Curriculum vitae

Personal pages

Short CV with incomplete publications

Degrees

  1. First class honours in Physics, from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne. 1987
  2. PhD Theoretical Physics, from University of Newcastle Upon Tyne. 1990
  3. Elected to full professor in computer science, by international committee 2005.

Positions

  1. Royal Society Post-Doctoral Fellowship 1991/92 University of Oslo, Norway.
  2. Post-doctoral fellowship of the Norwegian Research Council 1993/94.
  3. Unix systems consultant, Dept. of physics, 1993/94 University of Oslo.
  4. Associate professor (Senior Lecturer), University College Oslo, 1994-2005
  5. Professor, Chair of Networks and Systems, Oslo Univesity College, 2005-2009 (left to start CFEngine Inc)
  6. CTO and Founder of CFEngine AS, Inc, 2008-2014.
  7. Founder, Advisor, MemnonTK, working with Fortune 100 companies, 2014-
  8. Founder of ChiTek-i, 2018-

Awards and Prizes

  1. Warriner mathematics prize, for best lecture on pure mathematics (geometry).
  2. Keith Runcorn prize for best PhD thesis in a physics related subject for 1991 (University of Newcastle Upon Tyne)
  3. Usenix Best paper award 1998, in Large Installation System Administration, for Computer Immunology
  4. Recognition from Oslo University College for composition of alternative clock chimes for Pilestredet campus 1999
  5. NATO collaborative research grant 1995-1997
  6. NATO collaborative research grant 1997-1999
  7. USENIX 2001 Life-time achievement award. One of many recipients for the GNU project and its contributors. (For Cfengine, volunteer work and the C programming tutorial.)
  8. The SAGE 2003 Professional Contribution Award: "For groundbreaking work in systems administration theory and individual contributions to the field".
  9. Winner of the World Class Technology Summit contest, Best Innovation Concept Award, with Siri Fagernes for ``Promise theory -- a model of autonomous objects for pervasive computing and swarms''.
  10. DSOM2006 Best paper award for ``Predictable Scaling Behaviour in the Data Centre with Multiple Application Servers, (with Gard Undheim), Proceedings of DSOM 2006, LNCS 4269 p49-60 (2006) ''

Books

  1. Paged ROM programming for the BBC Micro, Dabs Press, 1985.
  2. C, Dabs Press 1988
  3. C, (Third Edition) Dabs Press 1992
  4. C Tutorial (Fourth edition), Free Software Foundation, 2000
  5. AmigaDOS, Dabs Press 1989
  6. Classical Covariant Fields, Cambridge University Press, 2002
  7. Principles of Network and System Administration, J. Wiley \& Sons. 2000
  8. Selected Papers in Network and System Administration, J. Wiley \& Sons. 2001 (Editor, with E. Anderson and A. Couch.)
  9. Principles of Network and System Administration (Second edition), J. Wiley \& Sons. 2004
  10. Analytical Network and System Administration (Human-Computer management), J. Wiley \& Sons. (2004)
  11. Handbook of Network and System Administration, Elsevier 2007, (Editor with Jan Bergstra)
  12. An Engineers Guide Host Configuration and Maintenance using Cfengine, Usenix Association 2007. (with \AE leen Frisch)
  13. Modern Infrastructure Engineering with CFEngine 3
  14. A Sysadmin's Guide to Navigating the Business World
  15. In Search of Certainty 2013
  16. Promise Theory: Principles and Applications (with Jan Bergstra) 2014
  17. Promise Theory: Case Study on Brexit (with Jan Bergstra) 2014
  18. Thinking In Promises, 2015
  19. Smart Spacetime: How Information Challenges our Ideas about Space and Time, 2019
  20. Promise Theory: Principles and Applications (second edition) 2019
  21. Money, Ownership, and Agency (with Jan Bergstra) 2019
  22. A Treatise om Systems (volumes I and II) - TBA

