The Quick and Dirty Summary

  1. Took over the administration of COSI
  2. Redesigned the COSI website from scratch
  3. Replaced the antiquated COSIforge with a more user-friendly Mantis
  4. Began developing a set pitch/presentation for COSI
  5. Started pursuing grant opportunities to replace equipment in the lab
  6. Created a new lab build for the Fall 2004 semester based on GNOME 2.6
  7. Developed a standard documentation template

The Long, Painful Summary of Doom

The administrative responsibilities for running COSI were handed over to Mike Chavoustie and I. We began the semester by making some of the changes that were discussed amongst the "executive committee" last semester: the transition from static teams to shorter-term projects, with the hope that students would learn more by doing smaller, more diverse projects than by joining a single large team where responsibilities typically fall on a few individuals.

Other administrative changes include the institution of documenting progress throughout the semester using blog software customized and packaged by our very own clarkbw, and the establishment of an official COSI project for those individuals that don't have something else to work on.

We also began offering monthly workshops related to Linux and FOSS (Free/Open Source Software). The initial "Installing Fedora Core Linux" workshop that Mike and I put on was a hit, and numerous people asked us to run it again so they could attend.

On a smaller scale, I completed or assisted with the completion of the following tasks during the semester:

  1. Redesigned the COSI website from scratch, utilizing XHTML and CSS. The entire site can be edited via the web using WordPress, which also lets us post news on the main page. Bug tracking is now handled by Mantis, and our Gallery was also migrated over. A COSI events calendar was established, which I maintain in Apple's iCal software. PHP iCalendar is used to display the calendar. Changes are automatically synced to the server within 15 minutes.
  2. Developed a set presentation pitch that can be used for open houses or student visits. The pitch will be further refined over the summer.
  3. Began exploring grant opportunities through IBM through some of the contacts I've established over the last year. Wrote a draft of a grant for a desktop Linux management and deployment project, which was circulated through IBM's Linux Technology Center, and at least one manager was interested in supporting it. Also began pursuing a grant related to IBM's autonomic computing initiative, but a project proposal has not yet been drafted. The goal is to have at least one complete project proposal/grant application written and submitted to IBM by July 12th. This will require gathering support from individuals and departments within IBM, which I have already begun planning.
  4. Began working on a new Lab build for the fall semester based on GNOME 2.6 and other new technologies. Originally I hoped to include the 2.6 Linux kernel so we could take advantage of udev and hotplug, but AFS write support is not ready yet. Also examining the usability of the desktop, and have already customized the standard GNOME desktop using gconf.
  5. Developed a standard documentation template using DocBook. Also started writing some PHP code to allow COSI members to upload raw DocBook XML documents and have HTML and PDF versions automatically generated for them and stored on the server. The initial implementation of the script was completed by myself, Mike C., and Mike M., but has not been fully tested as of yet.
  6. Looked into enabling Novell authentication and mounting under Linux. Found that there's already a PAM module (pam_mount) that can do the mounting, which solves the largest problem we came across. A lab machine has been configured to use Novell, but several settings need to be tweaked in order for it to work.