Greece and GreeceOffline: Hello from the founder!

Sovjohn

Hello gentlemen,

since one of our future members briefed you already about that, I thought to give you an update on what we are, what we do, how we intend to do it...

My name is Ioannis Matzavrakos (This would be John Matzavrakos in english, ofcourse!), and I am the one having thought the very idea of GreeceOffline.

Simply put, after I saw some news in a great telecoms/mobile devices site of ours, and noticed your site (sorry, had never bothered to check it out again...See, I thought Greece was the only country with our/your problems..).

I instantly emailed mr. Long, and well, 2 days later we have exchanged 5 emails...He is very helpful to our cause, and I am glad you all people support us in a way or another..Thanks for that.

Coming by the nick of Sovjohn, I m not any typical professional of IT or anything..In fact, I m a student, and only 18 years and some days old..But, I was always actively involved to the Greek misery in telecoms, know some people, and thought to give it a shot! The daring ones succeed, or something like that (cant recall the saying)..

Basically, I threw the idea in two threads in two sites: One with a 2,500 members community and one with 700 or so. In two days, I can say that more than 70 people have contacted me (via telephone...email...IRC...forum posts) and support our cause. This number derived from word of mouth and forum browsing only..We havent advertised ourselves in any way.

The name GreeceOffline came from the users, not me, so I am NOT your copyright infringer:)

I do hope we ll have some good success against OTE, who, believe me, can be worse than Eircom at many times...We may have the 2nd cheapest time-based charge in Europe after Finland, but, um,, its not so nice when its the only thing available here now, is it...

As for the DSL or flat rate pressure: A private company will give DSL within February (or so I ve known..Its not a rumour this time), but I can suppose they will charge at least 75 Euros/mo for a 256/128 line..Using their own network and not OTE's. Jolly good eh?

After having known that, I was a bit off target and thought "Hmm...John, we ll have DSL in a month..Do you really think you should do this? As in, call over 2,500 users to protest with you for DSL/FRIACO or anything?"
Apparently, to be here, yes I thought it'd be worth it..And not for personal reasons, as I intend to go to UK for studies this autumn...But, for the sake of it, I dont want companies like OTE and OTEnet (btw, all their sites are in the form www.name.gr so have a look and laugh when you want) to rip us off and us sitting there and watching...Heck no! Mr. Long has been kind enough to supply me with tons of info for a start, and I m very glad you view our attempt as a positive step to the end of the reign of Eircom and all their allies:)

One problem here would be that the EETT ( www.eett.gr ) , namely the National Committee for Telecommunications and Postal Services IS actually consisted by many ex-OTE employees...I cant expect much of them now, can I? And the Ministry of Telecoms and Transport keeps passing the ball to OTE "Its their job, not ours" all the time...Doesnt sound too positive, but I dont intend to surrender.

Finally, considering your beloved Soula Evans (Mr. Long pasted some quotes of her in your seminar in Dublin...I laughed my heart out), YES, she does work for OTE in the important position of "Director for Home and Business packs of services", which is nothing but hell for us I suppose (or should be this way).
The CEO of OTEnet has kept mumbling that "There is no content in the Greek Internet to justify need for broadband", and since I see SOULA has said similar things in the past, I now know who to send to Uganda to work for them..I suppose Soula is an expert in working for slow telcos and feeding them with sorry excuses like that to present to the public...She ll be better in Africa then.

Among the first steps we took was to translate a banner of yours into Greek ( http://users.otenet.gr/~strikerp/images/50x.gif ) and my first step was to stop using my Otenet email account for things like GOL..They may be watching me
Next step is to empty my ISP space at Otenet where pics exist...Anyway, I think I have driven you tired...I just wanted to inform you that WE RE HERE, and we ll follow your path, however rough and harsh this may have been..

Fraternal greetings,
John "Sovjohn" M.
GreeceOffline.org (we got the .net and .com too in fact) founder

PS: Sorry if this posts gets displayed in a nasty way..I used Mozilla and it doesnt like VB so much. Cheers.

DeVore

Welcome to Boards.ie.... the home of malcontents everywhere

I tried GreeceOffline.org but its 404ing (as is the .com and .net)...

Anyway, welcome to IOFFL (will they be GOFFL? ).
I'm not associated with IOFFL, I'm one of the admins of the Boards.ie site but if you guys are looking for someone to host a board outside your jurisdiction then we'd be happy to... send me a PM...

I hope you are as successful as they lads (and ladies) of IOFFL have been!

Broadband to the people!

DeV.

parasite

seeing as now the greeks have the european union presidency, it would be the ideal time to launch heavy, embarassing campaigns against your government

also, how come there's only on company, isn't it deregulated, like the rest of the EU ?