Magazine Articles

  1. Cfengine: A Network Configuration Tool. 1993.
  2. The Shape of Programming To come Your Amiga 24-26 June 1988.
  3. C - Setting Up Your Amiga 14-16 Aug. 1988.
  4. First Words in C Your Amiga 14-18 Oct 1988.
  5. Pointing Out Storage Your Amiga 16-19 Dec. 1988.
  6. First Words in C Your Amiga 24-26 April 1989.
  7. Evolution Shape and Form Your Amiga 24-26 Apr. 1989.
  8. The Window to Intuition Your Amiga 18-20 Jun. 1989
  9. Getting Going ST/Amiga Format (1) 83-84 1988.
  10. Poetic Gravity. Times Literary Supplement 1990
  11. Effective Action. University of Oslo report 1992
  12. Anyon Superconductivity. University of Oslo 1992
  13. Unix local guide. University of Oslo 1992
  14. Information revolutions Physics Today November 1996 page 77
  15. The encyclopaedia of computer science 4th edition, edited by A. Ralston, E. reilly and D. Hemmendinger, Grove's dictionaries (2000) (contribution on Unix)
  16. Managing filesystem ACLs with GNU/Cfengine. ;login: (23). 3:18-22
  17. Managing system security with GNU/Cfengine. I ;login: (24) 4:26-28 1999
  18. Managing system security with GNU/Cfengine. II ;login: (24) 5:20-28 1999
  19. Managing system security with GNU/Cfengine. III ;login: (24) 6:41-47 1999
  20. Analytical system administration I ;login: (25) 3:41-46 2000
  21. Analytical system administration II ;login: (25) 4:50-54 2000
  22. Analytical system administration III ;login: (25) 5:35-38 2000
  23. Interview on the meaning of digital,Dagbladet/Magasinet Oct 2000
  24. In sickeness and in health: the three laws ;login: (25) 8:5-8 (2000)
  25. A kind of magic ;login: (26) 1:29-32 (2001)
  26. The myth of computer control ;login: (26) 2:30-36 (2001)
  27. Entropy: The Good, the Bad and the Aged ;login: (26) 3:24-31 (2001)
  28. In Search of Cleopatra's Needles ;login: (26) 4:10-18 (2001)
  29. Clusters and Parallels: ecologies (unpublished)
  30. Diagnosis - the projection of LISA to come? ;login: (26) 6:35-46 (2001)
  31. Christmas Carol ;login: (26) 8:5-13 (2001)
  32. Rule-based cluster management with GNU cfengine Newsletter of the IEEE Taskforce on Cluster Computing: 4(1), (2002)
  33. Talking to the walls ;login: (2004)
  34. Cabbage Patch KISS. ;login: 2007;31(4):15-21
  35. Bable, Babble, toil and grammar.;login: 2007;31(5):18-25
  36. A Shocking Lack of Ad-hocracy. ;login: 2007;31(6)
  37. There's no I/O without U: Economic Networking. ;login: 2007;32(1)
  38. Promises, Promises (an interview with Mark Burgess). ;login: 2007;32(2)

Chapters in books

  1. Preface to Handbook of Network and System Adminisration, Elsevier 2007, (Editor with Jan Bergstra)
  2. Scaling Data Centre Services, in Handbook of Network and System Adminisration, Elsevier 2007, (Editor with Jan Bergstra)
  3. On the Complexity of Change and Configuration Management (with Lars Kristiansen), in Handbook of Network and System Adminisration, Elsevier 2007, (Editor with Jan Bergstra)
  4. System Administration and the Scientific Method, in Handbook of Network and System Adminisration, Elsevier 2007, (Editor with Jan Bergstra)
  5. System Administration and Micro-Economic Modelling, in Handbook of Network and System Adminisration, Elsevier 2007, (Editor with Jan Bergstra)

