FOSSASIA 2014 in Phnom Penh has been an amazing experience.
We had 3 Days of Pure Knowledge Sharing, 71 International Speakers, 15 Presenters from Cambodia, 121 Talks, Workshops and Panels, 8 tracks per day, Hands-on Labs and Hacking practice for everyone.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the event, the organization team, Norton University and our sponsors!
Participants at FOSSASIA 2014
Links
Event Site: http://2014.fossasia.org
FOSSASIA participates again as a mentor organization in Google Summer of Code 2014. Students can apply for scholarships of FOSSASIA on the Google Melange website. Accepted projects will be published on the site here.
Google Summer of Code is a program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source projects. Historically, the program has brought together over 7,500 students with over 440 open source projects, to create over 50 millions of lines of code. The program, which kicked off in 2005, is now in its tenth year. If you are feeling nostalgic or are interested in learning more about the projects we have worked with in the past, check out the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 program pages (https://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gsoc2014/help_page)
Timeline
10 March: 19:00 UTC Student application period opens.
21 March: 19:00 UTC Student application deadline.
Interim Period: Mentoring organizations review and rank student proposals; where necessary, mentoring organizations may request further proposal detail from the student applicant.
18 April: All mentors must be signed up and all student proposals matched with a mentor – 07:00 UTC Student acceptance choice deadline.
21 April: 19:00 UTC Accepted student proposals announced on the Google Summer of Code 2014 site.
Community Bonding Period: Students get to know mentors, read documentation, get up to speed to begin working on their projects.
19 May: Students begin coding for their Google Summer of Code projects; Google begins issuing initial student payments provided tax forms are on file and students are in good standing with their communities.
Work Period: Mentors give students a helping hand and guidance on their projects.
23 June: 19:00 UTC Mentors and students can begin submitting mid-term evaluations.
27 June: 19:00 UTC Mid-term evaluations deadline; Google begins issuing mid-term student payments provided passing student survey is on file.
Work Period: Mentors give students a helping hand and guidance on their projects.
11 August: Suggested ‘pencils down’ date. Take a week to scrub code, write tests, improve documentation, etc.
18 August: 19:00 UTC Firm ‘pencils down’ date. Mentors, students and organization administrators can begin submitting final evaluations to Google.
22 August: 19:00 UTC Final evaluation deadline. Google begins issuing student and mentoring organization payments provided forms and evaluations are on file.
22 August: 20:00 UTC Students can begin submitting required code samples to Google
25 August: Final results of Google Summer of Code 2014 announced
Links
* Google Summer of Code 2014 https://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/homepage/google/gsoc2014
With many new meetups and coding events we saw an expansion of the FOSSASIA community in 2013. A particular focus was on Cambodia, where workshops took place at the Open Institute and local startup spaces in preparation of the FOSSASIA summit.
FOSSASIA 2013 Planning Meeting at Small World Phnom Penh
FOSSASIA Meetup at Norton University Phnom Penh
Chantra Be with Hong Phuc Dang in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Community Workshops in Cambodia
Links
Images: flickr.com/photos/tags/fossasia2013
Tweets: twitter.com/fossasia
We are excited to announce FOSSASIA 2014 in Phnom Penh. After taking place several times in Vietnam, it is the first time FOSSASIA takes place in Cambodia. The event will be held at Norton University from February 28 – March 2, 2014.
Hong Phuc Dang at Norton University Phnom Penh, Cambodia
FOSSASIA is an event that offers students, developers and start ups a place to meet, share ideas and collaborate. It is a premier place for Open Source communities in Asia to get together with International developers and an opportunity to experience Open Source technologies.
Previous events attracted up to 1400 participants and speakers from 20 countries. Apart from Open Source Software FOSSASIA 2014 will feature a number of Open Hardware projects. In the FOSSASIA business lounge participants can learn about start up ideas and practices and connect with International companies and outsourcing partners.
