I suggest you ...

to publish your desktop under GPL license.

It will be very good if you could publish your desktop under GPL or compatible license. That will boost its development, features and make it localized and modified according to the needs of much wider population. Indeed, this will make much more audiences for you.
veki

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    vekiveki shared this idea  ·   ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
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      • SimonSimon commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        @William Gunn, great, how about the Word plugin? I don't know if it still contains the code I wrote, but consider it a gesture of goodwill toward the open source community.

      • William GunnAdminWilliam Gunn (Admin, Mendeley) commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        The code for the Open/Libre Office plugin is available on Github: https://github.com/Mendeley/openoffice-plugin and the citeproc code is available in many flavors:

        JS - https://bitbucket.org/fbennett/citeproc-js/wiki/Home
        Py - https://github.com/bdarcus/citeproc-py
        Rb - https://github.com/inukshuk/citeproc-ruby

        There's also some API client code to get you started: https://github.com/Mendeley/mendeley-oapi-example

        This allows anyone to build their own client that interfaces with the Mendeley API, just as Gunnar suggests. See http://dev.mendeley.com for details.

      • Gunnar WolfGunnar Wolf commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        GPL or any free license would be great. Or, at least, enabling the Free Software programming community to build such packages by publishing your API.

      • Thomas Thomas commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        The above suggestion is worth considering because Open source already changed the world.This Mendely Desktop software lacks a lot of things but it has a potentional to become a revolutionary software which can change the world rapidly like wickipedia or many other who followed the opensource development model.

      • albertoalberto commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        Please consider this suggestion as it will improve development and features. A faster release cycle would be fantastic.

      • AnonymousAnonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        It will be very good if you could publish your desktop under GPL or compatible license. That will boost its development, features and make it localized and modified according to the needs of much wider population. Indeed, this will make much more audiences for you.

      • Christopher William Pantaleon LyonsChristopher William Pantaleon Lyons commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        This.
        "Mendeley would not be a viable product without the work of the Zotero and CSL communities. Mendeley's Word and OpenOffice.org plugins are still based upon the first generation Zotero Word plugins that I wrote many years ago. Before we replaced these plugins with our second generation plugins, Mendeley never made any attempt to submit patches back to us, and I doubt that's because our code was perfect and they weren't necessary. Mendeley uses Frank Bennett's citeproc-js for formatting citations. Finally, Mendeley has attempted to appropriate the code that I and others wrote for Zotero for a web importer of their own, but didn't think it might be nice to let me or any of the others who contributed to the original work know that it exists, and obviously did not submit any upstream patches. Mendeley likes to make claims about "openness," but in reality, it's not any more open than proprietary alternatives. It appropriates our (Zotero) code where possible, but makes no attempt to contribute back. The development of Mendeley's CSL editor, the only major new open source project that Mendeley has created, appears to have stalled. If Mendeley were to release its client under a GPL license, it would go a long way toward restoring our faith in Mendeley's benevolence and vision."

      • SimonSimon commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        Mendeley would not be a viable product without the work of the Zotero and CSL communities. Mendeley's Word and OpenOffice.org plugins are still based upon the first generation Zotero Word plugins that I wrote many years ago. Before we replaced these plugins with our second generation plugins, Mendeley never made any attempt to submit patches back to us, and I doubt that's because our code was perfect and they weren't necessary. Mendeley uses Frank Bennett's citeproc-js for formatting citations. Finally, Mendeley has attempted to appropriate the code that I and others wrote for Zotero for a web importer of their own, but didn't think it might be nice to let me or any of the others who contributed to the original work know that it exists, and obviously did not submit any upstream patches. Mendeley likes to make claims about "openness," but in reality, it's not any more open than proprietary alternatives. It appropriates our (Zotero) code where possible, but makes no attempt to contribute back. The development of Mendeley's CSL editor, the only major new open source project that Mendeley has created, appears to have stalled. If Mendeley were to release its client under a GPL license, it would go a long way toward restoring our faith in Mendeley's benevolence and vision.

      • timtim commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        Considering that your software is already heavily based on the open source stack (it is clearly based on Qt4 and KDE4 libs) it seems it would behoove you to open source it. KDE4's reader (okular) is better than the Mendeley one, there is no reason why Okular and Mendeley couldn't share these improvements. Additionally, it would give back to the community that is making your business possible while not hurting you in anyway since you make your money on the document storage and syncing service.

      • AnonymousAnonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        No expert on licensing, but there is so much potential here if there were more people working on it. Alternatively, would be happy to pay a small fee (as a current free user) for the sake of stability and features.

        Even better, maybe there is a way to get hold of some of that university money that currently goes to Endnote, while still keeping it free for individual use!!

      • CalebCaleb commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        As a Linux user I wonder why people are so insistent. There is nothing inherently wrong with closed source software, in its place. There are some benefits to open source but its not always the be all and end all. A bigger requirement for me is that it supports my OS: Ubuntu.
        Thanks,

      • PascalPascal commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        Mendeley development seem to stall... sadly! Involving the community by releasing it as libre software would definitely boost development and ensure the future of Mendeley.

      • robert.knightAdminrobert.knight (Admin, Mendeley) commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        Hi ianni67,

        Mendeley Desktop is just that - software for the desktop. For tablets you're not looking at just a few tweaks to the interface but the whole focus is different - more emphasis on reading papers and less on organization.

      • ianni67ianni67 commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        I fully agree: because of its features your desktop is candidate to become a reference under platforms such as android and linux (think also of Meego, Bada, and other mobile platforms based on linux). To do so, however, some characteristics should be improved, mainly from the usability point of view, in order to cope with touch-based devices. This would become easier with the help of the open source community.
        Also, keep in mind that most linux users do not love closed-source software.

      • EmpIzzaEmpIzza commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        Well, I'm about to run out of votes since there are alot of things which could be improved, but if it was released under GPL I could just fix em myself, now thats a thought!

        I agree fully with Matthias, even if it isn't released under GPL, please just release the BibTeX export module under GPL so we can fix it!

        Please :)

      • lhrkkklhrkkk commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        I think mendeley is a promising project. It helps the scientists share and exchange our mind (also resources) more efficiently . It plays a roll just like facebook. I wish it will develop and spread like facebook too. I think a free software can help to do this ,and it also coincide its' spirit. Once the user of the platform is large enough, the service will make a quantity of profit, just like the redhat linux. This is a project that benefit to the human beings. I am stand by it. The software published by GPL licence has spread and progress very fast .There must be some reasons. If mendeley is published by GPL license, it will be got and duplicated more easily. And it can be a standard platform like facebook. If it can be published as a part of the debian linux or gnome desktop environment, it will be a success.

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