Computer science papers

  1. Cfengine: a site configuration engine, USENIX Computing systems, Vol8, No. 3 1995
  2. Strategies for Distributed resource Administration Using Cfengine, Software-Practice and Experience 27, 1083 (1997).
  3. Object orientation and visualization of physics in two dimensions Computers in physics Vol12, Issue 3, p.274 1998. With H. Haugerud and A. Strandlie
  4. Adaptive locks for frequently scheduled tasks with unpredictable run-times, Proceedings of the 11th system administration conference (USENIX/LISA) October 1997
  5. Automated system administration with feedback regulation, Software-Practice and Experience 28, 1519 (1998).
  6. Computer Immunology, Proceedings of the 12th system administration conference (USENIX/LISA) 1998
  7. Cfengine as a component of computer immune-systems. Proceedings of the Norwegian Informatics Conference 1998
  8. Measuring system normality I,1999, rewritten 2002 for ACM/TOCS(with H. Haugerud and S. Straumsnes)
  9. Measuring system normality II,1999, rewritten 2002 for ACM/TOCS (with T. Reitan S. Straumsnes)
  10. Evaluating cfengine's immunity model of site maintenance, Proceedings of the SANE 2000 conference.
  11. On the theory of system administration. Science of Computer Programming 49, 2003. p1-46
  12. Theoretical system administration. Proceedings of the 14th USENIX/LISA 2000
  13. Predictable configuration management in a randomized scheduling framework, Proceedings of the IFIP/IEEE DSOM2001 Conference, with F. Sandnes
  14. Recent developments in cfengine. Proceedings of the 2nd Unix.nl conference, Netherlands 2001
  15. System administration as communication over a noisy channel, Proceedings of the SANE 2002 conference (NLUUG 2002).
  16. Security and online evaluation with large classes, HIO Internal Report 2002
  17. Measuring system normality, ACM Transactions on Computing Systems 20, p.125-160 (2002)(with H. Haugerud and S. Straumsnes and T. Reitan)
  18. Two dimensional time-series for anomaly detection and regulation in adaptive systems, in Proceedings of 13th IFIP/IEEE International Workshop on Distributed System, operations and management (DSOM 2002). "Management Technologies for E-Commerce and E-Business Applications" Springer 2002.
  19. Scalability of peer configuration management in partially reliable and ad hoc networks(with G. Canright), Proceedings of IEEE/IFIP IM2003 conference on Integrated Network Management
  20. A scaled, immunological approach to anomaly countermeasures (Combining pH with cfengine)(with K. Begnum), Proceedings of IEEE/IFIP IM2003 conference on Integrated Network Management
  21. Experiences with peer-review evaluation in computer science courses(with F. Sandnes) ICEE conference proceedings 2002
  22. Procedural Security and Quality Assurance in Learning and Examinations, HIO Internal report 2002
  23. A Graphical Model of Computer Security (From Access Control to Social Engineering) with Geoffrey Canright, in International Journal of Information Security (IJIS), vol 3, 70-85 (2004).
  24. Configurable immunity for evolving human-computer systems, Science of Computer Programming, Volume 51, Issue 3 , June 2004, Pages 197-213
  25. Archipelago: A Network Security Analysis Tool(With T. Stang et al.) Proceedings of LISA 2003. p 153
  26. A Network Security Analysis Tool (With T. Stang et al.) Proceedings of NIK 2003.
