Etherpad FAD

This is the main page for the Etherpad Fedora Activity Day to be held Oct 8-9th at Olin College of Engineering. We hope you'll join us!

Background: EtherPad (video demo) was a high-performance web-based collaborative document editor, launched in 2008 from etherpad.com. It was acquired by Google during the development of Google Wave, and the service's code base was open-sourced. Several websites now run an EtherPad service and there is interest in making private installs (such as one for the Fedora Project) easier to create.

Buuut the EtherPad code-base isn't exactly in a packageable state, as demonstrated by SDZ, here. We would like to package EtherPad correctly for Fedora. Where possible, we intend to use JavaEE practices to package as a no-deps archives.

Finally, once complete, we'd like to use the new packages to setup an EtherPad instance for the Fedora Community.

Purpose

1. Our purpose is to...
   • Repackage EtherPad in a consistent, Java standard, portable way
   • Create compliant, Fedora packages for EtherPad
   • Setup EtherPad instance on Fedora Infrastructure
   • Teach non-Propeller-heads about OSS development and the technologies used
2. In addition, we will attempt to complete the following secondary goals as time allows:
   • Build better(/more complete) test system for EtherPad
   • Create a EP web-config interface -- easier to deploy EP
   • Document EP

Detailed Work Items & Final Attendees

1. Inventory attendees and skill sets
2. Create plan of action
3. TODO: Fill in ...
4. Get Fedora EtherPad package approved
5. Deploy package to Fedora Infastructure

Planning Prerequisites

See the How to organize a FAD list; you can keep your to-do list here.

• Decide on location Olin College, Needham MA
• Work out budget In progress
• Decide on dates
• Arrange Facilities (reservation)
• List Resources
• Be Somewhat Structured (Arguable =P)
• Arrange Lodging (Attendees will have to cover themselves)
• Arrange Refreshments
• Arrange a Social Event
• Add other action items here

Plan

Location

Olin Campus Center Olin College, 1000 Olin Way, Needham MA, 02492, USA

[map]

Venue

Crescent Room (CC209 and CC211)

Schedule

Note: all times are US Eastern. GMT -5 hours.

Pre-FAD (very optional)

• Saturday, October 2nd
  • 3pm - Collude, plan, etc.

computercolin: Planning to work with Joe Cornelli and some EP contributors from Europe here.

FAD

• Friday, October 8th
  • 5pm - Kickoff (introductions, something fun, layout of plan)
  • 6pm - Hacking
  • 8pm - Educational Break: Intro to OSS development for Olin Students
• Saturday, October 9th
  • 11:00am - Individual reports and progress check
  • 11:30am - Hacking
  • 1:30pm - Indian lunch buffet at Masala Art
  • 2:30pm - Hacking
  • 5:00pm - Educational Break: Q&A on how EtherPad works; technologies it uses
  • 7:00pm - Interactive Stir-fry Dinner
• Sunday, October 10th
  • Breakfast by Colin for the hardcore
  • Kickout

computercolin: Think we could do a most-of-night (all-night?) hack session one of the nights. Both, probably too much.

Skills needed

• Java application packaging
• Javascript/java/scala decipherment
  • framework expertise in jetty, Comet, AppJet or Rhino would be helpful
  • also some mysql or apache derby
• infrastructure deployment
• software project management
• code (re)architecture
• developer documentation
• Malleable mind to fill (this list look intimidating? come learn something, hear war stories, see what this web-service, Comet, open-source, computer stuff is all about!)

People

Physically Present

• Colin Zwiebel (Needham, MA) - Organizer (it appears) - developer, Oliner, Will be there
  • Find us some Java Propeller-heads
  • Snag some cool space at Olin
  • Get some awesome Oliners (not hard)
  • Make sure everyone learns something and has fun
• Andy Pethan (Needham, MA) - Attendee/hacker/facilitator - developer, Etherpad fanboy Will be there
• Sebastian Dziallas ( Needham, MA) - Fedora Packager - developer, packager Will make it
• DJ Gallagher (Boston, MA) - Java Propeller-head - dev, documentation Will probably come
• Jeff Mitchell (Boston, MA) - Asked to give talk, community management, coding, sysadmin - coming
• Matt Crawford (Wellesley, MA) - polymath computer skills - Interested in coming
• Paul Booth (Olin) - Coding, testing, jokes - Be there
• Jason Curtis (Olin) - Java - Interested
• Jeff Atkinson (Olin) - Java - coming
• Danny Bathgate (Olin) - polymath programming skills - interested
• Kevin Mehall (Olin) - coding, lots of linux admin - Very interested

Remote

• Mel Chua (Raleigh, NC) - QA implementation - Can probably come if schedule is free--Errt, she's in South Africa doing a POSSE
  • Ticket tracker setup (move this to fedorahosted.org?)
  • Collect all existing bugs/enhancement requests and get them written and triaged properly
  • Test case/results system implementation
  • Write and execute first round of test cases, starting with a smoke test, then moving to focus on scaleability, cross-platform/browser testing
  • QA infrastructure experimentation (probably looking at Mozilla's tools for starters)
• Joe Cornelli - (Milton Keynes, UK?) - linux admin skills, further evaluation needed - Interested in remoting
• John McClear - (UK) - PrimaryPad, admin, (more...) - Very interested in remoting, has week off!
• Brian Herman - (Chicago, IL) - polymath programming - Interested in remoting

Logistics

Snacks/Beverages:

• Andy / Oliner w/ car will pickup week of FAD. Will consist mainly of Soda.

Lunch:

• Masala Art outing
  • Attendees will carpool / ride bikes 1 mile into Needham

Masala Art on Yelp

Dinner:

• Friday (8th) - Sweet Tomatoes Pizza
• Saturday (9th) - Communal, interactive, stir-fry dinner
  • Colin and helpers will grab rice cookers, setup spicing station

Infastructure / Communication

1. Projector i=n room / borrow from Olin IT
2. Borrow video camera for streaming video / screencast

Budget

Food

• Pre-FAD
  • $0
• FAD
  • Food:
    • Friday, Sweet Tomatoes Pizza - $15 / reg attendee ~$120
    • Saturday, Masala Art Buffet (the discussion meal) - $14 / reg attendee ~$250
    • Saturday, Communal Chinese Dinner - $150 total
  • Drinks / Snacks
    • $20 /night =$40

Food total: $560

Travel

Contributor	Type	Dept	Arrv	Dept	Arrv	Cost
Jon Stanley	Amtrak	Oct 8 ~6pm - NYC (Penn station)	Oct 8 - Route 128 Station (RTE)	Oct 10 ~9am - Olin	Oct 10 - NYC (Penn station)	$180 USD

Lodging

Contributor	Location	Check-in	Check-out	Cost
Tom Calloway	BECC (~at olin)	Oct 8	Oct 10	$350 USD
Jon Stanley	BECC (~at olin)	Oct 8	Oct 10	$350 USD

Total

$1440 USD

Logs

• 2010-09-06 planning meeting (budget review before submission)