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Author Archives: Bobby Rettew

Meet Lonnie Emard – Executive Director of IT-oLogy

September 1st, 2011 | Posted by Bobby Rettew in IT-oLogy Defined - (0 Comments)

Meet Lonnie Emard of IT-oLogy. Lonnie is the Executive Director of IT-oLogy which is the formation of the Consortium for Enterprise Systems Management. I met Lonnie over two years ago and have been sharing a great business relationship ever since.

My name is Bobby Rettew and I have served as IT-oLogy’s Digital Media Consultant for close to two years. Lonnie was one of the first clients I worked with while starting my business. Our partnership has been fun and exciting, telling stories surrounding the ever expanding demand in this IT Talent Pipeline.

Lonnie is passionate about IT and he is passionate about building a bright future. If you watch the video, you will learn he has a Computer Science degree and has worked for large organizations in the oil industry and also in healthcare, including BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina.

He was the visionary that brought IT-oLogy to fruition seeing the increasing demand for a growing, qualified workforce in IT. He also sees the need to communicate that working in IT is more than just programming with jobs ranging from software development, gaming, virtual reality, animation, and so much more.

Take a few minutes and watch the video. Lonnie’s passion is infectious and it is my hope that you take a chance to come to Columbia, SC and shake his hand.

Enjoy!

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Bobby Rettew is a Emmy Award winning, documentary storyteller and digital media strategist. Bobby works with IT-oLogy with all of their video, digital media, and social media strategy.

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Important! Change of location for the Health Information & Technology Forum tomorrow.

August 9th, 2011 | Posted by Bobby Rettew in World of IT - (0 Comments)

Due to an air conditioning malfunction in the building where IT-oLogy is located, we must change the location of the Health Information and Technologies Forum tomorrow:

Registration begins at 8:30 am.

Please note the new location is:
Swearingen Engineering Center – Amoco Hall
University of South Carolina
301 Main Street (corner of Main Street and Catawba)
Columbia, SC

Here is a map for the Swearingen Engineering Center

View Larger Map

The best place to park is the Horizon Parking Garage at 519 Main Street ($3.00 all day), this is located at the intersection of Wheat Street and Main Street.  After parking, proceed down Main Street (headed away from the Capital) one block to the Swearingen Center.  There is also some parking available at the SCRA Innovation Center across the street from the Swearingen Center on Assembly Street.

Here is a map for the garage location:

View Larger Map

We regret having to relocate but the building technicians have informed us that the air conditioning will not be up and running until later tomorrow morning, making occupancy very uncomfortable for most of the day. If others from your organization will be attending, please make them aware of the new
location.

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Student Profile: Dakota Hunter teaching “IT-oLogy”

August 3rd, 2011 | Posted by Bobby Rettew in Education | IT Profiles - (0 Comments)

There is nothing better than telling stories of students who are doing some amazing stuff in the world of IT. Dakota Hunter is one of those students, he is attends the University of South Carolina studying Information Technology. We found him teaching middle school students the basics of HTML right here at IT-oLogy’s world head quarters.

Dakota has a special talent, sharing his knowledge of web development and design. When I first walked into the class with my camera, I knew there was something special about his style. He knows how to interact with the students and he knows his stuff. Dakota talked about the joy of teaching, how it provides an opportunity for him to learn from the students and the classroom experience. His teaching has reinforced his knowledge and has gained valuable communication skills for the work place.

The camp in the video is a two week camp for middle school students. This camp rotates, allowing other students to attend and learn more about a discipline and the world of IT. To learn more about IT-oLogy’s camps, CLICK HERE!

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Health Information & Technology Forum is August 10th

August 2nd, 2011 | Posted by Bobby Rettew in World of IT - (0 Comments)

Are you interested in the world of healthcare and information technology? Well, join us on August 10th here at IT-oLogy in downtown Columbia, SC. The agenda is in place and you will be able to see and hear presentations from BlueCross BlueShield of SC, CareCore National, OpenMEdSoftware, Electronic Health Network, VidiStar and so many more.

This event is more than just presentations from some top notch organizations, it is the opportunity to connect with like minded individuals in the world of health sciences and information technology. Since the emerging conversation surrounding healthcare reform and electronic medical records, we have wanted to bring thought leaders together and provide a platform to promote conversation on these topics and so many more.