  27. Importance functions for directed graphs, 2004, (with G. Canright and K. Eng\o-Monsen) - resubmitted to Journal of Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery as ``Mining Topological Importance From The Eigenvectors Of Directed Graphs'' in 2007.
  28. Probabilistic anomaly detection in distributed computer networks, Submitted to Science of Computer Programming.
  29. Principal components and importance ranking of distributed anomalies. (with K. Begnum), Machine Learning Journal, {\bf 58}, 217-230, (2005).
  30. Pervasive Computer Management I: A Model of Network Policy with Local Autonomy (with S. Fagernes - submitted to IEEE TSE)
  31. Pervasive Computer Management II: Voluntary Cooperation (with S. Fagernes - in preparation)
  32. Pervasive Computer Management III: Equilibration of human-computer policies (with S. Fagernes - in preparation)
  33. Autonomic infrastructure in a virtual grid landscape from abstract roles (with K. Begnum and J. Sechrest - unpublished)
  34. Scalability of peer configuration management in logically ad hoc networks (with G. Canright)
  35. Scaling behaviour of peer configuration management in logically ad hoc networks (with G. Canright), IEEE eTransactions on Network and Service Management vol 1(1) 2004 (no page numbers).
  36. A risk analysis of disk backup or repository maintenance. Science of Computer Programming 2007;64:312-331 (with Trond Reitan)
  37. An Approach to Understanding Policy Based on Autonomy and Voluntary Cooperation, submitted to IFIP/IEEE 16th international workshop on distributed systems operations and management (DSOM).
  38. Voluntary cooperation in a pervasive computing environment, Proceedings of LISA 2005
  39. On the Stability of Adaptive Service Level Agreements, (with Kyrre Begnum, Tore M. Jonassen and Siri Fagernes), IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management ( Volume: 3, Issue: 1, Jan. 2006)
  40. Summary of Stability of Adaptive Service Level Agreements, (with Kyrre Begnum, Tore M. Jonassen and Siri Fagernes), in the IEEE Proceedings of the International Policy Workshop 2005.
  41. Modelling Next Generation Configuration Management Tools, LISA 2006.
  42. Autonomic Computing Approximated by Fixed-Point Promises, MACE Workshop, Manweek 2006
  43. Autonomic Pervasive Computing: A Smart Mall Scenario Using Promise Theory, MACE Workshop, Manweek 2006
  44. Predictable Scaling Behaviour in the Data Centre with Multiple Application Servers, (with Gard Undheim), Proceedings of DSOM 2006, LNCS 4269 p49-60 (2006)
  45. Uncertainty in Global Application Services with Load Sharing Policy, (with Sven I. Ulland), Proceedings of DSOM 2006, LNCS 4269 p37-48 (2006)
  46. Network Patterns in Cfengine and Scalable Data Aggregation, with Matt Disney and Rolf Stadler
  47. On the Reliability of Service Level Estimators in the Data Centre, (with Jon Henrik Bj\o rnstad), Proceedings of IM 2007, IEEE Press.
  48. Promise theory -- a model of autonomous objects for pervasive computing and swarms, (with Siri Fagenes), Proceedings of the World Class Technology Summit Contest, 2006. (Winner of best paper)
  49. A Promise Theory View on the Policies of Object Orientation and Service Oriented Architecture (with D. Aredo and S. Hagen)
  50. Voluntary Economic Cooperation in Policy Based Management, submitted to IEEE TSE 2006.
  51. Adaptive provisioning using virtual machines and autonomous role-based management, (with K Begnum and J. Sechrest), Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Autonomic and Autonomous Systems (ICAS'06) (2006).
