GSoC 2012 is on! important next steps

[todd rme]

On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 10:38 AM, todd rme <toddrme2178 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2012/2/16 Trever Fischer <tdfischer at fedoraproject.org>:
>> Since GSOC 2012 is starting, I've started a wiki page for everyone:
>> http://community.kde.org/Multimedia/Google_Summer_of_Code_2012
>>
>> Note that this is in /Multimedia, so it isn't just a phonon thing. I'll be
>> adding one or two kdemm-wide tasks in the coming days once I think of them.
>>
>>
>> ----------  Forwarded Message  ----------
>>
>> Subject: GSoC 2012 is on! important next steps
>> Date: Tuesday, February 07, 2012, 02:17:59 PM
>> From: Lydia Pintscher <lydia at kde.org>
>> To: "kde-devel" <kde-devel at kde.org>, kde-soc-mentor at kde.org, KDE SoC mailing
>> list <kde-soc at kde.org>
>>
>> Heya folks :)
>>
>> Google Summer of Code 2012 is a go. KDE will apply again as a mentoring org.
>> The next steps for mentors are to fill the ideas page and ideally give
>> info sessions at local universities. Former GSoC students are
>> especially encouraged to mentor this year. We will try to give this
>> round a focus on accessibility. Please add ideas soon as students are
>> starting to look for orgs/ideas.
>> If you're a student who intends to apply start preparing now.
>> More infos and links in my blog:
>> http://blog.lydiapintscher.de/2012/02/07/gsoc-2012-is-on/
>>
>> Let's get this rolling ;-)
>>
>>
>> Cheers
>> Lydia
>
> I can't be a mentor, but I do have some suggestions that someone else
> can pick up if they want:
>
> 1. Generic UPNP/DLNA sharing and streaming framework.  Currently we
> have UPNP browsing (although it uses HUPNP, which is GPL 3, which may
> be a problem for some distros).  However, there is no corresponding
> framework for sharing media.  Making it as easy to share videos and
> music over UPNP/DLNA as over Samba (right-click on the folder and open
> its properties) would be great.  Further, it should offer an api that
> other programs, like digikam and amarok, can use to share their
> collections.  Making it possible to use phonon sources as media
> renderers would also be great.  Gnome already has this, called rygel,
> but it uses nautilus, gstreamer, and tracker instead of dolphin,
> phonon, and nepomuk/strigi.  Note that digikam is already proposing
> doing this on their own, but I think that a generic kde-wide solution
> would be better.
>
> 2. Gstreamer kio plugin.  Gstreamer can currently view network files
> seamlessly on gnome desktops uses a gvfs plugin.  There is no
> corresponding kio plugin to let KDE users do this, requiring the
> system to make a local copy before playing.  This project would create
> such a backend.
>
> 3. iPod kio slave.  Work is already underway for an mtp kio slave to
> make it easy to seamlessly browse mtp devices in the file manager and
> provide consistent access to apps like amarok and digikam (which
> currently use their own implementations).  The purpose of this project
> would be to do the same for apple devices using the ipod/iphone
> protocol.  This would provide considerably better ipod and iphone
> support than even apple offers.
>
> 4. DVD ripping kio slave (may have legal issues).  Currently KDE has a
> kio slave for ripping CDs, which allows you to drag-and-drop files,
> organized in folders by file types, to rip the CDs.  There is also a
> rudimentary DVD ripper, but it only allows you to rip individual
> low-level titles into basic raw DVD video.  This project would be to
> make a more comprehensive DVD ripper kio slave like the cd ripper.
>
> 5. Unified music and video collection backend.  Should support all the
> features of the current amarok, juk, bangarang, and plasma media
> center collections, should be extensible via plugins to add new
> features, should probably be nepomuk-based, and should probably offer
> kio access.  All the existing capabilities of all the backends, such
> as amarok's biased playlists, need not be created initially nor be
> built-in since they would be offered via plugins.
>
> I hope at least a few of these are interesting.
>
> -Todd

Another idea: a basic sound recording application.  It can record
sound from a microphone or audio channel, and should have an optional
dependency on pulseaudio to record from individual input or output
streams (such as being able to record sound from a particular
application).

This could be set up so it is done almost entirely in phonon, with
phonon handling copying the sound or stream to a file, and then just
create a very basic GUI wrapper around the phonon functions.  I don't
know how much of this is already in place.

I think a basic sound recording application is essential for a desktop
environment, but KDE as far as I am aware does not have one.

-Todd