Arabeyes applies to GSoC

[nadim at arabeyes dot org (Nadim Shaikli)]

Arabeyes [1] is pleased to announce that it intends to participate,
for the first time ever, in Google's Summer-of-Code (GSoC) program [2].
Arabeyes submitted its application (info noted below) in hopes of
attaining permission to become a 'Mentoring Organization'.  Google
will look over our application and suggested projects/tasks to see
if we fit their criteria after which "students" should be able to
apply (more info noted later).

We'd like to thank Djihed Afifi [3] for taking the initiative to make
this happen as well as all those that participated and helped on Arabeyes'
various mailing-lists.  For further discussions please use the 'general'
or 'developer' mailing-lists [4].

 [1] http://www.arabeyes.org
 [2] http://code.google.com/soc
 [3] http://www.arabeyes.org/people.php?username=djihed
 [4] http://www.arabeyes.org/mailinglists.php

Salam

 .: Arabeyes.org :.

## Application - begin ##

1. Describe your organization.

We're an open source Arabic linux project (www.arabeyes.org) - bringing
Arabic language support to open source projects and applications and
developing Arabic related software.

2. Why is your organization applying to participate in GSoC 2007? What do
   you hope to gain by participating?

We're looking to attract more volunteers and participants as well as raise
awareness in our project's existance and availablity of its various
developers.

3. Did your organization participate in GSoC 2005 or 2006? If so, please
   summarize your involvement and the successes and failures of your
   student projects.

No, we did not.

4. If your organization has not previously participated in GSoC, have you
   applied in the past? If so, for what year(s)?

No, we never applied.

5. Who will your organization administrator be? Please include Google
   Account information.

Nadim Shaikli - (emails withheld)

6. What license does your project use?

GPL

7. What is the URL for your ideas page?

http://wiki.arabeyes.org/Google_Summer_of_Code_2007

8. What is the main development mailing list for your organization?

developer (@) arabeyes -dot- org

9. What is the main IRC channel for your organization?

#arabeyes on irc.freenode.net

10. Does your organization have an application template you would like to
    see students use? If so, please provide it now.

Usually we request people to register and then proceed to see what
people would like to participate in be it in developement or translation
on one of our mailing-lists.

 http://www.arabeyes.org/join.php
 http://www.arabeyes.org/mailinglists.php

In addition to that, students will be asked to apply directly to 
contact (@) arabeyes -dot- org for the GSoC positions, with details
about their:
 -Motivation
 -How they think they can benefit Arabeyes OSS projects
 -Small biography

11. Who will be your backup organization administrator? Please include
    Google Account information.

Mohammed Adnene Trojette - (emails withheld)

12. Who will your mentors be? Please include Google Account Information.

 - Tarik Fdil
 - Djihed Afifi
 - Ayman Hourieh
 - Nadim Shaikli

13. What criteria did you use to select these individuals as mentors?
    Please be as specific as possible.

 - Experience with past projects
 - Dedication
 - Familiarity with new projects
 - Availability of time

14. What is your plan for dealing with disappearing students?

We won't accept more than 5 contributors under this program so that in the
worstcase scanrio some of our other resident developers can take over their
work.

15. What is your plan for dealing with disappearing mentors?

Mentors are quite committed to the work done at Arabeyes, and there is
always the possibility of mentors covering up others. Some mentors chose
to stay as part-time backup (not included in list above).

16. What steps will you take to encourage students to interact with your
    project's community before, during and after the program?

They will be requested to subscribe to the mailing-lists on which they
will be asked to generate status reports and be available for Q&A for
anyone that is looking at their project/work. Live help will usually be
available over IRC as well. Students can have their wiki pages at our
wiki and can include their blogs in Arabeyes planet (planet.arabeyes.org).
Students will be encouraged to setup a blog to follow their work.

17. What will you do to ensure that your accepted students stick with the
    project after GSoC concludes?

After the program, successful students may take over maintainship of projects
or help in other areas. Students can be kept challenged with a long list of 
interesting and rewarding ideas and projects present in our TODO page:
  http://wiki.arabeyes.org/ArabeyesTodo
And our Openbugs page:
  http://wiki.arabeyes.org/Openbugs

## Application - end ##