AnselmoApplicationSoC2006

My Application

Safety Boat

Synopsis

Develop a set of tools for Epiphany[1] which will offer a content-control and customization features for parents and educators interested in controlling the use of the Internet of their children or students. There will be a basic control panel to turn the features on or off, so it isn't going to be a new browser only for children. An example of such application is the browser Bumpercar[2] avaiable for OS X.

Benefits to the community

Creating Safety Boat was suggested in the Gnome ideas for Google SoC[3][4]. It will benefit all Epiphany users community and particularly the Edubuntu[5] project as a new application to be used for educational goals.

Deliverables

Epiphany already has some lockdown gconf[6] keys needed which could be extended and a control panel will be created for Epiphany to allow users turn Safety Boat features on or off. The Safety Boat tools will be developed independently of each other what will simplify the development and future improvements.

Project Details

The project will be developed using python and gtk. There are some options of web content filtering that can be used to produce the project filters. The functionalities that will be developed in this project are:

Start Page - A locked down start page where there will be good customizable content.
Implement a Time Limiting tool with some politics of use and a space where users will be able to customize it.
Implement a content filtering system, based in rules that can be choosen and another ones created by the user. The filters will be developed using another free software solutions like DansGuardian[7] and Willow[8].
Develop search tools to simplify the task of research on encyclopedias or dictionaries.

Bio

I'm a 5th-year computer engineering undergraduate at State University of Campinas (Unicamp), in Brazil. I've been involved with free software since 2002 when I had my first contact with Linux. I've already studied how Mozilla Firefox extensions are created. I have a good experience with C, C++ and I´m learning Ruby and Python.

I'm involved with a non-governmental organization (NGO) which provides special educational programs to poor children to help their progress in the regular school. This project could be an interesting way of helping teachers and parents around the world on the task of educating children. About my skills, it´ll be a very interesting way to improve my knowledge about python and gtk.

The school semester ends by early July, so until then I'll be splitting my time between the project and some university courses. Once 'summer' vacation (actually here in Brazil it will be winter) begins I'll be able to fully dedicate myself to the project.