GSoC/2014/OrgApplication

This page is based on Google Summer of Code 2013 phpBB Application.

Organization Identifier
phpbb

Organization Name
phpBB Forum Software

Organization Administrator
Yuriy Rusko

Organization description
phpBB (BB for Bulletin Board) is the world's most popular free and open source forum solution. The phpBB project is maintained by a 40-strong core team, with regular contributions from a global user and developer community. Originally released in 2000, the latest version of phpBB has since evolved to include support for multiple database engines (PostgreSQL, SQLite, MySQL, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server), user groups, an extendable permissions system, hierarchical subforums, file attachments, a variety of notification options (e-mail, Jabber, ATOM feeds), and an extensive database of styles and modifications.

Organization home page url
http://www.phpbb.com/

Main organization license
GNU General Public License v2 (GPLv2)

Veteran/New
Veteran

Backup Admin
Patrick Webster (Link ID: noxwizard)

If you chose "veteran" in the dropdown above, please summarize your involvement and the successes and challenges of your participation. Please also list your pass/fail rate for each year.
We successfully participated in GSoC 2012 with a pass rate of 100% for the three slots we were allocated. Two of the students attended our hackathon in November (one travelling from India to Amsterdam to do so). All three students committed code well past their involvement in GSoC and one is currently being considered for membership to the core development team.

Some of our mentors underestimated the amount of time that would be required to ensure their students' success. We were aware that this is a fairly common observance for new organizations and had prepared sufficient backup mentors to assist where needed. This was identified early on and we ended up establishing more scheduled student/mentor meetings, as well as regular team communication between the organization admins and mentors. We are eager to utilize the knowledge gained last year to structure our program even more efficiently and feel capable of taking on additional students.

The projects our students completed were of great value to our product and well received by our user base. They even encouraged other community members to contribute new features.

Why is your organization applying to participate in Google Summer of Code 2014? What do you hope to gain by participating?
The phpBB community strongly believes in the free software philosophy. We are always looking for ways of improving our product and stimulating activity in the community. GSoC is a terrific opportunity allowing for both, while additionally encouraging students to become involved in open source software.

What is the URL for your Ideas list?
http://wiki.phpbb.com/GSoC/2014/Ideas

What is the main development mailing list for your organization?
We do not have a development mailing list; discussions about development takes place on our Development Board at http://area51.phpbb.com/phpBB/

What is the main IRC channel for your organization?

 * 1) phpBB-dev on Freenode

What criteria did you use to select your mentors for this year's program? Please be as specific as possible.
Our mentors are experienced core team members who have been active with the project for multiple years and volunteered to participate in this program. Many of them took part in GSoC 2013 and those who did not actively participate were observers and are aware of their responsibilities as mentors.

What is your plan for dealing with disappearing students?
As was the case last year, we will require regular communication between students and mentors. Our mentors will be responsible for keeping track of communication and posting regular progress reports in order to detect and rectify possible extenuating circumstances as quickly as possible.

What is your plan for dealing with disappearing mentors?
Our mentors are long-standing core team members who spend considerable amounts of time contributing to phpBB on a daily basis. In the very unlikely event that a team members becomes unable to fulfill his or her role as a mentor, several backup candidates are available. All mentors will be required to keep notes accessible to others.

What steps will you take to encourage students to interact with your project's community before and during the program?
Prior to the start of the program, students will be guided to register accounts on our development forum and issues tracker. This will allow them to participate in current matters and review prior development discussion for reference. We will likewise require students to participate on IRC, as this has previously been heavily correlated with success in the program and achieving a sense of community.

Last year, all of the selected students had already submitted multiple small patches prior to being picked and this turned out to be a great way to familiarize them with our development process. We therefore ask all candidates to attempt a fix for a bug marked as "trivial" in our issues tracker prior to the selection deadline. The procedure for doing this is detailed in our wiki and linked from the Ideas page, with additional assistance available on IRC and the development forum.

What will you do to encourage that your accepted students stick with the project after Google Summer of Code concludes?
Our mentors will encourage students to make use of the community while working on their projects. Students will be required to post RFCs for their project or participate in the existing RFCs where relevant. With the addition of less-formal chats on IRC, students are quickly incorporated into the regular flow of things and made to made to feel welcome.

By the end of the summer, students will be very comfortable with our usual development process, which should prevent any kind of learning-curve for participating further. As was quite successful last year, final results will be showcased to highlight each individual's accomplishments. Students will be invited to join us for the annual hackathon, which will be taking place in Montreal in late July.

The combination of working in a group of volunteers who are passionate about what they do and the reward of seeing a large user base satisfied by the completion of their summer project has convinced most of our past students to contribute further even after the conclusion of the Google Summer of Code program.