GSoC/2009/IdeasList

= Google Summer of Code 2009 - Ideas List = For GSoC/2009/OrgApp (note: application was not accepted by google)

Students
-- ~
 * New ideas are great! This field is very new, and most great ideas haven't been pondered in depth by anyone yet. Don't worry about putting down rough / short ideas, we are happy to help you flesh them out. You might want to read about us, the Franklin Street Statement on Freedom and Network Services, and The Free Software Definition to get an idea of the kind of projects we'd be likely to accept.
 * We would love to hear from you on our IRC channel (#autonomo.us on freenode) and mailing list.
 * See GSoC/2009/StudentApplicationTemplate for the formal application template.
 * Feel free to add questions/comments on this page, they will be responded to; use the below wiki code snippit to automatically sign your name and include the date and tiem, and be sure to put your contact information including email address and IRC nick in your wiki user page.

= bcfg2 configuration management related = These are projects where a large portion of the work will be in creating or modifying code for the bcfg2 project. You'll need decent python skills, or an excellent ability to learn new languages quickly, to work on these projects.

freedsite / config.fsf.org related

 * list mailing lists for bcfg2, general config management lists (mentioned would list subproject mailing lists in app)
 * ditto for irc channels and web pages
 * See for example http://www.freebsd.org/projects/ideas/

-- Djbclark & Desai are the primary contacts for this idea.

bcfg2 enhancements for freedom
The complexity of software has outstripped most user's abilities to configure and maintain it themselves. This has lead users to rely on 3rd parties (software as a service providers) that host the configuration of applications, as well as running copies of the applications and the user's data.

A feature targeted for the bcfg2 1.1 release will allow these concerns to be separated, so a service provider can host only the configuration data, and the user can host his own data and running applications; furthermore the user will be able to review any changes the configuration services provider has made, become a configuration service provider himself at any point, and change configuration service providers at will, without major disruption to his systems.

The high-level goal of this effort is to build a comprehensive set of configuration specifications for services, with good support for distributed, collaborative refinement over time. These specifications will be available freely. A focus will be on specifications for common infrastructure software, such as apache, and AGPLv3 software.

For example, this work may be used to allow users to easily run their own nodes in federated network services such as laconi.ca / identi.ca.

-- Desai & Djbclark are the primary contacts for this idea.

= specific network services =

yocto-reader back end
Yocto-reader is an excellent front-end application designed for users to read, mark, remember and forward RSS feed entries via the Cloud. The front-end is basically complete and functional, but the back-end of the application is currently merely a mock-up.

We are seeking a Google SoC student to write a back end for the application. The back-end would likely run as a separate server process, likely with a REST API, and integrate with the front-end to make yocoto-reader a fully functioning application.

We suggest that the student write the server in Python using Twisted, using a test-driven development model. The project mentor ([User:Bkuhn bkuhn]) will assist the student heavily in designing the server, so that the student can focus on writing tests and coding.

If students want to learn more about yocto-reader, they can look at its homepage, try out the front-end demo, download the source they can look clone the Mercurial repository or the grab it from Debian.

-- Bkuhn is the primary contact for this idea.