TUTORIAL PROPOSAL

NAME: Sam Auciello
TUTORIAL TITLE: Open Source Software
DESIRED CREDIS: 3
DESCRIPTION:
	An exploration of open source software developement through contribution to
	 the Mozilla Foundation.

OBJECTIVES:
	* To gain an understanding of the organizational systems that allow open
	 source projects to work well.  I would specifically like to look at Firefox
	 as its success suggests that something was done right.
	* To gain experience working on software projects that are developed by
	 large groups.  The majority of the programming I have done, I have done for
	 myself.  I hope that through this tutorial I can learn to make my code more
	 transparent and improve my documentation habits.

COURSE WORK:
	The bulk of the course work will take the form of contributing Mozilla
	 projects.  I intend to begin by familiarizing myself with the Mozilla
	 system by using bugzilla to find a '"Good" first bug' (Mozilla contributors
	 flag certain bugs as '"Good" first bugs' to create a stepping stone for new
	 contributors).  Given the nature of debugging, it's difficult to set a firm
	 schedule for resolving one.  My intension is to spend the first two weeks
	 resolving one or more bugs.
	Following bugs on bugzilla may lead to finding a particular bug/feature that
	 would make a good project/projects for the rest of the semester.  I have
	 also made contact with a two established Mozilla contributors,
	 Josh Matthews and Chris Jones, via a contact form on the Mozilla site
	 designed for people interested in contributing.  They suggested I might
	 contribute to Boot2Gecko, a project similiar to chromeOS.
	By the end of the first two weeks I'll have gotten a taste and I'll be in a
	 better position to find a project of the appropriate scope for the rest of
	 the semester.

THE BIG PICTURE:
	This tutorial seems like a perfect fit with my Plan of Concentration.
	 My Plan focusses on software development and this tutorial will give me
	 real world practice developing software in an environment I haven't
	 explored much yet.

RESOURCES:
	https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Introduction
	This page is designed as a guide to help new developers get accquanted with
	 Mozilla.  It describes a step by step process which I intend to begin by
	 following.
	
	https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=sw:[good%20first%20bug]
	This page is a search into the bugzilla bug database with a filter that
	 picks out bugs that have been flagged as '"Good" first bugs'.  I've started
	 looking at the discussion threads on a few to get a sense of the system.

DELIVERABLES:
	At the end of the semester I will have created some code.  Some subset of it
	 will probably be modifications to existing code.
	The products of	this tutorial will be this code, clear documentation of my
	 work on it, and a short write-up describing my experience.