Dear friends, I have been reading your postings to the mailing lists of the Gentoo Community. I have really enjoyed reading about your collaborative creative activities and your perspectives on the free/open source software.
My name is Tiebing Shi and I am a Ph.D. student at Queen's University in Canada. I am very interested in learning more about the Free/Open Source Software Community. The study that I am doing for my Ph.D. thesis is called "User Creativity: An Investigation of the Free/Open Source Software Community." The purpose of my thesis is to study how developers and users collectively create free/open source software. I sincerely invite you to participate in my study. I would like to interview you in your role as a developer and/or user in the legendary Gentoo Community. Your experiences of developing and/or using Gentoo programs and your perspectives on the free/open source software will greatly help me to understand the creative activities of the Gentoo Community. If your time permits, I would like to interview you via phone. The phone interview will last about 1 hour. If you like, we can conduct our interview via email. Please be kindly informed that there is no obligation to participate in this study. But your participation will be highly appreciated. Your confidentiality will be protected. For example, your real name will NOT be used in my thesis and future publications. Further information about this study and our interview will be provided to you upon request. Please respond to this email to let me know your interest in participating in a phone or an email interview with me. If you select the phone interview format, please select a time for an interview that is most convenient for you. Please also let me know your phone number and time zone (my time zone is Eastern Daylight Time) so that I can call you at your local time you select. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. I will respond to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your support and I look forward to talking with you. Sincerely, Tiebing Shi Queen's School of Business, Queen’s University Kingston, ON, Canada K7L 3N6 Tel: 613-533-2377 (Office) Email: t...@business.queensu.ca
