BeagleBoard.org wasn't accepted as a mentoring organization this year.
Over 2/3rds of the applying organizations were rejected, so we are in
good company. They were really interested in pulling in some new
organizations, so over 25 organizations that were part of GSoC last
year were dropped to make room for new organizations.
We got good feedback on our application and our ideas page. I think
our top issue is that it wasn't clear enough what our software
identity was, but we were rather too focused on hardware. I think a
bit more focus on ARM software and robotics or some software
applications might be good next year.
I think we would do well by making a concerted effort to seek
mentoring opportunities around projects useful to BeagleBoard users,
including:
* connexions
* debian, such as Cross-compilation and cross-virtualisation,
cross-cloud with Eucalyptus
http://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2011/BuildWithEucalyptus
* ffmpeg_libav, such as VC-1 implementation including ARM
optimizations http://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php?title=VC-1
* freebsd, such as ARM projects
http://wiki.freebsd.org/IdeasPage#head-3ee03a2d0e55a202d2a3d7e1f61296b3c9a4cef8
* freifunk, such as OpenWRT and opkg projects
http://wiki.freifunk.net/Ideas#Fix_OPKG_bugs
* gcc, such as openmp support http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/openmp
* gentoo, such as fastboot optimizations
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/userrel/soc/ideas.xml#doc_chap2_sect12
* gstreamer, such as acceleration API integration
http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/wiki/SocProjects
* kernelorg, such as Etherboot
https://korg.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Gsoc2011:ideas
* ogre3d, such as texture streaming
http://www.ogre3d.org/tikiwiki/Help+Requested#Texture_streaming
* opencv, such as image labeling with Mechanical Turk from Android
http://opencv.willowgarage.com/wiki/OpenCVAmazonGSOC2011
* osm (open street maps), such as Android, MeeGo and Qt Quick
applications http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/GSoC_Project_Ideas_2011
* processing, such as Processing for Android or camera input via
OpenCV or GStreamer
http://code.google.com/p/processing/wiki/ProjectList#Processing_for_Android
* qemu, such as improved USB or Android support
http://wiki.qemu.org/Google_Summer_of_Code_2011#Upstreaming_EHCI_support
* rockbox, such as ARM emulator support
http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/SummerOfCode2011#ARM_Emulator
* rtems, such as MMU support http://www.rtems.org/wiki/index.php/MMU_Support
* scummvm, such as the small systems backend
http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/OpenTasks/Generic/Small_Devices_Backend
* sdl, such as test coverage http://www.libsdl.org/gsoc-ideas-2011.php
* fedora, such as replacing VNC with SPICE
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Summer_coding_ideas_for_2011#SPICE_as_a_replacement_for_VNC_and_LTSP
or a robotics suite
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Summer_coding_ideas_for_2011#Educational_Application_for_Fedora_Robotics_Suite
* setiquest, such as DSP pulse detection algorithms
http://setiquest.org/wiki/index.php/Enhancement_of_Algorithm_to_Detect_Pulse_signals
* linux_foundation, such as general kernel work
https://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/gsoc/2011-gsoc-kernel-work
* llvm, such as code compaction http://llvm.org/OpenProjects.html#compaction
* mono, such as a mono.simd port to ARM NEON
http://www.mono-project.com/StudentProjects#Mono.Simd_ports
* tianocore, such as a read-only ext2 driver
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/tianocore/index.php?title=GSOC2011#Read-only_ext2_driver
* videolan, such as the VLC Android port
http://wiki.videolan.org/SoC_2011#VLC_Android_Port
* wx, such as the wxAndroid port
http://wiki.wxwidgets.org/Development:_Student_Projects#wxAndroid_port
Students with a mentor or supporting mentor associated with the
BeagleBoard.org project and working on something that could run on a
BeagleBoard will still be provided with a free board. We can also
consider giving free boards to other mentors supporting that student.
Given the above, I'm still interested in giving some sort of
sponsorships to students wanting to work on improving the
BeagleBoard.org demo Angstrom release, improving the wiki pages for
getting started with Ubuntu/MeeGo/Android/etc or other ways to improve
the embedded Linux learning experience. I don't know what kind of
budget I can find, but I welcome all suggestions. Boards are easier
to come by than dollars.