FOSSCOMM 2019 Conference
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- August 9, 2020
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“12th Panhellenic Conference of Free Software and Open Source Software Communications Meeting – FOSSCOMM 2019 ”
The annual Panhellenic Conference of Free Software and Open Source Software Communities – FOSSCOMM 2019 took place in Lamia, at the premises of the Department of Informatics with Applications in Biomedicine at the University of Thessaly on 11-13 October 2019. During these three days, Greek and foreign speakers had the chance to present their point of view in relation to open technologies.
Friday 11 October:
The conference began with a conversation based on Open Technologies. Specifically, Mr. Dimitris Mitropoulos (E.D.Y.T.E.), Panagiotis Kranidiotis (E.E.L.L.A.K.), Michalis Vafopoulos (MyData) and Athanasios Kakarountas (University of Thessaly) expressed their opinion and set examples based on their experiences so as to present the work of the agencies, that each of them represented, on Open Technologies. They also answered a number of questions concerning the subject.
Speaking on behalf of the National Network of Infrastructure Technology and Research – E.D.Y.T.E., Mr. Mitropoulos laid emphasis on “the essential elements that connect open technologies are the code, the community, and the experience. After all, young children always want guidance that open source software can provide them with.
Mr. Kranidiotis, representing the Free Software and Open Source Software Company – E.E.L.L.A.K., stated, among other things, that “The magic of open technologies is that nowadays have been carried out projects of open software almost for every concept crossed your mind. Now, you don’t have to write anything from scratch. With open technology, you can find everything. ”
Mr. Vafopoulos, a representative of MyData Hub Greece, pointed out that “Something that we call ”private data”, our children may call it ”public”. Also, he set the question of whether the data or the algorithms are more important concerning the decision we make in our lives ”.
In the meanwhile, Prof. Kakarountas, representing the University of Thessaly, noted that “I cannot believe that there will be unemployed IT students in the future”.
Saturday 12 October:
Mr. Vafopoulos inaugurated the second day of the conference with his speech titled “Our new data”. He stressed that ”The difference between the genome and bioinformatics is that the second is “touchable” by everyone while the genome not”.
On the same day, a second important speech was given by Mrs. Julita Inca titled “Linux on Supercomputers”. She highlighted that “supercomputers are not the future, but they are happening now”.
However, there were also held more speeches during this day. Some of them were:
- Nextcloud as a service with Cloud68 ”, Boris Budini.
- “Open Software Team (E.E.L.L.A.K.) – Community MyData ”, Michalis Vafopoulos and Theodoros Karounos.
- “The history of open technologies/software”, Athinodoros Sgouromallis.
- “Security in Apache Hadoop”, Markos Bersimis.
- “Teachers’ seminar for the second Panhellenic Open Technology Competition”, Committee of Central Greece.
In the evening, at the end of all the speeches, a party was held at the venue of the conference, where the participants had the opportunity to discuss in a relaxed mood and share their experience from the conference. They exchange their views while drinking a glass of good wine and dancing in a team spirit.
Sunday 13 October:
The last day of the conference began with Mr. George Mamalakis and his speech titled “Scaling web apps: before, now and after”. He pointed out that the Visualization plays an important role in the present.
In the meanwhile, some of the other interesting speeches that worth mentioning are the following:
- Mozilla Lean Pata Practices”, Konstantinidis Giannis.
- “GRATIS: A Graph Tool for Information Systems Scientists”, Theodoros Siklafidis, Vassilios Vlachos, Kyriaki Hantzi.
- “Transition from private and bank checks to Blockchain technology”, Liakos Antonios.
- Introduction to GTK using C – Workshop, Julita Inca.
- “Working in a company that produces open software”, Athinodoros Sgouromallis.
In the evening, at the end of the conference, Mr. George Spathoulas, a member of the organizing committee, representing all the co-organizers of the conference, ended the proceedings of the conference. He gave thanks to all those who contributed and attended FOSSCOMM 2019.
In all three days of the conference, the total number of the attendants reached 450 people. In addition, besides the lectures, the presentations and the workshops, attendants had the opportunity to visit the 5 booths that had been set up in the corridors of the conference venue and learn more about the free software and the open-source software. The booths were:
- Fedora – distribution of free and open-source platform
- Census – IT security company
- Nextcloud – distribution of free and open-source software
- Joomla – free and open source content management system
- Stem Lab – a technology, engineering, robotics, and programming laboratory
Also, all attendants had the chance to learn, play and discover the magical world of chess, a kind sponsorship of the Union of Chess Clubs of Central Greece (Ε.S.S.K.E.).
All mentioned above would not have happened without the contribution of the volunteers, who were always there supporting the team and giving guidance to the participants.
Finally, a huge thanks to the co-organizers and sponsors who supported this conference.
Co-organizers
Department of Informatics with Applications in Biomedicine, School of Sciences, University of Thessaly, Lamia
Free Software and Open Source Software Company – E.E.L.L.A.K.
Municipality of Lamia
Chamber of Fthiotida
Sponsors
| In kind | Community Parnters | Χορηγοί Επικοινωνίας |
| Fedora | TEDxLamia | MAG24 |
| Knowledge of Computers | Central hackathon | Linuxinsider.gr |
| Census | IEEE Greece Section | Phase Radio |
| Hellenic Informatics Association | ArTEST | enternity |
| WP Abstracts | Consumer Electronics Society Greece Chapter | |
| Quintessential | ||
| Yachoudi Publications | ||
| Chipita | ||
| Gerpeni trade in electrical goods | ||
| STEM Lab | ||
| Pizza Fan | ||
| Mazaraki Foreign Language Center |