Sunday Oct 05, 2008
It is good to see the Campus Ambassador program kicking off again. Last year was the 1st year, it was good and we learned a lot about running this type of program and personally in what is needed to be a good mentor (every day is a school day).
Ideally we would have coverage of every University in every country, a nice dream. What about the other Universities who don't have a Campus Ambassador? If you are at a UK University who does not have a Campus Ambassador, then don't despair(I doubt you were going to anyway). If you want to organize an visit(do the leg work of getting a critical mass of people in one place essentially), drop me a email and let us see if we can arrange an Solaris (DTrace/ZFS/whatever) session between us. The University of the Highlands and Islands this is a challenge to you, though Shetland and Orkney might be a struggle.
Thursday Dec 27, 2007
I have been a Sun OS Ambassador since 1999. Most of my focus has been to maintain the relationship Sun has with Universities in the UK, so I have taken the unofficial role of UK OS Ambassador for Education. I worked at a University in the role of Systems Administrator and as a researcher and doing some teaching, so it is a natural fit for me.
Its really good to see Universities at the top of Sun's corporate agenda again in a meaningful way. The most
visible activity which shows Sun is *really* serious about education again is the Campus Ambassador.
I thought it was worth listing the range of activities I have been involved as OS Ambassador since 1999 and if you are either a UK Campus Ambassador or work in a UK University and think that I might be of use, it would be a pleasure to help/pay you a visit or "get the right person" to help/pay you a visit.
- Solaris technology demo. Has been DTrace, ZFS, Zones over the last few years, but a wider range is possible.
- Invited talks to 2nd year Operating Systems courses.
- PhD external examiner in areas related to Operating or Distributed Systems.
- Our new system is slow/does not work and we can't get this issue resolved (yes, it does happen, though not very often and working in Service really helps on this one).
- I don't know who else to talk to in Sun, I know you are not the right person, but can you find them.
- We need someone independent to help us with Strategy Facilitation (I can do quite a good impression of a Management Consultant without any dress sense). Most of this is using techniques from the Kepner Tregoe Rational Process toolbox.
- Free performance analysis via SharedShell if I can blog about it.
- Student Mock Interviews and "how to prepare for interviews in industry" lectures.
- Department Industrial Liaison boards.
- Account team has a quick technical question and does not know where else to ask it.
- Outside/Independent member of an interview panel.
UK OS Ambassador for Education is one of my hobbies, a bit like rock climbing, fell running or restoring a 1973 Muir-Hill A5000. Having a day job in Support Services means I only get to spend a day or 2 a month outside the support dungeon doing Ambassador type work.
If you work in a UK university and think any of the above might help you, drop me an email and I look forward to meeting you.
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