IT-oLogy’s mission is create a pipeline of talent that will support a workforce for the future of information technology. Our goal is to bring industry, educators, students, professionals, and partners together under “one-roof” with the goal to Promote IT, Teach IT, and Grow IT. This is an event that meets that goal.

The 2011 Health Information and Technology Forum on August 10th is the time and place to provide a platform for this discussion…to promote the future of IT. We are looking forward for you to join us, register for the event by CLICKING HERE.

Here are pictures of IT-oLogy (below). This might give you a better idea of what the day will look like. Check it out, and we look forward to seeing you on August 10th right here in Columbia, SC at IT-oLogy.

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Bobby Rettew is a Emmy Award winning, documentary storyteller and digital media strategist. Bobby works with IT-oLogy with all of their video, digital media, and social media strategy.

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Join us for the Health Information and Technologies Forum!

July 28th, 2011 | Posted by Bobby Rettew in World of IT - (0 Comments)

So are you thinking about the world of IT as it relates to the world of Healthcare? Healthcare IT surrounds us everyday…from electronic medical records to the mobile platforms that drive communication. Did you know that Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina is more than just insurance company, they are a data management and data transfer company. Your insurance information is stored in large servers and it takes a special talent pipeline to manage this information technology, literally.

So, how does this relate to a great conference at IT-oLogy in Columbia, SC on August, 10th? Three major organizations are coming together to share knowledge, feature wonderful presentations, and build strategic relationships that will impact tomorrow’s world of Health Information and Technology. Well, in the video above…John Warner on InnoVenture, LLC describes this event that will be hosted at IT-oLogy in downtown Columbia, SC.

The Health Information and Technologies Forum, presented by IT-oLogy, BlueCross BlueShield of SC and CareCore National in cooperation with Health Sciences SC, is scheduled for August 10 at the IT-oLogy facility in Columbia, SC.  Featured during the day will be best practices presentations and discussions in focus areas including:

Data Analysis – Health Care Informatics and EMR
Data Management and Insurance Data Warehousing and Infrastructure
Data Collection – Health Care Diagnostics, Devices and Clinical Trials
Health Care IT – A Pipeline of Talent Skills

An important theme throughout the day includes industry/academic partnerships to create a pipeline of talent to design, develop and manage that span of activity.

To view an agenda and see the list of attendees to date, click here.

There is no cost to attend, but everyone must register in advance.  For more information and to register:  Health Information and Technologies Forum

Plan to join business developers and technology scouts in health care and insurance related companies, faculty and students seeking industry partners to enhance their research and services providers to high growth organizations involved in health science fields, in what should be both an educational and informative day as well as a great opportunity to network with peers in these critical fields.

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Bobby Rettew is a Emmy Award winning, documentary storyteller and digital media strategist. Bobby works with IT-oLogy with all of their video, digital media, and social media strategy.

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Plus, Plus: I want to join Google Plus!

July 18th, 2011 | Posted by Bobby Rettew in World of IT - (2 Comments)

Have you heard…Google has launched a new social platform called Google Plus. Well, how do we find it? First and foremost, you can go to https://plus.google.com/, but hold on…you need an invitation in-order to join. Google Plus is still in Beta, so it is not completely public…yet. You need to find someone who has a Google Plus account and ask them to send you an invitation, but you need a Google Account like Gmail to accept the invitation. They can send the invitation to your Gmail account.

Google Plus bases this whole new social platform on your profile. Most of you that have a Gmail account might know about Google Profile. Google Profile creates a “profile” for you with a picture, your email address, where you have worked, your contact information, and even more. Google Plus bases this account on your profile so you can be found quickly and efficiently via a Google Search.

Google Plus also cannot be used on the business class Google account. For many of you that have created a business account leveraging email and other business applications, you cannot use this account for Google Plus. This will not be available until later this year. So if you want to create a Google Plus account for your business, you will have to use the basic Gmail account or personal profile to create a business Google Plus account.

Ok…enough about who can and cannot use Google Plus, let’s move on to the cool stuff. Google Plus is probably a mixture between Facebook, Twitter, and Google Wave. Here is a place to check out the interactive demo of Google Plus: http://www.google.com/+/demo/ <– CLICK THIS LINK!

Want to watch a video that introduces you to Google Plus, here ya go:

There are a few big things that I love about Plus…it is called Circles.

