By now you may have read that www.whitehouse.gov is now running Drupal, the open source content management system. So, too, does the OSI itself. So first I'd like to say "welcome to the club!" But the open source wins don't stop there. read more

The switch was designed to be transparent, but even a casual observer will note the site now features five separate blogs, and that officials' names are now listed on announcements that read more like stories, often with personal details.

Last weekend the Sunlight Foundation and Google hosted TransparencyCamp West, an unconference dedicated to making our governments (from municipal governments all the way up to the federal government) more accessible and transparent. The intent was to help bring people together and create community from the event; to get people in the same room, and get them to know and learn from one another.It was a great gathering of more than 150 developers, NGOs, wonks, activists and government representatives from as far away as Russia and Israel, including folks from Sunlight Labs alongside open government legends like Carl Malamud and the folks from the National Institute of Money and State Politics working with new people in the field with an increasing desire to open up their governments.You'll notice I keep pluralizing governments. That's because one of the big takeaways from the gathering was how important it was to open up local & both statewide and federal governments. Transparency is desired from the very bottom, like local and regional US school boards to the very top. People want access to information pertaining to their cities - representatives from cities across North America participated - and what's impacting them at a local level.The other thing is the concept of wholesale vs. retail government web operations. There is a strong desire amongst journalists and developers for government to start being wholesalers of data, providing us with bulk access to machine readable data, and to get government to not to worry so much about retailing access to their data.All-in-all, the event was a success and I think it was a good beginning for growing the conversation amongst the transparency community on the West Coast and far beyond. By Clay Johnson, Sunlight Foundation

While GNU Generation isn't the next Google Highly Open Participation Contest™ (GHOP), the two efforts have a lot in common. My name is Max Shinn and I am going into my junior year of high school. This summer, though, I'm interning with the Free Software Foundation (FSF). When I was participating in GHOP, I never imagined that I would be using that experience to start a similar project. I have been working on GNU Generation extensively as part of my internship with the FSF.GNU Generation is a growing community for young people (approx. ages 13-18) interested in contributing to free software. Once you sign up on the wiki, you can pick out one of the projects listed and start contributing immediately. Alternatively, if you would like to contribute to a project not listed, you can fill out a form and just start working; as long as you are working on something related to free software, no approval is needed. It doesn't need to be a coding project either. Art, advocacy, documentation, and other projects are equally welcome. We maintain a very informal and relaxed environment; if you have any sort of special request, it's likely that you'll get it. At the end of each month, a "contributor of the month" will be chosen to win a free t-shirt. At the end of each year, the participant who has contributed to free software the most will win a GNU/Linux powered netbook!There are rewards to be gained other than just prizes, though. You will be able to see your contributions being used and enjoyed by all kinds of people. There is a wonderful community of young free software advocates already participating in GNU Generation. There are few other ways to meet and connect with such a diverse population of like-minded peers from all around the world. It will also give you a golden line to add to your resumé, especially if you win contributor of the month or year. You'll have a chance to learn about how the world of free software works and, perhaps most importantly, you will know that you helped spread digital freedom.A page has been put together with detailed instructions as to exactly how to join. You are also encouraged to sign up for the mailing list and join the IRC channel (#gnu_generation on irc.freenode.net).We are still looking for projects to participate as well. Any free software project is welcome to create jobs, or "projects" as we call them, through the "create a project" form. All you need is a description of your project, some information on how to get started, and your contact information. Any students interested in your project will be able to sign up and begin contributing immediately.GNU Generation is a huge opportunity for both young free software users, and for free software projects. Our main goal is to assist students who would like to contribute, but don't know what to do or how to get started. What's more, you can still participate in GNU Generation if you are already contributing to a free software project! Just register, and create your own project describing what you are already doing.Whether or not you can or choose to join the GNU Generation, I wish you the best of luck in the free software world! By Max Shinn, Intern, Free Software Foundation

