Open Academy Project

Firefox OS is an open source mobile operating system build entirely using Web technologies. Having launched into market on smartphones built by leading handset manufacturers in 2013, Firefox OS is seeing rapid expansion into further markets. By making the Web a first class citizen on mobile, Firefox OS seeks to tear down closed ecosystem barriers and promote an open mobile Web.

As an open source project, Firefox OS is built by a community of employees, partners and contributors. Mozilla enthusiastically encourages students from the Open Academy to contribute to Firefox OS through one the proposed projects below. The students would work with a Product Manager, a User Experience Designer, as well as a team of engineers to help define the solution and ultimately deliver on their goals.

Mentors

• Dietrich Ayala, Firefox developer, Firefox OS Program Manager
• Kevin Hu, Director of Engineering Project Management, Firefox OS
• Stephany Wilkes, UX Program Manager, Firefox OS
• Dale Harvey, Gaia developer, PouchDB maintainer
• Michael Henretty, Gaia developer
• Peter Dolanjski, Firefox OS Product Manager
• Adam Rogers, Firefox OS Product Manager

Students

• Team size: 7-10
• Grade level: Any.
• Time zones: Any. The Mozillians involved span CST, Pacific and CET.
• Skills/experience: Experience with the Web stack (HTML, JavaScript, CSS) is not required, but will accelerate your team.

Project: Device-to-Device App Sharing

Consuming mobile data is costly in many countries and applications, particularly games, can be large in size. Apps are often downloaded based on word of mouth recommendations, yet there is no way to directly transfer an app from one device to another. This is generally because content providers want users to come to their storefronts to trigger the download. What if a user could share an app directly with another user without consuming any data from their mobile plan?

Device-to-Device App Sharing is about allowing users to do just that – embracing community and social sharing - no connection required.

Results

• Participants
  • 13 students from 5 universities
  • Developed from Feb - May 2014
  • 5 Mozilla mentors involved
• Notes from all the meetings: https://etherpad.mozilla.org/fxos-openacademy
• Repos: https://github.com/Firefox-OS-OpenAcademy
• Google group: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/fxos-openacademy
• Status
  • Design work
    • Video demo
    • Pull-request implementing basic front-end sharing from homescreen
  • Front-end
    • Looked mostly done, but is now bitrotted due to vertical homescreen landing in Gaia
    • All commits
  • Back-end
    • Basics written, blocked on app import/export API to land
    • Spec doc
• Next steps
  • Sooner: Once app import/export is supported, build a standalone app like the SDCard import/export example but for NFC.
  • Later: Work with the UX team to integrate some kind of direct action ability on apps in the Homescreen, such as the design implemented by this team, and support NFC/Bluetooth app sharing in the core that way.