A mentor and friend, from whom I have learnt the vital skill of disciplined critical thinking

Foremost, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my two supervisors, Professor Phil Trinder and Dr Patrick Maier. Their patience, encouragement, and immense knowledge were key motivations throughout my PhD. They carry out their research with an objective and principled approach to computer science. They persuasively conveyed an interest in my work, and I am grateful for my inclusion in their HPC-GAP project.

Phil has been my supervisor and guiding beacon through four years of computer science MEng and PhD research. I am truly thankful for his steadfast integrity, and selfless dedication to both my personal and academic development. I cannot think of a better supervisor to have. Patrick is a mentor and friend, from whom I have learnt the vital skill of disciplined critical thinking. His forensic scrutiny of my technical writing has been invaluable. He has always found the time to propose consistently excellent improvements. I owe a great debt of gratitude to Phil and Patrick.

I would like to thank Professor Greg Michaelson for offering thorough and excellent feedback on an earlier version of this thesis. In addition, a thank you to Dr Gudmund Grov. Gudmund gave feedback on Chapter 4 of this thesis, and suggested generality improvements to my model checking abstraction of HdpH-RS.

A special mention for Dr Edsko de Vries of Well Typed, for our insightful and detailed discussions about network transport design. Furthermore, Edsko engineered the network abstraction layer on which the fault detecting component of HdpH-RS is built.

I thank the computing officers at Heriot-Watt University and the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre for their support and hardware access for the performance evaluation of HdpH-RS.

Contributor: Rob Stewart

Source: Stewart, R (2013) Reliable Massively Parallel Symbolic Computing: Fault Tolerance for a Distributed Haskell, PhD, Heriot Watt University

For my son, who because of who he is, made me who I am

This thesis would not exist without the parents and practitioners who agreed to share their stories with me – a heartfelt thanks to each of you for risking your story with me!

I also want to thank the many people who have accompanied me on different parts of the journey:

Judith Good and Susie Scott who have helped me to play by the rules – thank you for your patience and persistence and for keeping me on track;

Lou McGill, my critical friend;

Friends and colleagues at the University of Sussex, too numerous to mention by name, but the folk who have met for breakfast, or coffee, or cream tea;

The network of research students who inhabit Twitter and #phdchat, the folk who have so often picked me up and supported me when I’ve threatened to jump ship;

My colleagues at The Open University, some of whom commented on initial drafts and diagrams, and my managers who supported my application for financial support.

And most of all thanks to my husband, friend, confidant and proof reader – thank you Gordon for putting up with all the mood swings – and to my son, who because of who he is, got me involved in the special needs domain.

A PhD was never part of my life plan – they were for ‘clever’ people. A chance encounter and a foolish question started me on this journey. Thinking back, the journey didn’t start there, but much further back with other chance encounters and people who believed in me, in particular Colin Archer, my manager, mentor and friend for many years when I was a young social worker, but also other friends and colleagues who have share part of my life journey with me, the names of whom are now lost in the mists of time.

Contributor: Liz Thackray

Source: Thackray L (2013) The Meanings of the ’Struggle/Fight Metaphor’ in the Special Needs Domain: The experiences of practitioners and parents of children with high functioning autism spectrum conditions, PhD, University of Sussex

 

The seven anonymous informal carers who shared their lives with us

My deep appreciation to the following people who made this effort possible:

DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF HEALTH AND COMMUNITY STUDIES Mike Saks, Dean, School of Nursing and Midwifery; Mel Chevannes, Head of School

EXTERNAL EXAMINER Robert Miller, Director, The Centre for Social Research, School of Sociology and Social Policy, Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland

SUPERVISORY SUPPORT Denis Anthony (1st), Mark Johnson (2nd), Naomi Watson (Advisor)

MENTOR AND ADVISORY SUPPORT Brown DMU School of Economics and Social Science, Milton Keynes

ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT Sirron Norris-Monahan, Mary Seacole Research Centre, DMU

BIBLIOGRAPHIC SUPPORT Staff of the Charles Frears Campus Library, DMU

COLLEGIATE SUPPORT Veronica Bishop, Prue Chamberlayne, Harriet Clarke, Mark Freeman, Dawn Freshwater, Kenneth Gergen, Gunter Mey, Katja Mruck, Tinu Okubadajo, Richard Olsen, Tom Wengraf

COMMUNITY SUPPORT Hayley Poole and CLASP Carers’ Centre, Leicester; Fiona Gordon, Tracey Jeffers and The West Indian Senior Citizens’ Project, Leicester

