I’ve decided that since I already have a fairly good grounding in Java, I’m going to contribute to Open Office. My idea is a tool called EasyBib. I don’t know about everyone else, but i hate dealing with MLA or APA format when I’m trying to creatively express myself or prove a point. Version one of this tool will prompt for the information and then format it. I am hoping, however, that I can make a version 2 which automatically finds the information from an online database, so one would only have to enter author and title or isbn and the rest is done. The two methods I can think of is search a site like Google Books or an ISBN database, or to search through Google Scholar to try to find someone else that has cited it already. My friend is betatesting the next microsoft office, and while he is prevented from telling me much from NDA agreements, he did mention that they have a bibliography tool, so its time for OpenOffice to catch up!
