The Lantern Project
Michael Tubinis (mstubinis), Brian Escriche (Pharas)
Rationale
We chose the Lantern project because the project has an admirable goal and it seemed like it would be cool to learn more about how it works. Simple as that.
Organizational Details
- Is the subject of your profile a corporate entity?
Yes. It is called the Brave New Software Project, Inc. - What type?
A registered 501c3 non-profit - When was it founded?
It claims to have been founded in 2010 - By whom?
Adam Fisk - Original founder(s) still active?
Yes - Publicly Traded? Since when? Initial Stock Price? Current stock price?
It is not publicly traded - Has the company made any acquisitions? If yes, which companies, and what were their core products?
It has not made any acquisitions - Has the company made any investments in other companies? If yes, which ones.
None that could be found - Number of Employees?
Roughly 6 - Where is HQ?
It doesn’t appear to have one - Does it have any other offices or locations?
No - Does your organization file any annual reports? Please include links to any relevant documents (i.e. 990, Annual Report, Year in Review, etc...)
No Annual reports that we could find
Communications
- Does your subject participate in social media? If yes, please list a URL for each account, and reach within that community.
-Twitter: https://twitter.com/getlantern 4077 followers. 793 tweets.
-Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/getlantern 6451 likes.
-Tumblr http://get-lantern.tumblr.com/ - What communication channels does your subject use to reach their public? Briefly describe and include a URL for each.
Forums - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/lantern-users-en - Does your subject organize or participate in any conferences? If so, list them here, and provide links to any relevant sessions, keynotes, or content.
There are no conferences that Lantern organizes and no listed information about participating in any.
Community Architecture
- If applicable, list and provide links to:
- The project's IRC Channel
None Found - Mail list archive
None Found - Describe the software project, its purpose and goals.
From their FAQ page:
Lantern is built by the Brave New Software Project, Inc, a registered 501c3 non-profit dedicated to using software to tackle tough global challenges. Brave New Software’s founder and Lantern lead developer, Adam Fisk, was formerly a lead developer of the peer-to-peer file sharing services LimeWire and LittleShoot. While working on these P2P architectures, Adam realized they could be useful in providing unfiltered internet access. - Give brief history of the project. When was the Initial Commit? The latest commit?
Git log --reverse shows that the earliest commit was on July 7, 2010.
latest commit was on February 3, 2015. - Who approves patches? How many people?
There are 6 people on the lantern github team
- https://github.com/aranhoide
- https://github.com/cholmes
- https://github.com/myleshorton - main contributor
- https://github.com/oxtoacart - second main contributor
- https://github.com/xiam
- https://github.com/teamlantern (this seems to be a placeholder account) - Who has commit access, or has had patches accepted? How many total?
There are 17 people with some form of commit to the project overall. - Has there been any turnover in the Core Team? (i.e. has the top 20% of contributors stayed the same over time? If not, how has it changed?)
According to the github repo graphs, myleshorton has been the leader since the project started. From october 2013 on, oxtoacart has joined and contributed alot of code development. - Does the project have a BDFL, or Lead Developer? (BDFL == Benevolent Dictator for Life)
Lead Developer according to the Github repo is myleshorton, with 4,894 commits (245,630 lines added / 156,554 lines deleted)
Second developer behind is oxtoacart with 683 commits (230,021 lines added / 82,965 lines deleted) - Are the front and back end developers the same people? What is the proportion of each?
According to the commit history, it seems like the answer is yes, as there are so few commits outside of the top two contributors - What have been some of the major bugs/problems/issues that have arisen during development? Who is responsible for quality control and bug repair?
https://github.com/getlantern/lantern/issues Of note is an issue with Reset not working properly and messsing with people’s ability to work the software: https://github.com/getlantern/lantern/issues/1841 - How is the project's participation trending and why?
https://github.com/getlantern/lantern/graphs/contributors It seems to have gone down as time has went on, though that has probably more to do with having less and less project critical work to do. That said, there has been nothing for the last few months and still several open issues - In your opinion, does the project pass "The Raptor Test?" (i.e. Would the project survive if the BDFL, or most active contributor were eaten by a Velociraptor?) Why or why not?
No, from what we can tell, only 2 people have really contributed to the repo code wise, and even then the BDFL has had a lot more commits and has worked on the project way longer than the second leading contributor. - In your opinion, would the project survive if the core team, or most active 20% of contributors, were hit by a bus? Why or why not?
Probably not. If the two main contributors were removed then the project would fall, due to most of the development knowledge being lost. Also, the project is fairly new, has not left beta stage yet, and has weak documentation. These factors will only hinder the project if it tries to revive itself. - Does the project have an official "on-boarding" process in place? (new contributor guides, quickstarts, communication leads who focus specifically on newbies, etc...)
The wiki (https://github.com/getlantern/lantern/wiki) has links to a Get Involved page (https://github.com/getlantern/lantern/wiki/Get-Involved) and other various links that will help people start contributing towards the project. - Does the project have Documentation available? Is it extensive? Does it include code examples?
The project does have documentation but it is weak, and no code samples are present. - If you were going to contribute to this project, but ran into trouble or hit blockers, who would you contact, and how?
I would head to the forums first as that seems to be the most active communication area. - Based on these answers, how would you describe the decision making structure/process of this group? Is it hierarchical, consensus building, ruled by a small group, barely contained chaos, or ruled by a single or pair of individuals?
The project is entirely run by the BDFL. - Is this the kind of structure you would enjoy working in? Why, or why not?
Hard to say, as it really doesn’t have a formal structure outside of “There is this thing to work on, someone should work on it”
Technology/Product
- Who invented, created, or sponsored the technology?
The project was started by Adam Fisk - What is the technology designed to do? How is it used?
It was designed with the intention of spreading internet to those who would normally not be able to receive it. - Who would benefit from using this technology?
People in countries with heavily censored Internet (i.e. China, Iran) - What kinds of companies or organizations (stakeholders) might have been concerned about the development of this technology? Why?
Interestingly enough, Google has stepped forward with something similar in uProxy. This was worked on collaboratively with Adam Fisk in some regard, so not quite the same thing though.
Has been strongly opposed by China, but otherwise, mostly silent. There has been some concern over the funding coming from the State department however.
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