PERSONAL SUPPORT UK Enid Irving, Scott Woods USA Mary Fallon, Mrs. Edward Jones

ANALYSES TEAM MEMBERS Denis Anthony, Mandy Ashton, Mark Atkinson, Roger Bettles, Giotto Bonomaully, Nicky Brooks, Brown, Jonathan Carver, Violet Chidombwe, Jim Doher, Mark Johnson, Christopher Maggs, Frances Maggs-Rapport, Belinda Place, Haley Poole, Ali Rashed, Jenny Smith, Denis Walsh, Naomi Watson

THE SEVEN ANONYMOUS INFORMAL CARERS WHO SHARED THEIR LIFE STORIES WITH US

Contributor: @Kip Jones

Source: Jones, K (2001) Narratives of identity and the informal care role, PhD, De Montfort University Leicester

The path to becoming a doctor is littered with distractions. I’d like to thank those distractions for making me the person I am

I would like to thank many people who have helped me through the completion of this dissertation. The first is my advisor, Steve Harrison, who is captivating, honest, and the true embodiment of a mentor. In combination with the mentorship of my advisor, I am blessed to work with dynamic and intelligent committee members Dr. Dennis Kafura, Dr. D. Scott McCrickard, Dr. Enid Montague, and Dr. Deborah Tatar. I would also like to thank the Computer Science Department at Virginia Tech and ADVANCE NSF for funding my time at Virginia Tech. Peggy Layne, who worked with me at ADVANCE was a brilliant and insightful mentor Additionally the mentorship of Victoria Bellotti, Oliver Brdiczka, Tara Matthews, and Tom Moran was instrumental to me during my internships, and their continued advice is invaluable.

This work was not completed in a vacuum. I worked with many brilliant students who broadened the value of the work: Laura Agnich, Monika Akbar, Aubrey Baker, Stacy Branham, Tom Dehart, Zalia Shams, and Edgardo Vega. Working with each of these students has been a gift that went much further than just completing work that needed to be done. Working with them expanded the value of the work. I appreciated each and every minute they spent with the data and (more important) with me.

I am thankful for and would like to acknowledge many others who helped me along the way: my father, Richard Hobby, who proofed many of my papers; my friends and family for late night phone calls; and my colleagues for bouncing ideas with me. This includes, but is not limited to Julia Hobby, Rich Hobby, Laura Harty, Elaine Hobby, Jason Lee, Shahtab Wahid, Tejinder Judge, Rishi Pande, Ross Goddard, Bobby Beaton, Sarah Peck, Kim Gausepohl, Kelly Meredith, Michael Evans, Jamika Burge, Manas Tungare, Ben Congleton, Pardha Pyla, Manuel Perez, Megan Beavers, Jocelyn Casto, Uma Murthy, Mara de Silva, Jon Howarth, Theresa Blanchard-Klunk, Sirong Lin, Joon Lee, Susan Wyche, Promita Chakraborty, Michael Stewart, the Garcoskis, Ben Hanrahan, Yeong-Tay Sun, Caitlin Sadowski, Alexandra Holloway, and Rex Hartson.

I am beyond grateful to all of my participants who were not paid to participate in the project. The people who participated in my study were generous with their time in a way that I can never repay.

Cameron Vega, my son, thank you for reorienting my life.

There are many neglected people and groups that are involved in the completion of a Ph.D. that I would like to acknowledge. I would like to thank Meg Kurdziolek for starting a dissertation writing group. I would like to thank all the amazing women in the front office in the Computer Science Department who calm me down when I express a complete lack of knowledge about paperwork, protocol, and procedures. I would like to thank my music library for the writing trances that helped complete each chapter. The group Horse Feathers has been specifically amazing. I would like to thank my university library for access to the many books and articles that influences how I think. The also sometimes purchased books that were relevant to my dissertation. I’d like to thank all the people who provided feedback when I presented posters and talked about my research at conferences. I’ve also received numerous scholarships, which have allowed me to travel to said conferences. Thanks for supporting a poor graduate student.

Being a woman in computer science has, in part, made me the woman I am. I’d like to thank the Anita Borg Institute and all the women who have been, and will continue to be, in the Virginia Tech Association for Women in Computing for the continual support. To complement that last comment, last, thanks to all the men in computer science who gave me explicit and implicit warnings that, as a woman, I couldn’t cut it. You enrage my inner feminist (read: “bitch”). Thanks for making me push myself harder.

The path to becoming a doctor is littered with distractions. I’d like to thank those distractions for making me the person I am.

Contributor: @LadyLaurian

Source: Vega, L (2011) Security in Practice: Examining the Collaborative Management of Sensitive Information in Childcare Centers and Physicians’ Offices. PhD, Virginia Tech, Computer Science.

