LebGeeks Micro Projects

samer

Following Mir's motivating complain about LebGeeks not working towards interesting activities, I thought of something that could be interesting to try out. Why don't we form small groups to work on ideas that all members of the group are passionate about. That way, we won't need to agree on one thing as a whole.

Clearly formulate what you are trying to achieve by replying to this post.
If you want to be affiliated to an idea already posted (and hence join a group) you will need to write a few sentences about why you would want that idea concretized and what you can do to help achieving it.

All other posts will be deleted.

If you have any questions, PM me and I will post an FAQ here.

jsaade

I have two projects that I am trying to achieve.
The first is very technical, and it should be done during the Christmas break, I will post about it later, but it does not need a team.

The second one is more of a community-based solution.
It needs people, a lot of people. They do not have to be technical.
Please feel free to discuss/criticize/join:

- We have over a million lebanese users online.
- In several topics across several lebanese forums, people try to ask for their Internet Rights.
i.e.:
What happened with the "IMEWE" cable?
when will it work? what will it do?

I propose an association named the liua (Lebanese Internet Users Association).
The liua has a webpage (liua.org) and a facebook page (already being taken care of).
Its main page is just a data collection page (Arabic/English) where people just register
their name, age, email, ISP

We would have a nice database of Lebanese Internet users for statistics, for sending updates,...

The liua will also feature an english and an arabic blog and a discussion forum.
These will focus on bringing public updates via the blogs (hence the group needed).
the liua is not targeted at geeks, but at average lebanese internet users who just to
be updated, who want to have someone trying to protect their rights for using the internet.

When you have a nice community of no-religion/politics, some of these people might be well connected,
we can ask for more support (and rights). When you have a certain % of internet users you can organize movements to get your internet rights.

I do not know how popular this will be, or if it even has a meaning, what do you think?

Joe

Porting the limited shell

1- Introduction

The limited shell (lshell) is a UNIX shell that restricts user's scope by allowing/forbidding a certain set of commands. From the project's page:
"lshell is a shell coded in Python, that lets you restrict a user's environment to limited sets of commands, choose to enable/disable any command over SSH (e.g. SCP, SFTP, rsync, etc.), log user's commands, implement timing restriction, and more."

Lshell is an open source project started by a friend of mine around 3 years ago and has since known a certain success. It is already used in professional situations, mainly in the security field. The only problem with lshell is that it is coded in Python. While Python may be one of the best languages out there, some users might prefer getting the software in binaries. There are plenty of reasons why:

- Binaries are faster and more performant.
- Not all systems have Python installed.
- Dealing with different versions of Python can sometimes be a pain.

So my idea is to port the limited shell to C. As a first step I suggest writing it for Linux (lshell also runs on BSD). We'll see about other Unices in later stages.
Of course, keeping up with great geeky tradition the shell has a recursive acronyme as a name: AGROS, for AGROS Got Rid Of the Snake.

2- Requirements

- Solid knowledge of UNIX systems.
- Intermediate to advanced C coding skills.
- Familiarity with Libconfig or GLib (optional)
- Knowledge of Python (optional)
- Linux machine (preferably a Debian OS) running Python
- Familiarity with git (optional but strongly recommended)

3- Lebgeeks

If Lebgeeks can provide hosting for some services (dev's wiki and Redmine mainly), then we could consider Lebgeeks as the publisher of the software (it's going to be published under the GPL anyway).

4- Contact

If you're interested in the project or have any question about it contact me by PM. If I get enough interest we'll start a thread here.

nuclearcat

ZeRaW wroteI do not know how popular this will be, or if it even has a meaning, what do you think?

Positive. As an ISP i can join this

mir

Thanks samer for opening this topic

I am willing to join Zeraw initiative - there are the following points that imho need our attention :
- Internet situation : what is happening with the IMEWE cable ? ( As far as i know, it is installed but now it is stalled due to "politcal" problems ) so we need to speed up its activation and make sure there is fair pricing and such.

- ICT Law : ICT Law will be back to parliement discussion pretty soon - we need to review the changes and lobby again

- Online publication law : the publication law is being expanded to include bloggers, we need to study how and if it can negatively affect online freedom of speech - are we gonna have censorship and online police system ? what powers does the govt. get over bloggers, what rights bloggers gain ?

