Greek Language Chapter Report 2007

Greek Language Chapter

• Period covered by report: Nov-Dec 2007
• 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 (only vocal for the moment) support.

Key Accomplishments

• 1-Day Workshop on FOSS GIS, 23rd of November 2007, Athens, Greece.

The participation in this event was overwhelming. Instead of the expected participation of 60 people, a mere crowd of 160 was gathered to attend a rather unpublicized event.

Areas for Improvement

• We still do not have the participation in OSGeo I expected when the effort was started about 3 months 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 working on ideas on that but the limited to non existing resources are always a big barrier to overcome.

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 integrated them in there curriculum in order to show that we can achieve the exaxt same educational result.

Outlook for 2008

• We plan to organize a special session on the national GIS conference (HellasGI 2008).
• 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 two 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.