We hope you’ve noticed that it’s been pretty busy lately at IT-oLogy – especially in the world of Grow IT. Over the last three months three major events have been executed – POSSCON, IT-oLogy Connections 2013, and the South Carolina Day of Civic Hacking. Each of these has been extremely successful and they have produced a lot of activity in the IT ecosystem.
Grow IT is a national initiative of IT-oLogy and the programs that are created will ultimately play – with local tuning – in IT-oLogy cities all across the United States. But, as headquarters are here in Columbia, Grow IT programs will likely be piloted in Columbia before proceeding to other cities. As an example, you’ll probably see IT-oLogy Connections 2014 in Columbia, Dallas, and Charlotte next year. Exciting for sure!
The focus of Grow IT is on three areas of concentration – Continued Professional Education, Economic Development and Volunteerism. These areas will be developed further over the coming months. Currently, we’re working on taking the IT-oLogist program to the next level so that this can help absorb some of the burden of companies participating in a job shadow program or internship program. For example, training a new intern on how to use Microsoft Outlook or explaining the importance of PCI compliance and disaster recovery may prove to be a burden. However, a curriculum for this has been developed that will facilitate the flow of IT interns into your organization – improving the experience for all involved.
Another project in the works is group trips to national conferences such as Health 2.0 in San Francisco, SXSW in Austin, or perhaps the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The IT-oLogy Beyond program would be a wonderful opportunity to take 10-15 members from a community to these amazing national conferences. The information gathered and brought back would likely be of value.
In conclusion, there is much in the works! If you’d like to get involved, please contact: [email protected].