[Linux-bruxelles] [Fwd: Linux Project Needs Volunteers]

[Jerome Warnier]

Encore un appel aux volontaires.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Linux Project Needs Volunteers
Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 13:30:31 -0500 (EST)
From: John Buswell <johnb at one.net>
To: <johnb at one.net>



Hello,

I am sending out this email to a selected group of Linux User Groups,
hoping that at some of these groups there maybe members interested
in volunteering for a very ambitious Linux project. The project is
well underway and will be completed, we're hoping that with the
edition of more volunteers the project will be completed faster.
Please continue reading if you think you maybe able to find us some
volunteers.

About the project
===================

The project is called Opaque Networks, the goal of the project is
to promote Linux through education, information and innovation. The
project currently consists of 14 web site projects, 3 open source
projects and the maintenance of a fairly complex distributed network.
The project is completely funded by myself, and is made possible through
volunteers donating their spare time to the project.

Currently only 1 of our 14 web based projects are on-line, the rest are
all under development, and the only thing preventing them from being
completed within the next few months is manpower. The project that we
have on-line is TuxPPC (you may know it as imaclinux.net), which is a
site dedicated to information on running Linux on PowerPC systems.

The following projects, in my mind, if done correctly and done soon,
could have a dramatic impact on the Linux world. I have outlined the
projects that are under development below.

freelinux.info
..................

This project is pretty simple. It aims to provide a high quality,
very small portal site that provides instant access to free linux
information. This would include only sites that provide high quality
information and are currently available (such as linux.com, ldp etc).
The idea is to put useful information right at your fingertips without
having to search or know where to look.

linuxnetworking.info
......................

This would be a site similar in design to tuxppc, providing the latest
news on linux networking, useful resources such as easy-to-follow
step-by-step guides to setting up networking features such as ip tunnelling,
bgp, ospf, is-is, advanced routing, qos, load balancing and so on..

freelinuxtraining.org
.......................

This project provides free commerical grade linux training material.

migrate2linux.org
..................

This project provides an advocacy site that targets specific groups -
(a) schools/colleges, (b) small business, (c) enterprise, (d) developers,
and (e) home users. The site would provide case studies, methods of
integrating linux with other commerical products (such as networking
vendors) and so on.

linuxdtp.org
.............

This project provides a site dedicated to Linux desktop publishing.
>From scanning, printing to writing documents and building presentations.

corruptfs
...........

This project provides a site dedicated to filesystems, a resource for
system administrators and developers. Providing performance stats,
reviews and technical analysis of various filesystems available for use
with linux. It would also provide recovery information and tips :)

linuxcast.org
...............

This project provides a site dedicated to receiving and transmitting
various media under linux, from receiving traditional tv/radio, to
making your own internet radio station.

localbroadband.org
....................

This project provides a site dedicated to using broadband internet
connections with linux, recommending local ISPs, guides on setting up
cable/dsl/satellite etc with Linux.

contentnetworking.info
.......................

This project provides a site dedicated to advanced content networking
technologies, their development under linux and how to use current
"black box" contentnetworking technologies with Linux. Content networking
would include content distribution as well as layer 4-7 load balancing and
content manipulation.

linuxtrained.org
..................

This project provides a site dedicated to linux professionals. It acts as
a news site to keep professionals up2date on what they need to know about
advances in technology as well as advances in Linux. It also acts as a
means for networking (people not data) in the Linux world.

-----------------------------

There are a couple of other projects but they are either complete or
require the above to be completed first.

As far as open source projects go, like I said we have three.
The first is another Linux distribution. This one is a little
different though, its developed for x86 and ppc (and we are strongly
considering adding mips and sparc to the mix), it adheres to most of
the LSB 1.0 definition, and it is loosely based around RPM. The goal
of the distribution is to provide a highly flexible environment to
build servers or routers from. The second project is an interface to
use with the distribution to turn the whole thing into an out-of-the-box
solution to build Linux routers or servers. Yes I'm aware of the LRP, this
goes well beyond what the LRP provides currently and its aimed at providing
a more networking-centric means to configure Linux networking features
like vlans, bgp, ospf, etc.

