If you are not getting everything you need from posting to comp.os.linux.* groups and reading documentation, maybe it's time to consider joining SAGE, the System Administrators Guild, sponsored by USENIX. The main goal of SAGE is to advance system administration as a profession. SAGE brings together system and network administrators to foster professional and technical development, share problems and solutions, and communicate with users, management, and vendors on system administration topics.
Current SAGE initiatives include:
Co-sponsoring the highly successful annual System Administration Conferences (LISA) with USENIX.
Publishing Job Descriptions for System Administrators, edited by Tina Darmohray, the first in a series of very practical booklets and resource guides covering system administration issues and techniques.
Creating an archive site, ftp.sage.usenix.org, for papers from the System Administration Conferences and sysadmin-related documentation.
Establishing working groups in areas important to system administrators, such as jobs, publications, policies, electronic information distribution, education, vendors, and standards.
To learn more about the USENIX Association and its Special Technical Group, SAGE, contact the USENIX Association office at (510) 528-8649 in the U.S., or by email to office@usenix.org. To receive information electronically, contact info@usenix.org. Annual SAGE membership is $25 (you must also be a member of USENIX). Members enjoy free subscriptions to login: and Computing Systems, a quarterly refereed technical journal; discounts on conference and symposia registration; and savings on SAGE publication purchases and other services.