Hi,<br><br>I'd like to introduce myself to the community and give you some background to a research study I'll be conducting.<br>My name is Barry Smyth and I'm a Masters student in DIT Kevin st studying knowledge management.<br>
<br>During a case studies seminar on open source software which included a piece by Laura i got an idea for my dissertation. I was fascinated by the genuine enthusiasm of people within the open source community. From a knowledge management perspective this can help give an insight into what motivates people to share knowledge.<br>
<br>My dissertation is on the motivational drivers and barriers of volunteers in the open source community and a comparison of these results with those done of professional virtual communities.<br><br>I'll be looking for help from people within the Ubuntu community to firstly understand all the methods that knowledge is communicated. <br>
I'll also require help in identifying the motivational drivers and barriers within your community and then comprising interview questions and surveys.<br><br>My time frame is to have have the surveys completed and sent out in mid July.<br>
Laura has already been of a great help and i can't thank her enough. I'll be in touch again shortly after i get to know the Ubuntu world a bit better about help from the community in investigating those motivational drivers.<br>
Anyone who is interested in seeing my full proposal drop me a mail and I'll send it on to you.<br><br>Kind Regards<br>Barry Smyth<br>