News

Take the survey now For the first time ever the team at Open Source South Carolina / Open Source 101 is conducting a brief survey of our community.  We kindly request everyone take 2-3 minutes and complete the 2019 Open Source Survey.  Deadline for completion is Friday, April 26.   The purpose is simple - to better understand the state of open source in our community and what people are using.  With open source now comprising 80-90% of the code in a typical application (Forrester Research), and open source being present in the IT workloads of 90% of organizations (annual Open [...]

We've been hosting open source events for a long time and we've noticed something...  While open source consumption and contribution have increased dramatically across the board many decision makers still lack fundamental knowledge around the topic.  That's not intended as an attack mind you.  It's simply an observation based on hundreds of events and conversations.   While this might not seem like an issue, we believe it becomes one when you consider the following: Open source now comprises 80-90% of the code in a typical application (Forrester Research)Open source is now present in IT workloads in 90% of organizations (Annual [...]

We're proud to announce multiple women tech influencers will speak at the conference this year on April 18.   Each represents organizations from all across the technology and government spectrum, and each shares a passion for bringing more women into technology and open source.   Women participating in this year's event include: Tracy Lee - Co-founder, This Dot LabsErica Stanley - Engineering Manager, SalesLoft; Founder, Women Who Code AtlantaSarah Sawicki - Planning & Projects Director, Richland Library Jigyasa Grover - Machine Learning Engineer, TwitterDeb Nicholson - Director of Community Operations, Software Freedom Conservancy Maria Liberovsky - Software Developer, MentorLaura Corder - Managing Director, SC Department of Commerce In addition, multiple women [...]

Every year approximately 500 attend and enjoy Open Source 101. And every year, the event would not be possible without our amazing volunteers. As we have in the past, we're asking everyone with a willingness and desire to help to volunteer for a 4 hour shift. In exchange you'll get the following: A free pass to the conference. Attend sessions and networking socials before or after your shift, and meet new people while helping out! A free lunch. Who says there's no such thing? The official conference t-shirt. We'll reserve a shirt and have your name on it when you [...]

e encourage everyone this year to arrive early and check-in or register to avoid lines and missing keynotes. However, attendees now have an additional incentive. Open Source 101 t-shirts! For the first time ever we're making a t-shirt available for Open Source 101. And more than that, we're making two (2) versions available. The first 150 attendees can choose a version and each will be made available on a first-come first-served basis, based on availability of course.  Also, we'd like to thank Nephron Pharmaceuticals for making the shirts available. Nephron is located in West Columbia, is a thriving international business, and [...]

If you're a developer of any kind - professional, student, or anywhere in between - Open Source 101 will feature world-content you're sure to learn and get a lot of value from. In 2018 approximately 34% of attendees self-identified as a "developer / programmer" and we've structured sessions in 2019 accordingly. Two separate "developer" tracks will be featured, and we've made every effort to ensure sessions on these tracks are not only popular and reflective of trends in the industry, but cover topics considered foundational regardless of what the current trends might be. Just a few of the developer sessions [...]

For more than 10 years now we’ve structured events with technology students in mind. And moreover, it was one of the primary reasons we started the Open Source 101 series in the first place. Why did we do this? For a few reasons… Students are the “technologists of tomorrow” and need to be as prepared as possible to hit the ground running upon graduation. Education is expensive and competition for top jobs that pay well is not only strong, but is now global.A working knowledge of open source technologies and processes are now preferred (and possibly expected) by employers. Those [...]

For more than 12 years now, keeping our events affordable and accessible has been a priority, and we're proud the tradition continues all these years later. After all, how can you expect new people to enter the industry and contribute to/consume open source if only a handful of people can afford to attend events? Events are a great way to not only learn new technologies and processes, but they create networking opportunities that often lead to career advancement opportunities. In short, they are a "gateway" that to us, should be accessible to anyone interested. However, events are also very expensive [...]

We're happy to once again offer scholarships and discounted registration to select groups of attendees at Open Source 101 in 2019.   In our opinion it's important to do everything possible to ensure attendance for groups that might otherwise have a difficult time attending, for whatever reason.  A diverse group of attendees makes the event a better and more positive experience for everyone in our opinion.     The following are being offered in 2019: 1. Active StudentThanks to the tremendous support of the McNair Institute for Entrepreneurism and Free Enterprise at the University of South Carolina, a limited number of scholarships will [...]

The 2019 schedule has now officially been released and we hope everyone, regardless of background or reason for attending, will find value in multiple sessions and events. The 2019 layout will focus on 7 broad tracks featuring topics and talks we feel are especially applicable in today's business and technology environments. The 7 tracks include: Developer 1&2Cloud/Big DataSecurityEmerging/TrendingCase Study/DemoContributing To/Consuming Open Source Sessions to be featured include: Developer Web Native DevelopmentImproving software testing by testing what really mattersNode.js crash courseTaming styles of Python programming Complexity Management with NgRx (Angular)Building Performant Web AppsHow to undo almost anything with Git (an extended [...]