tor-webwml.git

Adding example proposals for GSoC.
Parent 2b020f56a
Damian Johnson

Damian Johnson commited on 2011-03-25 16:53:52
Zeige 2 geänderte Dateien mit 180 Einfügungen und 0 Löschungen.

about/en/gsoc.wml
Zeige Datei @ 03c17677c
... ... 
@@ -197,6 +197,22 @@
197 197 
     students. So if you haven't filled up your summer plans yet, please
198 198 
     consider spending some time working with us to make Tor better!
199 199 
     </p>
200 
+
201 
+    <h2><a class="anchor" href="#Template">Application Examples</a></h2>
202 
+
203 
+    <p>
204 
+    Below are examples of some GSoC applications from previous years we liked.
205 
+    The best applications tend to go through several iterations so you're
206 
+    highly encouraged to send drafts early.
207 
+    </p>
208 
+
209 
+    <ul>
210 
+      <li><h4><a href="http://tor.spanning-tree.org/proposal.html">DNSEL Rewrite</a> by Harry Bock</h4></li>
211 
+      <li><h4><a href="http://kjb.homeunix.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/KevinBerry-GSoC2010-TorProposal.html">Extending Tor Network Metrics</a> by Kevin Berry</h4></li>
212 
+      <li><h4><a href="../about/gsocProposal/gsoc10-proposal-soat.txt">SOAT Expansion</a> by John Schanck</h4></li>
213 
+      <li><h4><a href="http://www.atagar.com/misc/gsocBlog09/">Website Pootle Translation</a> by Damian Johnson</h4></li>
214 
+    </ul>
215 
+
200 216 
   </div>
201 217 
   <!-- END MAINCOL -->
202 218 
   <div id = "sidecol">
about/gsocProposal/gsoc10-proposal-soat.txt
Zeige Datei @ 03c17677c
... ... 
@@ -0,0 +1,164 @@
1 
+1. What project would you like to work on? Use our ideas lists as a starting
2 
+point or make up your own idea. Your proposal should include high-level
3 
+descriptions of what you're going to do, with more details about the parts you
4 
+expect to be tricky. Your proposal should also try to break down the project
5 
+into tasks of a fairly fine granularity, and convince us you have a plan for
6 
+finishing it.
7 
+
8 
+The Snakes on a Tor exit scanner has the potential to dramatically improve the
9 
+safety of Tor users by ferreting out misconfigured and malicious exit nodes.
10 
+At present it suffers from certain stability issues which prevent it from being
11 
+run for long periods of time, and from an overabundance of false positives in
12 
+the results it generates. While I would ideally like to work on designing new
13 
+routines for detecting subtle content modifications and for better handling
14 
+dynamic content -- the issues of stability and false positives need to be
15 
+addressed first. I've begun looking at the SoaT source code and running some
16 
+preliminary experiments, identifying several small stability issues. In the
17 
+coming weeks I'll begin to collect a body of false positives which I'll study
18 
+and design new filters around. The most difficult part of this project may be
19 
+determining what actual positive results look like, and developing a threat
20 
+model that predicts the kinds of modifications which malicious exit nodes are
21 
+likely to make. I'm sure this question has been addressed by members of the Tor
22 
+community, so much of my early work this summer will involve talking to
23 
+community members to better understand the kinds of malicious exit nodes which
24 
+have been seen in the past, and determining how well the current SoaT
25 
+implementation performs against these known attacks.
26 
+
27 
+Timeline:
28 
+   April 26 - May 24:
29 
+
30 
+    *  Start to get an idea of what the threat model looks like, continue
31 
+       performing stability tests and gathering a diverse collection of results
32 
+       to study.
33 
+
34 
+   May 24 - June 17:
35 
+
36 
+    * Throw everything I can at SoaT - make it crash and fix the bugs.
37 
+    * Keep collecting data!
38 
+
39 
+   June 17 - July 17:
40 
+
41 
+    * In depth analysis of false positives. Use both false positives and real
42 
+      modifications (or modifications generated by myself which emulate the
43 
+      types of things predicted by the threat model) to develop a data set that
44 
+      SoaT's filters can be evaluated against offline.
45 
+
46 
+    * Use the data set to improve existing filters and create new ones.
47 
+
48 
+  July 17 - August 2:
49 
+     Here the timeline splits depending on progress thus far.
50 
+     Case 1 - There are still too many false positives:
51 
+
52 
+    * Keep developing new filters and tuning old ones.
53 
+
54 
+      Case 2 - False positives have been reduced to an acceptable level:
55 
+
56 
+    * Get SoaT running full time on a dedicated machine. Improve reporting so
57 
+      that SoaT can communicate its suspicions to the Tor team.
58 
+    * Start drafting plans for improving the system.
59 
+
60 
+   August 2 - 16:
61 
+
62 
+    * Perform an extensive test of the system and write up a report of where it
63 
+    * does well and what can be improved.
64 
+
65 
+
66 
+2. Point us to a code sample: something good and clean to demonstrate that you
67 
+know what you're doing, ideally from an existing project.
68 
+
69 
+I'm one of the two lead developers for the Anomos project, the code for which
70 
