Zotero and Papers 2 article workflows

I have been working with Zotero for some time now and seen it grow over time. I have run into a few issues of workflow by using Zotero. One is reading/reviewing/annotating PDF articles added to my Zotero library for active and future projects. The second roadbock is citations in other programs that are not currenlty supported by Zotero plugins.[1] Still have not solved the latter, but the first is coming along.

A few workarounds have been created, including a plugin for Zotero that round trips the PDFs in Zotero out to Dropbox, which can then be annotated through any PDF reader app that supports Dropbox sync on the iPad. Later the plugin on Zotero can check that synced Dropbox folder to pull the annotated PDF back into Zotero. The downside is it requires forethought in order to load the required PDFs into Dropbox and to sync them back later on. Not ideal, but not too bad. The other nice thing about this is it can pull the highlights and other notes into a text file.

Another option is Zotpad for the iPad ($9.99 currently in the iOS App Store). Mark Sample over at the ProfHacker blog recently did an extensive review of Zotpad. It has come a long way since it was originally released, including being able to sync over-the-air with the Zotero server, your own WebDav server or even Dropbox. Currently, Zotpad does not allow to make annotations within the app, it does allow you open your Zotero PDFs into other iPad apps and then when finished important back into Zotpad. Again, not perfect, but getting better.

These two issues in workflow have made me look around for other citation/article management systems. I have been playing with Papers 2 from mekentosj.com and their iPad app. Without going into the full review, the pluses currently for Papers 2 over Zotero is tight intergration into the OS X and the ability to cite in any writing application.[2] The minus is Papers 2 app only can sync with its iOS app while on the same network, but the iOS app does allow annotations in-app and those annotations/notes can be pulled out as text files.

EndNote used to be the only option for citation. Between Zotero (open source) and Papers (for-profit app developer) no one should need to look at EndNote to get serious work done in academic research.

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1. Currently Zotero is limited Word and OpenOffice and does not support citing sources in other programs such as my two favorite writing environments–Scrivener and Byword.  ↩

2. I plan to work on a larger review of those two citation/article management systems in the future. My final choice is still up in the air at this point.  ↩

Possible Uses for myNSLDS Button

The Department of Education is launching through the National Student Loan Database System a myNSLDS Button for students this fall. The new funcationity will allow students to access/download their student loan, grant and enrollment information in a flat "machine-readable" file. Pretty cool.

The myNSLDS Button follows on other initiatives including the Blue Button and the Green Button. The Blue Button allowed veterans access to their medical data and the Green Button is being rolled out by organizations like the California Public Utility PG&E to give access for consumers to their energy data.

These represent steps in open access to data for many consumers. While this is still developing there are a number of possible use cases. In no particular order:

• All of the new start ups and some of the older players in student loan management/repayment (see previous post here)
• Quicken's Mint.com and other full service financial monitoring/organziational software (either cloud or desktop based).
• Fraud alerts and credit monitoring.
• School based systems that let student monitor student loans while they are in school (maybe even through school portal websites?).
• Mobile iOS and Android apps for NSLSD.

It should be interesting to watch to see the possiblities unfold for the use of this data.

Dropbox (as promised) rolls out two-factor authenication →

Dropbox has rolled out two-factor authentication. Currently, it requires the beta build, but it is pretty easy to setup. You can have it send you text messages or use a few other app-based authenticators (like google's).

While I do not keep anything in Dropbox that could ruin me if it was seen by the wrong person, it would be a bit of a pain to have to restore and put everything back in its proper place.

I turned it on and fits nicely with having two-factor authentication for Google.

Another Startup in the Student Repayment Space →

Currently in invite only (I put in my request to check it out, but have not received an invite yet) is Tuition.io. Billed as:

A revolutionary new tool for managing your student loans that lets you optimize your debt for your unique situation.

It looks promising. When I get an invite, I will check it out and review it from a financial aid prospective.

Getting closer to ubiquitous fast connection to information → →

Fraser Speirs writing about 1:1 deployment in K-12 schools using the iPad:

The shift towards LTE cellular networking - which is typically faster than the broadband in a school - is starting to look like an interesting option for schools that cannot provision or scale their networks to multiple thousands of devices.

When using the iPad at coffee shops or hotels during conferences, I do not even bother anymore looking for wifi. It is exciting that schools are looking to go that direction.

Forget "traditional" social media means of communicating to students about financial aid, via facebook, twitter, or the less "social" of email, web portal, or snail mail. We should be thinking about push notificaitons. I am only half joking.