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
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