[Soc-coordination] project idea: Debian metric portal

[Stefano Zacchiroli]

Heya, here is a draft of a project I'd like to mentor for GSoC, assuming
we find an interested and suitable student.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
'''Debian metrics portal'''

 * '''Description of the project:''' To improve, you need to measure, apply changes, and see how the changes affect the observed quality. We have a lot of measures, [[Statistics]], and graphs in Debian. Unfortunately they are highly scattered and maintained in a non-coordinated manner, resulting in recurrent shortages, and the lack of a uniform interface to view, add, and query Debian metrics. This project aims at building a Debian metrics portal that will provide a uniform (web) interface to monitor Debian metrics, as well as a uniform (programming) interface to maintain them.
 * '''Confirmed Mentor''': [[StefanoZacchiroli]]
 * '''How to contact the mentor:''' see mentor wiki page
 * '''Confirmed co-mentors:''' ''none yet''
 * '''Deliverables of the project''':
 ** standardized interface to add/remove graphs (possibly with different sampling rate)
 ** review and adaption of existing graphs to that interface
 ** web interface providing per-graph, daily (or more frequently) updated pages
 ** dynamic web interface to graph, on demand, specific time periods and/or multiple metrics at a time
 ** (optional) package the code for easier deployment on Debian machines
 * '''Desirable skills''':
 ** Python programming
 ** knowledge of some Python templating engine (e.g. genshi, jinjia2, etc.)
 ** knowledge of [[http://matplotlib.org/|matplotlib]] for the graph generation part
 ** please '''include as part of your application a Python program''' that uses matplotlib to graph some of the quantities included in [[http://udd.debian.org/schema/udd.html#history.table.sources-count|UDD's history table]]
 * '''What the student will learn:''' deal with live legacy data and code; consolidate into a single, well-designed architecture existing functionalities; this will help Debian in monitoring its strength and deficiencies, and evaluate the usefulness of changes to project processes
------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's just a draft for the moment and I haven't yet posted it at
http://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2013/Projects

It's essentially a refactoring/reengineering initiative to consolidate
all the scattered metrics graphing initiatives we have throughout the
project. Those of you familiar with Tor might recognize some
similarities with http://metrics.torproject.org

I welcome feedback on the idea, as well as volunteers for co-mentoring
with me.

An open point for discussion is what should be used as database to stock
the underlying data. UDD currently has *some* historical data but, at
least in the beginning, it didn't have vocation at storing that kind of
data. So I was more thinking at using a separate database, but I've no
strong opinion either way. Any suggestion?

Cheers.
-- 
Stefano Zacchiroli  . . . . . . .  zack at upsilon.cc . . . . o . . . o . o
Maître de conférences . . . . . http://upsilon.cc/zack . . . o . . . o o
Debian Project Leader . . . . . . @zack on identi.ca . . o o o . . . o .
« the first rule of tautology club is the first rule of tautology club »
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 828 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/soc-coordination/attachments/20130314/783c22eb/attachment.pgp>