Potential Google Summer of Code™ students often ask us, "What can I do to gain an edge the program?" New mentors and project admins often ask, "What helps students succeed?" Well, we have heard several responses to these questions from existing students, mentors, and admins at our Google Summer of Code BoFs, and now we have the numbers to back up their observations.Last week I posted some preliminary numbers from the Google Summer of Code midterm mentor survey, and since then I have continued to crunch more numbers from the survey, beginning with an analysis of which factors are correlated with student success. To accomplish this I separated the survey into five groups, based on the student's status as reported by the mentor: Already Completed, Ahead of Schedule, On Schedule, Behind Schedule, and Far Behind Schedule. Once the answers, each representing a student, were separated out into these groupings, I compared the percentages of each group's answers.The first question on the midterm mentor survey was, "At what point did you first make contact with your student?" The answers revealed a clear trend, showing that the earlier that students and mentors came into contact, the more likely they were doing well in the program.(click on graph to enlarge)This comes as no surprise, as making contact with a mentoring organization early reflects a student's motivation and initiative. This comment has been heard frequently when mentors discuss hallmarks of their most successful students.The second question on the mentor survey had to do with the frequency of mentor-student interaction. The mentors' answers to "How often do you and your student interact?" were just as revealing as the first survey question, as it showed students that have interaction with their mentors more than once a week were more likely to be on schedule, ahead of schedule, or have already completed their projects.(click on graph to enlarge)A new area of feedback gained from this survey is how the method of communication between mentor and student correlates with the project's status. Question #4 on the midterm mentor survey was, "Of the different communication methods you use with your student, which do you use most frequently?" There were several possible answers, with IRC/instant messaging and private emails making up the majority of responses. Interestingly enough, when looking at the percentages of responses by status, a clear trend emerged here as well. Those using IRC/instant messaging as their primary method of communication were far more likely to be on or ahead of schedule than those using email.(click on graph to enlarge)I suspect that this is because of the immediate, real time nature of IRC/instant messaging. Students and mentors may feel a greater sense of accountability when there is no time gap between responses, or perhaps since IRC/instant messaging requires coordinating a particular time to meet, there is a greater amount of commitment involved, in turn indicative of a generally higher level of commitment to the work.One of the questions that gave a murkier picture was "How much time have you spent per week interacting with your student, on average?"(click on graph to enlarge)I have yet to find a definite message from this graph after sorting the data several different ways. Perhaps these numbers simply tell us that the amount of time interacting is less important than the frequency of interactions.These four graphs boil down to the following:

• The earlier a student begins interacting with the mentor/mentoring organization, the more likely the project is to be on or ahead of schedule.
• The higher the frequency of interaction, the more likely the project is to be on or ahead of schedule.
• Projects that are on or ahead of schedule are more likely to be interacting via real time methods of communication (such as IRC).
• The amount of time spend during these interactions has a less clear relationship to the project status.

Those familiar with FOSS should know the advice "release early, release often." My advice to Google Summer of Code participants is to "contact early, contact often!" I welcome your personal take on these numbers in the comments section.By Ellen Ko, Open Source Team

One of the great things about Google Summer of Code™ is that it's a great way to meet other Open Source-minded people. Not only do students get paired with their mentors, but students get to know each other, as do mentors and project administrators.Last month, Leslie Hawthorn, Cat Allman, and I attended the Google Summer of Code Birds of a Feather session at Open Source Bridge, organized by Jonathan Leto. We had the pleasure of meeting with Google Summer of Code students, mentors, admins, and potential participants to discuss what works, what doesn't work, and ways the program could be improved. We got some great feedback, and best of all, we had the opportunity to interact face to face with participants instead of solely via email, mailing lists, or IRC! You can see a photo and read more about the meetup on Jonathan's blog post about the event.Last week, the Open Source Programs Office outreach team met with more Google Summer of Code participants at our BoF session at OSCON. Our session extended late into the night with some really interesting discussions about how to help students succeed in computer science.If you would like to know about upcoming Google Summer of Code meetups, please join our meetups mailing list - we'd love to meet you!by Ellen Ko, Open Source Team

In the 90s, a big company from up north was extremely successful with a dialect of the programming language BASIC (acronym for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code). One of the reasons it was so successful was that the language was easy to learn and use.Bringing an easy to learn and use language to the mobile world and the Android platform is the goal of the Simple project. Simple is a BASIC dialect for developing Android applications. It is particularly well suited for non-professional programmers (but not limited to). Simple allows programmers to quickly write Android applications by using the components supplied by its runtime system.Similar to its 90s relative, Simple programs are form definitions (which contain components) and code (which contains the program logic). The interaction between the components and the program logic happens through events triggered by the components. The program logic consists of event handlers which contain code reacting to the events. In reality it is even simpler than this description.Let's see how simple it really is. We will quickly write a program simulating the famous Etch-A-Sketch on an Android device. Tilting the device will move the pen, shaking the device will clear the screen. The Simple runtime system gives us three components to provide most of the needed functionality:

