James Petersen chose to contribute to the open source Zotero reference management software project for his ETEC 697 final project. Zotero allows users to manage bibliographic data and research materials across devices and includes features like in-text citations and cloud syncing. Petersen will edit the Zotero wiki documentation and introduce the software at his institution by developing instructional materials and identifying opportunities for support. While one project he considered stagnated, Petersen recognized potential for Zotero in his teaching and was surprised by instructor interest. Going forward, he will continue prototyping instruction and training faculty to promote Zotero's collaborative abilities.

1. ETEC 697 - F/OSS in
Education 1
Final Project - Contributing to a Free and Open Source Project
James (cellodad) Petersen

2. F/OSS Project Identification 2
■ Project Choice Criteria
■ Must have Professional and or Personal Relevance
■ Must meet course criteria
■ Must be possible to make significant progress during the course of the class
■ Must be something that is worth continuing beyond the semester

3. Identification - projects considered 3
■ Two projects were considered
■ Authorly E-Publisher Project
■ HTML5 -based F/OSS epublishing tool
■ G+ Community response to the restrictive nature of Apple iBook Author
■ After great initial enthusiasm and optimism, the project has stagnated;
though it may revive in the future.
■ I remain part of the group on G+

4. Identification - projects considered 4
■ Zotero
■ is free, open source reference management software to manage bibliographic data and related research materials (such as PDFs). Notable
features include web browser integration, online syncing, generation of in-text citations, footnotes and bibliographies, as well as integration
with the word processors Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, OpenOffice.org Writer and NeoOffice. It is produced by the Center for History and New
Media of George Mason University (Wikipedia)
■ The collaborative nature of shared libraries is ideal for providing students with group research skills
■ An appplication of immediate professional use
■ also is personally relevant
■ a variety of opportunities to contribute

5. contribution - selection 5
■ The Zotero organization describes many ways in which individual may become involved:
■ I choose two areas under “Document and Support”
■ One way was to register with the organization to “Edit the wiki”
■ This involves obtaining an Editor’s login through the organization to access the wiki and the
forums and try to make the documentation more useful and concise

6. contribution - selection 6
■ The second part of my involvement with Zotero involves Introducing it at my institution
■ several parts
■ developing instructional design/plan
■ identifying opportunities
■ on-going support

7. Ah ha 7
■ There were a number of Ah Ha moments as well as a couple of “Oh S***” ones
■ the first OS moment was when I realized that Authorly wasn’t going to fly
■ an AH was realizing how many of my teachers are interested in working with Zotero
■ they are particularly excited (as I am) about the collaborative features (thank you Dr. Grace)
■ I was surprised to see that the teachers I’ve worked with so far haven’t had nearly as many
problems as I predicted
■ One that I am grappling with right now is how much of the documentation needs to be updated
and revised. For example, there are a number of dead links and I am trying to contact the
institutions to see if there are updates or if their information is no longer valid

8. summary of learning 8
■ Probably the most important part of this project is that it’s just getting started!
■ Being a contributor to the documentation has been important for me because I’ve been forced
to delve deeper into the available resources and learn much more about the tool itself
■ This is the first time I’ve used a “Rapid Prototyping” model to help develop instruction
■ I believe I now will be able to start offering my pilot to a group of teachers in time for our
summer “Brain Camp” program
■ I’ve used Zotero myself and found it to be valuable. I now believe that it will be an important
tool for our teachers and students to promote 21st century skills
■ I’ve developed a great appreciation for the role of “Community” in the development of high-
quality software tools

9. continuation/extension 9
■ The Project is not over
■ I have another Rapid Prototyping session with a different teacher this week
■ I will then be producing the first documentation, instructional modules, and exploring delivery
methods for the group of Summer teachers
■ I will be taking the results and putting together larger-scale training for faculty
■ One of my long-term goals is to finally kill and bury 3 x 5 index cards

10. Questions - Comments - Links 10
■ You may access my final blog entries by either going to
http://cellodad697.blogspot.com/
■ or get a link from Twitter at #697sp
(all images used in this presentation were either produced by me or are licensed under CC)