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POSSCON 2011 – Day One – It is all about COMMUNITY!

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.”

Enough said…check out POSSCON!

Open source development is great in theory…yes, I said it.

This big ole movement for open source development is great…yeah. But really what is this movement? I was exposed to the idea of open source development about 4 years ago. It was when I joined a start-up company and every dollar was important. We were distributing video messages via email and needed a cost effective solution to manage the email distribution. So PHPlist was used as an open source solution. It was available to download, tailor to our needs, and provided the framework for the core part of the business. As a part of the GPL license, we had to “give back” to the community to make this community based software solution a richer offering. What do I mean by giving back, well offer findings, new code, ideas for updates, etc. that would allow others to adapt and improve this software.

So…from this software, I was exposed to other pieces of open source, web-based platforms like Joomla, WordPress, Moodle, Drupal, PHPlist, and the list goes on. All available to download and install in our server based environments to use. Numerous projects, numerous solutions, free software, open source software…maybe?

So…how many of us that download this open source software give back to the community. How many of us are takers and not givers?

I hear all the time, large companies trying to find new ways to save dollars…tired of paying large dollars for word processing and other office-based solutions. Oh yeah, there is Open Office by Sun Microsystems. Free to download, free to install, free to use, open-source software? But is it open and are we giving back to keep the community alive?

So does open source mean community?

Many people are touting the Android mobile market because of the open-source offering. What they mean is they want the flexibility to alter the source code to fit their needs. Maybe people interpret open source software as the means to alter the source code to fit their needs. But I thought the idea was to alter the source code and share this with the community. Are people sharing in this movement to make the community better or is it just leverage free software…to hack Motorola products in order to avoid paying fees for access. It is happening on Apple products as well, accessing and altering the base code to fit our wants. But what is the point? Oh yeah, for personal gain.

OK…I am not getting on a soap box, I speak from experience. But how many of us are just downloading this open-source software and not adding the the community project?

So is this open source movement really an open source movement? Are we really educated about the open source movement, the benefits, the burden, and the commitment to further the movement. Well, education is key. The point of this little post, there are places out there talking about open source software, talking about the community. Interested in learning more? POSSCON 2011 is in Columbia, SC on March 23, 24, and 25 and you can register here: http://posscon.org/register/

If you want a discount code, read this blog post and request a discount code. Yes…I did not mean to try to sell you a conference…but to raise your awareness about my thoughts and offer a logical solution. I will be there learning more about this community of open source.

Do You Like Open Source? See you at POSSCON!

Do you like Open Source Software and Development? Well…you should check out POSSCON! What is POSSCON, well it is the Palmetto Open Source Software Conference held in Columbia, SC. There are going to be a host of presenters from four different program tracks that pertain to you: LeadershipTechnicalHealthcare, and Education.

Whether you are a student, CIO, CTO, work in healthcare, a developer, a professor, a teacher, or just and Open Source enthusiast…there is something here for you when it comes to Open Source Software.

Worldwide industries such as IBM, Oracle and Google will be presenting, along with a long list of other impressive businesses.

Open source software continues to be one of the hottest and most relevant topics in information technology as organizations strive to meet the increasing demand for innovation while struggling with shrinking budgets.

POSSCON 2011 will feature an executive forum, hands-on workshops and networking events. This one of the largest open source software conferences on the East coast.

More than 500 attendees from across the country are expected to attend this event. Registration is still available for both students (who are admitted for free) and for other people interested in open source technology.

Interested in registering…you can use the QR Code to the left or CLICK HERE to REGISTER for POSSCON.  Also…POSSCON will be giving away Three Free Galaxy Tabs at this event…so you should register for a chance to win. To see more about the Galaxy Tab, here is my review, CLICK HERE to READ MORE.

Also…I will be there, so we can meet and hang out! And if you comment on this blog post and leave your email address (and you are not a spammer), I will send you a discount code for the event! I want to meet you!

Also…If you would like to read the Press Release for POSSCON, CLICK HERE to download the PDF!

Building your “Tribe” through Digital Literacy

As I sit here in my ENGL 304 Business Writing Class at Clemson…I watch the Team (well students) take their first test. It is 43 multiple choice answers with a discussion answer. I am thinking about how I tried to make this more of a team exercise. Well…I tried something different (at-least to me).

I had already pre-written the test and took all the questions and framed them into study questions. After doing so, I uploaded the study questions onto Google Docs where all of the class documents live. I then invited all of the team members in the class to look at the document giving them access as editors.

When we came into the class previous from the test, we had a collaborative study session. I asked them to divide into groups where each group handled one chapter from the book. I then asked them for one of the group members to use their laptops to access the study guide I invited them into, then work together to answer the questions in Google Docs with the ability to use their book and each others knowledge.

This is what is cool about Google Docs, it allows multiple individuals to access a document from different geographic locations and edit the document in real time. Each member that is online working in the document can watch other editors write in the document. This is a powerful collaborative learning tool.

As each member of each group in the class was looking for answers and updating the document, they were not only collaborating online but also verbally within a group but also between groups. Then after the class was over, they had one document that they could refer to as a study guide for the test. Over the next day, I noticed that different individuals were going into the document, refining the answers, and updating information.

WOW – DIGITAL LITERACY! Using technology to collaborate and educate not only themselves but each other. I was inspired by their buy-in. They all came into class empowered to take the test.

Now, here is the bigger picture. I love this part…they were building relationships with their team members. They were breaking down barriers and working with other people in the class they normally would not associate and building trust, building relationships. Imagine if one day these team members, these students might actually do business together outside of the educational setting. Imagine if two students in this class came together one day and were leaders in a community. These team members are our tomorrow. They will be deciding how my children (and their children) will be effected by healthcare, the economy, etc., etc., etc. Digital Literacy, Collaboration, Open Source Technology – it Empowers Our Tomorrow!