The Big January Meeting

We finally decided to Open Souce Cyberscape in January of 2004. The code had been more or less sitting stagnant for a year, and we decided that bitrot was a lousy end. The following are the notes from this big meeting.

Our Timeline
Timeline:
- Check JaSaBe name *
- Get SF project    *
- Run contest
- Pick a new name
- Put up the real website *
- Pick license
- Post the code
- Results from General Code Discussion
- Where are we going WRT 3D
	- We want Java
	- We like game engines (maybe)
	- We don't like Java3D, but may use it.
	- Java3D means making our own engine.
- Good ideas/Bad ideas
	- Good:  Cyberscape
	- Bad: Ummm....  PLENTY!!!

The Goals
Cyberscape Goals (for today?)
- Good ideas/Bad ideas
	- Filtering
	-
- Concept (IP addresses vs search)


Completed:
- Arrived
- Found a place to stay
- Backups
- New name
- Website design:   - Content not presentation
                    - Who's responsible for what
                    - Where do we host things
                    - Are our docs whitepapers?
- Dinner
- Installation instructions
- Pick a license
- How involved do we want to be in future development?
- Java (how?)  / General code discussion
- Where are we going wrt 3D
        - Java 3D, 3D engines (Quake2, FreeSpace?) VRML, 2D? (NO!) X3D
- Get it working


The Details
Backups
- Handled by Ben
- Weekly to HD
- To a CD/DVD monthly

Name
- The JaSaBe Project in order to run a:
	- Cheecky on-line contest with a working title.
	- Open it for a time soliciting suggestions, pick one.
	- The winner gets... a prize!
	- Get Christine to make a logo

Website
- No flash, no Java
- Mozilla/NS6 KHTML IE5 800x600, maybe 1024x768
- Host it at Queen's (or another edu institute?)
- .org and .ca, no whymedia
- Content:
    - No chese, slightly comical    (All)
    - Basic structure (Jay and Ben)
    - Related news    (All)
    - Documentation
        - How to's
            - Proxy     (Proy done Ben)
            - Client    (Ben)
            - Server    (Ben)
            - Usage     (Jay or Sarah)
        - Project reports (All)
        - Presentations
            - (Geeks) RMC/Queen's           (Sarah done)
            - (Joes) Simplified version(?)  (Sarah)
            - (Suits) Business goals        (Sarah)
        - Good ideas/bad ideas              (Come back)
            - Development history
            - Design Decisions
            - Network visualization/tracking with proxy
            - Dough!  -Placement -Advertising -Datamining
            -
    - Downloads (NA)
    - Support   (NA)
    - Personal messages (All)
    - About/Contact     (Jay or Ben) (new accts)
    - More info (motivation, mission statement, quotable quotes)
                        (All/reports)
    - Image galleries/Video/VRML Demo (Done/Sarah)


Pick a license (Ben)
- We want some level of control
- Don't want some other company making it nasty
- Not looking to make money directly...  (Wishful thinking!)
- We want the code no matter what.  (even if they don't redistribute.)
- Options:
    - GPL, QT, MPL, SCSL
    - Ideally GPL, but you don't distribute the server!  Ack!

How involved do we want to be in future development?
- Eventually just management
- No code changes before we put it out there
- Say it's a prototype
- Look at code/help e-mails/very little new development by us

General Code Discussion
- Know that this is a prototype only!
- More modular!
    - Revisit package structure
    - Revisit how things were abstracted and broken up
    - Build things into separate JARS
        - Cyberscape Client
        - Cyberscape Server
        - Cyberscape Common
        - Cyberscape Proxy
            - C/C++ version (Windows & Unix) no dependencies small bg (Ben)
    - Replace client GUIs with SWT
    - Web Browser:
        - SWT "provides" a rendering engine (IE or Mozilla)


Where are we going wrt 3D
- Java 3D
    - Exists, but kinda crappy (Wrapper around OpenGL)
    - Means we're basically making our own engine.  (Again)
- Game engine
    - Savage (s2games.com) Silverback engine
    - Quake2 (Ben likes Quake2 best.  It's GPL'd)
    - CrystalSpace
    - Doom process killer
- We want to keep it in Java as much as possible.  TBD.


How to Sort (Concept)
- IP addresses don't mean anything to anyone.  (Okay, it was a bad idea.)
- Directories aren't great.  (Useless as they get bigger, who gets to decide.)
- Voting system (Option to select)
- Standardize display


:::::::::::: THE WINNER ::::::::::::
- Virtual Realty (Pay to sit beside google.*)
	- Dump real IP addresses (or maybe use them as default)
	- Replace with Cyberscape Addresses?
	- VR -> An IP address without a domain would be "for sale."
	- This way we don't need to worry about DB accuracy!
:::::::::::: THE WINNER ::::::::::::

- Hash functions
- Sort by domain name? (Max of 63 characters up to .com) Mostly under 22 char.
	- 37^63 namespace
	- Doing the yellow pages in 3D


Project offshoot ideas:  (JaSabe 1.5?)
- Groups & keyword search.  A 3D GUI on Google.  (Search engine version.)
- Network sniffing


Stuff we avoided (or only started)
- How do we do the map layouts?  Will it be dynamic or static
Good Ideas:
	- IP Addresses!
	- 3D Meta lang
	- Common, reused shares maps
	- User profiles. (Match making profiles) to handle too many people on the screen
Bad Ideas:
	- IP Addresses!
	- Sarah Singing
Problems:
	- VRML sucks, but there's nothig better
	- Database accuracy needs to be looked into... Ben.
	- 1000 people swarming the same IP at the same time.
	-

© 2004 Jason St-Cyr, Ben Hall, and Sarah-Jane Whittaker. All content presented herein are original creations. All content is copyrighted by their respective copyright holders.