CianBlog.com - Lucian Savluc - Blog

A few months ago, I was happy to blog about Ben Nolan, one of my former colleagues at Sxip. From his projects one of the most interesting was ZoomIn.

On that time, I was asking myself if nobody is going to try something similar in Romania, a country with 22 millions of inhabitants.

Now, Alex Brie, one of the ROSI group members, bright guy and young entrepreneur is trying something for Romania too.

The name of the project is GeoKeo, it has a blog and can be tested at http://geokeo.com.
GeoKeo is in alpha state now, but you can try it and have an idea about what is going to be.

So, what is GeoKeo?

”
Short answer: GeoKeo is an incubating search engine, the first online geo-local search with the most accurate digital map for Bucharest, Romania and soon the rest of the country.

Longer answer: a startup developing the local search engine of choice for the 5 millions Romanian Internet users, displaying addresses and useful objectives in Romania and providing geolocalized targeted information or marketing services.
”

Probably would be interesting to hear form you what kind of technology you are using for this project and some of your future plans.

Good luck!

I wrote a post a few weeks ago about an interesting initiative that Carmen Holotescu from eLearningBlog and Cristian Manafu had; to take the Romanian blogosphere pulse by a survey named “RoBloggers”.

Now they posted the results and are quite interesting to take a look there; it seems that the Romanian blogosphere is growing and became mature.

———- My personal note ———-

I had the first contact with Carmen a few years ago when I took one of her online project management classes. I realized then that she is a nice person, bright, friendly and committed. And more than that, she really try to do something for the Romanian IT community.
Her example of responsibility and involvement provided me the strength to go further with eLiberatica and ROSI.

One thing that strikes me since I came in Canada three years ago is the openness, sympathy, respect and tolerance of the people to other cultures. Most of Canadians are applying the phrase “live and let live”. More than that, they will listen to you and even try to help you when you are in a need.

Last Saturday I found the same attitude. This is another thing that make me feel proud about my second home, Canada.

I met Bruce Byfield at Barcamp Vancouver; it was a pleasure. Bruce is a journalist and editor for the Open Source Technology Group, best-known for Slashdot and SourceForge websites. He, together with Kate Milberry paid a high interest about my presentation. More than that, Bruce mentioned yesterday in his NewsForge article about our initiative. Thank you Bruce!

Kate Milberry also had a very interesting talk about tech activism and Free Software named ” Geeks and Global Justice“. Kate is a social justice activist and doctoral student at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. About her work you can find more on her blog.

Other images from Barcamp (there are links beside the sprayed words):

Hmmmm, I have no idea why the image map is not working….

here are the links

Darren Barefoot presenting Barcamp sessions
eLiberatica at BarCamp
Me
Kate Milberry presenting Geeks and Global Justice
Zak, my mentor
Roland Tanglao from Bryght
Sarah Pullman presenting an interesting yoga session for geeks
Bruce Byfield from NewsForge
Boris Mann from Bryght
Lori Pike, my former manager at Sxip

Acum cateva zile postam despre initiativa guvernului Croat legata de promovarea tehnologiilor OS/FS.

De data aceasta, vreau sa scot in evidenta o alta initiativa Open Source si Free Software care vine din partea vecinilor nostri bulgari: Bogomil Sopov anunta evenimentul OpenFest care va avea loc la Ruse, in toamna acestui an.

Deoarece Ruse este foarte aproape de Romania, profesionistii IT si entuziastii OS/FS romani au posibilitatea de a participa.

Se va discuta despre noile tehnologii bazate pe standarde deschise cat si despre domeniile unde se pot folosi aplicatii OS/FS.

Bogomil alaturi de Yovko au sustinut eLiberatica si ROSI inca de de la inceput si mi se pare un fapt de bun simt ca si noi sa incercam a le intoarce serviciile.
Nu trebuie decat sa raspanditi stirea pe forumuri si bloguri. In final, toti luptam pentru aceeasi cauza; libertate in lumea softului si a tehnologiei informatiei.

Bogomil ne face o invitatie deschisa pe blogul sau: “Spread ideas of open source and Free Software on both sides of The Danube river.” Ar fi nemaipomenit sa avem participanti romani la aceasta conferitna.

Pentru contact, puteti folosi datele de mai jos:

e-mail: bogomil[at]spisanie.com
Skype:\\contact_bogomil
Jabber:\\bogomil@jabber.minus273.org (I preffer this)

Si am participat la Barcamp Vancouver; pentru prima data am vorbit in public aici despre eLiberatica si initiativa ROSI.
A fost un eveniment extrem de interesant, as vrea ca in urmatoarele zile sa pot veni cu mai multe detalii. Zak a fost alaturi de mine ajutand enorm in promovarea ideilor eLiberaticii. Am avut in jur de 50 de flyere pe care le-am plasat, am stat de vorba cu lumea, a fost bine. Cred ca am reusit sa le starnim interesul, iar cel mai important, am contactat cativa specialisti din media.

In alta ordine de idei, micul meu Nikon 2000 care nu m-a dezamagit niciodata l-am lasat in tara asa ca nu am avut cu ce face fotografii. Furios, astazi am mers prin magazine si am luat un Pentax Optio 50L. M-am intors acasa si am facut cateva fotografii, printre care si cea cu “echipamentul” de la Barcamp.

Din pacate, calitatea este mai slaba decat ma asteptam; maine ma voi duce sa schimb Pentaxul cu un Nikon 4000, iar pe viitor promit sa vin cu imagini din abundenta. (concluzia: nu plecati la un eveniment de acest fel fara un aparat foto, iar intre un Pentax si un Nikon, alegeti-l pe ultimul