Initial NLnet funding Phase is Over

Hi everyone! Another update from us:

Since the last blog post a lot of things have happened. Sorry for the silence here, however, there was a lot of activity on GitLab:

• Thomas Kosel from Fre(i)e Software GmbH joined the team, bringing a considerable amount of Rust expertise to the table:
  • Thomas started implementing a SUPL server (yes, we returned back to asn.1, so our SUPL implementation will be compatible with existing SUPL services) from scratch
  • As asn.1 implementation, we are using rasn now which delivers satisfying results. That said: OpenAGPS SUPL is now a Rust component.
  • Only blockage we are facing still is decoding issues and incompatibilities between Porygon's Python implementation and SUPL's Rust implementation, but this is in the makings...
• Serhii Horichenko became the initial tester with zero background knowledge on OpenAGPS and did a cold water dip into the pool.
  • Thanks for being the first outside who put together a base station hardware according to our documentation.
  • The docs have since then see much improvement, thanks to Serhii's feedback and contributions.
  • Also, big cudos for updating the OpenAGPS architecture schematics and making it finally right.
• Alex Richards assisted during the whole phase of the SUPL server/client/protocol development with expertise, code reviews and other feedback.
• Raoul Kramer was hightly busy around managing the project and reaching out to the new, potential OpenAGPS community:
  • A new website based on [Zola][get-zola] (static site builder) has been set up. The site now combines general information on the project, our blog, a community overview section and documentation pages that are pulled in from the actual code repositories (deduplication of information).
  • Hardware parts for seven more base stations have been ordered and shipped to Serhii for being put together (and will then forwarded to new potential OpenAGPS community members, base station hosters of the first hour).
  • Reorganize the budget plan, act as point of contact to NLnet and coordinate the work of the team.
• Mike Gabriel (myself) from (Fre(i)e Software GmbH) joined the team providing quality assurance, and providing project & release management expertise regarding OSS projects where needed. He also helped out with website fine-polishing and announced the birth of OpenAGPS on his personal blog (which appeared today on Debian Planet).

You probably already know, but this project has been funded through NGI Mobifree Fund, a fund established by NLnet with financial support from the European Commission's Next Generation Internet program. Learn more at the NLnet project page. Hosting for this project is geneously sponsored by Leaf Cloud.

Sadly, the initial NLnet funding project phase is now over; all of the money has been used up.

So, we might go into a bit of hiatus until new funding opportunities come up (a follow-up NLnet funding application has been sent just in time before the deadline).

The project for now switches to an after work / spare time project, unless people realize the worth of having an open alternative to AGPS / SUPL on this planet.

• Mike Gabriel