 Hello! My name is Panagiotis Gianakis and I am an assistant teaching professor at the Pennsylvania State University. I am also one of the instructors for the open web mapping course. This course has been designed to give you the necessary skills and knowledge to create your own web maps using free and open source software. More specifically, you will learn how to create the necessary web mapping services and utilize your own data to create unique custom and interactive web maps. We do not try to advocate or promote free and open source software over proprietary software. In the open web mapping course you will get familiarized with the capabilities and the shortfalls of free and open source software. Our goal is to help you make an informed decision about the software solution you will use for your own future web mapping projects. I have been teaching this course for many years and I have worked with students who did not have a very strong technical background and through the course they were able to produce some very interesting and amazing web maps. I am really excited to see what you will be able to create by the end of the semester.