SAGE job descriptions

[usl.com">mlf]

I work for UNIX System Laboratories in the documentation department.  We
are beginning to plan a major overhaul of our system administration books
and want to develop profiles of our audience (or audiences).  I received
a copy of some mail sent by Tina M. Darmohray to usenix.org that consisted
of "job descriptions."

They appear to me to be good descriptions of our audience(s) as well.  I
was also wondering if your group has any other research or information on
characterisics of system administrators which might be available to us.

In particular, we are interested in information about what you might call
the "user-administrator."  That is, those people who have no particular
computer science background, but must maintain a UNIX system for their
own personal use, or for a small business.

Another question that I was interested in getting your opinion on is
whether you think there will continue to be an audience for descriptions
of system administration tasks as done from the command line interface.
Or will even professional administrators, responsible for maintaining
large, networked systems, prefer to work through GUI interfaces rather
than from the command line.

If you can help us obtain information on any of these questions, or if
you may know other people or organizations we could contact, I'd
appreciate it.

Cordially,

Mary L. Fox
UNIX System Laboratories
190 River Road
Summit, NJ 07901

(908) 522-6105

mlfgranite.usl.com