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Federated Online Social Network Monitoring - available |
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The Mastodon network - currently 4.4 million active accounts on +4000 servers - is regarded as the most successful alternative online social network yet: Unlike Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok - this service is NOT based on manipulative strategies like targeted advertising and algorithmic outrage maximisation - which are posing imminent threats to democracies worldwide - and for this reason, the network keeps evolving rapidly. → However, its decentralized nature creates exciting challenges for monitoring "network health". Your task is to:
Further reading: https://fediverse.party/en/mastodon Further watching: https://media.ccc.de/v/rc3-857362-die_rosarote_brille_des_fediverse If you are interested in the future of online social networking systems (democratically legitimised moderation and algorithms + resistance against spam, censorship, denial-of-service...) then this topic may be something for you |
| If you're interested, please contact Paul Fuxjäger (paul.fuxjaeger(at)univie.ac.at). |
Markdown Spreadsheets - available |
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Markdown is a simple text formatting method that translates to HTML and other formats easily. Extensions exist to add table formatting to Markdown as well. In this project, you devise a method to augment Markdown with spreadsheet functionality. That is, your Markdown version should understand simple formulas, cell references etc., much like LibreOffice Calc, Gnumeric, or Excel do, and be able to calculate formula values. Outcomes of this project may include:
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| If you're interested, please contact Albert Rafetseder (albert.rafetseder@univie.ac.at) |
Markdown for Questionnaires - available |
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(For some context of Markdown, see above :-) The plan for this topic is:
The topic includes a survey and comparison of existing tools and literature on (online) surveying, a usable implementation, and a qualitative evaluation with prospective users of the technology. |
| If you're interested, please contact Albert Rafetseder (albert.rafetseder@univie.ac.at) |
Pure Data Software Engineering Best Practices - available |
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Pure Data is a visual language for multimedia computing. Pure Data programs, usually called "patches", may use various software engineering techniques such as modularization to achieve better readability, reusability, and maintainability. There exist some established patterns. Yet, there is little introductory literature on on them. In this project, you research the existing material such as public patches and libraries, Pure Data's own documentation system and included examples, and your own experience creating programs in this (and other) programming language(s). The outcome of the project is a set of well-documented worked examples of good software engineering practices in Pure Data. Participation and research intervention in our current course Network-based Communication Ecosystems is possible – you are invited to include our students in your research. We can also connect you with the international community of Pure Data users and developers for further investigation. |
| If you're interested, please contact Albert Rafetseder (albert.rafetseder@univie.ac.at) |
A Configurable Études Generator - available |
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| Études are musical pieces designed as practice materials for perfecting particular musical skills (Wikipedia). The skills to be perfected can differ (in difficulty and category) from étude to étude, and are different between instruments, players, and also dimensions of musical content (melody, harmony, rhythm). Develop a sufficiently generic, configurable generator for études that outputs études of choosable difficulty. For this, define a system that encodes the difficulty of a task to be studied, and transformations that assess the difficulty of combinations of study tasks appropriately. |
| If you're interested, please contact Albert Rafetseder (albert.rafetseder@univie.ac.at) |
An open-source GVRP/GARP dissector for Wireshark - available |
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Wireshark is a renowned measurement and analysis software for computer networks. Its dissector library is large, yet lower-layer protocols such as GARP and GVRP (protocols for configuration management between switches in LANs) are only partially implemented, do not appear to be tested, lack documentation, etc. Your task in this project is to assess the state of GARP / GVRP / GMRP protocol support in Wireshark through experiments, and extend the implementation and documentation to support the use cases that you identify as most relevant. For this project, you will work with practical network equipment such as switches and wiretaps, as well as write software in C, and glue code in other languages. |
| If you're interested, please contact Albert Rafetseder (albert.rafetseder@univie.ac.at) |
IP networks with dynamically changing uplinks - available |
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| Routing and upstream/downstream traffic flows in IP networks have certain protocol and time constraints for working correctly. This project investigates challenges and opportunities opened up by making the network's uplink change dynamically, e.g. attach to a different address block while traffic flows are still active. What happens to current-day applications in situations like these? What protocol adaptations are required to lessen the impact of uplink dynamics? What timescales are reasonable for reconvergence? (Etc.) |
| If you're interested, please contact Albert Rafetseder (albert.rafetseder@univie.ac.at) |
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