Awards

The winners of the April 2012 calls are:

• OpenDKIM and OpenDMARC

  

  Even though email as an internet application is nearly four decades old, it is perhaps still the single most universal communication technology in use today. Its open architecture exemplifies the core characteristics of the open and distributed internet, which of course also makes it vulnerable to abuse. There are a number of more modern technologies that can help reduce the most common forms of abuse by spammers, phishers and identity thieves, such as DKIM (see RFC6376) and SPF (RFC 4408). The common idea behind both is to give the receiving mail server some simple technical means to cryptographically validate the origins of incoming email, instead of using ad hoc, error-prone stochastic or rule-based filtering or burdening users. However, in order for these technologies to replace the current ad hoc spam processing and filtering solutions there needs to be a critical deployment base, which won't happen without more significant adoption.

  The project will help in breaking this circular dependency by solving a couple of long-standing operational, deployment, and reporting issues related to email authentication protocols. OpenDKIM and OpenDMARC are two projects that will help bootstrap this natural evolution of email. OpenDKIM provides an SDK for adding DKIM to applications, and a filter that makes use of the SDK to provide filtering services to MTAs. DKIM provides a reliable domain name on email messages, but could also with some modification be used on web pages, Usenet articles, or other objects of similar format. OpenDKIM includes DNSSEC support, and is in production use at Yahoo and AOL, among others. OpenDMARC will be an open source DMARC implementation, with the intent to have it be the reference implementation. NLnet supports both projects as well as ongoing research and development of domain-based reputation systems that rely on DKIM, which in turn relies on secure DNS use to advertise keys and policies.

  More about: OpenDKIM and OpenDMARC.

• UmTRX

  

  This project is a part of a bigger effort to create a completely open GSM network previously supported by NLnet, from a low level hardware to high level software. We're aiming at introducing open-source into the telecom industry, one of the most closed industries with ubiquitous influence on our lives. The project builds open hardware which is designed specifically to work with OpenBTS and OsmoBTS/OpenBSC open-source projects. While those software projects enjoy quick growth, the hardware side has been remaining proprietary. UmTRX will be the first open hardware to work within the core telecom networks.

  UmTRX hardware is based on USRP N2x0 design with ADC, DAC and analog frontend replaced with LMS6002D single-chip transceiver to provide better cost efficiency. UmTRX supports 2TRX with diversity receive by utilizing two Tx/Rx channels (each with a single LMS6002D) connected to a single FPGA. Diversity receive is an important option to provide a consistent coverage in complex terrain landscapes. UmTRX has a 26MHz clock synchronized to GPS, which is a requirement to provide reliable network connection. Aside from hardware development, the project includes implementation of GPRS, multi-ARFCN and handover support for OpenBTS, (funded by New America Foundation OTI), OpenBTS and OpenBSC integration (funded by BJT Partners), etc.

  More about: UmTRX

• Meemoo framework

  

  When you think of an "app", do you think of something that you can open, hack, and change how it works? The Meemoo framework works by dragging and dropping open-source modules, giving non-programmers the freedom to create, remix and extend cross-platform apps, and learn how they work. The way that the data flows from module to module is defined and visualized by colorful wires. If you can connect a video player to a TV, you can program a Meemoo app. It all happens on the web using real web technologies, so it is as trivial to see, copying and/or modifying the source code as it is to create or share an app. Meemoo is an interesting opportunity to promote the use of web standards such as HTML5, javascript and SVG in apps over proprietary app formats. NLnet is helping the project to create a platform for sharing reusable components.

  More about Meemo: project website

• Travel grant

  

  NLnet funded a grant for Svante Schubert to present a change tracking proposal at the Eigth ODF plugfest in Brussels, Belgium. Svante Schubert is a freelance software engineer and standards contributor that has been involved with the OpenOffice.org project and the ODF Toolkit for over a decade. Mr. Schubert is a member of the ODF TC at OASIS.