GSoC Projects at Summer Sprint

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

As you may know, the Mozilla Science Lab's first-ever two-day sprint is in the next few days and all GSoC projects related with Mozilla Science Lab will be part of it. For more information about the plans for the GSoC projects continue reading this post.

Peer Instruction on the Web

This project aims to bring proof-of-concept on-line teaching tool that uses peer instruction technique. More details about the project can be found in Piotr's blog post.

The project needs volunteers to test the basic functionality and hopefully find bugs. We'll set up an Etherpad and coordinate video calls. The only requirement is a new browser, preferably Firefox or Chromium/Chrome, and a working webcam.

If you're willing to help with programming, Pitt mostly uses JavaScript (both front and back-end). There are some documentation issues open that are good to get you started with the project. The project code needs reviews by proficient JavaScript programmers, too.

Piotr, the project leader, will be in Kraków, Poland (UTC+2), during the sprint. All the required links will appear on sprint's etherpad below "A web-based tool for peer instruction" line (currently 102).

Browsercast: a Web-Based Slideshow Replay Tool

The Browsercast project aims to offer a web based slideshow composition tool with support for voice-over synchronization.

Exported presentations should act exactly like a video in terms of playback functionality: play/stop/pause/resume with perfect voice-over synchronization but still maintain the same rich environment a web presentation can offer: text, images, links, interactivity.

Implementation details

Two main parts:

• The Browsercast Editor
• it allows you to create, edit, synchronize, import, export a presentation
• The Browsercast library
• The JavaScript library that handles the playback functionality and does not depends on the editor

More details can be found on my blog.

There are certainly a lot of ways you can help:

• by testing the application and offering feedback on user experience and features list
• for programmers and engineering
• prototyping some of the needed modules for which can't be found good open-source alternatives
• analyse the possibilities of integrating the popcorn timeline and the thimble editor
• and many more...

All required information will be available on the Browsercast sprint pad.

Math Virtual Keyboard

The Math/LaTeX virtual keyboard is going fine (you can read more about it here) and right now Raniere will love if someone can try it for a few minutes. Raniere will be at Paris site for the sprint with one of the devices from Firefox OS Tablet Program so if you want help me trying it please get in touch.

Software Carpentry will try to kick off the lesson manager project and Raniere will help with it.