Proposed Session Topics
From Google Summer of Code Mentor Wiki
List your suggestions for summit topics. If you suggest the session, be prepared to lead it (or nominate someone you think can address the topic well.)
Please limit yourself to leading two sessions per day. If you are spending too much time leading sessions you are not spending enough time listening to your fellow mentors.
[edit] Keeping up the good work (mentoring beyond GSoC)
GSoC is brilliant - we love it. Can we use GSoC as a focal point for a more prolonged (but less intense) mentoring effort?
(proposer: Ross Gardler)
[edit] Mentoring the lecturers
Open Source is not a big part of a typical Computer Science degree (at least here in the UK). This is, largely, because the lecturers and/or course designers themselves don't understand it. Can we mentor the lecturers as well as the students? Can we engage the lecturers in the GSoC process?
(proposer: Ross Gardler)
- I think we should create a list with lecturers all around the world so we can notify them when GSoC opens and help us to put the flyers and posters at universities. David Horat
[edit] Working with Universities
After the success of programs like GSoC, it has been easier for FOSS projects to approach Universities and get students to work on projects as part of course work! Thousand Parsec project has had some success in doing so and I would like to share my experiances and methods.
(proposer: Tim Ansell)
[edit] How to spot the best applications?
Evaluating applications is very hard. How can we ensure we pick the right students?
(proposer: Ross Gardler)
[edit] FOSS Games
As always, I'm interest in talking about FOSS games and game development.
(proposer: Tim 'mithro' Ansell)
[edit] Open Source Scientific Computing
I am interested in talking with anyone that wants to do open source scientific computing.
- Subtopics include:
- More scientist-friendly applications for organizing, visualizing and processing data
- Providing access to existing numerical libraries in newer dynamic languages via SWIG/NCI.
(proposer: Jonathan Leto)
[edit] Open Source Security
To discuss security in open source projects as well as a chance for Open Source Security projects/teams to get together to discuss GSoC.
(proposer: Pinar Yanardag)
[edit] Open Source in Embedded Systems
I am interested in discussing the role of open source software in embedded systems. This includes the use of operating systems other than GNU/Linux or *BSD. In particular, the RTEMS Community sees interest in being able to use open source packages and libraries on target systems which have considerably fewer resources than even a PDA. Since embedded systems are by there very nature custom, open source software is a natural fit.
- Subtopics include:
- Development environment - host side issues and tools
- Target issues - run-time requirements, licensing issues, etc.
- How open source can meet the needs of embedded projects -- especially long lifespan, custom scientific embedded systems such as found in the space and physics communities.
(proposer: Joel Sherrill, RTEMS)
[edit] Open Source Media (audio/video) BoF [Sunday]
Let's discuss how audio-oriented and video-oriented FOSS projects can coordinate and cooperate. Suggest Sunday morning at 10:30.
[edit] Audio section
- code, plug-in and standards sharing between audio projects.
- audio markup, structured audio
- collaborative music production
- features to facilitate language learning
(proposer: Vaughan Johnson, Audacity)
[edit] Media section
How can open source media projects better coordinate efforts in this space?
- Better coordination of coding efforts
- Intro to FOMS and other efforts in this area.
(proposer: Michael Dale, Metavid.org, Wikimedia, Xiph)
[edit] Melange
To discuss the future GSoC/GHOP app at the mentor summit. Session could be in the 'Hackfest' section.
- Todd Larsen intends to be at the mentor summit, and is likely to give a demo of the very latest code and talk about some of the design issues.
(proposer: )
(whiteboard: Melange Whiteboard)
[edit] How to admin/mentor for the first time
For many organizations, this has been our first time participating in GSoC and, although the Google folks were great at providing tons of documents and answering questions promptly, there was still some on-the-job training involved. This session would allow this year's first-time organizations to share their experiences (what tips can we pass on to organizations who, next year, will be participating for the first time? What are the pitfalls to watch out for?) Ideally, this session could result in a short document that we can point organizations to next year.
(proposer: Borja Sotomayor)
(whiteboard: GSoC First Time Whiteboard)
[edit] How to avoid having more disappeared students
One of the big problems of GSoC right now is having disappeared students, because
- they waste a slot for another student that could have done the work
- their reasons for disappearing are not clear
- some of them leave disappear after midterm having done just half of the work
- they leave you with a bad feeling
(proposer: David Horat)
(whiteboard: GSoC Avoid Disappeared Students)
[edit] Umbrella Organizations for Open Source Projects
Many Open Source projects do not have formal organizations behind them. Rather than go through the hassle of setting up their own organization, it may be wise to join an existing Umbrella organization such as Software in the Public Interest or The Software Freedom Conservancy.
I went to the similar talk last year and was wondering what such orgs (if any) exist outside of the USA? Does anyone attending know of any and how they might compare? --Scorche 10:30, 14 October 2008 (UTC)
I'm aware of similar organizations outside the USA and will mention them in my talk
Schultmc 21:21, 18 October 2008 (UTC)
(proposer: Michael Schultheiss)
[edit] Project Approaches for General-Purpose Organisations
How should general-purpose organizations look at project proposals? Language-specific organizations may not have specific development needs for the language interpreter. How do you select the project proposals that will not only be successful, but lend themselves to both general utility in the wider community for a given organisation, and will encourage the student to continue in the community after the GSoC?
