As I suggest throughout this project, no knowledge or text is the product of a solitary mind. This is especially true in my case. Cindy Nahrwold, Rich Raymond, and Barb L’Eplattenier provided direction and support throughout this project. Steve Himmer, The Happy Tutor, Jill Walker, Invisible Adjunct, and Dorothea Salo created, in the course of their daily blogging, texts for analysis that they were kind enough to allow me to use here. The Happy Tutor also directed me toward numerous sources on gift theory. The fruit of those particular discussions does not appear here, however, having been reserved for my dissertation.

I could not have produced this work without the encouragement and expertise of (in alphabetical order) Chuck Anderson, Earnest Cox, Lynn Epnett, Chad Garrett, Cheryl Kennedy, Jimmy Kennedy, Gina Kokes, Karen Kuralt, John Logie, Michelle Palmer and Scott Rogers. I also owe a debt to those mentors who convinced me to pursue writing and scholarship in the first place: Doug Ashcraft, Amy Maid, and Judy Watts.

My deepest appreciation goes to Jeff Ward, who introduced me to blogging and offered intelligent feedback and encouragement throughout the year of work that went into this project. He also bravely lived with a working student and writer while finishing his own thesis. I could not ask for better company.