Today I print out the final version of my thesis to hand in tomorrow. After 18 months of living with it is a great relief.
I’m not sick of the topic. The idea that librarians are getting out there and developing their own software and sharing it is still very, very exciting to me. When I compare my findings to the other scant literature about motivations for organisations to develop Open Source, it looks like libraries do have different reasons – less focus on economics and more on functionality. After so long with the same topic, though, I have lost the ability to critically look at my research and how I’m expressing it.
It is not a full Master’s thesis, just a way to top-up my Post Graduate Diploma to a Master of Information Management, designed to be finished in 6 months full-time. I’m so, so glad that the VALA Travel Scholarship gave me the chance to travel through the US and meet so many fantastic library heroes and be welcomed so warmly by them. As you can see from this embedded video of the Gables Bed and Breakfast in Philidelphia, I suffered great physical deprivation in the name of research:
I am not sure that I have the energy right now to continue further research into the topic, but there are questions I am itching for someone to find answers to… like:
- Is it libraries’ non-profit status that makes them less concerned about economics of Open Source than other organisations ?
- How does the software produced and the community that arises vary between libraries and higher education institutions that develop OSS like Zotero or Connex ?
- Do motivations and perceived risks for those who develop Open Source library software differ greatly from those who adopt Open Source software?
- Is there a correlation between being an already innovative organisation and developing Open Source Software? Adopting it? Not adopting it?
Post 7 of the 30 posts in 30 days challenge.
It must be a wonderful feeling to have it done done done. And to be free to pt energy into whichever trains of thought are most seductive, this one or perhaps something only obliquely connected. Congratulations.
Congratulations!
And they’re still making you print a copy? Electronic not good enough??
Thanks Miriam and Con. Yep paper printout – only.
Congratulations! That is a great accomplishment, I am always in awe of people who can do this sort of stuff.
And wow… awesome B&B. Did you play the organ/piano? I’d be itching to try them out.
Congratulations. Since writing a tiny, tiny, minor thesis for my 4th year honours stream, I have run continuously from every writing anything longer than 2 pages ever again. So I admire immensely those who do. Well done.