The daring ones succeed, or something like that (cant recall the saying)... = 'he who dares wins' (?)


good luck

Sovjohn

Exactly the saying! Thanks for that!

And yes, I would much like to have a look at our president of the Telecoms committee after all those protests...He shouldnt look very well!

VIVA LA REVOLUTION...*cough* got carried away..


Plus: We only got the domains today, and they havent resolved yet..Try again in couple days to have an early look at our Coming soon page together with the community forums (yes, the forums are a must, people are quite sparsed now, this must change.)

Gordon

Gia sou re ame! Kalos irthate sto IOFFL kai o mpoarnts.ie!!

An boro na boithisei tha'mai do.

Ahem, you can see my Greek is a little sketchy! Good to finally see a Greek person on board (on boards).

PiE

Aye, welcome to IOFFL & Boards.ie

Hope you can have some success in your efforts.

Dangger

Welcome to boards.ie and the IrelandOffline forum Sovjohn. Great to hear you have had so much interest and support already!

Pity about Soula ! I'm sure she'll be delighted with the GreeceOffline name! I'll have to dig up the mp3's of her seminar talk for you.

There is a vast amount of information on Internet/telecoms related topics stored on this particular forum. It's a great source for 'unfudding' the propaganda.

Best of luck!

David

Sovjohn

Thanks for all the quick replies (..I thought most ppl in uk and ireland slept early , hehe)!

DeVore, I will certainly consider your nice suggestion...Might help getting everything out of greek grasp (although the site will reside in U.S. server for a start).

Plus, I dont know if I told you, but:

a) Soula is an abbreviated name, like Yannis is abbreviated for me instead of Ioannis (greek names..are weird). Probably comes out from Xrisoula (goldie)
b) Soula is a ridiculous name...Certainly not used from officials, they prefer the full name version...Soula resembles some typical households of '30 "Soula, shine my shoes...The man of the house is home....NOW B!TCH!"

You cant grasp it well enough w/out being Greek, but...Its funny as hell to hear an executive being called SOULA!

/me rolls on the floor laughing his heart out

Cya tomorrow...Even the founder of GOOFL (we used GOL so far) needs sleep:)

Gordon

Originally posted by Sovjohn
"Soula, shine my shoes...The man of the house is home....NOW B!TCH!"

Or even "Tsoula"

sceptre

Welcome Ioannis

It seems that many of the experiences you've had (and probably will have) are similar to ours. Even with the introduction of DSL into Greece the prices seem high - certainly higher than in the rest of Europe - so you still have a battle to fight and win. I'd imagine many of the excuses you'll face will be excuses we've heard here too.

Dustaz

Welcome to boards and Ireland Ioannis

Its somewhat heartening to know that were not the only ones in this position and i hope that Goffl will be as succesful as Ioffl has been.

On behalf of everyone here, I'd like to apologise for Soula (by the way, is she greek or of greek family?). I hope she doesnt get the chance to do the damage she did here before Uganda Telecom come knocking on her door.

The very best of luck with the campaign

Chaos-Engine

Originally posted by parasite
seeing as now the greeks have the european union presidency, it would be the ideal time to launch heavy, embarassing campaigns against your government

also, how come there's only on company, isn't it deregulated, like the rest of the EU ?

The daring ones succeed, or something like that (cant recall the saying)... = 'he who dares wins' (?)


good luck

I think perhaps a european wide EuOffline movement could have a huge impact on the European Commission and perhaps the parliment too. If EuOFFL worked hard and had a diverse mix from those countries that have a competitive disadvantage due to broadband (lack & lack of competition itself) could have a serious impact on what steps are taken against our governments by the EU commission.... Lets take it a step higher and work our way back. National Governments are pants. Lets take them on from Europe

sceptre

Originally posted by Chaos-Engine
I think perhaps a european wide EuOffline movement could have a huge impact on the European Commission and perhaps the parliment too.

It might scare the hell out of Eurocrats if it was co-ordinated in some way
(I vote yes if it's a question)

zynaps

Originally posted by sceptre
It might scare the hell out of Eurocrats if it was co-ordinated in some way
(I vote yes if it's a question)

But given the fact that most other EU countries have what we would consider "good" internet access, I would foresee a higher apathy quotient in those countries.
And we all know where apathy has gotten us here, already!

dahamsta

Good idea Chaos-Engine. It was certainly suggested to IrelandOffline when I was on the committee by several people that we should try and work closely with other pressure groups in Europe. Hopefully GreeceOffline will do so with IrelandOffline, and that will kick things off.

adam

MDR

You need to start making your press contacts,
you need to start issuing press releases,
you need to start submitting responses to consultations both from the greek regulator and dept of comms.
you as expose they lies

There is no compelling content/killer applications on the net greek consumers would be interested in ?, the internet is the killer application ...

