Re: [PLUG] SAGE/USENIX

["William H. Magill" <magill@mcgillsociety.org>]

On Tuesday, June 17, 2003, at 09:43  PM, Kam Salisbury wrote:
> Yes, I joined because I belive in trying
> to do my part to bring some standardization to the career field in
> general. I feel very strongly about certification and standardization 
> that
> is not vendor specific. I also feel strongly about process and
> foundational comprehension in terms of technical knowledge. You could 
> say
> I am very interested in learning why the fishing lure works the way it
> does versus just learning how to fish in general.

This is a very important point. Kam joined SAGE voluntarily!

Pennsylvania is NOT a Right to Work state.  There are many companies 
where your ability to hold a job at that company is contingent on being 
a member of the "Guild" aka Union.

And I'm not talking about the Building Trades here, but about Radio, 
TV, Newspapers, Librarians.

While a "closed shop" is something that most employers hate, in 
Pennsylvania they are legal, and companies have been known to go out of 
business trying to prevent them.

This is not to say that I disagree with SAGE, on the contrary, I was 
one of the first members and have remained one, as well as an ACM 
member.

Both organizations are committed to bringing "honor" and "prestige" to 
the industry. You meet people at their conferences that you will never 
meet at a PLUG meeting... simply because they come from other parts of 
the world.

The volume of information available at a LISA or USENIX or ACM 
conference is mind numbing.
They are not trade shows, but events where the most 
not-yet-state-of-the-art techniques and technologies are expounded upon 
and exchanged.

It is true, if you have no interest in anything but what the vendor 
wants to supply you with, then there is no reason to attend or 
participate.

But events like DECUS of old and even Encompass of pre HP days provided 
a forum for the exchange of ideas. Linus' first visit to the United 
States was paid for by DECUS. Long before the media had any idea such a 
thing as Linux existed, let along was important. You cannot begin to 
put a value on the ability to sit around and bend elbows over 3 or 4 
days with someone like him or Mad Dog. (Especially while cruising down 
the river on a paddle-boat!)

There are those for whom a job is just a job. For others it is a 
"position" and for others it is a career. While it is true that not 
everyone cares or "needs to know" what is going on in the world around 
them, people who do find the cost of an organization like SAGE to be 
cheap.

T.T.F.N.
William H. Magill
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magill@mcgillsociety.org
magill@acm.org
magill@mac.com

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