Norton University Phnom Penh, Cambodia hosting Tech and Developer Community at FOSSASIA
The textil industry is dominated by some big players and proprietary file formats for digital cut patterns. With the maker scene getting a big push with 3D printers, it is time to push for open digital sewing pattern creation as well.
Susan Spencer already works for some time on this goal. She created plugins for creating and portraying sewing patterns in Inkscape and documents her work on the TauMeta Website.
The next goal is to enable designers to upload and customize patterns online through a web interface. This is why we are meeting up at a workshop after the Libre Graphics Meeting in Madrid. I believe this is exciting and offers many people a way to collaborate on patterns around the world.
As textil making is very big in Vietnam and other Asian countries, this could be very interesting for people. I can see that it would also offer ways for small business owners to work together.
Susan Spencer and Hong Phuc Dang at the Digital Pattern Workshop after LGM 2013
Links
Thank you for a great event! The Libre Graphics Meeting 2013 took place in Madrid from April 10-13.
While the participation of Asian contributors is still low, talking to developers and designers it is clear that Asian users are “on their map”. Designing fonts that include characters for Asian languages for example is high on the agenda.
I would be happy to help people who are interested in font design to get in touch with established font projects. Please get in touch with me, if you are interested.
Pippin (Øyvind Kolås) from the Gimp project and Hong Phuc Dang at Libre Graphics Meeting 2013
Hong Phuc Dang and Sirko Kemter discussing Inkscape at Libre Graphics Meeting 2013
Graphics Tool Social Meet up with Gimp and GNOME developers at Libre Graphics Meeting
Fontforge presentation with Dave Crossland and Ben
Crypto Stick has been accepted as a mentor organization for Google Summer of Code (GSOC) 2013. If you are a student interested in working on cool crypto stuff, developing a high security system, latest web security or embedded programming – this is for you. You can apply for a project and if accepted the mentors will work with you over the summer and Google will sponsor you 5000 USD during that time.
Please check out the ideas page at https://www.assembla.com/spaces/cryptostick/wiki/Ideas or suggest your own idea.
And, join the mailinglist to discuss it: https://lists.crypto-stick.org/mailman/listinfo/dev
Your applications should be submitted through Google Melange (https://google-melange.com) between March 26 and April 6. Generally, it is better to submit your application early as mentors like to discuss proposals.
Important dates are:
* March 17-25: Would-be student participants discuss application ideas with mentoring organizations.
* March 26, 19:00 UTC: Student application period opens.
* April 6, 19:00 UTC: Student application deadline.
You can continue to submit additional information and comments into the system after your initial application submission. In order to participate in the program, you must be a student in an accredited institution or university.
Links:
* Crypto Stick project: http://crypto-stick.org
* Ideas Page: https://www.assembla.com/spaces/cryptostick/wiki/Ideas
* GSOC Progam F&Q: https://google-melange.appspot.com/gsoc/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gsoc2013/help_page
* Crypto Stick Mailing List: https://lists.crypto-stick.org/mailman/listinfo/dev
* Google Melange: http://google-melange.com
FOSSASIA aims to participate in the Google Summer of Code 2013. We are working together with a number of Open Source developers in the region and function as an umbrella for different projects. If FOSSASIA gets accepted, you will find more information about the application procedure for students on this page.
The ideas list below gets updated continuously. So, please check back again later. And: The best ideas are often ideas of students themselves. So, if you have your own idea or small project, please apply for FOSSASIA on the Google Summer of Code website!
If you have questions or feedback, please write to us on the mailing list: http://groups.google.com/group/fossasia
Important dates for students:
April 9 – 21: Would-be student participants discuss application ideas with mentoring organizations.
April 22: 19:00 UTC: Student application period opens.
May 3: 19:00 UTC: Student application deadline.
1. Phimpme Android App
This photo app to connect to “any social service” and Open Source CMS is a project of developers from Vietnam. The goal is to make a beautiful app that also works with web systems based on Drupal, Joomla and WordPress. In Google Summer of Code Students can propose a number of projects around the app. The source code of the app is on github here: https://github.com/phimpme
Ideas for student projects:
Project 1: Implement full Google Maps and OpenStreetMap Support
This project also aims to show photos on a web map on a CMS of own choice.
