From Fedora Project Wiki

About

  • Name: Keerthana Krishnan
  • Location: Cochin, India (+5:30 GMT)
  • Final year student for B.Tech Computer Science & Engineering at Govt. Model Engineering College, Cochin
  • Comfortable with : C, C++, Ruby On Rails, Python, CSS, HTML, MySQL, Git
  • Learning : JavaScript, PHP
  • Basic Design Skills using Photoshop and Gimp

Contact Information

Questions to answer

Why do you want to work with the Fedora Project?

Fedora has been a great experience. I feel so welcome here. I was barely a week in and very new to the system of being a user/contributor when I got to work for something as important as the F23 release announcement. That was a real morale-booster, more so when experienced contributors give you a pat in the back and tell you that they liked what you did. I also loved the badge system which celebrates little wins. It feels like a lovely family here and I would be privileged to work as an intern for Fedora.

Do you have any past involvement with the Fedora Project or another open-source project as a contributor?

Yes, I've been a Fedora contributor since October 2015. I've helped around in Commops in various capacities, especially in writing the F23 announcement and creating a new Join series on the wiki for Commops

Have you participated in GSoC in the past? If so, what year(s) and which organization(s)?

No, I'm participating for the first time.

Do you plan to continue contributing to the Fedora Project after GSoC? If yes, what sub-project(s) are you interested with?

Yes. I will still continue to work with Fedora Hubs and Commops and I'd like to expand onto Fedora Websites and Fedora QA which I have been unable to do so far because of my restrictive academic schedule till May

Why should we choose you over other applicants?

I have been a contributor to Fedora for about six months, since October 2015. I'm familiar and comfortable working with the all the great people here. But since I was at the last leg of my academic life, I haven't been able to explore the project as I had wanted to yet. So, I think my experience gives me a unique perspective about this project by being able to understand the way people work, but being a newbie enough to understand the challenges that someone new to this system can face.

Have you contributed to any other open source organizations or projects? If so, do you have artifacts you can show so we can see your skill set(s)?

I have written professionally and personally for many blogs and publications before and I do have previous experience with collaborating with people for events and coding in multiple languages like C, C++, Python and with web development in HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, and Javascript. The link to my websites I have give above have all been created by and being maintained by me.

Do you have any other open source experience (even if not coding-related)?

Yes, I do.

  • I am an Ambassador for ICFOSS [1], an institution of the Govt. of Kerala State, India
  • Experience in the field of running and creating websites.
  • Worked with group projects in large international organizations like IEEE
  • Was the activity coordinator and documentation in charge for our local section.
  • Written professionally and personally for many blogs and publications
  • Previous experience with collaborating with people for events and coding in multiple languages like C, C++, Python and with web development in HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, and Javascript.
  • Reading through the job description and requirements, I felt that Hubs was something I could do with my previous experience with programming, the Commops team and content management.

Proposal Description

Overview and The Need

Even though Fedora exists as a great tightly-knit unit, most of our work happens over IRCs and meetings and the web presence is very static. In short, the purpose of Fedora Hubs is to provide a communication and collaboration center for Fedora contributors of all types. The idea is that contributors will be able to visit Hubs to check on their involvements across Fedora, discover new places that they can contribute, and more. I believe that this is a great initiative and if implemented with the right kind of UI/UX feel can attract more people to open source. I would love to give my absolute best to make this come alive

How do you intend to implement your proposal

From my limited understanding of Fedora Hubs, it's been long in the pipeline but hasn't really come out of it's closet.

Current Limitations

  • The installation procedure is long and complicated and the user experience now leaves a lot to be desired for.
  • It's very difficult for a new user to access, install or in anyway appreciate a system that was supposed to be for every Fedora contributor.
  • Some of wiki links itself are outdated and I found myself and some of the other applicants trying hard to get up to date data about the project.
  • It is difficult to find if you don't know where to look.

Being a web developer myself, I would like to bring the focus back to user experience. My plan of implementation for Hubs would be to first bring a basic no-frills version up and hosted by the beginning of June which the community can see and give feedback to. Then, I would like to refine it as I go along, getting better from practical experience.

A rough timeline for your progress

Expected time line for the project :

This is only a brief summary with the tasks I know I have to do. There might be slight variations in this plan according to the circumstance. Since the last of my exams get over on the 12 th of May, I'm free to start from the 13 th

  • May 13 - May 26 : Spending time familiarizing with the code and getting to know the issues in the code at https://pagure.io/fedora-hubs
  • May 27 - Jun 01 : Create mockups for implementaion of the system
  • Jun 02 - Jun 06 : Create databases in anticipation to hosting the system
  • Jun 07 - Jun 17 : Hosting the basic Fedora Hubs web interface.
  • Jun 18 - Jul 01 : Fixing deployment errors, buffer time for interaction and feedback from the community
  • Jul 02 - Jul 15 : Starting the work on the integration various parts of the project such as IRC, bodhi, FAS, Trac, CommBlog, Magazine, Mailing list, Trac, Badges
  • Jul 24 - Jul 30 : Fine tuning various widgets and its actions
  • Aug 01 - Aug 11 : Differentiating the user and group functionalities of the project. One user can have multiple groups and one group has multiple users.
  • Aug 12+ : Finishing up

Final deliverable

I do believe that I can deliver on a solid website for Fedora Hubs by the end of my GSoC internship period that will, hopefully, integrate the great vision of so many Fedorans who would like to see hubs come alive and are waiting breathlessly for it. I want to create a social interactive space within Fedora which gives a great user experience for its users and makes it easy and fun to contribute to Fedora, which will hopefully attract more people to open source.

Any other details you feel we should consider

I had done my main project as a application and I'm comfortable being a web developer on both the front end and the back end. I'm very passionate about open source and I believe that my diverse skill set and portfolio gives me the best candidate for this job.

Have you communicated with a potential mentor? If so, who?

I have interacted with all the members of the Fedora Hubs and they have been simply great and supportive, so it's hard to pick favorites. Remy (decause), Justin (jflory7) and Corey (linuxmodder), the listed mentors, have given me some of the best advice and directions since joining. I would be privileged to work with any one of them but I would love to work with as many different people as possible since Hubs is essentially a very collaborative effort. I know that a lot of people have worked on this before me and I would be happy to include ideas from everyone to make this better

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