+can be browsed here [https://git.anomos.info/?p=anomos.git;a=summary].
71 
+
72 
+Anomos is in Python, and I handle almost all of the network code (which makes
73 
+extensive use of SSL), so this project is particularly representative of where
74 
+my skill set intersects with that needed to work on SoaT.
75 
+
76 
+
77 
+3. Why do you want to work with The Tor Project / EFF in particular?
78 
+
79 
+I think Tor is one of the most important free software projects in development
80 
+today - I'm very interested in the political issues surrounding access to
81 
+information, and have been an EFF member for several years now. Tor has also
82 
+been the primary inspiration for my work on Anomos. What particularly attracts
83 
+me about Tor is the sustained emphasis its developers have placed on making it
84 
+a platform for research. This emphasis has attracted a large community of
85 
+skilled anonymity researchers with whom I would be honored to work with and
86 
+learn from as I continue my study of anonymity and begin to conduct my own
87 
+research.
88 
+
89 
+
90 
+4. Tell us about your experiences in free software development environments. We
91 
+especially want to hear examples of how you have collaborated with others
92 
+rather than just working on a project by yourself.
93 
+
94 
+I develop all of my own software under free licenses and make an effort to work
95 
+in groups as often as possible. Anomos, the largest project I've worked on,
96 
+would not have been possible in a non-free environment. It has received
97 
+tremendous support from the community in terms of development, debugging,
98 
+translation, documentation, and testing - the project simply would not have
99 
+been possible without support from the free software community.  I run free
100 
+software on all of my computers, and make an active effort to report or patch
101 
+bugs whenever possible.
102 
+
103 
+
104 
+5. Will you be working full-time on the project for the summer, or will you
105 
+have other commitments too (a second job, classes, etc)? If you won't be
106 
+available full-time, please explain, and list timing if you know them for other
107 
+major deadlines (e.g. exams). Having other activities isn't a deal-breaker, but
108 
+we don't want to be surprised.
109 
+
110 
+I will be available full-time to work on Tor. I plan on attending a couple
111 
+conferences and spending a lot of time outdoors, but that won't take me away
112 
+from my work for more than a few days.
113 
+
114 
+
115 
+6. Will your project need more work and/or maintenance after the summer ends?
116 
+What are the chances you will stick around and help out with that and other
117 
+related projects?
118 
+
119 
+My project will almost certainly be completed during the summer.  That said,
120 
+I'm very likely to remain active with the Tor project after the summer. I'm
121 
+currently planning on conducting anonymity research as a large part of my
122 
+undergraduate thesis work and would love for that work to involve Tor.
123 
+
124 
+
125 
+7. What is your ideal approach to keeping everybody informed of your progress,
126 
+problems, and questions over the course of the project? Said another way, how
127 
+much of a "manager" will you need your mentor to be?
128 
+
129 
+Especially when it comes to a project I'm really interested in - I'm extremely
130 
+self motivated and require very little management. I generally check in with a
131 
+project manager once per week unless a problem or question arises. I make
132 
+extensive use of version control software, commit frequently, and keep my work
133 
+in a publicly accessible repositories, so my mentor will be able to monitor my
134 
+progress at their leisure. I'm also happy to blog or otherwise communicate my
135 
+progress on a regular basis to the project community.
136 
+
137 
+
138 
+8. What school are you attending? What year are you, and what's your
139 
+major/degree/focus? If you're part of a research group, which one?
140 
+
141 
+I'm in my third year at Hampshire College studying computer science with a
142 
+focus on distributed and peer-to-peer systems. I occasionally work at the
143 
+University of Massachusetts, Amherst conducting BitTorrent research under Arun
144 
+Venkataramani.
145 
+
146 
+
147 
+9. How can we contact you to ask you further questions? Google doesn't share
148 
+your contact details with us automatically, so you should include that in your
149 
+application. In addition, what's your IRC nickname? Interacting with us on IRC
150 
+will help us get to know you, and help you get to know our community.
151 
+
152 
+   You can email me: john@anomos.info
153 
+        GPG Key ID: 0xA1D39D09
154 
+        GPG Fingerprint: 7131 3E78 7500 3BB2 FCDD  FA97 91ED 834D A1D3 9D09
155 
+   Instant message me via XMPP: john@anomos.info
156 
+   Or talk to me on IRC: susurrusus on OFTC (I idle in #tor)
157 
+
158 
+
159 
+10. Is there anything else we should know that will make us like your project
160 
+more?
161 
+
162 
+The project I've proposed here is just a starting point - I think I have a lot
163 
+to bring to the Tor project and that this summer will just be the start of a
164 
+lasting academic relationship with the community.
0 165