openCoffee 23

Posted by boukouvalas on 0

Yesterday was the first time that that I attended openCoffee meeting which took place at the New City Hall of Thessaloniki Municipality. I confess that I was with the best impression because the whole feeling was – according my readings – that I am present at a Homebrew Computer Club meeting in 1980’s. Only that, these congregations are not just about computers and computer science youth entrepreneurship in general. Youth not just in the age content but in the context of new and innovative approaches.

Many of these are still in the incunabula and are not so popular as they deserve, so they are lost in the internet ocean. OpenCoffee shows these ideas out and brings a tail wind to the cities that is taking place. In Thessaloniki which is not chaotic as Athens is, its more easy to move around and contact everyone. An open event for open minded people willing to do work.

Congratulations to everyone who is organising and also to J. Boutaris, the mayor, who gave the permission for using the great foyer of the New City Hall.

Free Software United

Posted by boukouvalas on 0

As a year was completed on my FSFE Fellowship a suggestion was made to me to be a candidate for the General Assembly fellowship seat of the Foundation. I didn’t have a reason to reject this proposition so I took the chance to be a candidate.

I believe that the Association of Greek Users and Friends of Free Software – GNU Greece, which is an Affiliate Organization to FSFE has done much work on deepening of Free Software in Greece. You can read a total summary here, which is collaborative work of GNU Greece. On most of these projects I contributed also, but I believe that this is only the beginning.

As a member of the General Assembly of FSFE I believe I can learn from other people and be given the chance to contribute in a more efficient way. You can read my General Assembly Membership Roadmap, in which I describe how exactly I’m thinking about my participation in this body.

The last but not least (in contrary is the top) priority is to create stronger bonds between Greece and Balkan countries. The reality is that after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Yugoslav Socialist Republic, many incidents of nationalism slow the progress, the fraternity and among other things the promotion of Free Software in this area.

I believe that we can put an end once and for all to this situation by doing a simple thing: cooperation. Only by cooperation on Free Software issues we can go forward and enjoy the fruits of progress and prosperity.

United for Free Software
(source: Wikipedia Balkans Map)
I have a very good friend, advocate of Free Software in the Balkans, James Michael DuPont. James is a hero who promotes Free Software in the area of Kosovo and Albania. He’s been to this for years now and he has much experience which shares with me everytime I ask him. He is having hard time because of the bad financial situation in these countries but fortunately he is a very good manager of chaos. I’m proud that I’ ll have to cooperate with people like James for the deepening of Free Software in the Balkans.