Greek Language Chapter


The OSGeo Greek Local Chapter was initiated in November 2007. During 2010
membership grew, but there is still a need more chapter members.

Key Accomplishments

Chapter members participated in two (2) events during 2010.

The first was the National ISPIRE SDI Infrastructure Event. This event took place on October 1st, 2010 at the University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece. It was jointly organized by the chapter with HellasGI (www.hellasgi.gr). The event was very successful with over 90 participants who stayed for the duration of the event. Many
Greek and international experts presented issues related to the event’s main theme.

Participants in this first event were very supportive of holding a second event. This second event was the National Greek GI Conference. This event took place between December 2nd - 3rd, 2009 at NTUA, in Athens, Greece. It was organized by HellasGI (www.hellasgi.gr). During the conference many papers on or involving open source technology were presented.

Areas for Improvement

The chapter still does not have the participation that was expected. It needs to intensify efforts to increase the membership and the overall awareness of the organization. A big challenge faced by the chapter is securing funding for organizing further events.

Opportunities to Help

In the future the chapter will definitely need some speakers for national FOSS or other simple GIS events. It would also like to demonstrate some cases of successful use of FOSS GIS by the public sector to local government officials.

The chapter would like to plan some demo classes on FOSS GIS for students in universities. This would include determining how these classes can be integrated in their curricula, and showing that these classes can achieve the exact same educational result as a program focused on proprietary GIS software.

Outlook for 2011

The chapter is interested in determining how to raise funds for a chapter presence at future events. They also plan on working to attract additional membership.