DIMITRIS KRITSOTAKIS

1. Can you please introduce yourself (who are you, where are you from, what do you study)?

Hello, my name is Dimitris Kritsotakis from ESN Greece, Administrative Vice-Chair in IT Committee & National WPA in ESN Greece and I am studying Computer Systems Engineering in Piraeus University of Applied Sciences.

2. How long have you been a member of ESN and what were your roles before becoming active in the international world of ESN? 

I have been a member of ESN for 2 years already (wow, time flies pretty fast). I started as a local active member, as everyone does, helping with the events, with the incoming students and so on. But some months later, elections came so there was an open position for the local webmaster and said, why not? So, being my sections’ webmaster got me really into this position and started making the website a bit better. Meanwhile, I heard about an open call about the committees, I believe it was after AGM Warsaw 2016, so I sent an application to ITcom, because why not? I had nothing to lose if I didn’t get accepted but I knew, at the time, I had many things to learn if I did join.

3. What is your position within ITcom and how long have you been doing it? 

As said above, I am the Administrative Vice-Chair in ITcom and I am in this position from the start of the mandate of the current IB, which is 15th of July officially, but since some months ago I was helping with the development of ESNblog & SocialErasmus websites.

4. Can you describe your main tasks and responsibilities?

My main tasks as a Vice-Chair is to assist the rest of the Chairing Team & the WPA with the management of ITcom and the projects we have, keeping up with the members who actively work on these projects. Other things are some reports, few meetings etc. In addition, I keep developing too, on the ESNblog, ERS, the Activities page where you registered your events on Social Inclusion Days (yes, if you experienced some issues, it was my fault :P ).

5. Can you describe some other interesting tasks on which ITcom is working on?

Ah, sure..

So, we have Satellite, which is a website template for all the sections, countries, international projects which has a lot of features to assist most of the ESNers.

There is also ERS, Events Registration System widely used to the network both on the international and national level.

Then there’s ESNapp, a smartphone application which is connected with your Satellite page and brings events, news etc. to your phone.

ESNapi which is a service that gives the above information of ESNapp to the Erasmus+ app and also for many other services

ESNlive platform, where there are the live sessions of some international events as long as some national platforms!

And the last one, the most important, the IT-Support where you can send there any issue you have with ESN IT tools, either from helpcenter.esn.org or sending an email to it-support@esn.org

And of course, we are developing a new Galaxy, because the current one is a little bit old to be honest.

6. What was your most valuable experience connected to being in ITcom so far?

Most valuable experience? Hmm, I guess the whole package is a valuable experience. I developed my IT skills in a great scale, to communicate with different people every day is something great and the sensation helping the others through the tools we maintain and develop is amazing!

7. What were the most challenging tasks that you had to deal with?

Most challenging task? So far, the only thing was to migrate our platform GitLab where we keep the code and some documentation of all our projects, old, current and new ones, from the old server to a new one. Well, I spent a lot of hours trying to do it, but in the end, it was a successful one!

8. Have you attended any international events related to ITcom? If so, which ones and what was the best about them?

Yep, I have attended only one though. It took place the previous summer in Brussels, it was called IT Summer Meeting and was a gathering of the National Webmasters and IT Committee Members to train, educate the members and on the last day we did some developing together, the so-called Sprint. Actually, it was the biggest meeting ITcom had these years! The best thing I got from this meeting wasn’t about any new technology I learned about or a faster way of developing, but the spirit that existed between the participants, it really kept you motivated to keep going!

9. What is your message for people who can’t decide whether to join ITcom or not?

It would be a big pity if, at least, you don’t even try sending an application to the position in the committee of your interest. It’s the best experience in your ESN life. Talking with different people every day about the things you love, study or work on. Helping the respective IB member with its huge workload each day. Creating something that will be used by hundreds of ESNers! And in IT Committee it happens a lot.

So, send an application to the committee you want, risk it, you’ve got nothing to lose. It’s a one-time chance for you. Take it, you won’t regret it at all. And if you fail, there’s also the next open call in a few months!