doc/soc/application.mdwn



Based on "What should a mentoring organization application look like?".


Describe your organization.
The ikiwiki project aims to develop a general-purpose wiki, with particular emphasis on personal wikis, project wikis, blogs, and collaborative software development.  We provide several features unique or uncommon amongst wikis:


Rather than inventing yet another simplistic, linear revision control system, ikiwiki makes use of standard version control systems such as [[Subversion]] and [[Git]].  You can edit a wiki by committing to your repository, as well as through a traditional web interface.  This makes ikiwiki ideal for collaborative software development; just keep your wiki in version control next to your software.  You can also take advantage of the features of these systems; for instance, you can keep a local branch of your wiki via [[Git]].


You can turn any set of pages into an inline news feed, complete with RSS and Atom support.  You can run your weblog on ikiwiki (and many people do), run a Planet-like aggregator for external feeds, or keep a TODO and bug list with tags for completed items.


ikiwiki provides a wiki compiler, designed to transform your wiki content into a set of static pages.  You can then serve these pages as static content.  ikiwiki will not fall over during a Slashdotting, because page views don't require the ikiwiki CGI; as long as Apache can keep up, your site will survive.  Furthermore, you can choose whether you want to run the ikiwiki CGI for web edits or only handle commits to the underlying version control system; you can even run ikiwiki privately and just manually copy the content to another server.  So if you want to put a wiki up on a server without installing any software on that server, try ikiwiki.


Why is your organization applying to participate in GSoC 2007? What do you hope to gain by participating?
ikiwiki has had a strong positive response from several communities of software developers.  We believe we have filled a genuine need, unaddressed by previous software.  Many users have begun to take ikiwiki in unexpected directions, using it in ways we had not previously envisioned.
Thus, we believe ikiwiki has reached a stage where it would greatly benefit from more widespread exposure to the ingenuity of other developers.
Furthermore, we have a good list of existing projects on our TODO list.  The nature of ikiwiki, with its highly capable plugin system and broader focus than most wikis, results in far more ideas than implementation time.  We have a well-managed TODO list, ranging from minor items to major projects.  We would greatly appreciate contributions toward some of our more substantial feature ideas.  We believe we have a very low barrier to contribution.


Did your organization participate in GSoC 2005 or 2006? If so, please summarize your involvement and the successes and failures of your student projects.
ikiwiki has not previously participated in Google Summer of Code.


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


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


What license does your project use?
ikiwiki uses the GNU General Public License.  The basewiki, incorporated into users' wikis, uses an all-permissive license.  See [[FreeSoftware]] for details.


What is the URL for your ideas page?
http://ikiwiki.info/soc.html


What is the main development mailing list for your organization?
The ikiwiki project strongly encourages collaboration through ikiwiki itself, and thus does not have a mailing list.
Anyone can create an account on ikiwiki's own wiki.  ikiwiki provides a bug tracker, a TODO list, and the ability
to create a weblog on any page.  ikiwiki also includes "discussion" sub-pages on every page.  The developers and mentors
monitor RecentChanges closely, both via the webpage and email and and will respond in a timely fashion.


What is the main IRC channel for your organization?
#ikiwiki on OFTC.


Does your organization have an application template you would like to see students use? If so, please provide it now.
No application template needed.


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


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


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


What is your plan for dealing with disappearing students?


What is your plan for dealing with disappearing mentors?


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


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