Ph.D. transfer defence
| Date: | 23 Nov 2007 |
|---|---|
| Title: | Method diffusion in large open-source projects |
| Slides: | S5, tarball |
In this presentation, I (successfully) defend my Master to Ph.D. transfer report in front of an examination panel and a public audience. The talk provides a good overview of my research goal, current state and future plans.
An audio recording of this talk (in low quality) is available on request.
Ph.D. research overview
| Event: | DebConf 7, Edinburgh, Scotland |
|---|---|
| Date: | 21 Jun 2007 |
| Title: | Method diffusion in large open-source projects |
| Slides: | S5, tarball |
In this presentation I give an overview of my research in progress to a Debian-centric audience. I present an overview of my thesis and introduce the concept of diffusion frameworks. I identify shortcomings of the classical frameworks and give an introduction into my current work, the selection of criteria and factors into a OSS-specific framework. I end by tying the research to the past and future of Debian and debunk a few myths on the way.
A video of this talk is forthcoming.
Overview of research in progress
| Event: | Lero workshop Feb 2007, Limerick Junction, Ireland |
|---|---|
| Date: | 9 Feb 2007 |
| Title: | Method diffusion in large open-source projects |
| Slides: | PDF, ODG, PPT |
In this short (10 minute) talk I give an overview of my research in progress, specifically:
- Basis of research, motivation
- Research hypothesis
- Two-phased approach: case studies and participatory action research
- Conceptual framework
- Implications on manegement science.
The presentation was to an audience of about 60 people, all working for Lero — the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre, and served mainly as my introduction to the larger Lero research group outside of the University of Limerick.
Improving cooperation in volunteer projects
| Event: | FrOSCon 2006, Sankt Augustin, Germany |
|---|---|
| Date: | 24 June 2006 |
| Title: | Improving cooperation in volunteer projects |
| Subtitle: | Workflow, communication, tools — and how to get people to adopt them |
| URL: | http://programm.froscon.de/events/78.en.html |
| Slides: | S5, tarball |
In this talk I present some of the ideas underlying my research:
- The breed of volunteers
- The need for change and thoughts on possible improvements in Debian
- Tools that have made a difference, successful or not
The core substance stems from my research proposal and is presented in combination with several ideas I had with respect to the Debian project over the past years.
The presentation was to a small audience and ended with discussions on team management, complexity, and tool usability.
Thoughts on workflow improvements in Debian
| Event: | FOSDEM 2006, Brussels, Belgium |
|---|---|
| Date: | 26 February 2006 |
| Title: | Improving workflow in global volunteer projects |
| Subtitle: | Introduction to my Ph.D. research |
| URL: | http://www.fosdem.org/2006/index/dev_room_debian/schedule#madduck |
| Slides: | PDF, PDF.bz2, OpenOffice |
This talk gives a (very) brief overview of my Ph.D. endeavour and then proceeds to put forth and flesh out some ideas that I have previously introduced into the Debian project. These include:
- Combining Debian stable and testing security
- More flexible package and patch management
- The package upload process
Even though my laptop cut out and left me without slides early on, the talk sparked some interesting discussions with fellow developers.

