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Open IT Lab Hosts 28 Students from Fairfield Central High School

December 10th, 2012 | Posted by ToddLewis in IT-oLogy Defined - (0 Comments)

The Open IT Lab hosted 28 students from Fairfield Central High School in Winnsboro County, SC. The trip took place Wednesday, November 28 and was part of a field trip designed to make students aware of career opportunities in the information technology field.

Todd Lewis led the students on a tour of IT-oLogy and explained why and how the organization was formed. He also showed the students the Open IT Lab, explained open source, and why knowledge of open source technology is extremely important.

Fairfield Central High School students traveled to IT-oLogy
to investigate careers in Information Technology

Jeremy Bicha conducted a 1.5 hour workshop just for the students on the fundamentals of electronic design. The Arduino, a micro controller manufactured by IT-oLogy member Sparkfun Electronics, was used to demonstrate the principles of electronics engineering and computing. Students worked in teams to build their own machine and make it perform various functions.

Stacey Feaster, Career Specialist at Fairfield Central High School, summed up the field trip. “[The students] gained practical application experience and real-world knowledge they will use in choosing a career path. We appreciate the incredible opportunity provided to our students.”

Senior Natrone Trapp thought the trip was beneficial to him as he looks toward his professional career. “I am more certain about my Computer Science Major and feel this field trip has provided me with the information I need to make the right choice about my future. I can’t wait to attend college and use and develop design software.”

 

Quotes from Career Central Newsletter

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First Student Android Appathon a Success

December 10th, 2012 | Posted by ToddLewis in IT-oLogy Defined - (0 Comments)

The first ever Student Android App Development Contest was hosted by the Open IT Lab, IT-oLogy and the University of South Carolina on Saturday, November 17. It was a tremendous success with more than 10 teams competing from across South Carolina.

This was the first Android application development contest exclusively for students in the state of South Carolina. Teams from the University of South Carolina, Clemson University, and various high schools entered and demonstrated applications of all types. SCANA, RhythmLink, and Blue Acorn from Charleston were sponsors and made it possible.
Winners Joseph Maley and Jacob Harrelson pictured here with
representatives from SCANA and Blue Acorn, sponsors of the contest.

Winners of the contest were Joseph Maley and Jacob Harrelson of Clemson University. They formed the ‘Cube Steaks’ team and developed an application called ‘Dinosaur Tycoon”. Drew Heavner of USC and Felix Fischer also received special mention. Felix is a 9th grade high school student and developed an impressive Bluetooth TicTacToe application.

 Eight teams from across SC demonstrated applications at IT-oLogy on November 17

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The Open IT Lab Visits TriLUG in Raleigh

October 22nd, 2012 | Posted by ToddLewis in IT-oLogy Defined - (0 Comments)

Last week Todd Lewis and Jim Salter visited Red Hat Headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Triangle Linux User Group (TriLUG) in the heart of the Raleigh-Durham Research Triangle is one of the largest monthly Linux meetings in the world.

Todd, the founder of the Palmetto Open Source Software Conference (POSSCON) and the Open IT Lab, presented POSSCON’s mission  and invited the Linux enthusiasts to attend the next conference March 27-28, 2013. The visit also served to strengthen ties between Columbia and Raleigh as we work on similar goals of promoting open source education and solutions.

Jim presented the feature talk on the Linux Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM). As a self-employed system administrator, Jim considers KVM to be a critical infrastructure in his business. Virtualization allows one to run operating systems and applications on top of a core host operating system enabling greater reliability, scalability, and maximum hardware utilization. While KVM needs a Linux kernel as the host, it can run any guest Operating System including Windows or BSD. A huge advantage is that the technology is open source and is not subject to proprietary vendor lock-in like many other virtualization products.

You can watch the Google+/YouTube video below. Todd’s talk starts at 19:30 and Jim’s talk is at 25:25. You can also follow along with the slides here.

Jim plans to offer his KVM talk in Columbia soon, perhaps at the next POSSCON.


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The Open IT Lab Celebrates Software Freedom Day 2012

September 20th, 2012 | Posted by ToddLewis in Education | Grow IT | Teach IT | World of IT - (1 Comments)

Cross-posted from the Open IT Lab News

The Open IT Lab joined nearly 300 other teams from over 60 countries around the world in celebrating this year’s Software Freedom Day last Saturday. Software Freedom Day is a worldwide celebration of Free and Open Source Software that takes place on the third Saturday in September.

