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+[[meta copyright="Copyright © 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]]
+
+[[meta license="""[[toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[toggleable
+id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
+document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
+any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
+Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
+is included in the section entitled
+[[GNU_Free_Documentation_License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
+
+* What is your Organization's Name?
+
+GNU Hurd
+
+* What is your Organization's Homepage?
+
+http://hurd.gnu.org
+
+* Describe your organization.
+
+The Hurd project is a loose community of people sharing a common interest in developing the Hurd kernel, which is the official kernel of the [GNU operating system](http://gnu.org).
+
+When the Hurd was originally started in 1990, it was the last missing major component for a complete GNU system. Today Linux and other free kernels are available to fill this gap, and the combination of GNU and Linux (often incorrectly called just "Linux") is in wide use. However, the Hurd is still interesting due to its unique design, better fitting the GNU philosophy than traditional monolithic kernels like Linux.
+
+The GNU GPL guarantees that all users of software published under this license get the legal permission to adapt the software they are using according to their wishes, as well as the source code and other tools necessary to put this permission to use. However, in traditional operating systems, the kernel and related low-level system software are protected from normal users, and cannot be easily modified; only the system administrator has power over these.
+
+The Hurd offers special mechanisms that allow any user to change almost all of the system functionality he uses, without affecting the rest of the system, and thus easily (at runtime) and without any special permissions.
+
+This ability to run subenvironments more or less independant from the rest of the system, can be classified as a very sophisticated [lightweight virtualization](http://tri-ceps.blogspot.com/2007/10/advanced-lightweight-virtualization.html) approach.
+
+To offer these possibilities, the Hurd uses a true multiserver microkernel architecture. That makes it quite unique: The Hurd is the only general-purpose multiserver microkernel system in development today being nearly ready for everyday use, and offering almost perfect UNIX compatibility. (More than half of the packages in the Debian repository are available for the Hurd.) All other existing true microkernel systems are either research projects not nearly complete enough for actual use, or limited to embedded systems and other special purposes, or both.
+
+Marcus Brinkmann and Neal Walfield from the Hurd project are working at the bleeding edge of microkernel operating system research. They have been in contact with the most distinguished researchers from the L4 and EROS/Coyotos microkernel operating system groups, and have published a research paper. (links...)
+
+* Why is your organization applying to participate in GSoC 2008? What do you hope to gain by participating?
+
+For one, it is a way to make progress with tasks that require an amount of focused work that is hard to do for volunteers usually working in their spare time only. Also it is a good possibility to get valuable input from new people, as well as spreading technical and other knowledge about the Hurd among actual and potential contributors. More generally, participation should help raising awareness among people who might know about the existence of the Hurd, but otherwise having very little idea what the project is all about, and how its progress is.
+
+* Did your organization participate in previous GSoC years? If so, please summarize your involvement and the successes and failures of your student projects.
+
+We did not participate as an organisation so far. In 2006 and 2007, we participated under the umbrella of the GNU project, getting one slot each year.
+
+The 2006 participation was mostly a failure. After some intitial work (available in CVS), the student disappeared -- moving to another country and other personal issues from what we heard.
+
+The 2007 participation was a considerable success. The student was very bright and dedicated. We got some code and a lot of ideas, which we continued discussing after the end of GSoC. It might result in a followup project this year.
+
+We decided to participate as an own organisation this year, as we believe that will give us much better possibilities to find and select good students.
+
+* If your organization has not previously participated in GSoC, have you applied in the past? If so, for what year(s)?
+
+We didn't apply as as organisation so far.
+
+* What license does your project use?
+
+Most of the code in the Hurd servers and the Hurd-specific glibc parts is licensed GPLv2 or later; it might move to GPLv3 soon. Some components (mostly the TCP/IP stack and parts of the ext2fs driver) are based on Linux code and thus GPLv2 only.
+
+The microkernel (gnumach) is covered by the BSD license. (And some minor variations...)
+
+* URL for your ideas page
+
+(coming soon...)
+
+* What is the main development mailing list for your organization?
+
+bug-hurd@gnu.org, see http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-hurd
+
+* Where is the main IRC channel for your organization?
+
+\#hurd on freenode.net
+
+* Does your organization have an application template you would like to see students use? If so, please provide it now.
+
+(coming soon...)
+
+* Who will be your backup organization administrator? Please enter their Google Account address. We will email them to confirm, your organization will not become active until they respond.
+
+...
+
+* What criteria did you use to select these individuals as mentors? Please be as specific as possible.
+
+The most important criterium is that the person is involved in the project for some time, knowing the ways; so he can actually instruct the student; and if there are tough technical questions he can't answer himself, he knows whom to ask.
+
+It's also important that the mentors are reliable and helpful, so the students won't be left on their own with any problems they face.
+
+* Who will your mentors be? Please enter their Google Account address separated by commas. If your organization is accepted we will email each mentor to invite them to take part.
+
+antrik at gmx.net, ...
+
+* What is your plan for dealing with disappearing students?
+
+The plan is mostly to avoid that happening in the first place. For that, we will be particularily careful with the selection of the students: Making sure that they have no other obligations during that time; that they are motivated enough; that they actually have the necessary skills to complete the task; that they fit in our community.
+
+Also, we will make sure that we are constantly in contact with the students -- asking about progress, discussing technical issues, etc. -- so we can act in time if things go wrong.
+
+If a student disappears in spite of that, there is little we can do. Of course we will try to contact him and find out what the problem is; whether the project can perhaps be scaled down, or at least wrapped up to bring it in a state where it is useful even if not finished.
+
+We will also try to limit damage by insisting that students regularily check in their work, so that we get partial results at least if someone disappears.
+
+* What is your plan for dealing with disappearing mentors?
+
+As our mentors all have been with the project for some time, the risk of them disappearing is not too big. If one of them disappears nevertheless, it's not a problem for us: We have enough mentors, and someone else will take over.
+
+We will encourage the students to keep discussions public as much as possible, keeping private conversations with the mentors to a minimum, so the transition should go smoothly.
+
+* What steps will you take to encourage students to interact with your project's community before, during and after the program?
+
+As part of the application process, we will ask students to answer very specific questions about our organisation and their project, which they won't be able to do without contacting us and discussing details already during the application phase. This way we make sure we only get studends able and willing to communicate with us.
+
+During the program, we will actively be asking the students about the work they do, problems they face, decisions they take etc.
+
+After the program we will continue discussing the projects, and ask the students to take part in these discussions.
+
+* What will you do to ensure that your accepted students stick with the project after GSoC concludes?
+
+We will try to invite all participating students to a conference afterwards, where we will discuss the projects, as well as other Hurd-related topics. We hope this will motivate them to follow up on the work they have done during the program, and generally help keeping them involved.