Zotero is charging for online file storage if you are using their online file synchronization after 100MB. Hmm…I’ll have to say, this is not necessarily a bad thing. If users like me don’t donate enough funds, then we’ll have to pray that they could find some deep pocket donators. Looks like they didn’t find enough, so it’s a good thing to be self-sustaining, then.
I like Zotero, but am not ready to pay that kind of money yet (the price is reasonable, though). I do need to work on multiple computers, though. Since Zotero separates bibliographical data from file attachments, and the bibliography metadata is free (still) to sync, so I use Zotero to sync my bibliography and use DropBox to synchronize the attached files (I store PDF’s). To do that, I uncheck the File Syncing options and configure the Zotero folder under my DropBox under Preferences –> Advanced –> Data Directory Location and use Custom location under DropBox instead of Firefox profile directory.
This has worked perfectly so far. A student once asked me how many I could sync with this configuration. Here is my math: let’s say one PDF file takes 500 K bites of space, with DropBox’s 2 GB free service you can store up to 2,000 files. I believe this should be enough to produce a Ph.D.
One thing the good Zotero people could do, though, is to ask for partners to donate their storage. At a time when storage is so cheap, universities won’t have problem providing this service. With universities participating in this type of services, the user population will increase dramatically. I believe this will create a better revenue later than the current business model. Google, for example, charge for NPO’s larger than 3,000 users. There’s always something we can learn from those “don’t be evil” people.
Sebastian
February 9, 2010 at 06:49
note that you can use a WebDAV server for file syncing with Zotero, too.
There are a number of free services available and a number of universities will indeed provide free WebDAV storage for their students (or at least grad students or faculty.)
polochen
February 10, 2010 at 13:15
Yes, a WebDAV solution is available. What I am thinking is a better marketing strategy such as: 1. to partner with the universities so that the users can select their institution from a drop-down menu for syncing services; 2. institutions are paying huge for EndNotes so it’s relatively easy to ask them to pay the “Zotero price”, which to me is a far more superior option; we should in turn charge FireFox but I love them too much to do that…let’s charge Microsoft instead.
I think the Zotero people should hire me or outsource their marketing to me.
HelpNeeded
July 31, 2011 at 09:10
i have just switched from using the “Firefox profile directory” to Custom “C:\…\Dropbox”. I am still facing problem to sync the file due to the “zotero storage full”.. what should i do next? please advice. TQ.
polochen
July 31, 2011 at 21:27
Hi there,
It might be you are still using Zotero to sync your files instead of Dropbox.
In Zotero Preferences –> Sync –> File Syncing, uncheck the box “Sync attachment files in My Library using.
Let me know.