Usefull skills: Android, Maps API, Understanding of Exif data and implementation, Web development, CMS
Project 2: Add support to more social networks and CMS
Phimpme already supports many social networks including many in Asia. Nevertheless there are still other networks popular in some countries. There are also CMS like TYPO3 which are not yet supported. Students can propose support for other services in this project.
Useful skills: Web Api, Android Development, PHP, Python, Ruby on Rails, Knowledge of CMS
2. Meilix Linux Distribution
Meilix is a new Linux project aimed to offer users a fast and easy to use Linux desktop, that can be “frozen” and therefore secured.
Student projects should implement new features. The goal is to offer a simple user interface to freeze the OS up to different levels, e.g. only freeze the system, but not the home directory.
The Meilix System User Lock can be found on Github here: https://github.com/meilix/systemlock
Usefull skills: Linux development, Python, Shell, Scripting, GUI design, Inkscape, Gimp
3. Networking Tools
OpenWrt is a widely used Linux distribution for embedded devices and specifically routers. Large networks consist of hundreds and even thousand of nodes. Administration of routers, e.g. ESSID setting is a long process.
Student Project: Develop Web Interface Administration tool for large numbers of Nodes (routers) for OpenWrt based on kalua
The goal of a student project would be to develop a new web interface to show the status of routers and enable mass administration of devices. The foundations of this have already been developed in the Kalua application: https://github.com/bittorf/kalua#readme
Useful Skills: Linux development, OpenWrt, Embedded devices, Web UI design, Gimp, Inkscape, Lua, Scripting
Links: http://openwrt.org
4. Opencoin.org
Open Coins introduce the idea of versatile digital cash which can be used similar to ordinary cash but allows a higher flexibility. The cash is issued by a central service and you can think of it as digital coins which hold a certain denomination. Each coin is basically a long string like 6A09E317F4BCD… which can be stored locally and transferred between customers in a peer-to-peer manner. Actually the central issuer does not perform the transaction itself but is only involved to ensure the validity of the coins and to prevent fraud by double-spending a coin. This approach is based on David Chaum’s blind signature algorithm in which cryptography protects the coins and ensures the anonymity of the customers. This algorithm was invented 1983 and since then has been analyzed exhaustively by cryptographers and proven to be secure. Since our central issuer service is not directly involved in the transfers, coins can be exchanged peer-to-peer via social networks, e-mail, chat, web portals, and even via portable USB drives.
Links:
* https://github.com/FellowTraveler/Open-Transactions/wiki
* http://opencoin.org
Student Project 1:
The goal is to develop a foundation for the issuer service. The issuer service expose a REST API. For the scope of this project it consists of two simple interfaces for demonstration purposes only:
– A GET interface to allow clients to retrieve coins in JSON format
– A POST interface to allow clients to redeem/send coins in JSON format
Optional: Coins are stored in a SQL database (via squeryl library)
Further Requirements:
– Coins have the following structure: case class Coin(type: String, value: Int)
– The deliverable should contain a documentation which describes how the system is deployed to allow future updates of individual software components. For instance in the future a newer Finagle server version may be used and the documentation should describe step by step how to integrate it with the other libraries and the actual source code.
– Source code should be documented as well.
– Test cases should be performed and documented. Optional: ScalaTest may be used for testing.
Usefull skills and technologies: Scala programming language, Twitter’s Finagle server, SBT build tool, Optional: Eclipse IDE is recommended, Optional: Coins are stored in a SQL database via squeryl library
The following links might be useful to understand Finagle’s REST capabilities:
https://github.com/robi42/heroku-finagle-rogue/blob/master/src/main/scala/server.scala
https://github.com/twitter/finagle/blob/master/finagle-http/src/main/scala/com/twitter/finagle/http/path/Path.scala
Other Student Project Ideas
* Implement opencoin client as a smart phone app (e.g. Android, iPhone, Boot to Gecko)
*Implement core opencoin protocol library in JavaScript. It can be migrated from Python.
