GSoC/2009/OrgApp

= PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS PAGE = This is the submitted version of the application. If you have comments for next year (2010), please put them at GSoC/2009/OrgAppLateComments.

= Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2009 - Create an Organization Application = Actual application is at http://socghop.appspot.com/org_app/apply/google/gsoc2009 - this is just a working copy for people who need to collaborate with others on the application.
 * djbclark | on the org app, does "save changes" actually submit the app to google, or is that a seperate step? Just wondering if I need to like make a copy of the app on a wiki to collaborate on it with people before submitting or not.
 * @kblin | djbclark: well, you can still edit it until up to the deadline
 * @kblin | djbclark: but so far only the submitter can see it
 * @kblin | I've filed a feature request to let at least the backup admin see it as well :)
 * djbclark | kblin thanks - for my use case I'll just make a stupid wikitext version and then cut-and-paste back (>1 other person I want to involve)

This was auto-submitted on Fri, Mar 13, 2009 2pm EST after some discussion in #autonomo.us (many thanks to bkuhn and nathany).

Link ID
autonomous

Group Name
autonomo.us: Toward Free Network Services

Home Page URL
http://autonomo.us/about/

Public Email
netservices @ atdot. cc

Description
autonomo.us is an independent group of hackers and activists. Many of us create network services. All of us are concerned about their effects on user freedom and autonomy. autonomo.us is designed as a forum to explore the problems and issues raised by network technologies.

What does freedom mean for the users and developers of web services? What is at risk? What should the free and open source software community do to ensure that software, and its users, stay free in this new technological environment?

Note that if you need a legally incorporated organization to handle the financial aspects of GSoC, the Software Freedom Conservancy ( http://conservancy.softwarefreedom.org/ ) has offered to do so for this application.

So far autonomo.us as a group has mostly been about getting people to think about what freedom for the user means in a world where software as a service is increasingly popular, and drafting rough guidelines regarding what a user freedom respecting service is - see the Franklin Street Statement on Freedom and Network Services at http://autonomo.us/2008/07/franklin-street-statement/ and other blog posts at that site.

Although some members are working on specific software projects that address the issue of user freedom for certain types of services, the group as a whole has so far not done a lot to translate our political ideals into nitty-gritty technical details on the entire machine or set of machines level - eg what makes up an entire service from the user's point of view, not just one application.

By participating we hope to accellerate the development of technology that will make it easier for people running services to share them in their entirety if they so choose - even if it is not a legal requirement that they do so.

As a side effect of this work we hope to identify technical details and opportunities for the creation of tool-agnostic standards regarding configuration and data portability for software as a service.

Another side effect may be to make it easier for non-profit organizations, such as the Free Software Foundation and One Laptop per Child, as well as other organizations to receive help with their services, to help other people by showing them how they run their services, and to view their systems administration more the way developers view code - eg being able to receive and apply patches, diff different versions of their entire service configurations, etc.

Some or all of the work may be on the http://bcfg2.org software (New BSD license) in support of the http://config.fsf.org project.

Note that autonomo.us supports the use of a wide variety of free software licenses for use in different situations; the one selected in the below question is because it is the license of Bcfg2, but the actual license will be dependent on what ends up being the accepted project from the Ideas list.

What is the main public mailing list for your group?

 * discuss @ lists . autonomo . us
 * http://lists.autonomo.us/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Where is the main IRC channel for your group?

 * 1) autonomo.us (server: freenode) - subprojects have their own irc channels which are listed on the ideas page.

What criteria do you use to select the members of your group? Please be as specific as possible.
Established participation in the free software community; demonstrated service to and belief in free software ideals; references.

Has your group participated previously? If so, please summarize your involvement and any past successes and failures.
Our group has not participated previously, however some members of our group have participated under the auspices of other organizations, such as the GNU Project and Creative Commons.

If your group has not previously participated, have you applied in the past? If so, for what sort of participation?
N/A

What license does your organization use?
Put down "New and Simplified BSD licenses", with caveat in above section.

What is the URL to the ideas list of your organization?
http://autonomo.us/wiki/GSoC/2009/IdeasList

What is the main development mailing list for your group?
discuss@lists.autonomo.us (http://lists.autonomo.us/mailman/listinfo/discuss) - subprojects have their own mailing lists which are listed on the ideas page.

What is the application template you would like contributors to your organization to use.
We would like contributors to write a brief essay describing their commitment to free software, what user freedom means to them, and why they think they would be a good fit to work with the autonomo.us group.

We'd also like to know what if any free software projects they have worked on in the past, if they have any systems administration experience and if so describe that experience, and to describe their development experiences and what languages they are comfortable with.

What is your plan for dealing with disappearing contributors?
Any GSoC contributors will most likely be used to accelerate or extend in ways that are favorable to autonomo.us's goals existing code bases with established maintainers rather than creating new projects, so a disappearing contributor would just have the effect of slowing work, not stopping it.

Hopefully the contributor(s) will choose to spend the summer living in Cambridge, Massachusetts at http://pika.mit.edu, in which case disappearing would be really hard as I'd see them almost every night at dinner :)

What is your plan for dealing with disappearing members?
We have enough members from enough organizations that the loss of a few will not have a major impact on the project; also many of the contributors are also representatives of organizations that would most likely provide the time of other organization members should the existing one(s) disappear.

Current members, participants, contributors and potential mentors include Gabriel Burt (Novell), Jonathan Gray (Open Knowledge Foundation and the Open Service Definition), Benjamin Mako Hill (MIT/Free Software Foundation), Bradley Kuhn (Software Freedom Law Center and Software Freedom Conservancy), Mike Linksvayer (Creative Commons), Henry Poole (Free Software Foundation and CivicActions), Evan Prodromou (Identi.ca), Kragen Sitaker, Brett Smith (Free Software Foundation), Daniel Clark (Free Software Foundation), Narayan Desai (Argonne National Labs, USENIX), Aaron Swartz (Watchdog.net), James Vasile (Software Freedom Law Center) and Luis Villa (GNOME Foundation).

What steps will you take to encourage contributors to interact with your community before, during, and after the program?
Before the program we will chat with potential contributors via IRC or Jabber, talk on the phone if they would like, and show them what web pages to look at, what mailing lists to sign up for etc.

We will offer (but not require) physical co-location with a mentor in Chicago, Illinois (office space at Argonne National Labs, housing self-provided, mentor Narayan Desai, remote co-mentor Daniel Clark) and Boston, Massachusetts (office space at the Free Software Foundation, guaranteed housing at http://pika.mit.edu, mentor Daniel Clark, remote co-mentor Narayan Desai).

Specifically there is a large physical Free Software community in the Boston/Cambridge area, many of whom are undergrad or grad students, so if that was the choice the contributor made the contributor would be invited to a lot of social events and likely form ongoing friendships with people in the local community.

During the program we will encourage participation via IRC, Email, regular code check-ins and documentation wiki updates, and blog posts.

After the program we will follow-up with the contributors and if things go well offer them possible employment via GSoC or privately in continuing summers.

What will you do to ensure that your accepted contributors stick with the project after the program concludes?
We have a really strong community of shared ideals and values, and anyone who is interested in working with us will likely share these ideals and values and view us as an ongoing source of friendship, professional guidance, and potential recommendations for employment or future employment.

So to sum up: (a) We befriend the contributors and treat them well (b) We and the contributors can be useful to each other on an ongoing basis (c) Contributors who express interest in our specific coding projects will most likely also be interested in our political ideals (d) (Non)Profit!

Please select your backup group administrator. (The link_id of the backup admin)
conservancy