Upgrade StorageSuggestion: Opening up curated cloud services for Mainland China
I am a PhD student from China. I have been using Zotero for years and have seen its growth into an all-in-one reference consumption/management solution. I am particularly fond of its cloud-based integrated PDF viewer as it allows me to simultaneously open the same paper on multiple devices and have the annotations updated across devices in real time!
However, I recently noticed that this on-line service has become increasingly unstable. This happens because the Chinese authority requires any entity that operates business in China to store its user data in China, otherwise the service becomes illegal and may subject to indefinite blockage by the Great Firewall. This has been happening repeatedly for many services, including YouTube, Instagram, and GitHub, that are not banned in China. It would not be long after the first indications of instability that the services became indefinitely banned. However, for those companies that chose to comply such regulations, like Firefox and Apple, who later introduced curated separate datacentres and services in mainland China that are dedicated to Chinese users, they are able to continue their operations in China.
Therefore, I strongly suggest Zotero to consider open up their dedicated business in China, first by trying to connect with some major Universities and Institutions to consult their intention of buying your cloud services. Given the increasing popularity of Zotero among Chinese researchers, I think those schools are very likely to place institutional-wide orders. This could be your one feasible step into better serving Zotero users in China.
However, I recently noticed that this on-line service has become increasingly unstable. This happens because the Chinese authority requires any entity that operates business in China to store its user data in China, otherwise the service becomes illegal and may subject to indefinite blockage by the Great Firewall. This has been happening repeatedly for many services, including YouTube, Instagram, and GitHub, that are not banned in China. It would not be long after the first indications of instability that the services became indefinitely banned. However, for those companies that chose to comply such regulations, like Firefox and Apple, who later introduced curated separate datacentres and services in mainland China that are dedicated to Chinese users, they are able to continue their operations in China.
Therefore, I strongly suggest Zotero to consider open up their dedicated business in China, first by trying to connect with some major Universities and Institutions to consult their intention of buying your cloud services. Given the increasing popularity of Zotero among Chinese researchers, I think those schools are very likely to place institutional-wide orders. This could be your one feasible step into better serving Zotero users in China.