Hi!
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, Germany 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 Germany 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