The third project is a content distribution system, designed to eliminate
the need to list mirror sites and to dynamically handle load and distance
vectors.

Network Infrastructure
------------------------

We have a pretty good network infrastructure in place. Currently,
we have a server farm (web/dns/mail/ftp) that is load balanced and
consists of 3 servers. The network is monitored and protected by a
system that performs NIDS as well as regular network monitoring. We
have several support servers for administration and development work.

We have two broadband commerical grade internet connections, our
primary connection is a 2MB/1MB and our secondary connection is a 768k
connection. We have approximately 2 hours of UPS backup power, and in
the event of a complete failure we have a remote redundent server
co-locate with a completely different company which will kick in.

Our network is monitored 24x7 by pager monitoring, as well as at least
three administrators in different time zones.

Problems with Volunteers
-------------------------

We have managed to recruit approximately 20 people in the last 6 months,
out of that 20, only 3 have actually come through and complete volunteer
work. The problem is that people like the idea of the project, volunteer,
get access to the network, but then don't follow through by assisting with
the work.

As a result, we are now trying a different approach. Previously, we've
been recruiting people into individual projects by irc, word of mouth,
occasional postings to usenet or linux sites. We are hoping that by
approaching Linux user groups, that they will know local people who
are enthusiastic about linux, and have the ability to take some inititive
and are responsible enough to follow through with projects.

Advantages
-----------

There are many advantages with helping us out. Aside from making
contacts with other professionals, having access to technologies and
concepts that are bleeding edge, there is also a chance for people to
gain experience they can use on their resumes. So far, three volunteers
have managed to get better jobs as a result of working on our projects
and through the contacts they made.

Who we need
-------------

We need all sorts of volunteers. We could really do with some people
who have good html/php skills, possibly some people who have a talent
for designing nice professional looking sites with browser compatability,
as well as people who like to design graphics/logos/icons etc.

We need one or two system administrators, mainly for security and
advanced projects (like setting up snmp, mrtg etc). Anyone with a clue,
willing to listen and do some research would work well.

We need contributors of course, especially anyone willing to write
training material, howtos, guides or willing to setup test environments
and generate performance stats.

We also have some less technical roles that we need to fill. For starters,
having someone who is in charge of managing and recruiting new volunteers
would be great, we had someone but they got a job at a recruitement
agency and no longer have time to work for us.

We would also like to have a PR person, someone who would work with
other sites like linux.com, newsforge etc., that would try to attract more
people to the site, as well as working with non-linux sites to expose
non-linux people to linux.

We could also use some extra people to manage website projects, making
sure that sites don't slide, keeping an eye on webstats, working with the
PR person etc.

If you can help!!
------------------

First off, thanks :) Please contact me via email to johnb at one.net.
It might make my life a little easier if you have multiple volunteers
from one group, to pick a point of contact initially so i'm not replying
to lots of email (i'm being optimistic here) :)

If you can help, please indicate how you would like to help, and what
projects in particular you would be interested in working on.

Finally - a bit about me!!
---------------------------

Just in case you get email from crazy people all the time..

I'm a sustaining engineer for Nortel Networks. I work on intelligent
switch equipment (rapid firmware bugfixes). I use linux on a daily basis,
both in a desktop and server environment. Prior to working at Nortel,
I worked for MandrakeSoft. I was the initial developer for their PowerPC
port, and worked on a lot of the RPMs for 7.0. Prior to working at
MandrakeSoft, I worked at OneNet Communications as a systems engineer. There
I provided server and network security (all linux systems), as well as
performing most of the system admin and hardware maintenance tasks. I
graduated from the University of Limerick with an honors degree in
Information Technology and Telecommunications. I was first introduced
to Linux in 1995 at university.

---------------------------

Thanks for your time, and I hope you can help me out.

Regards

John Buswell
Project Lead / Founder
Opaque Networks