Organization application

1. Organization Name?
   I2P
2. Description.
   The I2P project aims to extend users' privacy by providing an anonymous communication network. It was founded in 2003 and has attracted several thousand users so far. The development work is done by an international group (with both anonymous and known participants). We coordinate over IRC or discussion in a forum.
   I2P uses onion routing (an encryption layer is added for each router messages need to pass) for its anonymous network and is somewhat similar to Tor. The main difference from many other projects is that we try to build a VPN-like network. All traffic and all applications can stay within our network. This allows more resistance against attackers.
   I2P is a Java application with almost two hundred thousand lines of code. The encryption routines are implemented in optimized C and Assembly to ensure the best possible speed. Sophisticated peer selection/routing algorithms balance speed, anonymity and protection against DoS attacks to allow for the best and safest possible experience. The project will be of interest to those exploring networking, cryptography, distributed databases, multiple transport protocols, anonymity, and debugging widely distributed, networked applications.
   Amongst the main features of I2P are:
   1. Anonymity for sender and receiver of messages through onion routing and cover traffic provided by the network
   2. Internal anonymous services (websites, e-mail, torrent trackers, IRC servers…)
   3. An active project, with regular releases worked on by multiple developers. A growing project as well, with increasing numbers in both developers and users.
   4. Multiple programs using the I2P API to provide extra services (anonymous blogging software, torrent applications,
   5. By default, users route traffic for each other, which adds cover traffic to the network, improving the anonymity of the users and the capacity of the network.
   6. Development of applications on top of I2P in any programming language, due to a simple socket interface for programs.
   7. An easy and user-friendly install, so anyone can be anonymous without too much trouble.
3. Home page?
   ​http://www.i2p2.de/
4. Main Organization License?
   BSD
5. Why is your organization applying to participate in GSoC 2010? What do you hope to gain by participating?
   Multiple developers work on the I2P project, but we would like to get some extra people involved. As I2P is an anonymity and security project, it's important for us to get a lot of peer review ('many eyeballs'-principle). Extra developers would also allow an increased focus on less 'evolved' parts of the project.
   Another important reason for us to apply is the publicity and community size. By drawing additional attention to the I2P project, we believe it's possible to increase the size of the community. This would in turn improve the anonymity of the users.
6. Did your organization participate in past GSoCs? If so, please summarize your involvement and the successes and challenges of your participation.
   No.
7. If your organization participated in past GSoCs, please let us know the ratio of students passing to students allocated, e.g. 2006: 3/6 for 3 out of 6 students passed in 2006.
   Not applicable
8. Add a Comment (optional)
   (empty)
9. If your organization has not previously participated in GSoC, have you applied in the past? If so, for what year(s)?
   2009, but due to some technical difficulties with viewmtn, the review team was unable to take a closer look at the code browser. This issue has now been resolved, by replacing viewmtn with trac.
10. What is the URL for your ideas page?
    ​http://trac.i2p2.de/wiki/gsoc/ideas
11. What is the main development mailing list for your organization? This question will be shown to students who would like to get more information about applying to your organization for GSoC 2010. If your organization uses more than one list, please make sure to include a description of the list so students know which to use.
    The forum at ​http://forum.i2p2.de/ is mostly used for general support discussion, while the forum at ​http://zzz.i2p.to/ is mostly used for development discussion.
12. What is the main IRC channel for your organization?
    freenode|irc2p: #i2p (Not many people are in the Freenode channel, most are on #i2p in irc2p (inside I2P).)
13. Add a Comment (optional):
    (empty)
14. Does your organization have an application template you would like to see students use? If so, please provide it now. Please note that it is a very good idea to ask students to provide you with their contact information as part of your template. Their contact details will not be shared with you automatically via the GSoC 2010 site.
    Yes. See here(top of the page).
15. What criteria did you use to select the individuals who will act as mentors for your organization? Please be as specific as possible:
    
    • Experience with I2P code in general, and with the suggested project proposals in particular.
    • Knowledge of the I2P community.
    • People skills: getting along with others and resolving conflicts. This includes helping new users (which, according to us, indicates a willingness to help GSoC students as well)
16. What is your plan for dealing with disappearing students?
    First of all, we'll try to avoid having students disappear, by keeping regular contact and trying to help them solve any problems they encounter. In the event a student should disappear, we will make sure we have their contact information already, so we can easily contact them and persuade them to carry on with the project (possibly with extra guidance). We will also try to notice early on when a student is no longer motivated, by checking on the progress they're making.
17. What is your plan for dealing with disappearing mentors?
    The mentors are all long-time I2P community members, and, as such, not very likely to leave the project. If they do, we will try to contact them. If this is not possible, another mentor will take over their work (or we can perhaps divide the work between two other mentors).
18. What steps will you take to encourage students to interact with your project's community before, during and after the program?
    We advise all students to get to know us by communicating on IRC and the forum. Setting up I2P and an I2P website (possibly with help on IRC) will also hand students some initial I2P knowledge.
19. What will you do to ensure that your accepted students stick with the project after GSoC concludes?
    I2P is a project that has a lot of different topics to work on. This should ensure that any student can either build on what they've accomplished over the summer, or can shift their attention to an entirely new project inside (or on top of) I2P. We will try to keep interaction with the students at a high level, which should also keep motivation and 'community feeling' up.
20. Is there anything else you would like to tell the Google Summer of Code program administration team?
    With the technical difficulties fixed(mentioned earlier), we are looking forward to the gsoc, even more after the rapid growth in network size and development team size in the past year.
21. Comment
    (empty)
22. Who will be your backup organization administrator?
    echelon