Good morning from Washington DC. I am blogging from the annual PSEKA (International Coordinating Committee for the Justice of Cyprus) conference which is being held in this city for the next few days. Greek Cypriot and Greek leaders from all over the United States (including the two ambassadors from Cyprus and Greece) have converged to talk, discuss and find solutions to one of our most important national issues: the continued occupation of northern Cyprus.
After a line up of speeches on Wed morning, I left with members of the Hellenic American Leadership Council and proceeded to the Capital building to meet with Greek American congressmen and members of the Hellenic caucus. Being it was my first time ever in the Capital building, I have to say it was pretty exciting. We first had the chance to meet with Greek American Congressman John Sarbanes (from the state of Maryland), who spoke to us with passion about getting the youth re-energized and involved in the Greek community. We then proceeded to meet with Zack Space, a Greek American congressman from the state of Ohio; who announced to us immediately "I'm a Greek American," and also re-itereated his support for our cause. And before leaving the Capital, we also made a visit to Danny Davis' office, from the state of Illinois, who is the a member of the Hellenic caucus and has been a strong supporter of the Cypriot cause for many years.
To see the think tank in Congress about the Cypriot cause, and that not only Greeks know what the word HELLENIC means, is promising and hopeful, in that maybe we can truly reunite Cyprus once again.
Wed evening we had a great dinner and cocktail reception at the Cypriot Ambassadors house. Ironically, at the home of the Cypriot Ambassador was the mayor of Kyrenia (of northern Cyprus), the only ethnic Greek elected official of the north of the island, and amongst the few that have remained in the north. The mayor, Mrs. Maria Ioannou, gave a heartfelt and emotional appeal for us not to forget Cyprus and to make sure that we CONTINUE to fight to rid the north of the occupying Turkish force. She ended her talk with an emotional statement, "Remember its KYRENIA NOT GIRNE, its KYRENIA AND NOT GIRNE."
Very moved, I approached the mayor after her speech, and spoke with her briefly about the situation in the north. I promised her that when the Cypriot flag rises again over Kyrenia, that I would come and have coffee with her in her city. She smiled at me and said, "Yes, sto limani."
Hopefully we can have that cup of coffee sooner than later. -K
Summer is fast approaching, and with that begin the onslaught of Greek Festivals all over the world. We have looked in the past to see what our readers google and search for, and Greek Festivals have always been a popular item. Therefor, DF has created the beginning of what we like to call the Ultimate Greek Festival List for 2007. We currently have over 90 Greek Festivals listed under the Events section in a special tab called Ultimate Greek Festival List 2007. If you see that your parish does not have their festival posted, please email us at events@dailyfrappe.com. Our Australian and Canadian Greek Festival Lists will be up shortly as well. Now you know where to come to, to find the Greek Festival guide for 2007.
Kyriakos
posted on Tuesday, May 15
I spent my first easter in Greece this year. Lucky me. With two grandparents alive (and kicking mind you), plenty of cousins, aunts and uncles, new friends, this was a trip to remember.
At one point on Easter Sunday, slumped in my chair and having just gorged myself on the finest spit roasted lamb ever, I took in the scene around me. Looking around the tiny living room, I soaked it all in. Is my aunt really singing and dancing? Did my new found cousin, Daskalos ('teacher') just smash that plate? How many glasses of wine did I down? Why am I still eating?
Ahhh Greece...
A nice way to start off your morning. Just log in to your account and (set) your timezone in the login box after you've logged in.
DF will wish you a good morning/afternoon in whatever part of the world you may be :)
Kostas
The beauty of the web is that really small organizations, like ours, now get the opportunity to play in the information sandbox. Gone are the days where a handful of big media companies dictate what consumers read and watch. In an Internet connected world, anyone can throw up a pretty website and reach millions. Well, sort of.
The reality is that 'big' still has advantages. Google, Yahoo!, and the BBC are real companies and have billions invested in keeping their websites going. What's that have to do with us? The end result is that for the end user, there's no delineation between small and big on the web -the expectation is that a website should just work and have all of the state of the art features the big boys have. No credit is given for just showing up.
Not complaining mind you. The beauty of the web is that there is always opportunity to zig when others zag. Hey, at least we're in the game...
Spiro
posted on Thursday, May 3
Just a little background on DF2.0 and the technology we use here. DailyFrappe is built on the open source DotNetNuke platform. Open source for non-techies out there means the code that the software uses is freely available to the masses. So, with this base of code, and after alot of sleepless nights spent in front of the screen programming, brainstorming, and generally να αλλαζω τα φωτα του συστυμα, I've come up with what you have in front of you now.
One of my goals is to extend DF as a platform. That means I intend to provide services to the community that reach more into your everyday lives (at least on the internet that is). New technologies for web sites change every day and we intend to be at the forefront.
For those interested, Las Vegas is where the action is this week. Of the 2 behemoths in the internet world, Microsoft and. Google, it's Microsoft that's taken the center stage this week at visitmix with their unveiling of Silverlight - the quote unquote Flash killer. I've watched some of the keynotes and the truth is it looks impressive. I did hear that it crashed during the demo, so, kindof oops.. Everyone has their eyes there this week though so recommend to check it out if you're the tech type.
Kostas
posted on Wednesday, May 2
'Pop Greek' is our way of giving DF readers a backstage look at what's going on in the world of DF. A real time series of ideas and thoughts from the folks behind this website. Some posts may seem half-baked or random -we're OK with that. Kazantzakis, this is not.
With that said, we really appreciate those who take the time to comment on stories and engage us -we really do. You can always contact us directly anytime at info@dailyfrappe.com. However, please be aware we're not going to respond to comments on this blog. Two reasons: First, the time it would take for us to clarify or answer every objection or every flaw in reasoning (both ours and yours) would take away from time that could be spent on improving this site. Secondly, it would change the way we write. If we start writing in anticipation of the commenter's, we're going to lose our 'voice.'
Anyway, that's our thoughts going in to this...more later...
As with any new site there's always some hiccups in the beginning. For users who have registered and logged in to their accounts, they may have noticed that they have to re-login again after a short while. I'm working on this and and some other odds and ends that are left over from our DF2.0 launch. Hopefully I should have things smoothed out very soon.
Kostas
posted on Friday, April 27
From Wikipedia:
A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas business entrepreneurs typically measure performance in profit and return, social entrepreneurs assess their success in terms of the impact they have on society.
The definition above may sound a bit abstract (in a DF context), but I think it's entirely appropriate. New products and services typically get invented because someone gets frustrated or even angry
and has the will and resources to make it happen. That's certainly how DF came about.
So great...we built a mechanism for people to get a quick news recap of Greek related events, but what kind of 'social change' are we looking to make? There's lots to talk about on this subject. We have a few ideas...but before we even think about building the proverbial wall, we have to lay a few bricks first.
Spiro
posted on Thursday, April 26
My job is to make websites. I do it at work, I do it just about all day long. One thing I can say is that working with Spiro and Kyriako, DF has been by far THE most fun to create. Long nights yes, coffee galore yes,, but it's worth it in my book.
I'm excited to put this out there, i'm excited to build a web platform that everyone will want to use. We have some great ideas, and over the coming months my goal is help make it all a reality and really, truly, just the coolest thing out there!
Kostas
posted on Wednesday, April 25
