We’ve been discussing the idea of a regional mini-conference to be attended by mappers from Baltic countries, Russia, Finland and Sweden. OSM community in our countries seems to be a closed and isolated circle with a very few new members each year. So we suggest to break the isolation through an international OSM meet-up (or mini-conference) in Tartu, Estonia. We coined the event “SOTM Baltics”.
Mappers from the other contries are also welcomed! By the way, Poland is also a Baltic country!
The conference will be held on 3-4 August 2013 in Tartu, Estonia.
Early Bird Registration for the SOTM Baltics is open: http://sotm-baltics.org
Register before the 9th of June for just 10 Euro!
Event format: very unformal (it’s more like UNconference than an academic conference): normal talks, lighting talks, “podium discussions”, social event in a pub in the evening.
Why Tartu? We have mappers from Tartu who volonteered to find a room for the SOTM Baltics. Also, Tartu can be conveniently accessed from the largest cities in the Baltic countries: Tallinn, Helsinki, Sankt Petersburg, Moscow, Riga. Tartu is a university city and IT-center of Estonia.
How to get to Tartu from Poland with public transportation. First reach Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, then take a bus or a train to Tartu (2.5 hours). An alternative route is via Riga. There are 4 daily buses between Riga and Tartu that depart Riga at 8:40, 18:45, 22:45, 23:55. The journey takes around 4 hours. Tickets can be bought at http://www.luxexpress.eu/en
The conference hall is normally used for PhD defence and University Senate meetings. The University of Tartu was found in 1632, its main building was built more than 200 years ago.
So far we’ve got a significant number of participants from Estonia and Russia. Mappers from Latvia, Finland, Germany, Netherlands and Afghanistan are also registered for the conference.
There were complaints that it wouldn’t be easy and cheap to get to Tartu and back. Believe me it’s not true. I can help you to plan your trip. Just send me a note.
Poproszono mne,bym nieco opowiedzial o sytuacji spolecznosci OSM w Polsce.
Czy jest gdzies jakas prezentacja która mozna by wykorzystac? Nie chce wyssac wszystkiego z palca. Jakie sprawy mozna by tam poruszyc?