CELF Open Project Proposal 2010

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Intoduction

The CELF Open Project Proposal is an process whereby members of the public can submit to the CE Linux Forum ideas and proposals for projects that they think should be worked on to enhance embedded Linux.

Each year, CELF spends money on contract work to improve Linux, for use in embedded systems. Some of the projects we have sponsored in the past include Linux-tiny, DirectFB enhancements, smem, and Squashfs mainlining.

Usually, our process involves querying forum members about their desires and building a project list from that. This year, we are opening up the process and asking for your ideas and proposals as well.

Process

Proposal format

Each proposal should include a description of the bugfix, feature or technology improvement that is being proposed. The description should be brief (it can be as short as 1 to 2 paragraphs), but should include enough information to understand the scope of the proposal. It is important to list the expected benefit of the work.

The proposal should also list related or already existing work, and the expected scope of effort required to accomplish the goal. Finally, if you know of someone who might be interested or willing to work on the project, please include that as well.

Where to send the proposal

Send your proposal to the celinux-dev mailing list, at: celinux-dev@tree.celinuxforum.org. To do this, you need to subscribe to the list. You can do this via the celinux-dev mailing list web page.

An alternative is available (although not preferred), which is to send the proposal to the the CE Linux forum project-proposal mailing list, at: project-proposal@tree.celinuxforum.org.

Sending the proposal to the celinux-dev list is preferred, because other people can review the proposal, discuss it, and make suggestions.

Project Selection

The CE Linux Forum will select the projects that it wants to fund.

Q and A

Q. How is this different from other "open project" systems, like Google's "Summer of Code"?
A. Other systems often require that the submitter of the proposal be the one interested in doing the work. With CELF's Open Project Proposal, anyone who can think of a good idea can submit it, (possibly with hinting about someone who might be a good candidate to perform the work).

Q. How much money is CELF willing to spend on these projects?
A. The exact amount shall remain a mystery. However, usually, CELF budgets a bit more than $100,000 each year for contract work of this nature. This is less than other similar projects, but is still enough to push some interesting projects forward, that make a difference over time.

Q. Are you daft? Why would you let other people suggest ways to spend CELF's money?
A. Hey, it's open source. Good ideas can come from anywhere. Note that CELF still controls what projects get selected, and hence where the money will be spent. That's one of the privileges of CELF membership. However, CELF will publish the list of projects that it will fund, as well as the projects that were not funded. It is hoped that other entities may contribute money or resources to push some of the technologies or features forward, independent of CELF's contribution.

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