\title{Romania}
\maketitle

\begin{description}
	\item  [Period covered by report:] Jan-Dec 2007 
	\item  [Contact name:]  \href{http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Vasile}{Vasile Craciunescu}
\end{description}

\section*{ Introduction }

 The idea of starting a \href{http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Romanian}{Romanian OSGeo Local Chapter} came out after FOSS4G 2006 but it begin to shape after FOSS4G 2007. For the moment, the main vehicle for FOSS \& OSGeo promotion is \href{http://www.earth.unibuc.ro/}{geo-spatial.org}. The website (Romanian only at this point) represents a collaborative effort by and for the Romanian community to facilitate the sharing of geospatial knowledge and the discovery and publishing of free geographic datasets and maps. Anyone can make a contribution by submitting articles or datasets for publication, adding comments to the existing articles, join the discussion on the mailing list or user's forum. 
 
\section*{ Key Accomplishments }

\subsection{Visibility at conferences and workshops}

\begin{description}
	\item  [25-27 October 2007:] a general presentation of geo-spatial.org, Romanian in formation chapter and OSGeo was done at the 15th GIS Users Conference, in Chisinau (Rep. Moldova). 
	\item  [11 December 2007:] a more detailed presentation was done at the second National Spatial Data Infrastructure Conference in Bucharest\footnote{SDI Conference: \url{http://portal.rosa.ro/index.php?item_id=169}, \url{http://earth.unibuc.ro/stiri/conferinta-sdi-2007}}
	\item  [12 December 2007:] in the framework of the same conference, we manage to organize a open source geospatial software workshop. Detailed presentations and step by step demonstrations were made for: QGIS, uDig, PostGIS, Geoserver, MapWindow, OpenLayers and VTP. 
\end{description}

\subsection{Romanian articles and tutorials published on geo-spatial.org}

\begin{itemize}
	\item \href{http://earth.unibuc.ro/articole/open-source-gis-I}{FOSSGIS applications review: toolkits and libraries} 
	\item \href{http://earth.unibuc.ro/articole/open-source-gis-II}{FOSSGIS applications review: desktop software} 
	\item \href{http://earth.unibuc.ro/tutoriale/vtp-primii-pasi}{VTP tutorial}
	\item \href{http://earth.unibuc.ro/tutoriale/wingrass}{GRASS Windows installation tutorial}
	\item \href{http://earth.unibuc.ro/tutoriale/instalare-grass-macosx}{GRASS MacOSX installation tutorial}
	\item \href{http://earth.unibuc.ro/tutoriale/bazin-hidrografic-prin-QGIS-GRASS}{GRASS+QGIS watershed delineation}
	\item \href{http://earth.unibuc.ro/tutoriale/postgresql-postgis-ziggis-arcmap}{zigGIS tutorial}
	\item \href{http://earth.unibuc.ro/tutoriale/vtocx}{VTP vtocx tutorial}
	\item \href{http://earth.unibuc.ro/tutoriale/manipulare-date-spatiale-gdal-raster} {GDAL tutorial}
\end{itemize}

\subsection{Articles}

\begin{itemize}
	\item  Free and Open Source Geospatial Software. A Complete Alternative to Proprietary Applications (published in a local journal) 
	\item  Developing an Open Romanian Geoportal (presented as poster at FOSS4G 2007 and published in a local journal) 
\end{itemize}

\subsection{Work on open geodata}

\begin{itemize}
	\item  Basic Romanian layers (country border, county border, cities) are available for free as plain download and web services (WMS, WFS)\footnote{Romanian vector layers: \url{http://earth.unibuc.ro/download/romania-seturi-vectoriale}}
	\item  LANDSAT true color clipped after the standard Romanian 1:100k map sheets and reprojected in Stereo70\footnote{LANDSAT data:  \url{http://earth.unibuc.ro/download/datele-landsat-etm-in-stereo701}}
	\item  SRTM clipped after the standard Romanian 1:100k map sheets and reprojected in Stereo70\footnote{SRTM data: \url{http://earth.unibuc.ro/download/datele-srtm90-reproiectate-in-stereo70}}
	\item  Corine Land Cover clipped after the standard Romanian 1:100k map sheets and reprojected in Stereo70\footnote{Land cover data: \url{http://earth.unibuc.ro/download/datele-corine-landcover-reproiectate-in-stereo70}}
	\item  Old Austrian maps georeferenced in Stereo70\footnote{Austrian maps: \url{http://earth.unibuc.ro/download/harile-austriece-1910-reproiectate-in-stereo70}}
\end{itemize}

\section*{ Areas for Improvement }

\begin{itemize}
	\item  Get more exposure in media by publishing articles in technical magazines 
	\item  Start translation of the OSGeo Homepage to Romanian 
	\item  Present the FOSS benefits to companies involved in the geospatial business here in Romania 
\end{itemize}

\section*{ Opportunities to Help }

\begin{itemize}
	\item  Join and express your opinions to our \href{http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/geo-spatial}{local mailing lists} or \href{http://www.nabble.com/geo-spatial.org-f25985.html}{forum}
	\item  Volunteers for translations 
\end{itemize}

\section*{ Outlook for 2008 }

First meeting between geo-spatial.org authors and users to discuss about the Romanian OSGeo Local Chapter already took place in a local pub -- 17 people attend. The talks covered the need for a legal entity (something like an NGO), the need for more volunteers for translations, the need for a FOSSGIS local conference. Some pictures can be found \href{http://www.flickr.com/photos/26994138@N00/sets/72157604006886688/}{here}\footnote{Meeting photos: \url{http://www.flickr.com/photos/26994138@N00/sets/72157604006886688/}}

\begin{itemize}
	\item  Regular meetings during the whole year, at least one to be held in other city than Bucharest 
	\item  Create a legal established entity to support the Ro OSGeo Local Chapter 
	\item  Become an official local chapter 
\end{itemize}

Articles and tutorials to be published on geo-spatial.org in the following month: 
\begin{itemize}
	\item  A translation and adaptation of Gary Sherman's ``Shuffling Quantum GIS into the Open Source GIS Stack'' tutorial\footnote{QGIS tutorial: \url{http://earth.unibuc.ro/preview}}
	\item  FOSSGIS applications review: server-side and webmapping applications 
	\item  Mapnik tutorial 
	\item  Two more GDAL/OGR tutorials 
	\item  OpenLayers basic tutorial 
\end{itemize}
