Awards April 2008

The winners of the April 2008 call are:

• Secure List Server
  This project aims to include OpenPGP and S/MIME support in Mailman, the GNU Mailing List Manager. This enhancement will enable groups of people to cooperate and communicate securely via email: mail can get distributed encrypted to a group of people, while the burden of managing individual keys is dealt with by the list software, not the sender. Furthermore, authentication will be possible: the list server software takes care of checking this. This way, strong security for groups of people gets available for a wide audience.
• Sabayon Linux
  Sabayon Linux is a Gentoo-based distribution aimed to provide users the best out-of-the-box experience, being the first which endorsed exciting technologies such as: XGL/AIGLX (3D desktop), KVM (virtualization), NX (NoMachine Remote desktop). The challenge is creating a fast binary package manager able to solve most of the user-side issues automatically, to provide users a web2.0-alike experience by allowing them to share, extend, manipulate any content connected to packages directly from their system, to provide a transparent client/server infrastructure to remotely manage infinite Sabayon installations and hot packaging formats, like Smart Packages.
• Global Independent Streaming Support
  G.I.S.S. is both an international network and an infrastructure with different components and tools for setting up an independent radio or TV channel easily. G.I.S.S. needs to be reshaped to support more channels, for it is now reaching its limits, and several improvments should be developped to make it more reliable and more accessible. The project will focus on the following aspects: improvement of the topology of the network, development of a specific version of icecast, live CD improvement, 'mediabase' archive tool similar to you-tube but using only free software. Additionally a number of workshops will be set up.
• Improving OpenDocumentFormat support in Koffice.
  KOffice has long been a strong OpenDocument implementation, the main implementation outside the famous OpenOffice. In KOffice version 2 the text engine has been upgraded to support more features and to support anonymous properties inside the text engine. This project aims to make KWord ready for release based on the new text engine. The upgrade to the new text engine has the effect that large parts of the existing ODF loading need to be adjusted to match. A large part of the work therefor is to make the ODF loading and saving code work equally good, or better compared to the latest stable release; 1.6.3. To reach this goal automated testing using an ODF testsuite will be written based on existing suite of test-documents.
• Tor anonymity system for low-bandwith users.
  The Tor anonymity system is currently only usable by internet users who have high-bandwith connections. Upon the start of the Tor client, a large file with all Tor server descriptions is being downloaded. An evolution of the Tor protocol is aimed to reduce the initial download size. The new Tor protocol version shall change the way a client receives the information for its Tor circuit setup in a way, that the initial download can be performed over a slow modem line in less then three minutes.
• Tor anonymity system Hidden Services.
  The Tor anonymity system contains an important function that is called Tor Hidden Services, which allows users to set up anonymous information services, like websites, that can only be accessed through the Tor network and are protected against identification of the host that runs the services. Using these function, critical political and human rights information can be published in a way that protects the publisher and users of the service from repression and identification. The most critical limitation of this function is the time it takes until a Hidden Service is registered in the network and the latency of contact establishment when accessed by a user. The aim of this project is to develop the new protocol which will change the way Tor circuits are set up between the user and the Hidden Service as well as the way a Hidden Service is registered in the Tor network.
• RFID Guardian Quickstart
  The RFID Guardian is a device that represents the first-ever unified platform for RFID security and privacy administration. It acts as an 'RFID Firewall', enabling individuals to monitor and control access to their RFID tags by combining a standard-issue RFID reader with unique RFID tag emulation capabilities. Additionally, the RFID Guardian is useful as an RFID security diagnostic and auditing tool. The RFID Guardian Quickstart project will concentrate on hardware design, prototyping, testing and production of Guardian units, which are necessary to bootstrap further RFID Guardian software development by open source community.

Additionally NLnet decided to sponsor the following events and activities:

1. The Dutch Task Force IPv6 Award 2008, in the category "Corporate" (Bedrijfsleven).
2. A KDE developer sprint "Plug in Your Desktop" which will make UPnP devices integrate seamlessly with a Free Software desktop, with explicit focus on desktop-wide integration and desktop-independence in order to share technology with other Free Software desktops.

NLnet congratulates the projects that were awarded and encourages others to apply for financial and other support by NLnet for their projects in their next call with deadline June 1st 2008.