The midlandsbiz published The Best Story Never Told – How Columbia became the hottest high-tech city in the South which summarizes some of what has been going on in the city:
One of those people is California-based Jim Jagielski, co-founder, member and director of The Apache Software Foundation and recognized leader in open-source software technologies. "Certainly Columbia is creating a reputation as the place to be on the East Coast for open-source communities," Jagielski says. "This is certainly due to the efforts of POSSCON and IT-ology in not only promoting Columbia itself, but in showing real-world effects of leveraging the power of open source and the open source methodology. And since all high-tech growth is based on or around open-source, Columbia itself is sitting in the catbird seat. PayPal's LeBlanc says beyond the conferences, beyond the hospitality and beyond the unparalleled commitment between partners, what makes Columbia stand out is its people, its community. "I've been thinking over the last couple of years, 'Why do I keep coming back to Columbia, South Carolina?,' and to be perfectly honest it's the people fostering a community that they want to be a part of," LeBlanc says. "It's like working on a close team where you all get along, and the entire community is like that. That creates bonds between people, gets people excited to come and learn and share, and that's what's happening in Columbia in a field that in a lot of ways represents the future of computing. It's something I have never seen with the exception of maybe one or two other conferences in the world.