Apricots and Oranges by Barb Dijker I had the good fortune to be invited to present tutorials at a conference in Hong Kong: APRICOT, the 2nd annual Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies , Jan 27-31. I wasn't alone of course. Many of your usual USENIX faces were there including Evi Nemeth and Eric Allman, although Eric didn't know it until a day or two before. As the title might imply, the conference itself was not held via the Internet, but about the Internet of course. It's sponsored by the Asia Pacific NIC. As you might expect, the topics in both the tutorials and the technical sessions leaned toward the networking, rather than systems, side of the house. Many of the faces there from the USA were those you'd expect to see at the IETF. Since I'm on the SAGE board, I felt an obligation to wear my SAGE pin with pride and take the opportunity to do some missionary work. I asked the USENIX office to pack me up a box of goodies: membership packets; calls for papers; samples of publications like ;login:, SAGE booklets, and proceedings; and of course some leftover giveaways like the puzzles from LISA. I was going to hold a SAGE BoF. One of my tutorials was aimed at System Administrators, so there had to be some coming. Despite more than the usual conference snafus and not having Judy DesHarnais to make it look easy, APRICOT was a great success. Over 400 people attended from 25 different countries. About half of them took tutorials. APRICOT sponsored an impressive vendor show, terminal room, and networking demonstration. The energy at the conference rivaled the streets of Hong Kong a few floors below. The success of the SAGE BoF was not as stellar. It drew a whopping 3 people. I can muster plenty of excuses. Primarily, there was only one other BoF (opposite mine). From what I could tell, BoFs are decidedly a USA phenomenon. Maybe it's the name... which comes from an English idiom. Come to think of it, when I did a tutorial in Brazil last year, I don't recall anything much like a BoF. The tutorial speakers in Brazil were invited to evening Q&A sessions. Then there was the room. Because of a preceding secondary reception being cleaned up, I had to bump the time and setup in a back corner that wasn't readily visible from the doorway. Maybe it was because I already told all the students in my tutorials about USENIX and SAGE. Finally I was competing with Hong Kong. After a long day of technical sessions, which would you choose: a BoF or wandering through the exotic streets eagerly anticipating Chinese New Year? Quantity of BoF attendance aside, I learned a great deal -- more than just how to find "copy" watches, bootleg CD's, and vegetarian Dim Sum. While there are some cultural, political, logistic and a few technological differences, the System Administrators in that part of the world experience the same professional difficulties as we do in the USA. "They think our job is easy," lamented one BoF attendee. From a professional association, these System Administrators are looking for credibility, respect, and continuing education. Everyone I spoke to was thrilled with the efforts of SAGE to address those concerns and specifically the publication series, ethics, and "merit badges." They were comforted to discover their problems were already being addressed by someone, anyone. Sparse populations of System Administrators in the region, usually only in relatively major city centers in otherwise isolated locations, doesn't seem to lend itself to "local" SAGE groups or any local peer support at all. The SAGE "short topics" publications I brought with me were promised away, long before the BoF, to various Systems Administrators I encountered. The rest of the USENIX/SAGE materials I had were left for attendees to find the next few days on a table in the registration area. Although I had to leave before the conference was over, I have no doubt they were gone in a flash. I had 25 extra copies of my ISP Sysadmin and 45 extra copies of my PERL tutorial materials, all of which where snarfed up before the lunch break each day. The attendees were as eager for information as they were for the impending holiday. We should keep it flowing.