SparkFun To Offer Workshops, Presentations at POSSCON 2013

BOULDER, Colo., March 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- SparkFun Electronics (http://www.sparkfun.com), a provider of parts, knowledge and passion for electronics creation, is excited to announce its participation in the Palmetto Open Source Software Conference (POSSCON), taking place March 27-28 in Columbia, SC. The conference brings together visionaries, representatives and enthusiasts from the burgeoning open source community.

SparkFun's Director of IT Chris Clark will speak on using GitHub for open hardware. His session will address the risks, challenges and rewards of open sourcing hardware projects using a highly collaborative platform like GitHub. Clark will detail the challenges faced by SparkFun as it began loading an entire catalog of open hardware projects into GitHub and collaborating with the community to fix bugs, add features and advance the technology.

"Releasing the source is only half the battle. Collaborating with the community to improve it is what can set an open source project apart," said Clark. "Turning to GitHub, we're now developing a sustainable open hardware feedback loop across a wide swath of our product line."

Lindsay Craig, one of SparkFun's educational outreach coordinators, will speak on open source education, the emerging definition of open source education in connection with SparkFun's upcoming National Tour (https://learn.sparkfun.com/tour), and helping educators bootstrap their tech and STEM education efforts. His discussion will highlight how to effectively use open source in education, as well as its pitfalls and advantages.

SparkFun will also host two workshops and a demo for 30 attendees. The first workshop will teach through-hole soldering with the Simon Says kit (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10547?). The second workshop will add an FTDI to the Simon kit to cover the five basic concepts in an "Intro to Arduino programming" class. For the final demo, class participants will add an XBee Series 1 (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8664?) to their Simon kits and upload new code to play Wireless Battle Mode against each other.

POSSCON is hosted by IT-ology, a non-profit center for open source IT skill development. For more information, to purchase a ticket to POSSCON or to register for SparkFun's workshops, visit (http://posscon.org/get-registered/).

About SparkFun Electronics
Founded in 2003, SparkFun shares its passion by providing parts, knowledge, and innovation for those looking to explore the world of embedded electronics. It helps anyone discover their inner inventor and enables individuals to create their own electronics projects.

SparkFun currently offers more than 1,800 products, ranging from simple components, like capacitors and resistors, to GPS units and Bluetooth modules. The company employs 138 people and is based in Boulder, Colorado.

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SOURCE SparkFun Electronics