There are already many groups that worked toward fighting the bad points in ICT law - Mr Gabriel Deek http://blog.gabrieldeek.com/ - they have the "stop this law" facebook group with a nice amount of ppl in them - there is also the broadband manifesto that can be a "good pressure" tool

SMEX Beirut - smex.org did a very nice job blogging and raising awarness on the ICT law, we actually had once a meeting where we sat and read the law and wrote down remarks and such - we also met with some lawyers and such - SMEX are also willing to work also on the internet situation. I already got in touch with them through twitter

- Tech startups : Many tech startups from seequence (Maroun N. and samer karam) , yallastartup (Elie khoury) also were actively participating as young representative of entrepreneurs in many meetings with parliement members to explain and complain about the ICT Law and its technical problems.

Lebanese bloggers: I already talked with FunkyOzzi from lebanonaggregator, she is in touch with many bloggers and i also have nice list of bloggers in abaadblogs.com search engine - so we can make sure many top bloggers are involved - i know many top bloggers eager to help.

CyberACT it is an NGO in arab area - i know Imad is pretty willing to get into an initiative for online rights and such

Lebanon ISOC society

Lebgeeks and most important - if we get organized and have a group of techies follow up

- <insert people you know>

The way i see it - is that for now we start as a coalition of Activists, Geeks, NGOs, private sector, Entrepreneurs - it gives more diversity to the group and sounds more scary - after we all meetup - we decide what to start and what to name it.

I suggest we first see who in lebgeeks is intrested in working on this - we meetup as lebgeekers and then reach out for the people above

jsaade

@mir:
We need to pinpoint the objective of the group/movement/organization.
what is to be achieved?
what are the ways?
...

and of course we should all organize a meeting and discuss available resources ...

How about a website:
http://www.liua.org
a facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lebanese-Internet-Users-Association/178787688816468

We need proper content to promote the page and site, then I think we can just share the page
and get likes. (Likes = People with our cause).

Zusynoid-x

ZeRaw,
how can i help with this ?

xterm

If anyone is easily offended and takes things personally, do not read the text below. Be warned.

LebGeeks should remain as is, not initiate any movement of any sort. Let the blabber-mouth people take care of this. Spending time on a silly project to give awareness to the unaware is a waste.

We're members of a forum targeted towards technology enthusiasts, there has been no motto or slogan that says we need to build anything to be recognized, effective or useful.

Even if i am capable of helping a single person, a single time, by adjusting a single word in what he/she said, I'll consider myself a valuable member of this exclusive community that is none-existent anywhere else in Lebanon.

J4D

xterm wroteIf anyone is easily offended and takes things personally, do not read the text below. Be warned.

LebGeeks should remain as is, not initiate any movement of any sort. Let the blabber-mouth people take care of this. Spending time on a silly project to give awareness to the unaware is a waste.

We're members of a forum targeted towards technology enthusiasts, there has been no motto or slogan that says we need to build anything to be recognized, effective or useful.

Even if i am capable of helping a single person, a single time, by adjusting a single word in what he/she said, I'll consider myself a valuable member of this exclusive community that is none-existent anywhere else in Lebanon.

I was searching for a polite way to insult everyone here, ill go with Xterm on this one :)
I honestly got bored of lebgeeks. I do check the new posts everyday. But most are rubbish !!

BashLogic

Vive la révolution!

jsaade

J4D wrote
xterm wroteIf anyone is easily offended and takes things personally, do not read the text below. Be warned.

LebGeeks should remain as is, not initiate any movement of any sort. Let the blabber-mouth people take care of this. Spending time on a silly project to give awareness to the unaware is a waste.

We're members of a forum targeted towards technology enthusiasts, there has been no motto or slogan that says we need to build anything to be recognized, effective or useful.

Even if i am capable of helping a single person, a single time, by adjusting a single word in what he/she said, I'll consider myself a valuable member of this exclusive community that is none-existent anywhere else in Lebanon.
I was searching for a polite way to insult everyone here, ill go with Xterm on this one :)
I honestly got bored of lebgeeks. I do check the new posts everyday. But most are rubbish !!

Why would you want to insult people based on your own opinion/boredom?

@xtrem:
Nobody asked for a full recognition or full commitment to any project, these are just initiatives.
They might fail or succeed. Members of this forum are mostly already aware of the problems so they are
not the target but being connected means they can spread the info more quickly if something was to happen.

@Zusynoid-x:
PM :)