Greek Language Chapter Report 2008

Greek Language Chapter

• Period covered by report: Jan-Dec 2008
• Contact name: Dimitris Kotzinos
• The OSGeo Greek Local Chapter was initiated only in November 2007. So we cannot really speak on accomplishments but we are mainly happy that the effort has received a lot of recognition and that the membership is growing (not heavily but steadily).

Key Accomplishments

• Unfortunately this was a rather slow period due to the lack of intensive involvement of the chapter's initiators and the lack of more people to help.
• A set of presentations about open source GIS were given at the last National GIS Conference (HellasGI2008), held on Dec 4 & 5, 2008 in Athens, Greece. There will be an effort to collect and publish these presentations collectively online.

Areas for Improvement

• We still do not have the participation in OSGeo I expected when the effort was started about a year and a half ago. We need to intensify the efforts to increase the membership and the overall awareness.
• We also need some more media catching events. We are happy to announce that on April 3rd of 2009 a joint event will take place between OGC, HellasGI and the Local OSGeo Chapter about "Interoperability in Geographic Information"

Opportunities to Help

• In the future we will definitely need some speakers for national FOSS or just simple GIS events.
• We would also like to demonstrate some cases of successful use of FOSS GIS by the public sector to local government officials.
• We would like to plan some demo classes on FOSS GIS for students in universities and how these can be integrated in their curricula in order to show that we can achieve the exact same educational result.

Outlook for 2009

• We are organizing a 1-day event in Athens on April 3rd, 2009 about "Interoperability in Geographic Information".
• We also plan to organize a local web site (either standalone or as tightly integrated part of the OSGeo, this remains to be decided) that will provide access to free local data and translations of manuals of FOS software in the Greek Language.
• We also plan to have at least one more special events, depending on availability and funding.
• We would also be very interested in having the ability to apply for funding as a chapter/organization and we would like to seek help/information from other local chapters that do or plan to do the same.