  52. A Promise Theory Approach to Collaborative Power Reduction in a Pervasive Computing Environment, (with F. Sandnes), Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4159 p615-624 (2006).
  53. Norms and Swarms, Lecture Notes on Computer Science 4543 (Proceedings of the first International Conference on Autonomous Infrastructure and Security (AIMS)) p. 107-118 (with Siri Fagernes)
  54. Validating the Promise Theory Syntax using Rewriting Logic Lecture Notes on Computer Science 4543 (Proceedings of the first International Conference on Autonomous Infrastructure and Security (AIMS)) p. 203-206 (with Kyrre Begnum)
  55. Improving Anomaly Detection Event Analysis Using the EventRank Algorithm, Lecture Notes on Computer Science 4543 (Proceedings of the first International Conference on Autonomous Infrastructure and Security (AIMS)) p. 143-154 (with Kyrre Begnum)
  56. A Process Algebra based Framework for Promise Theory, Technical Report University of Amsterdam, 2007 (with Jan Bergstra and Inge Bethke)
  57. On the consistency of distributed knowledge. I: Modelling Autonomic Computing Environments, 2nd IEEE International Workshop, MACE 2007. Berlin: Multicon verlag 2007. ISBN 3-930736-09-8. s. 145-154
  58. Laws of Human-Computer Behaviour and Collective Organization (2006) Unpublished (with Siri Fagernes)
  59. Laws of Systemic Organization and Collective behaviour in Ensembles. I: Modelling Autonomic Computing Environments, 2nd IEEE International Workshop, MACE 2007. Berlin: Multicon verlag 2007. ISBN 3-930736-09-8. s. 115-130 (with S. Fagernes)
  60. Fault Detection in Autonomic Networks using the Concept of Promises. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2007;4785:62-73 (with R. Badonnel)
  61. Dynamic pull-based load balancing for autonomic servers, Network Operations and Management Symposium, 2008. NOMS 2008. IEEE
  62. Service Load Balancing with Autonomic Servers: Reversing the Decision Making Process, in Resilient Networks and Services, Volume 5127 of the series Lecture Notes in Computer Science pp 92-104 (with Remi Badonnel)
  63. On system rollback and totalised fields: An algebraic approach to system change, Journal of Logic and Algebraic Programming 80 (2011), pp. 427-443 DOI information: 10.1016/j.jlap.2011.07.001
  64. What's wrong with knowledge management? And the emergence of ontology, chapter in New Research on Knowledge Management Models and Methods, InTech 2012, ISBN 979-953-307-226-4
  65. A Promise Theory Perspective on Data Networks, arXiv:1405.2627 [cs.NI] (2014) (Paul Borril, Mark Burgess, Todd Craw, Mike Dvorkin)
  66. Spacetimes with semantics (i). http://arxiv.org/abs/1411.5563, (2014).
  67. Spacetimes with semantics (ii). http://arxiv.org/abs/1505.01716, (2015).
  68. Spacetimes with semantics (iii). http://arxiv.org/abs/1608.02193, (2016).
  69. On the scaling of functional spaces, from smart cities to cloud computing http://arxiv.org/abs/1602.06091 (2016)
  70. A Spacetime Approach to Generalized Cognitive Reasoning in Multi-scale Learning (2017)
  71. Spacetime-Entangled Networks (I) Relativity and Observability of Stepwise Consensus, Paul Borrill, Mark Burgess, Alan Karp, Atsushi Kasuya (2018)
  72. Locality, Statefulness, and Causality in Distributed Information Systems (Concerning the Scale Dependence Of System Promises) 2019
  73. From Observability to Significance in Distributed Information Systems
  74. Koalja: from Data Plumbing to Smart Workspaces in the Extended Cloud
  75. After The BlockCloud Apocalypse (NSPW18) (humour)