Princess Nisa, you really are a little princess (and now it’s written in the Trinity College Library, so it must be true!)

Kenneth Henry – thanks for being a great supervisor and a good sport. Andrew ‘brain the size of a planet’ Lloyd, my mentor – Thank You For Sharing. None of it would have been the same if I wasn’t in such a positive, encouraging environment with the rest of the Wolfe Cubs. Karsten working side-by-side with you for the stuff of Chapter 4 was a great experience. I hope all my future collaborations are as fruitful and good-natured. Cathal and Lucy, the predecessors, thanks for showing me that it can be done (and how to do it!). Avril, thanks for always being willing to direct your insightful intellect towards my problems. Simon thanks for your willingness to help with anything. All of you, and the new folks, Antoinette, Kevin, and Sean, thanks for being so understanding and helpful while I’ve been writing up. Thanks also to Denis Shields for the suggestion of the block overlap simulations in Chapter 4, and all the members of the Tuesday lunchtime group for helpful comments over the years.

My family and friends deserve special thanks for supporting me in various ways. Mum – thanks for Friday lunchtimes in Dunnes & Crescenzi’s and ‘Friday Presents’. Dad – the running total is 2135 Brownie Points, a few more and you’ll have enough for a toaster. Emer – those cinema outings helped me stay relaxed, thanks. Wendy, my adopted Scottish sister and bestest friend – thanks for always dropping everything at a moment’s notice and making everything so much fun. Thanks to Gianluca for lots of emotional support and for help with footnotes and other LATEX oddities. Thanks to my ‘roomies’, Lisa and Emma Jane, for being great pals. Princess Nisa, you really are a little princess (and now it’s written in the Trinity College Library, so it must be true!). The girls on the rugby team definitely helped me keep my sanity by allowing me to vent my frustrations by tipping them upside-down in the mud of College Park … thanks!

Contributor: @aoifemcl

Source: PhD, Trinity College Dublin – for more on Aoife’s work

I am thankful to my loving wife Esther for her patience and encouragement

First of all, I’d like to thank my friends and family for their support throughout this writing process and my studies as a whole. Most notably, I am thankful to my loving wife Esther for her patience and encouragement. Also, my thanks go out to my supervisor and colleagues. To professor O’Callaghan, for finding the time to supervise me, for his support and his valuable feedback. I’d like to thank Jeroen de Jong of Erasmus University for proof-reading early versions of this work, for his contributions to the survey, for frequently providing advice and for being a great mentor in general. I’d like to thank Eric von Hippel for his friendly encouragement and inspirational guidance. Moreover, his seminal work in user innovation and open source communities provides a critical foundation for this thesis.

During my research, many people have provided important insights, put me into contact with the right people, or otherwise have enabled me to do this work. I whole-heartedly thank the whole RepRap and related communities, of which many have taken the time to provide information through the survey and in many other ways. I’d like to thank the many people that have provided encouragement and welcomed me to their homes, hackerspaces and labs. In particular I’d like to thank Benjamin “Mako” Hill, Zach “Hoeken” Smith, Bre Pettis, Chris Palmer, Rhys Jones, Adrian Bowyer.

Several conferences where I had the privilege to speak were the fertile soil for discussions and development of ideas that are now incorporated in this work. Many thanks to the organizers for making that happen, thanks to Hay Kranen, Thomas Madsen-Mygdal, Bas van Abel, Phoebe Moore, Michel Bauwens, George Kuk, Pedro Custodio, Carla Koen, Xander van Mechelen, Neil Gershenfeld and many others. To Siert Wijnia, for being a good friend and companion to the several conferences. To Martijn Elserman, for involving me in yet another adventure in open source 3D printing.

Finally, I’d like to thank the interviewees and others who have likewise contributed to this work, in no particular order, Marius Karthaus, Pieter de Bruijn, Aike de Jongste, Serge Broekhuizen, Gerald Barnett, Krista Polle, Kees Seldenrijk, George Kuk, Pia Weiss, Kerstin Balka, Marcin Jakubowski and Eric Hunting.

Additional thanks go out to Eric von Hippel and the MIT Sloan School of Management for subsidizing trips to New York City and MIT, Cambridge allowing me to conduct key interviews for my research and to EIM Business and Policy Research for providing additional funding that allowed me to do this work.

Contributor: @ErikDeBruijn Erik’s blog is here
Source: de Bruijn, E (2010) On the viability of the open source development model for the design of physical objects: Lessons learned from the RepRap project, MSc, University of Tilburg, The Netherlands