Community:SummerOfCode09

This page lists all the Google Summer of Code 2009 projects with confirmed mentors, and which have been approved by the SoC administrator. New suggestions can be made on the Brainstorming page.

Potential students: you may choose from the list below, but you do not have to - feel free to submit a proposal for your own idea. However, before you do so, see the guidelines for good ideas. You can also discuss your ideas or application in the #developers channel on IRC: irc://irc.mozilla.org/#developers .

In addition to the specifically-named projects below, we have also tagged a number of bugs in Bugzilla with the keyword student-project. However, as the idea of a "student project" is wider than just the Summer of Code, students looking through the list will need to decide whether any particular bug listed there is actually the right size and scope for Summer of Code.

Application Advice

• Read Google's Advice for Students and do the things listed there.
• Read How Not To Apply For Summer Of Code and avoid doing the things listed there.
• Sign up to apply here (you'll need a Google Account).

Questions of any sort? Send mail to Gerv and/or chofmann. We will try and respond as soon as possible and get your questions directed to the right person. Please allow at least 48 hours for a reply.

Mozilla Platform

Title	Abstract - links to details/bugs/etc	Reporter	Mentor(s)	Comments
Web pages over rsync	A lot of web pages today are dynamic and so uncacheable, even though large parts of them are the same between requests. The rsync protocol is a great way of sending the deltas between two similar files in a small number of bytes. tridge has done a proof of concept, using proxies and librsync, for caching everything and using rsync to send deltas instead of complete pages when things change a bit. This has the potential to transform the web experience for users on slow connections. The project would be to fix up his proxy, and make a matching Firefox extension which together would form a proof of concept.	Gerv	tridge has agreed to co-mentor, but we need a Mozilla person who thinks this is cool to mentor as well.

Firefox

Title	Abstract - links to details/bugs/etc	Reporter	Mentor(s)	Comments

Thunderbird

Title	Abstract - links to details/bugs/etc	Reporter	Mentor(s)	Comments
A user-focused front-end to bug submission	Like the Bugzilla Helper project, but specific to thunderbird, in order to limit the scope. see bugzilla helper for some thoughts, as well as this mdat thread	DavidA	Clarkbw	See below under Bugzilla - I think that in eight weeks, a student could probably do the wider project, and would encourage students to apply for that. But I'd love to have Clarkbw help me mentor it :-) - Gerv

Calendar

Title	Abstract - links to details/bugs/etc	Reporter	Mentor(s)	Comments

Camino

Title	Abstract - links to details/bugs/etc	Reporter	Mentor(s)	Comments

SeaMonkey

Title	Abstract - links to details/bugs/etc	Reporter	Mentor(s)	Comments

Bugzilla

Title	Abstract - links to details/bugs/etc	Reporter	Mentor(s)	Comments
Better Bugzilla Helper	The current Bugzilla Helper was great for its time, but other Bugzillas have done their own step-by-step versions since which are easier to use. And people have had good ideas, like "here's a screenshot of a Thunderbird window - click on where you think the problem is" and so on. Someone needs to research what others have done, write a plan for a much better simple bug filing system, get it discussed and approved in the community, and build it.	Gerv	Gerv

L10n

Title	Abstract - links to details/bugs/etc	Reporter	Mentor(s)	Comments
Verbatim/Silme	GSoC participant will work with the l10n team to build a web-based tool to help localize Firefox. The tool interface may be written with the web application framework Django and will use the python library Silme as an intermediary layer. One of the main features of the webtool will be a unified dashboard to show the status of all localization projects in each locale inside Mozilla, including Firefox, AMO, SUMO, Thunderbird, Fennec, and more.	SethB	SethB, Axel (Pike on IRC), Zbigniew Braniecki (Gandalf on IRC)	No comments.

Firefox Support (Sumo)

Title	Abstract - links to details/bugs/etc	Reporter	Mentor(s)	Comments

Rhino

Title	Abstract - links to details/bugs/etc	Reporter	Mentor(s)	Comments
Rhino JavaScript performance optimization	A number of JavaScript engines have recently increased their performance substantially, using approaches such as a tracing JIT. Investigate and implement new code generation and runtime strategies to increase Rhino's JavaScript execution speed.	Norris Boyd	Norris Boyd (norrisboyd[at]gmail.com)
ES3.1 Support in Rhino	The EcmaScript 3.1 specification effort is making good progress. Investigate and begin implementation of support for the new 3.1 language features in Rhino.	Norris Boyd	Norris Boyd (norrisboyd[at]gmail.com)

Mozilla IT Infrastructure

Title	Abstract - links to details/bugs/etc	Reporter	Mentor(s)	Comments
Weighted & GSLB GeoDNS	Blog post #1 & #2 for background and here for project notes. Would like to build on the existing GeoDNS platform and include per resource record weighting & better management/reporting tools. Would also like to build on this tool to become an open-source Global Load Server Load Balancing tool.	mrz	mrz/IT	Trying to find out ways to get more community involvement with IT-related activities. We have a lot of community involved with Firefox but little with how IT runs Mozilla's services. I believe this will also help give more insight into IT and enable us to be more transparent and help replace some of the closed-source tools we use to deliver Mozilla products & services.

Mozilla Labs

Title	Abstract - links to details/bugs/etc	Reporter	Mentor(s)	Comments
Integrate Thunderbird and Weave	Weave is a way of storing personal Firefox data in the cloud (better description needed). This project would build an interface to Weave from Thunderbird, such as address book data, configuration parameters, etc.	DavidA	Anant	dmose already has a basic port running, but there's lots more to be done w.r.t data sync engines.
Port the Weave web client to 0.3	There is an existing web based interface to access data items stored by Weave. However, after major architectural changes to the server-side, it needs a complete overhaul (and possibly a rewrite) to work with the latest version.	Anant	Anant