Google+ Circles helps you organize everyone according to your real-life social connections–say, ‘family,’ ‘work friends,’ ‘music buddies,’ and ‘alumni’. Then, you can share relevant content with the right people, and follow content posted by people you find interesting. For example, you might post an announcement about your engagement and show it only to people in your friends and family circles, or maybe you see a post from the circle you created for your book club that there’s a recent article on your favorite author.

Oh yes…I have been completely impressed by the Circles concept in Google Plus. But my only reference point here is my Facebook account settings and Twitter Lists…but this is completely different.

So may times I have wanted to only interact with a group of people in a discussion, but has the interactivity of Facebook. I have found a link, an idea, a video, a picture, or an opinion…and only share quickly with a specific group of friends. This can be done by just creating a Circle of connections (people) then updating your status for these to see.

This to me is where I am beginning to see some value, and where I see where Google Wave has some influence. I can quickly create a “Circle” where I add friends/people/connections, then I can interact with them and only them. No more worrying about trying to separate a status update from those who you feel do not need to see this information. So many times on Facebook, I wanted to share a video with just a group of friends…but was worried about either upsetting someone on my public timeline or marginalizing someone based on the content of this update.

If you look below…you can see how an update will go only to a group of people are just in my “Friends” Circle.

Then there is Extended Circles…

When you share something in the stream, you might notice an option to share with your extended circles. Your extended circles are like your circles’ circles. Content shared with your extended circles could appear in the Incoming stream of people who are one degree removed from you with certain conditions–namely that we’ll only include people whose association with people you know is already visible to you.

Here is a video about “Circles” from Google that walks you through the interactivity.

Then there is the “Hangout“…yes, a collaborative video chat inside Google Plus. You can take a text chat and have a video chat with up to 10 people within a post. Tired of typing your response, just start a Hangout and invite people to jump in the conversation.

Here is a video about Hangouts:

Hangouts are the best way for you to say, “I’m online and want to hangout!” Hangouts lets you:

  • Chill with friends that are scrolling through the web, just like you!
  • Use live video chat that puts you in the same room together!
  • Coordinate plans, whether it’s working on a project or meeting up for coffee.
  • Maybe you’re bored. Start a hangout, invite your circles, see who’s around!

All in all, pretty cool new social network. And if you are wondering if it is going to flop, well it has close to 10 millions users within the first two weeks of being live. I  think it is going to be around a while…it is about to hit a billion users! Have Fun!
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Bobby Rettew is a Emmy Award winning, documentary storyteller and digital media strategist. Bobby works with IT-oLogy with all of their video, digital media, and social media strategy.

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New Addition to the IT-oLogy Family: Blythe Suzanne Stork

June 20th, 2011 | Posted by Bobby Rettew in World of IT - (0 Comments)

Our very own Lindsey Stork, who is our IT Campus Relations Manager, had a beautiful little girl this morning! Her name is Blythe Suzanne Stork and she was born early this morning. Blythe is 7lbs and 6 oz and resting well. Congrats to Bill and Lindsey Stork!


One to Watch: Blake Sutton enjoys Palmetto Island

June 20th, 2011 | Posted by Bobby Rettew in IT Profiles | World of IT - (0 Comments)


Blake Sutton, a junior at Spring Valley High School, recently spoke to 100 BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina employees about his experience with IT-oLogy. Not only did Blake have the courage to get up in front of the auditorium filled with adults, he also spoke about a topic that is hard for a lot of people to relate to and understand. However, this room of employees was in awe of Blake’s abilities and experiences.

Blake heard about IT-oLogy through his mom, BlueCross BlueShield of SC employee Tracey Sutton, as well as one of his teachers at Spring Valley High School. He joined other high school students in February for IT-oLogy’s annual Opportunity Day, where he learned about different programs and careers in information technology. Blake became a part of the Palmetto Island group that launched their virtual world in March.

Blake has always been interested in IT. He began playing video games at a young age, and eventually wanted to learn not just how to play the game, but also how the game was created. He wanted to know what goes into programming a video game, and how he could get involved. This past semester, while participating in Palmetto Island, Blake also took the Foundation to Animation course at Spring Valley. There, he learned about the programming used to create video games.

In March, a group of 25 high school students met at IT-oLogy with Clemson Professor Larry Hodges and three graduate students. Dr. Hodges introduced the students to Palmetto Island, a virtual world where they would spend the next six weeks working with avatars. Palmetto Island (PI) is a project developed at Clemson University to create an interactive, online informal learning environment for middle and high school students.

