| 1 | * GNU Ensemble
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| 2 | ** Abstract: Can you explain the whole project and its expected outcome (limit 1200 chars)
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| 3 | Ensemble is a web platform for collaboration between music composers
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| 4 | and performers with the goal of creating free cultural works.
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| 5 |
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| 6 | Composers share their compositions in musical notation while
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| 7 | performers bring them to life. One could say that bands can be formed
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| 8 | irrespective of their location, or possession of certain musical
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| 9 | instruments.
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| 10 |
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| 11 | Users can start new music projects, that are instances of GNU
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| 12 | Ensemble, or join and contribute existing projects.
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| 13 |
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| 14 | A new project gets instantiated once a name, a musical genre, a free
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| 15 | license and a list of instruments are chosen for the future
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| 16 | composition. The files can then be uploaded - pdf, musicxml or
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| 17 | lilypond in the case of musical notation; or users can start with bare
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| 18 | audiotracks and upload flac, mp3 and other popular free audio
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| 19 | formats. Users can explicitly request others users to compose new
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| 20 | tracks, rather over existing tracks or you can ask to just play and
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| 21 | record what you have. Users can also decide how much can the other
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| 22 | project member change their initial ideas. For instance, if a certain
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| 23 | piece can be improvised or if it needs to be played strictly as it was
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| 24 | composed.
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| 25 |
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| 26 | The outcome of this project is a federated network of web resources
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| 27 | with free music cultural works created on a collaborative effort
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| 28 | basis.
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| 29 |
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| 30 | ** Have you been involved with projects or organisations relevant to this project before?
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| 31 | And if so, can you tell us a bit about your contributions?
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| 32 |
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| 33 | I have experience in developing proprietary web services. When it
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| 34 | comes to contributing to free software
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| 35 | communities I have done small contributions and I'm eager to engage
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| 36 | more with the community.
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| 37 |
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| 38 | I'm committed to free software and I run GNU Guix on my Librebooted
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| 39 | Thinkpad. I have contributed 2 packages to Guix.
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| 40 |
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| 41 | ** Requested amount
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| 42 | 10000€
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| 43 |
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| 44 | ** Explain what the requested budget will be used for?
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| 45 | Does the project have other funding sources, both past and present?
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| 46 |
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| 47 | This project has never received any funding.
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| 48 |
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| 49 | The budget will be used for hosting the first instance (buying a
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| 50 | domain name, a server and building the infrastructure). Also I expect
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| 51 | to dedicate at least 6 months of full concentration on this
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| 52 | project.
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| 53 |
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| 54 | A small part of the budget will be spent on a logo.
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| 55 |
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| 56 | ** Compare your own project with existing or historical efforts.
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| 57 | - Mutopia is a place for hosting free licensed and public domain sheet
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| 58 | music. While GNU Emsemble may seem related, it actually focus in on
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| 59 | creating new music rather than sharing pieces of music.
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| 60 |
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| 61 | https://www.mutopiaproject.org/
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| 62 |
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| 63 | - Musescore's website. It allows you to host your pieces made in
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| 64 | Musescore and enables playback. It doesn't use libre
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| 65 | JavaScript and doesn't encourage the use of free software licenses. I
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| 66 | want to support Musescore files in this project.
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| 67 |
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| 68 | https://musescore.com/
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| 69 |
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| 70 | - Most collaboration tools are either non free or limited
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| 71 | in some way or another. For example, there's a web service called
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| 72 | Kompoz but users can only collaborate by sharing recorded audio
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| 73 | files. This project promotes collaboration both in the process of
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| 74 | composition and performance.
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| 75 |
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| 76 | https://www.kompoz.com/
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| 77 |
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| 78 | - GNU Lilypond is a great Scheme-like language which generates
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| 79 | music sheets from text format to PDF, making it suitable for
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| 80 | collaboration. Its syntax is clearer than XML-like MusicXML. This
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| 81 | project will support GNU Lilypond.
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| 82 |
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| 83 | https://lilypond.org/
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| 84 |
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| 85 | ** What are significant technical challenges you expect to solve during the project, if any?
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| 86 | Creating a federated network will be a challenge. Also, a version
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| 87 | control system will have to be implemented for music project
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| 88 | contributions, so that users will be able to track the changes.
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| 89 |
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| 90 | I plan to use GNU Guix for development and deployment, which can be
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| 91 | challenging due to the fact it's still a relatively new tool.
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| 92 |
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| 93 | Also there's this hard dilemma regarding JavaScript. I want to avoid
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| 94 | using it, but that can cost some user comfort.
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| 95 |
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| 96 | ** Describe the ecosystem of the project, and how you will engage with relevant actors and promote the outcomes?
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| 97 | I will use Python as the main language for the web server
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| 98 | realization, and OCaml for parsers and tools that need to be
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| 99 | compiled. Python is a popular language choice for this kind of
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| 100 | task, thus I think it's the right choice.
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| 101 |
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| 102 | I will use Flask, some of Flask's extensions, SQLAlchemy and
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| 103 | PostgreSQL. I will use GNU Guix for development and deployment; a
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| 104 | virtual environment will be created for development and deployments
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| 105 | will either happen in a generated docker container or using Guix's
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| 106 | deployment system.
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| 107 | (https://guix.gnu.org/blog/2019/towards-guix-for-devops/)
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| 108 |
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| 109 | SourceHut (https://sr.ht/) will be used as a platform for hosting the
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| 110 | git repository, providing mailing lists and bug tracker.
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| 111 |
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| 112 | Probably I will need Kubernetes and Devops tools.
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| 113 |
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| 114 | For promoting I will record series of screencasts videos which will
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| 115 | then be uploaded on PeerTube.
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| 116 |
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| 117 | English and Russian versions of this project will provided by
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| 118 | me. Hopefully the community will help me to support as many languages
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| 119 | as possible.
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| 120 |
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| 121 | I will be the only developer, but anyone is welcome to contribute as
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| 122 | the repository is available on my SourceHut account
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| 123 | https://git.sr.ht/~w96k/
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| 124 |
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| 125 | After some functionality will be in place, I would like to add this
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| 126 | project to the list of GNU software to gain interest and make sure it
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| 127 | will get maintenance.
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