Facebook Signal displaying posts related to #SCFlood – October 6, 2015
I have been sitting watching the television news feeds and social media outlets, and I all I can think of is Hurricane Katrina. I am not making this comparison based on response, type of storm, or the types of people impacted…I am basing my comparison from the images and similar flooding narratives.
I was one of the first to fly over Hurricane Katrina’s destruction and capture aerial imagery just a few days after the storm passed. What I witnessed from the helicopter reminds me of the flooding in Columbia. Lots of water, dams breaking, lots of homes under water, and lots of efforts to evacuate in real time as each of the dams broke.
As soon as you walk into the doors of the Columbia Convention Center…you can feel the energy. It is more than hustle and bustle, it is more than meeting new people, it is even more than learning about open source software…it is about the community. There was even a special Gowalla spot created for the event…pretty cool!
I spent some time talking to speakers from the conference, that had lots to say. “POSSCON is a great event, lovely convention center, fabulous event, spectacular speakers,if you at all are interested in open source or that technology community wrap around…this is a place to be,” says Phil Yanov who is the founder of GSATC.
So what is POSSCON…well, let’s take a second to figure that out. POSSCON is the Palmetto Open Source Software Conference hosted in Columbia, SC. It is a community of conversation around the idea of how open source software can provide solutions for businesses, educators, healthcare, developers, and the list goes on. So you ask, what is open source software?
“Open source is more than cost reductions and savings, it is also about creating effective, productive, high performance production shops and there is a real connection between the empowerment that open source gives developers and their ability to put together solutions that really matter for their end users,” says Jeffery Hammond, Principal Analyst for Forrestor Research.
Wikipedia defines open source software (OSS) as computer software that is available in source code form for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.
WOW, what does that mean? Well, it is software that openly allows users to use, alter, and integrate to fit their needs. Think of a piece of software you have recently purchased and thought, man if I could change it to fit my needs. Well, open source provides that opportunity.
POSSCON is a conference that is surrounded with professionals, educators, students, executives who find value in learning and collaborating to find and build software solutions to meet their needs…outside of proprietary software. Everywhere you look, there are leaders inside the walls of the convention center; teaching, educating, and providing best practices surrounding how they are using open source software to solve problems.
Leslie Hawthorn, Open Source Outreach Manager at Oregan State University said it best, “It is also great to see so many people from the business community here, breaking out of those traditional ‘hackers’ ‘suits’ silos.”
POSSCON is more that just software…it is a community. A community of people connecting, engaging, and problem solving. This open source community is a place to freely exchange ideas, connect, solve a problem, and learn something new. “There area lot of people here and they are engaged!” Jim Jagielski, President Apache Software Foundation/Redhat goes on to say, “As you are talking, people are typing and listening…they are engaged! There is a wide variety of people here…we have students, we have CIO’s, CTO’s, we have guys in jeans, people in suites and ties.”
I think William Hurley, better known as Whurley and CTO of Chaotic Moon Studios, summed up the conference rather nicely, “At the end of the day, you want to go somewhere where you are surrounded by like minded people, who have some similar goals and objectives, who are totally willing to share very honestly, very openly…everything they know…and this is the a great environment for that. POSSCON is a little bit more about active participation.”
It is more than a building, it is more than a mission, it is more than a consortium of partners…it is an initiative. There is one thing for sure, there are lots of passionate people that believe in the future of IT. What is IT? Some define “IT” as Information Technology…others define “IT” as the discipline for tomorrow’s economic engine.
This past Tuesday (Feb. 8th), we gathered to see what all the hoopla was all about. Just across the street from the Statehouse in downtown Columbia, SC…there is a new sign. Not only a new sign hanging on the side of a building, but a new sign that there is a massive voice saying…”We Are IT-oLogy.” Yes…you do not hear people saying “I” … they are using the word “We”. It is a group of people, companies, partners, visionaries that are investing in the future…the future workforce for tomorrow’s Information Technology leaders.
Close to 250 people attended the open house for IT-oLogy. It was more than just an open house congregating the “whose who” across the southeast and Columbia…it was also the unveiling of a new name for this passionate initiative. IT-oLogy was brought to the forefront as the new brand for this growing initiative. It is the initiative of the Consortium for Enterprise Systems Management. It was also the unveiling of the new website, aimed at attracting a younger audience to engage in an online experience, learning about a career in IT.
So next time you are in Columbia, SC…stop by and check out my friends at IT-oLogy. If you click here, you can find their new multi-million dollar facility, right downtown Columbia, SC. They are just nice people…with a cool mission.
