A student hopes to learn more about the Wine Community and Free/Open Source Software

[Tiebing Shi]

Dear friends,

I have been reading your postings to this mailing list and some of other
documents at the web site of the Wine 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 who are
often users of their creative products collectively create free/open source
software. The finding of this study will help other user communities or
organizations that hope to facilitate collective creative activities among
their own members.

I sincerely invite you to participate in my study. I would like to
interview
you in your role as a developer and user in the Wine Community. Your
experiences of developing and using Wine programs and your perspectives on
the free/open source software will greatly help me to understand the
creative
activities of the Wine 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
UTC-4hours)
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: [phone] (Office)
Email: tshi(a)business.queensu.ca