The Open IT Lab offered our flagship “Open Source 101″ workshop. Jarrell Waggoner led our guests on an engaging overview of what it means for software, hardware, and content to be open. Attendees learned how open source has already changed our world and some everyday examples of this “innovation based on sharing” development strategy. We saw how open source software is becoming more and more important to how businesses operate. Finally, attendees were encouraged to participate by either contributing to open projects or starting their own.

After the lecture, we did a drawing and three lucky participants won commemorative t-shirts. The t-shirts, stickers, and balloons were generously supplied by sponsors of Software Freedom Day.

Attendees then were led on a tour of our state- of-the-art Open IT Lab, featuring open software, open content, and open hardware.

Come join us next year for Software Freedom Day! We plan to offer our Open Source 101 workshop again in January.

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Open IT Lab speaks to 40 at SC Municipal Technology Association

September 13th, 2012 | Posted by ToddLewis in IT-oLogy Defined - (0 Comments)

Open IT LabThe Open IT Lab spoke to more than 40 municipal technology managers at the SC Municipal Technology Association’s annual meeting on Thursday, September 6. The meeting took place in Charleston at the Francis Marion Hotel.

The topic of discussion was the definition of open source, the top 10 open source technologies available today, and the pros and cons associated with using open source. The topic was requested because more managers in the public sector are being asked to save budget dollars while maintaining existing levels of performance, security, etc.

Jarrell Waggoner and Jim Salter discussed the pros and cons and the top 10 technologies available and fielded questions from the audience. Todd Lewis talked about IT-oLogy, the Open IT Lab, and the various workshops made available by both.

More information about the Open IT Lab and upcoming workshops can be found online at www.open-it-lab.com or at www.it-ology.org.

Apache Class 2

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Open IT Lab Calendar for September

September 6th, 2012 | Posted by Whitney Williams in Grow IT | Teach IT - (0 Comments)

The September 2012 Open IT Lab schedule is out!

Open IT Lab Sept 2012

September 2012 Schedule in PDF

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Thirty Attend Arduino/Microcontrollers Workshop for Educators

August 7th, 2012 | Posted by ToddLewis in IT-oLogy Defined - (1 Comments)

Approximately 30 people attended the Arduino/Microcontroller workshop for Educators workshop held on August 3rd and 4th at IT-oLogy. The majority of attendees were educators, but students and local IT professionals also participated. The purpose of the workshop was to train educators and other IT leaders on the skills needed to understand and teach basic microcontroller programming as well as the circuits in the Sparkfun Inventor’s Kit (SIK). This content is important because it teaches basic engineering principles vital in education. It will now be taught and implemented in a classroom environment in high schools, middle schools and even elementary schools. Linz Craig, Educational Outreach Coordinator for Sparkfun Electronics, conducted both workshops and did an outstanding job.

For more information on upcoming workshops and the Open IT Lab go to www.open-it-lab.com or www.it-ology.org.

Here are a few pictures for you!

Arduino Workshop 3

Arduino Workshop 2

Arduino Workshop

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August Open IT Lab Schedule

August 6th, 2012 | Posted by Whitney Williams in IT-oLogy Defined - (0 Comments)

August Open IT Lab Schedule

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Response to First Microcontroller/Arduino Workshop Overwhelming

July 30th, 2012 | Posted by ToddLewis in IT-oLogy Defined - (0 Comments)

Arduino HardwareThe OpenIT Lab at IT-oLogy offered a Basics of the Microcontroller/Arduino workshop for the first time to the general public on Saturday, July 14. The response was so overwhelming approximately 15-20 people had to be turned away and directed to a second offering.

Attendees were given hands-on experience with building and designing Arduino-based electronics projects. The Italian-designed Arduino is a low cost microcontroller and one of the leading technologies in the new open hardware movement.

Projects included getting started with the simple Blink circuit, Arduino’s version of “Hello World”, then exploring how to customize the blink rate and brightness by tweaking the source code and how to make the microcontroller aware of its surroundings by using photoresistors and pushbuttons. Participants also learned about electronic circuits, digital and analog signals and basic programming using the Arduino software.

The second Microcontroller/Arduino workshop is being planned now with a tentative delivery date scheduled for September.

For more information about upcoming workshops or the Open IT Lab please visit the IT-oLogy website or www.open-it-lab.com. Questions can be directed to Todd Lewis at todd@palmettocomputerlabs.com or 803-240-1213.

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June Open IT Lab Workshops

May 30th, 2012 | Posted by Whitney Williams in Education | Grow IT | Teach IT - (0 Comments)

Open IT Lab June Schedule

Register for any of the June Open IT Lab opportunities by emailing todd@palmettocomputerlabs.com!

Note: Open IT Lab workshops are located at 1301 Gervais St., Suite 200, Columbia, SC.

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