1. the Canvas component - for drawing
2. the OrientationSensor component - to detect tilting
3. the Accelerometer component to detect shaking

Let's take a look at the source code for this application:123456789101112131415161718192021Dim x As IntegerDim y As IntegerEvent OrientationSensor1.OrientationChanged(yaw As Single, _pitch As Single, roll As Single) If roll Then x = Math.Min(Canvas1.Width, x + 1) ElseIf roll > 20 Then x = Math.Max(0, x - 1) End If If pitch Then y = Math.Min(Canvas1.Height, y + 1) ElseIf pitch > 20 Then y = Math.Max(0, y - 1) End If Canvas1.DrawPoint(x, y)End EventEvent AccelerometerSensor1.Shaking() Canvas1.Clear()End EventThe code defines two global variables (lines 1 and 2) and two event handlers, one to handle changes in the device's tilt (lines 4 to 17) and another to handle shaking of the device (lines 19 to 21). The code in the first event handler makes sure to only react to tilting above a certain degree (lines 6, 8, 11 and 13), and if that is the case then it further ensures that the pen does not run off the drawing surface (lines 7, 9, 12 and 14). And finally a point is drawn at the pen position (line 16). As for the other event handler, the only thing it does is clearing the drawing surface in case of shaking (line 20).Last part missing is the form definition. It defines the form and its properties (lines 24 to 27), followed by the components it contains (lines 28 to 33).2223242526272829303132333435$Properties $Source $Form $Define EtchSketch $As Form Layout = 3 BackgroundColor = &HFFFFFFFF Title = "EtchSketch: Tilt to draw - Shake to clear" $Define Canvas1 $As Canvas $End $Define $Define OrientationSensor1 $As OrientationSensor $End $Define $Define AccelerometerSensor1 $As AccelerometerSensor $End $Define $End $Define$End $PropertiesThat's it. The only thing left to do is to compile and deploy the application to an Android device. And voila, here is a screenshot of the application running:For a definition of the Simple language see the Simple Language Definition (download, 199 KB PDF). For more information on writing Simple applications see the open source project page at code.google.com/p/simple. You can also find information there on contributing to the project, and we encourage you to join our discussion list to provide us feedback.Programming made Simple!By Herbert Czymontek, Software Engineering Team

(click on graph to enlarge)Thursday at OSCON, Leslie Hawthorn gave an update on the state of the 2009 Google Summer of Code program. One of the points that she shared with the audience was the 93% student success rate as of midterm evaluations, which were submitted July 13th. Congratulations to our students, mentors, and admins for all their hard work! Based on our mentor survey, most of our students are doing well, with a few students already finishing their project!For the rest of the students, the summer is not over yet and there is still lots of coding left to do. I hope that this year will be our most successful to date! Read the statistics about previous years here.By Ellen Ko, Open Source Team

Yesterday evening, I was privileged to share a stage with OSCON Co-Chair, Allison Randal to present the 5th Annual Google O'Reilly Open Source Awards. We once again opened nominations to the Open Source world at large and we were pleased at the fantastic response we received from the community. From the hundreds of nominations we received, after much deliberation these five individuals were selected:

• Brian Aker, Best Open Source Database Hacker for his work on Drizzle and MySQL
• Bruce Momjian, Database Jedi Master for his work on PostgreSQL
• Clay Johnson, Best Community Builder for his work with Sunlight Labs
• Evan Prodromou, Best Social Networking Hacker for his work on identi.ca and Laconica
• Penny Leach, Best Education Hacker for her work on Mahara and Moodle

Our Award Winners & Presenters (listed from left to right):Brian Aker, Leslie Hawthorn, Evan Prodromou, Bruce Momjian, Allison Randal, Nat Torkington Photo Credit: Pinar OzygerCongratulations to Brian, Bruce, Clay, Evan and Penny! Each of them will receive a beautiful (and shiny!) glass statue, along with a 5000 USD cash prize in support of their Open Source development efforts.The awards are just one part of Google's participation in OSCON 2009. If you're around, come find us, introduce yourself and share your thoughts on all things Open Source.By Leslie Hawthorn, Open Source Team