* Implement an opencoin client using JavaScript and HTML(5)
* Utilize WebGL to do high performance crypto using JavaScript
* Use the available sensors on mobile phones to generate random numbers that are usable for cryptography (e.g: shake your coins)
* Implement the server side of opencoin using your language of choice (e.g. JavaScript + node.js, Python, Java, Scala, C etc.)
* Implement web wallet in your preferred language which allows users to login an manage their coins and payments.
5. Linux Games Distro
The developments in this project are useful for a number of Linux Games distribution. The goal is to create a modern and simple design inspired by new user interfaces in smartphones. The implementation of the UI will be for Linux desktops. The advantage of working with traditional desktop technologies rather than Android is that distributions can make use of numerous games that exist in repositories and combine it with a modern interface.
Project Idea: Develop and implement new UI features with LXlauncher
Apart from designing, developing and implementing new features the student should also package the application for major Linux distributions.
LXLauncher 1: http://sourceforge.net/projects/lxde/files/LXLauncher%20%28for%20Asus%20EeePC%29/
LXLauncher 2: https://launchpad.net/lxlauncher
Useful Skills: C++, Linux Development, gtk+, APIs, GUI design, drivers, Packaging
We released the first version 0.1 of Meilix System Lock. It is an application that can lock or “freeze” your system.
The application is based on Ofris, but it offers more features like a simple graphic interface to lock or unlock the system. Main developer is Hon Nguyen (Vanhonit) from Vietnam, who started the tool as part of his Google Summer of Code project for FOSSASIA.
The sourcecode is here on github: https://github.com/meilix/systemlock
A couple of Meilix System Lock Screenshots.
The FOSSASIA organization has been very active and I would love to give you a few updates on our activities. One thing why we love to work in this community is because you get the chance to meet some of the most awesome and friendly tech people of the world. Jonas Smeedegaard from the Debian community is one of our guests who has been visiting us three times already and conducted workshops at our events and even stayed several weeks in Can Tho to train students using and developing Debian.
Jonas Smeedegaard at Workshop: Bringing Asian and International developers together
Of course we could not do all of this alone and we would like to thank some of the most outstanding folks we are working together with including HanoiLUG and Saigonlug in Vietnam, Singapore Hackerspace and the Beijinglug.
We have recently involved and organized activities with the following projects and are glad to feature the following projects on this blog:
FOSSASIA Event in Ho Chi Minh City
In 2012 we welcomed interns in Can Tho. Fifteen students participated in the program as full time interns in the office of MBM International in the biggest city in the Mekong delta. The program took place for 2 months and a core part of it was to learn how to use collaborative tools liker issue trackers and contribute to OpenStreetMap. Our students also love the Wikipedia sprints and we got a lot of positive vibes as everyone was happy to learn how to set up the Mediawiki software, that empowers the encyclopedia, share their ideas and spread Open Knowledge and Open Data about the Mekong Delta.
We also continued to organize the FOSSASIA OpenTechSummit in 2010 and 2011 in Raffles College and Van Lang University in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam. Plus we had a Mini-Debconf in Saigon and organized the event series OpenDesign.Asia Weeks bringing together designers and Open Source developers. We have links to the LXDE project and GNOME community and we have sent developers to the GNOME.Asia Summit 2012 in Hong Kong and supported the TYPO3 conference 2012 in Phnom Penh.
Also globally FOSSASIA starts to receive more attention. We have received the opportunity to introduce Asian projects at the Libre Graphics Meeting in Montreal (2011) and Brussels (2011), at the Linuxtag in Berlin (2012) and many other community events.
The FOSSASIA organization supports activities and Open Tech development and Open Knowledge projects of the community active in Asia. If you are interested to cooperate for a project, need support for a development sprint or an event, please contact us on the FOSSASIA mailing list: http://groups.google.com/group/fossasia
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