，减少内核类内容的比重，因为这些内容对于大部分的听众来说是不需要的。至于OpenSolaris是不是真的比其他操作系统好十万八千倍，这个问题应该留给学生自己去评价。

我相信我们在中国的团队已经开始具备大长今的诚意。

2008.05.10，深夜，于CA 986航班上

It is extremely frustrating and annoying to realize that you are on a different intelllectual level as compared to someone else. That was exactly my feeling when visiting the Yueba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) at downtown San Francisco.

I agree that we are living in a crazy world, and artists today are reflecting our crazy world back to us. I agree that through their works they are trying to capture our attention, make us think, and force us to care. However, I have a feeling that all this can be done in a more straight-forward, more persuasive, and therefore more productive way. Especially, it seems to me that it is very difficult to make people realize this crazy world by driving them crazy.

For example, in contemporary art video is often used as an element in an artwork. Although I myself don’t watch TV that often I don’t have any problem with this new element in an artwork. The problem is, if you want to show people a video clip, you really need to learn some camera skills, at least don’t make the camera shiver in your hands. Data from medical researches in related fields has indicated that watching a vibrating video not only leads to visual impair and motion sickness, but also stimulates psychiatric disorders. I must agree that an audience will feel uncomfortable after viewing such an artwork (vibrating motion scenes on a screen), and come to the conclusion that only in a really crazy world can such a piece of crap be considered as artwork, which might be exactly what the artists want. But, what happens after the audience resumes consciousness? I don’t know what other people will do but I really hate that artist who makes me sick through his/her work. They should all be put to jail for murdering the neurons and brain cells of their audiences with such a systematic plot.

With that said, I should probably step back and admit that I am just too dumb to understand all these.

PS:

During the past 4 years I have been visiting San Francisco for a dozen times, but I have never really walked around downtown San Francisco. (I usually stay at Palo Alto and work at Menlo Park, which is 45 minutes drive from downtown San Francisco.) This time the JavaOne conference was being held at the Moscone Center in downtown Francisco, and I had the opportunity to take a 2-hour walk after all the highly intensive work. It was a great pleasure to find out that San Francisco Museum of Modern Arts (MOMA) was quite close to Moscone Center, where the JavaOne conference was being held. However, my time was so limited that I decided to visit YBCA instead, which was a lot smaller. (And I am feeling sorry for the decision.) A couple of blocks away, on Market Street, stands Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Not far away from YBCA there is a shop of 琉璃工坊（Liuli Gongfang, AKA Glass Arts Workshop）, which is labeled as an art gallery. I stepped in, and a Chinese lady greeted me with charming smile on her face. I was delighted to see my favorite 娟索手 designed by Lady Huishan Yang on the shelf, but gave up the purchase when looking at the price tag.

Will probably come back in July. By that time I really need to spend a whole day hanging around the museums.

Last night, Matt sent out a notice to our team saying that some of our SDN editors working at the JavaOne site had come down with flu-like symptoms. Early in the morning, all JavaOne attendees received an email from the JavaOne team that San Francisco Department of Public Health believed that there was an outbreak of morovirus, and the Moscone Center (where the JavaOne event is being held) was impacted. The email also informed all the JavaOne attendees that actions had been taken overnight to disinfect the facility, and the event will go on as scheduled.

It should be mentioned that the JavaOne event got started on Monday. On Thursday afternoon the flu-like symptoms were reported by employees of Sun to their managers. Sun and the JaveOne event team immediately contacted San Francisco Department of Public Health, who inspected the venue, collected samples, disinfected the facility, and made justifications for the event to continu, overnight.

This reminds me of the hand-foot-mouth disease that is currently outbreaking in China, which have caused the death of more than 10 children in different provinces. According to related news releases, doctors began to suspect the outbreak of the disease in early March. Local authorities denied the outbreak of a contagious disease in the end of March. It was after the death of 6 children that medical authorities admitted the outbreak of the disease in mid-April — as of today there have been 25000 infections and 34 deaths reported.

All lives should be respected. The difference is — different lives are being respected at different levels in different countries. It makes me feel very bad by the fact that China is doing so poor in this aspect.