PI is designed to help students learn computing skills such as programming, three-dimensional modeling, avatar design and animation—all in the context of a virtual world that also provides opportunities for mentoring by Clemson computer science majors and professors, and by professionals working in the Information Technology (IT) industry. PI activities are conducted in-world, which means that students connect to PI from their home computer and interact with others on the island via user-controlled virtual characters known as Avatars. The goal of PI is to introduce high school and middle school students in South Carolina to computing skills, opportunities, and IT career options in order to increase the pipeline of future computer science majors.

As a part of PI participation, students received a Lenovo Thinkpad so they would be able to participate in the weekly sessions by logging in from home.

“If I never got the Lenovo Thinkpad, I would never be able to do Imprudence [the program used]. It was a really great opportunity to get the Thinkpad,” said Blake.

“People like me that are interested in having a career in IT can learn a lot of things you need to know to get a job,” Blake continued when talking about why he thinks others should get involved with IT-oLogy.

Blake’s mom, Tracey, agrees. Tracey has seen Blake grow and “develop an element of maturity and focus on what he’s doing in the future.”

“This experience has helped him really obtain more of an interest in what he will be doing when applying to different schools. He has been given exposure to terminology and IT in general. Palmetto Island has engaged him and it’s very exciting to him,” she said. “He is learning without knowing he is learning.”

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Introduction to Virtual Worlds: Palmetto Island Project

June 14th, 2011 | Posted by Bobby Rettew in Education - (0 Comments)

Are you interested in the “Virtual World”? Are you interested in creating a virtual avatar and navigating the “Virtual World”? Well, there is a program hosted by Clemson University to create an interactive, online informal learning environment for middle and high school students. This is the class for you! “Introduction to Virtual Worlds” is part of the Palmetto Island Project and starts on June 20, 2011 on Clemson University’s Campus.

This program has two parts. On June 20th we will have a 2.5 hour introduction to the Curiosity Grid virtual world that houses Palmetto Island (http://www.curiositygrid.com/). We will meet in McAdams 110B on the Clemson University Campus. This class will be a “hands-on” lab and each student will be sitting at a computer. During this time we will explain the Palmetto Island project and ask the students to complete information sheets and a pre-survey, and to turn in the code of conduct and informed consent forms signed by their parent or guardian. Then we will provide accounts for each student on Palmetto Island, and create an Avatar to represent them in the Virtual World. The rest of the class will be spent customizing their avatars and learning how to control avatar movement and interaction with the virtual world environment.

Part two of the program is done entirely on the internet. We will assign a “mentor” to each student and ask them to commit to a particular time each week for five weeks during which they meet with their mentor in the virtual world. These meetings are done entirely online so the student will need access to a computer and internet connection. The student will have 10 programming and modeling challenges that we will ask them to complete over the five week period to move from “novice” status to “apprentice” status in the Palmetto Island community. During meetings times with their mentor students can demonstrate their mastery of one or more challenges and they can get help on challenges that they have not mastered.

If you are a middle school or high school student and would like to attend, Dr. Larry Hodges would love to hear from you. Here is his contact information:

Dr. Larry Hodges
phone: 864.656.7552
email: lfh@clemson.edu

You can also download the information about the “Introduction to Virtual Worlds Program” and the “Palmetto Island Project.”

To download the Introduction to Virtual Worlds Program PDF, CLICK HERE.
To download the Palmetto Island Project information PDF, CLICK HERE.
To download the Parental Permission Form PDF, CLICK HERE.
To download the Code of Conduct information PDF, CLICK HERE.

What is the Palmetto Island Project?
Palmetto Island (PI) is a project developed at Clemson University to create an interactive, online informal learning environment for middle and high school students. PI is designed to help students learn computing skills such as programming, three-dimensional modeling, avatar design and animation—all in the context of a virtual world that also provides opportunities for mentoring by Clemson computer science majors and professors, and by professionals working in the Information Technology (IT) industry. PI activities are conducted in-world, which means that students connect to PI from their home computer and interact with others on the island via user-controlled virtual characters known as Avatars. The goal of PI is to introduce high school and middle school students in South Carolina to computing skills, opportunities, and IT career options in order to increase the pipeline of future computer science majors.

