TikiWiki has applied to the Google Summer of Code Project for 2008. Dave Thacker (dthacker) has agreed to act as program administrator and submit an application on behalf of TikiWiki. This page will compile information for the application. The Application must be submitted by March 12, 2008 at 1900 GMT.
The GSoC list of mentoring organizations has been released and unfortunately TikiWiki is not on it. Nonetheless, the list of ideas put together is valuable documentation in its own right, and some of the projects will continue to happen (or are ongoing) anyhow. So thanks to all who contributed to the list.
The TikiWiki Google Summer of code committee is composed of:
- Dave Thacker
- Nelson Ko
- Patrice Weber
- Marc Laporte
To reach the committee, please email gsoc at tiki.org
For information on mentors, see GSOC Mentors Bio 2008.
Please put your ideas for GSOC projects on the page at GSOC Ideas 2008
Mozilla also has projects for their TikiWiki-powered support site.
- IRC logs
- Mad Penguin Interviews Greg Stein and Chris DiBona
- Notes on Organizations Selection Criteria
- Google Summer of Code Discuss
- Advice for Students
- Notes on Student Allocations
- Google Summer of CodeTM Mentoring Organization Application Overview
- Yan Levasseur
- Louis-Philippe Huberdeau
- M A Islam (Carleton U)
- Amette
- Hisham (U of T)
- Alfonso (U of T)
- Dean (Carleton U)
- Chealer?
- Ashwani Bailore
- you?
The questions below are in the application form
About Your Organization
1. What is your Organization's Name?
TikiWiki CMS/Groupware
2. What is your Organization's Homepage?
3. Describe your organization.
TikiWiki CMS/Groupware is a multilingual community-run free and open source software project that offers vast out-of-the-box functionality to web developers, web designers and power users.
- TikiWiki is used in tens of thousands of web sites/projects/communities/companies and is used by Firefox for their official support site.
- The vast collaborative documentation effort is 960 printed pages, which is a testament to the scope of the project -> Over 200 contributors to the core source code base (via CVS) over the last 5 years.
- TikiWiki was among a handful of community-driven free source projects to be named to the Seventh Annual EContent 100. The annual list contains the companies "that matter most in the digital content industry."
How is TikiWiki CMS/Groupware different?
- TikiWiki has more built-in features than any other Web Application. Just activate and use. No need to hunt down/install 3rd party plugins/modules. Because of the all-in-one design, the feature integration is very tight.
- TikiWiki is the Wiki Way applied to software development. It is easy to join the community and to contribute.
- TikiWiki is the only wiki-centric full-featured CMS, and is the only wiki engine with such a vast range of CMS/Groupware features.
- TikiWiki is licensed under LGPL, which is a more permissive license than the more common GPL.
TikiWiki CMS/Groupware already includes several pieces of Google-related functionality.
Google search and site search:
http://doc.tiki.org/Module+google
Google Video:
http://doc.tiki.org/PluginGoogleVideo
Google Maps:
http://doc.tiki.org/Gmap
Google AdSense:
http://doc.tiki.org/AdSense
Google Analytics:
The TikiWiki community uses Google analytics to track some of the *.tiki.org sites and has plans to integrate it more tightly:
http://doc.tiki.org/Google+Analytics
http://dev.tiki.org/tiki-view_tracker_item.php?itemId=1178
4. Why is your organization applying to participate in GSoC 2008? What do you hope to gain by participating?
Participating in GSoC 2008 is an opportunity for us to
- gain visibility;
- appear on the list for other projects like The Google Highly Open Participation Contest;
- give students the opportunity to gain real-world experience in working with someone else's code. Getting first job experience can be tricky and we subscribe to the motto "flip bits, not burgers";
- attract students to become active, long-standing contributors to the TikiWiki community;
- expose students to working, learning and sharing knowledge through "community coding";
- identify and develop community members as mentors to help new contributors;
- enhance the functionality of Tikiwiki;
- grow the Tikiwiki coding and support community.
5. Did your organization participate in past GSoCs?
Not yet.
6. If your organization has not previously participated in GSoC, have you applied in the past? If so, for what year(s)?
We may have applied once (not sure) but either the program was not taking any new applicants or we filed too late.
7. What license(s) does your project use?
LGPL
8. What is the URL for your ideas page?
http://dev.tiki.org/GSOC+Ideas+2008
9. What is the main development mailing list or forum for your organization?
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/tikiwiki-devel
10. What is the main IRC channel for your organization?
irc.freenode.net #tikiwiki
11. Does your organization have an application template you would like to see students use? If so, please provide it now.
