The latest FOSS Academic post is an early review of Zotero 8, the latest from @zotero . TL;DR version: I might just use this version to do a lot more 'synthetic' note taking, a practice I had been doing in Zettlr with Markdown files.
https://fossacademic.tech/2026/02/26/zotero-8-review.html
I've been using Zotero since 2009 and I can't imagine doing my job without it. Kudos to the team at Digital Scholar!
The latest FOSS Academic post is: New Nextcloud with Possible Digital Sovereignty
https://fossacademic.tech/2026/02/01/new-nc.html
I discuss setting up a new Nextcloud instance on Canadian public infrastructure, moving away from my previous US-based host. I talk about the "how" of that migration (it was pretty easy, actually) and the "why" (I no longer will send Canadian money to a US firm). But how "sovereign" is the Digital Research Alliance?
#FOSSacademic #Canada #digitalsovereignty
Lastest FOSS Academic post is: Fresh New Look, Same Great Flavor!
I worked with @are0h to update the blog. Ro supplied the CSS and a cool new logo and I continue to supply the hand-crafted Python site generation. The result? Some more of that FOSS Academic Lifestyle Dream.
Latest FOSS Academic post is: Oops! All Microslop. Or, Trying to Write with Microsoft.
https://fossacademic.tech/2026/01/06/oops-all-microslop.html
It's a post in which I see what it's like for me to try to create a blank document with York University's Microsoft 365 subscription.
TL;DR version is: it's all about Copilot, and starting a blank Word doc is actually kinda... hard.
The post is a bit long, but it does have a lot of screenshots + a dash of anger.
Latest FOSS Academic post is -- you guessed it -- a 2025 year in review post. Thrill to the fact that I'm using much of the same FOSS to do my work as I always have! Feel the chills as I talk about #generativeAI and how terrible it is! Above all, join me in living the FOSS Academic Lifestyle Dream!
https://fossacademic.tech/2025/12/21/year-in-review.html
Replies to this post will appear as comments on the blog thanks to the magic of #ActivityPub!
The lastest FOSS Academic post is a whiny, weedy gripe session where I talk about being nervous about installing new Linux distros:
https://fossacademic.tech/2025/11/09/contained.html
Basically, between Snaps, Flatpaks, Wayland, and Secure Boot, installing a fresh Linux distro on a machine isn't quite as fun as it used to be. But, what can I do? Switch to Microsoft?
Hell, no!
Latest FOSS Academic is I DID IT! I DID IT! I re-implemented my static blog generator in Python and moved it off #Github onto my own hosting!
https://fossacademic.tech/2025/08/25/reimplemented.html
What's that? You want an archive and previews of posts? Done. Tags? Handled! Atom feed? Generated. (https://fossacademic.tech/feed.xml)
What about comments, you say?
Respond to this post and they shall appear on my blog, I say unto you.
I did it! Yay!
Latest FOSS Academic post is live!
https://fossacademic.tech/2025/08/19/zotero-zettlr.html
It's a note about the relative strengths and weaknesses of using #Zettlr and #Zotero for note-taking and writing. Spoiler: I thought I would use Zotero less and less, but I find myself using it just as much as I ever have.
[Replies to this will appear as comments on the blog unless you set privacy to Followers-only or DM. CWs will work]
The latest FOSS Academic post involves more wrestling with the implications of #generativeAI for academic peer review:
https://fossacademic.tech/2025/08/06/reviewing-ai.html
In this post, I take observations from software #developers and #openSource podcasters (such as the folks at @latenightlinux ) about how genAI is swamping things like bug bounties and code reviews. This is similar to some of the issues faced by academic peer reviewers.
On the latest Late Night Linux podcast, the gang discussed a recent blog post by Daniel Stenberg about the plight of reviewers – specifically, open source bug bounty program reviewers, who are facing a rising tide of AI slop. I think this has implications for my profession, particularly the task of conducting academic peer reviews.
One of the events of this week (cough, JD Vance joining Bluesky, cough) reminded me of this thought experiment I wrote back in 2021: What if Trump joined Mastodon?
https://fossacademic.tech/2021/01/08/PraiseMastodon.html
(Note I wrote this well before Truth Social -- it's interesting to go back to that period of social media history).
Robert W. Gehl