(proposer: Austin Ziegler) (whiteboard: Generic Organizations Project Selection)
[edit] Unified User Management
Would it be possible to have one framework that deals with user management, available for web- and desktop use. A way to make it easier to combine applications with a userbase.
(proposer: Sander Weyens)
[edit] Open Source Software Quality via Formal Public Review of Contributions
I would like to expose and discuss the Boost C++ Formal Review process and how it determines the quality of the resulting libraries (since this process is applicable to any open source project besides Boost C++).
(proposer Fernando Cacciola)
[edit] Assholes -- do we need them?
Is there value to allowing assholes to participate in open-source communities? What are the pros and cons? Can they be quantified? What's the cutoff, if there is one? What do you do to them, and how do you enforce it in this kind of environment?
(proposer Donnie Berkholz)
[edit] Chocolate and other motivational tools in Open Source
Chocolate is an excellent motivational tool. It can often times be a simple and universal way to thank someone for work done in an Open Source project. Unlike alcohol or money, chocolate appeals to more people and can transcend boundaries between cultures. In this session we'll tell you how chocolate is used as a motivator and a socially acceptable form of bribery in the MusicBrainz culture. We'll have four types of freshly imported Swiss chocolate for all session attendees to sample!
Please join us in this session for chocolate and discussion on working motivational tools in Open Source. Please come share your insights with us.
(proposer Robert Kaye, Philipp Wolfer)
[edit] Hold a summit for GSoC community building
Experiences from MusicBrainz how the MusicBrainz Summit helped the GSoC projects to succeed (and why a ball pit and chocolate are important). Maybe you are doing something similar in your project - share your thoughts. Otherwise you should perhaps hold a project summit next year.
(proposer Philipp Wolfer, Robert Kaye)
[edit] Monetizing your Open Source Project (without being evil)
In the growth of an open source project, some money can make a huge difference, as demonstrated by GSoC. Some projects generate income by selling support, but this business model isn't viable for a large number of desktop applications. In this session, we will talk briefly about other methods that projects have devised to support themselves and then hopefully engage in a discussion sharing the experiences of different projects.
- Slide presentation linkmehere
- Projects_and_profits is a general page to discuss this topic
(proposer Albert Santoni, Adam Davison (Mixxx), Roger Dingledine (Tor))
[edit] How do we confound Evil Profiteers who abuse FOSS?
Audacity and lots of other FOSS are regularly sold through online scams that charge people even more than advertised, for what they should have gotten for free. Typical scenario: User goes to SourceForge.net and searches for "Audacity". Results page shows ads that advertise "Audacity Download" (not our site). User is promised a link if they give their credit card, for a small charge. They do, and are linked directly to Sourceforge download for Audacity (so SourceForge doesn't get to show more ads, but hosts the download). User downloads something 5x as big as our installer, rife with spyware. User is charged 10x what they were told, and they come to us furious that we overcharged them. Original download site has closed down and opened a new site doing the same thing. Poor(er) User has no recourse. All three parties (Audacity, SourceForge, and User) are injured.
How can we best confound these people?
- Get hosting services to ban them?
- Get more FOSS trademarked and get ad-generating parties (Google, Yahoo, etc) to enforce the trademarks by banning unauthorized advertisers?
(proposer: Vaughan Johnson, Audacity)
- During the conference or even before, please add to the Foss Abuse List if your organisation has experienced this kind of problem. Stories about what you did and how effective it was also welcome.
[edit] FLOSS and Education
Some Education Oriented projects will be present, but the very GSOC program is an educational experience itself. There's much to learning in FLOSS than just software for education. FLOSS communities are indeed learning communities of some kind. Do we care about the education/instruction of new/future members of our communities? Does it happen by itself? How, Why? Is important to breed new hackers?
(Proposer Ludo(Marc Alier) IMS-Sakai / Moodle )
[edit] Keysigning party
This could take place in the evening but would probably be useful. Lots of us will have ID with us, and many projects need signed packages. Wikipedia on key signing parties.
(proposer Caroline Ford (tux4kids))
[edit] Free Sound
There is a real shortage of sound files licensed under GPL friendly licenses. Ripped content abounds. Many files claiming to be free are actually under non-free Creative Commons licenses. IF we have interest/space/are allowed I would like lead a practical session recording free sounds.
(proposer Caroline Ford (tux4kids)
[edit] Bay Area Locals Meetup
GSoC is a worldwide phenomenon, but the Mentor Summit demonstrates the value of physical proximity for enabling collaboration and development. This unstructured networking session is a chance for the Bay Area locals to meet each other and discuss issues relevant to open source development here. If you help organize or just enjoy participating in a local users' group, computer club, or hack space, this would be a good time to tell us about it. You might even find that a developer for one of your favorite open source tools lives down the street from you.
(Proposer: Gordon "Fyodor" Lyon - Nmap Security Scanner)
[edit] Community Architecture for Fun and Profit
Open source projects generate millions of ideas. How do you decide where to invest your time and money? Once invested, how do you know how you are doing? Here are some ideas.
(Proposer: Karsten 'quaid' Wade, Fedora Community Gardener)
