After nearly 2 years work at Primary Technology we’re happy to be a big part in the first major release of Etherpad Lite. Etherpad has been my first major open source contribution and has been the technology behind PrimaryPad since December 2009. All of the work I have done on this project has been on my evenings/weekends and I haven’t been paid. The idea is that I have a better understanding of Etherpad Lite which in turn means I can make PrimaryPad the best collaborative writing tool available for schools. Thankfully Google Docs has been a week competitor, after only a few months they lost the only talent they had that could work on the collaborative module so this gave me an opportunity and the momentum to really work hard. I have worked with Peter at Primary Technology (He has been getting a wage to work on Etherpad) and a bunch of other people, learning as I have gone along.

So what’s next? Now Etherpad Lite V1 is done and Peter is going back to Germany I have decide what my role will be in the project and if I want to continue working on open source ventures or not… I have a week or so to make this decision and many others before I go back to work at PrimaryT so watch this space 🙂

The highlights of the project so far is witnessing Etherpad being used to rewrite policies, constitutions and watching it being used for learning and sharing ideas. Etherpad is an extremely versatile tool and I believe the goal of it being the most widely adopted real time collaborative editor is feasible if we can get enough community engagement.