[O] Google Summer of Code -- 3 Org projects for our first participation!

[Bastien]

Dear all,

we will have 3 students hacking Org thanks to Google and the GSoC 
program.  The list of all accepted projects can be checked here:

  http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/projects/list/google/gsoc2012

Congratulations to Thorsten, Aurélien and Andrew who made it!
And special thanks to Thorsten, who really pushed me into this.

Here is a short description of these projects:

Bugpile - a bugtracker for GNU Emacs Org-mode written in Elisp and
Org-mode (Thorsten)

  The Bugpile project has two goals: 1. Develop a bugtracker (called
  Bugpile) for GNU Emacs Org-mode, using Elisp, Elnode, Org-mode, and a
  dVCS. 2. As part of the engineering process, abstract out a
  web-framework (called iOrg) based on these GNU Emacs technologies. A
  web-framework written in Elisp, with Org files used for database
  functionality, is a new approach that enables interactive web
  applications built on top of GNU Emacs. Bugpile is an example
  application, but useful in itself.

Org-mode – Let Org-mode synchronize with online bug-tracking and
todo-list services (Aurélien)

  There's currently no convenient way to manage services like Redmine,
  Bugzilla or GitHub issue tracking system in Org-mode. Org-mode already
  handles TODO-list pretty well, but there's no synchronization
  functionality for TODO-list services such as Toodledo or Google
  Tasks. The goal of the project is to let Org-mode import and export to
  these kind of services in a generic way so that new services can be
  added easily later on.

Emacs-Orgmode Git merge tool for Org Files (Andrew Young)

  The purpose of the project is to create a specialized Git merge driver
  for plain text Org-Mode formatted files. A merge driver is a program
  which will combine two versions of a file based off of a common
  ancestor into a single file, marking conflicting changes within. A
  specialized merge driver for Org-Mode files will be able to leverage
  the structure to understand the effects of modifications on the
  integrity of sections. The merge driver will solidify Org-Mode as a
  tool for collaborative work.

Eric Schulte will mentor Thorsten's project and I will mentor Aurélien's
and Andrew's ones, with the help of Nicolas and Carsten.

This is an exciting time for Org: no doubt that having people paid for
hacking Org on a full-time basis will boost our favorite software.

This is an exciting time for me as a maintainer and future mentor:
no doubt that I will *learn* a lot, from both a technical and a human
point of view - as usual.  Now that my age and pseudo-marital position
make me come home with a baguette every evening, it will be good to feel 
like a student again :)

Thanks to all for your long-lasting commitment and support.

Happy orging,

-- 
 Bastien