![[ft]](foxtrot.png){kind=small}
FoxtrotGPS intends to be an open platform that fosters innovation in the community of users and developers, and everyone is invited to contribute to help guide its growth.
The initial set of goals, toward which our main focus is currently directed, revolves around resolving issues in the current codebase, and is as follows:
- Replace the proprietary `friends' and IM subsystems with open, standards-based systems.
The location-sharing and messaging features inherited from tangoGPS relies on a proprietary web-service. To the best of our knowledge, the code that drives the service has never been publicly released and there is no public specification for the service interface. Theoretically, underspecification and exclusivity of service-ownership and -operation could also raise concerns regarding privacy, security, and reliability.
Location-sharing options currently appear to be:
- Using the friends functionality of OpenStreetMap.
- XEP-0080, the location-sharing extension to XMPP, which has at least preliminary support in Telepathy via Gabble.
One of the side-effects to expect from opening these subsystems is that the support for `moving targets' would become generalised to the point where tracking different types of `targets' beyond just people would be possible (examples include things like storms, emergency vehicles...).
If you can help with these issues, or if you have another issue that you believe requires attention, please bring it to our attention on the foss-gps e-mail list.