Multi-disciplinary (computing, physics, sociology)

  1. A Promise Theoretic Account of the Boeing 737 Max MCAS Algorithm Affair (with J.A. Bergstra)
  2. Candidate Software Process Flaws for the Boeing 737 Max MCAS Algorithm and Risks for a Proposed Upgrade (with J.A. Bergstra)
  3. Information and Causality in Promise Theory
  4. Promise Theory and the Alignment of Context, Processes, Types, and Transforms Transmathematica 2021
  5. The Semantic Spacetime Hypothesis A Guide to the Semantic Spacetime Project Work
  6. Testing the Quantitative Spacetime Hypothesis using Artificial Narrative Comprehension (I) : Bootstrapping Meaning from Episodic Narrative viewed as a Feature Landscape
  7. Testing the Quantitative Spacetime Hypothesis using Artificial Narrative Comprehension (II) : Establishing the Geometry of Invariant Concepts, Themes, and Namespaces
  8. Authority (I): A Promise Theoretic Formalization (also at SocArxiv) (2021)
  9. Virtual motion (Motion of the Third Kind) (2021)

Physics papers

  1. Classical Description of the Faraday Effect. 1986. Unpublished notes.. (1985)
  2. Kaluza-Klein Theory. Dissertation 1987.
  3. Gauge Vacua on Multiply Connected Spacetimes. Doctoral thesis 1990.
  4. One Loop Breaking By Massive Fields, Physics Letters B234: 97 (1990) with David Toms. 7 printed pages (pp).
  5. Vacuum Structure of Yang-Mills-Chern-Simons Theory in 3D, Physical Review Letters 64: 1639 (1990) with David Toms. 3 pp.
  6. Two-Loop Instabilities of Gauge Vacua and Topological Symmetry Breaking on $R^n \times S^1$, Annals of Physics 210: 438 (1991) with David Toms. 31 pp.
  7. Fractional Statistics and the Dynamical Gauge Symmetry of Yang-Mills-Chern-Simons Theory, Physics Letters B252: 596 (1990) with David Toms. 4 pp.
  8. Gauge Vacua in Yang-Mills-Chern-Simons Theory on Tori and Projective spaces, Physical Review D43: 1956 (1991) with Alan McLachlan and David Toms. 9 pp.
  9. Radiatively Induced Chern-Simons terms on the Torus, Physical Review D44: 2552 (1991). 6 pp.
  10. Dynamics Of Magnetic Fields in Maxwell, Yang-Mills and Chern-Simons theories on the Torus, Int. J. Mod. Phys. A8: 2623 (1993). 58 pp.
  11. Is there a phase transition in Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory? Phys. Rev. D48: 1808 (1993) with D.J. Toms and N. Tveten
  12. Fermions near two dimensional surfaces, Phys. Rev. A48:1861 (1993) with B. Jensen
  13. Classical optics in Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory, Phys. Rev. B48: 12912 (1993) with J.M. Leinaas and O. L\o vvik.
  14. Gauge Invariance and Disequilibrium in Chern-Simons Theory, Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Thermal Fields and their Applications, Alberta, Canada. 1993
  15. Chern-Simons Diffusion Layers: Short wavelength behaviour determined by gauge invariance. Phys. Rev. Lett 72 2823 (1994)
  16. Renormalization and the action principle. Int. J. Mod. Phys. A11, no. 19 1996. p. 3549
  17. Boundaries and junctions in two parity violating models in (2+1) dimensions. Phys. Rev. B52, 5052-5062, 1995
  18. Chern-Simons vortices in an open system. Phys. Rev. D52, 1165-1168, 1995.
  19. Quantum fields in disequilibrium: neutral scalar bosons with long-range inhomogeneous perturbations. Phys. Rev D52 7103-7120, 1995 (No. 12)
  20. Squeezed inhomogeneities in a quantum field. Phys. Rev. D55, 951 (1997)
  21. Simulating physics in two dimensions, with H. Haugerud and A. Strandlie, Computers in physics 12, no.3., 274 1998
  22. The effective action for a generalized Jaynes-Cummings model, Can. J. Phys. 76, 539 1998
  23. Effective field theory of resonant 2-level atoms (unpublished).
  24. Effective field theories of non-equilibrium physics, Proceedings of the 5th Workshopon Thermal Fields.
  25. Non-equilibrium action principles for quasi-fields, Invited contribution to special edition of Condensed Matter Physics (2000) Vol (3), No. 1(21) pp. 35-50
  26. Thermal, non-equilibrium phase space for networked computers, Phys. Rev. E (2000)62:1738
  27. The kinematics of distributed computing, Int. J. Mod Phys. C12 759-789 (2001)
  28. Covariant approach to equilibration in effective field theories, Can. J. Phys. 80(2) 97-107 (2002), with M. Carrington and G. Kunstatter

Patents

(255033US) (``T-rank 3''), A Method, System and Computer Program Product for Ranking Documents Using Link Analysis, Without Sinks, with G. Canright and K. Engø-Monsen.