*Ray states a whole lot of the obvious ... *

wizard_greece

Originally posted by Sovjohn

Apparently, to be here, yes I thought it'd be worth it..And not for personal reasons, as I intend to go to UK for studies this autumn...But, for the sake of it, I dont want companies like OTE and OTEnet (btw, all their sites are in the form www.name.gr so have a look and laugh when you want) to rip us off and us sitting there and watching...Heck no!

Heh, I am studying in the UK (Surrey) and I have a 600kb dsl connection (NTL) which is ace but hell no, I can't stand OTE laughing at us!! When I come back to Greece I use a 128isdn which is the fastest connection you can get here but it's very expensive because it's like using 2 64kb ones..

Tellox

Hey, didnt we say just a few weeks back about somebody in eircom leaving for greece, and that this will enforce a greeceoffline to form? we also said that FRIACO will follow soon after this person leaves the country...

Gordon

/aside
Hey if Russia creates an offline group they will be called ROFFL!
heh

I have to say that it is going to be a far more difficult task to accomplish in Greece than it would be in Ireland. The whole nation is sitting back having iced coffee and smoking cigarettes!

-"Nurse, my kidney just fell out!"
-"Ye ye one second I've just taken out a Marlboro. I'll be with you after going home to get my lighter"

Good luck to you.

wizard_greece

Originally posted by Gordon
[BI have to say that it is going to be a far more difficult task to accomplish in Greece than it would be in Ireland. The whole nation is sitting back having iced coffee and smoking cigarettes!
[/B]

LMAO! That's true.. Well, not the whoe nation, but a great majority..

Can you say Frapogalo??

However, I am a non smoker and I only drink french filtered coffee..

wizard_greece

Hey btw, Gordon, have you ever been to Greece and precisely to Paros? If not, I suggest you to come and visit the Hard Rock cafe in the summer time. (first half of August) It contains an Irish pub and it's like a Greek-Irish place. Very cool.

Sovjohn

Gordon, you re right about the "sitting back with frappe coffee and cigs" thingy..

However:
The Internet users, the ones who know about what isdn actually is and similar stuff, dont have this attitude when building a protest against OTE
OTE is hated by many. More than I can think of.
And, despite the fact that there are many people with this attitude, many dont share those views and care about things actually..

They are a minority I suppose, but a strong one..Dont believe just anything you hear of:)

I can hope that once the public knows (three sites have over 8,000 members in total, deducting the possible people subscribed in both, we can have a solid 6,000 number) we will go on much faster and with more efficient pace.


I thank you for your support once more, IOFFL has been invaluable to us!

PS: Our logo will most likely consist of a Turtle. Its possible name is Argoulis, which stands for slow-mo in greek:)
I ll keep you posted!
PS2: Yes, I m a smoker and drink frapogalo as wizardsl said, but I am a bit more active than many:)
PS3: If you ever come to Athens on any vacation time, and provided I m not in UK at that time, come along and I ll give you a tour of the real nice stuff: Not the Acropolis and all those old things, a TOP 10 of the clubs/cafes/bars would suit better:))

spongebob

I think Gordon is foreign, pay no attention to him

hmmm

no no no godamnit Greece is the only country that ranks below Ireland in all those rankings we see - we can't have them passing us until we start moving

DeVore

Greece is very cool... weird as f*ck but cool.

I thought the "banning computer games" thing was funny... until I realised it wasnt a TROLL.

Anyway, let me know if you want a board here, but either way good luck to you guys!

My advice would be: Find a believable (older!) person who will be taken seriously by the officials.

Do NOT put out funny, witty or silly official releases, stick SOLELY with the facts and press home your points. You have a stick to beat them with so dont let them escape by saying you are just a bunch of adolescent games players (they tried that here to and it didnt work).

Good luck!

DeV.

Gordon

Paros! yeah I've been there many a time. I even did a spot of cleaning in the Hard rock cafe and almost got a job making pizzas in aromas, my main occupation was a busker, great fun I had but less money than fun. I love Paros - they have internet now too! I lived in Greece for a few years and took a couple of summers in Paros on my own to "find myself" and play guitar and drink frappe coffee and smoke Marlboro cigarettes. I think I found myself because I'm here... (?)

Sovjohn I believe you will have strong support (the buy nothing day is a good example of that). The Greek people stick together especially when in face of powers that try to quash. The very fire of Greeks may just bring them past the finish line faster than the Irish

Anyway, I digress.
DeVore's offer of a forum dedicated to GreeceOffLine is a very good and generous one. It is worth a think unless of course you will have your own forum?

Argoulis! heh. OTE POTE ETHO, OTE PANTA ARGA!!