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Should we really care about 4G?

June 2nd, 2011 | Posted by Bobby Rettew in World of IT - (0 Comments)

***Bobby Rettew is a guest blogger for IT-oLogy, you can also read this post on his blog at http://blog.bobbyrettew.com.

Ok..Ok…the big ole hubbub across the mobile communication spectrum is all about 4G and 4G LTE. It is all about speed and the network. Yes, Verizon is leading the way with their LTE rollout across the country. AT&T and other groups are playing catch-up, well from a technology standpoint. AT&T is surely leading the pack in a clear concise message with their “Rethink Possible” campaign.

But what does this really mean for consumers, well I am still trying to figure this out. Seriously, why do I need 4G LTE speed on a mobile device. Why do I need to be able to upload and download at speeds twice or three times 3G speed on my iPhone or Android device. I can already watch video on the device, I can do video chat with my device, I can check email, download a document, etc at the 3G speeds.

What advantage do acquire when I buy the new iPad or iPhone with access to a 4G LTE data transfer rate? Now, look at the MiFi devices (the mobile hotspots) and this makes sense. I am a video guy and I need to be able to upload Gigabytes of video content and access to these speeds will trump most business and in-home data speeds.

At my house, I currently have my Charter data plan for Internet access that provides 25 Mb/s download and 3 Mb/s upload speeds. That is pretty fast…the 4G LTE mobile devices will be able to provide close, if not better upload speeds and similar to less download speeds. This is great for uploading large files from my edit bay and home workstation. So why does the average consumer need access from a smart phone to these speeds?

Verizon just released a press release today announcing that the Galaxy Tablet will be 4G LTE enabled. Jeff Dietel, vice president of marketing for Verizon Wireless stated in the press release, “The tablet market is exploding as customers are discovering new uses for the technology that features a large screen, powerful processing speeds and access to Android Market™’s 200,000 applications. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is perfect for customers who want to take advantage of Google™’s new movie rental option and view their favorite film on-the-go.”

Well, we are becoming a more connected community of technology enthusiasts. Everywhere you look, someone is looking at their smart device. They are texting, tweeting, looking at Facebook, checking email, watching video, chatting, uploading pictures. The days of the laptops and home workstations are slowly drifting away for the consumer. I bought my wife an 11 inch MacBook Air and it is close to the same size as my iPad. Those big ole bulky home computers are almost extinct. And with Cloud Computing…people are able to acces and store files virtually.

Look at the new release of iCloud by Apple. Yes, the ability to store and access all of your music in the “Cloud” and not have to worry if your home computer crashes, loosing all your music files. I can list numerous friends that have experienced this “life changing” trauma. My sister-in-law cried for days as she tried to recover a small percentage of her thousands of songs. I can still hear her saying…”There goes Bonnaroo…their goes Death Cab….GONE!”

So what does iCloud have to do with all this…we are becoming more dependent on the virtual community, connectivity, and off-site storage. Bigger server farms are providing access to storage and information. This also means that all of our devices, not just home computers, need to be able to access and alter these files from any device. I can now, shoot, edit, publish, and distribute video from my iPhone4 on YouTube and Vimeo using 3G, all in 1280×720 resolution. If I was still in the news world, I would be killing my competition…maybe?

Bottomline…our mobile devices are going to be moving more and more from content access devices to content creation devices. These devices will fit in our back pocket and we will be able to do more on the go, not restricted to our home/business/office computers. Access to servers and mainframes can be done anywhere…and their needs to be more bandwidth across the platform for more and more people to access and create content on the go. Also…files sizes are growing from HD video and larger picture quality.

One concept that I have not even touched is Healthcare IT. Yes…with the emergence of EMR’s and Cloud computing, more and more healthcare professionals will need to access large healthcare records in a mobile setting. Whether it is in the “field” like an ambulance or even rural healthcare networks. This type of speed and infrastructure will provide this access.

So, right now I am not sure if the consumer needs access to these speeds, but soon yes. Because all of their traditional computing will be done in devices that are the evolution of our iPhones, iPads, Laptops, Desktops…combined. Speed and access is key for tomorrow’s connectivity.

***Bobby Rettew is a guest blogger for IT-oLogy, you can read this post on his blog at http://blog.bobbyrettew.com.

***Image from the Daily Galaxy, thanks a bunch!

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