Dear luggies
Consequent to the interest ILUGC has generated among students, I am getting lot
of request for suggesting proects.
In some colleges, they have decided out-and-out FOSS based projects.
Please suggest projects ideas.
Please keep in mind the constraints
a. The projects are not fulltime for B.E students
b. Most will have only preliminary knowledge - but can pickup fast.
c. Should point out resources available on net
This is a welcome move in our LUG. I too had lot of enquiries from lot
of students, but could not give an effective help. Discussing in this
list can bring some positive outcome.
Some of criterias that i feel are important:
1. The academic project should be done for some real life requirements.
No matter, what it is. If it solves a real life problem, then this
project is worth while doing it.
2. The basic skills needed for doing the project is very important. We
cannot guide project at the 8th semester, if the students dont know even
the basic.
3. Even MCA students can be included in FOSS projects.
The FOSS project that is being undertaken should be fullfilling, and
should be towards implementing in a common life scenario. For example,
if the student are doing an ecommerce project, they have to work towards
implementing it in real life, and atleast deal some 2 or 3 prodcuts
through that software. Only then, both the project experience and the
software would be useful for the students.
Secondly, as we have seen, no single matured foss project is short
term. For example, wordpress has been started before 2006 and still its
evolving. So, we should have a setup, so that, we build a student
community of contributors across colleges under a common platform, so
that the project they do evolve in to a mature one over the period of time.
But for that, we need to have a strong platform, a vibrant community,
and the open source development model.
By platform, i mean, a site that contains the SVN, Wiki, project
management, IRC etc.
By Vibrant community, i mean, the contributors should be passionate
about it, and should not do it for academic sake.
By Open source model, i mean, the concrete process to commit source
code, and a workable model, where different team takes different tasks
towards the common objective. Its a model or process that should be
finalised before starting project and should be strictly followed by the
contributors.
To achieve those, there are some basic requirements to be fulfilled.
The students should be trained in using svn, and other tools to be used
for project management. Only then they will be able to maintain, manage
and take control of their development work.
Secondly, regular meetings and conferences is to be held both in person,
and over IRC, so that they would be able to discuss each and everypart
of the project.
As everyone knows, a foss project is NOT merely a coding. Infact coding
contributes only minor part of the development. What is required is a
solid concept, with optimal architecture for the project to start with.
So the students should finalise on a concept, and start periodical
discussion on various aspects of the project and document it.
*FOSS Project that i undertook
-----------------------
*I have been taken an initiative on my own, to guide 4 students from
Mahendra engineering college. I would seek the opinion of the group
members over it.
The project i suggested to them was "College ERP". To develop a basic
module for the college to manage their administrative and academic
tasks. This is essentially for the college management, and would
greatly improve the management capability and decision making ability
for the college.
I am aware that this is too big a project for a BE student to take it as
academic project. However, i thought, that we would be covering only
basic and essential modules for the college, and it can be continued as
a long term project with next batch of students taking up from where
they left.
The advantage i feel is that the current student can involve in the
project till they get a suitable job, and in turn train a batch of their
junior to work on it. Even after getting a job, they can very well
guide their juniors with their technical skills.
My idea can mostly be a unfeasible one, but my guess is that if the
project kicks off, it would become a active foss project, else, it would
become a normal academic project. So any way, there is no loss for the
student.
*My Suggestion:
--------------------
*If any of the members are convinced of my idea above, we can work
together and convert it in to an active FOSS project, involving students
from various projects, working on different modules. For credibility, a
brand name can be created by starting a community enterprise, or atleast
by maintaining a fullfledged website, so that students can always refer
to, when they submit their project to their management.
This can be done, by forming team of open source enthusiast, who would
guide the students in various aspects.
Please share your comments on my proposal.
There are many other suggestions that i want to share. But let me see
the response to this first proposal.
Regards,
Senthil
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