- Name and e-mail
- Detailed description of what you intent to do, including, if possible, a list of quantifiable results
- Project Schedule: How long will the project take? When can you begin work?
- Availability: How many hours per week can you spend working on this? What other obligations do you have this summer?
- Bio: Who are you? What makes you the best person to work on this project?
- Do you have a preferred/suggested mentor for your project?
- Where do you live? (we'll try to match you with a mentor in a compatible timezone, or in the same city, if possible.)
- Have you analyzed the field? Please provide a list of 3 (or more) similar and/or related existing applications (free source or commercial) and your thoughts on these. (min 300 words on each)
- Are you comfortable with the 3 Rules of the community and the fact that you'll be committing directly to the core of TikiWiki?
- Have you put any code or writing that you've authored online? If so, please provide links.
- What other question(s) should we have asked you?
12. Who will be your backup organization administrator? Please include Google Account information.
Administrator: Dave Thacker Google account: dthacker9 at cox.net
Backup Administrator: Marc Laporte Google Account: marclaporte at gmail.com
Backup Administrator: Nelson Ko Google Account: nelson at wordmaster.org
Backup Administrator: Patrice Weber Google Account: patrice at pweber.net
About Your Mentors
1. What criteria did you use to select these individuals as mentors? Please be as specific as possible.
We looked for a delicate balance of
- Technical knowledge
- Knowledge of the field for each specific project
- Understanding of free software dynamics
- Understanding of TikiWiki CMS/Groupware, the Wiki Way applied to software development.
- Ideally, physical proximity with the student
- Availability and commitment to the project as a whole
2. Who will your mentors be? Please enter their Google Account address separated by commas. If your organization is accepted we will email each mentor to invite them to take part. (optional)
Mentors' Google Account addresses
Confirmed mentors:
- Nelson Ko nelson
atwordmaster.org - Seb Paquet sebpaquet
atgmail.com - Morgan Tocker tocker
atgmail.com - Alain Désilets alain.desilets
atnrc-cnrc.gc.ca - Marc Laporte marclaporte
atgmail.com - Patrice Weber patrice
atpweber.net - Gary Cunningham-Lee gary_c
atcunningham-lee.com. - luci aka luciash d' being luci2007
atground.cz - Rick Sapir ricksapir
atgmail.com - Xavier de Pedro xavier.depedro
atub.edu
Please see:
GSOC Mentors Bio 2008
Potential mentors:
Sylvie Greverend
Additional mentors could be added depending on the project
About The Program
1. What is your plan for dealing with disappearing students?
- The first thing is to plan properly to minimize the risk by conducting a thorough process to pick the candidate and project.
- It is very important to have regular follow-ups. The administrator, Dave Thacker, will be in contact with each mentor/student team at least weekly. Code produced in the context of the GSOC project will become an integral part of TikiWiki code (not an optional 3rd party add-on), and thus, the whole community will be potentially involved in setting the requirements, testing, bugfixing, documentation and translation.
- Ideally, at least one of the mentors should live in the same area as the student. This will enable face-to-face follow-up meetings.
- If, despite these precautions, a student should disappear, we will follow discuss with the GSOC team to find a solution (Fund another student on the same project? etc.)
- One of the 3 Rules of TikiWiki is "commit early, commit often" Frequent commits of code will ensure that we will not face a total loss if a student should disappear.
2. What is your plan for dealing with disappearing mentors?
- This is unlikely because mentors are picked because of their track record of reliability in the community. However, sometimes, unusual circumstances arise. Again, the administrator will be in contact with each team at least weekly to make sure that all teams are intact and functioning well.
- Again, since the GSOC project will be an integral part of TikiWiki code and thus, the whole community will be potentially involved, one of the active community members will fill the void.
3. What steps will you take to encourage students to interact with your project's community before, during and after the program?
The student must understand that it's not interesting for the community to have a fly-by-night code-dump. The added functionality will be part of TikiWiki core and thus, it must fit in harmoniously at more than one level. Students will be encouraged to use the #tikiwiki irc channel, join and ask questions on the development list, and add themselves as registered editors on the tiki documentation site.
We are looking for students who want to use the project/functionality in a real context. So we'll take this into account when evaluating the proposal. If the student is going to be eating the dogfood, we are confident that they will generate future-proof code.
4. What will you do to ensure that your accepted students stick with the project after GSoC concludes?
- TikiWiki is a very versatile application. Chances are that, having gained familiarity with the software, the student will use it for many future personal or professional projects.
- There are several consultancies that use TikiWiki. If the student did a good job and interacted positively with the community, the odds are very high for him/her to get TikiWiki-related work contracts or even a full-time position.