The UK organisation for the business of Open Technology

Day conference to cover the challenges and opportunities of building future digital infrastructure using open source

London, UK – 5th October 2022 – OpenUK, a not for profit organisation representing the UK’s Open Technology sector, today announced the schedule for its Thought Leadership Day on open source, infrastructure, security and community curation on the 17th of October. The event will bring together leading figures from international Open Source communities around security, and provide opportunities to discuss the challenges that exist around security and open source over time.

The event will include keynote speakers from industry and government, including:

• Lord Maude of Horsham, Former Cabinet Minister and founder of Government Digital Services (GDS)
• Jim Zemlin, CEO at the Linux Foundation
• Amanda Brock, CEO at OpenUK
• Salem Avan, Director of Governance, at the United Nations

The event will also include panel sessions detailing the challenges around curation of Open Source software including supply chains, security of Open Source, governance and finding practical solutions to problems that arise over time. The event will take place at leading law firm for the technology industry Bristows LLP, and will run in association with the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF). 

“Open source is at the heart of technology, powering the services we use every day and the devices that we use, but all these projects need to be supported effectively over the long term. We are building the digital equivalent of every service we citizens receive from our public sector, and these investments and our services must be kept secure. The UK can play a leading role in this international effort,” said Amanda Brock, CEO at OpenUK. “As the organisation representing the business of Open Source in the UK,  we have a unique opportunity to showcase how much talent exists locally and how that can translate into leadership internationally too.”

“Since the log4shell vulnerability was discovered late in 2021, governments around the world have recognized both how critical open source is to their economies, and how the security of open source software can not be taken for granted.. In addition, the U.S. White House’s leadership on software supply chain and open source software security topics has demonstrated that governments can be productively engaged in this domain – in fact, they have to be engaged to really secure their country’s digital infrastructure. This event will help demonstrate how we might all collaborate to improve the global security picture,” added Brian Behlendorf, General Manager for the OpenSSF. 

Moderators for the event’s panel sessions include leading UK figures in the open source sector, such as:

• Joanna Hodgson, UK Country Leader, Red Hat on Open Source’s impact on infrastructure in the UK Public Sector
• Judy Parnall, Head of Standards and Industry, BBC on Supply Chain Management and SBOMs
• Dawn Foster, Director of Open Source Community Strategy, VMware and OpenUK Board,  on Open Source Program Offices and Governance of Open Source Software
• Liz Rice, Chief Open Source Officer Isovalent and OpenUK Board, on Security and Practical Challenges
• Dr Rebecca Rumbul, Executive Director and CEO Rust Foundation, on Security and Policy Challenges
• Emma Thwaites, Director of Communications and Marketing, Open Data Institute on Funding Open Source Infrastructure

About OpenUK

OpenUK is the organisation for the business of Open Technology, being open source software, open source hardware and open data across the UK.  Its purpose is UK leadership and global collaboration in Open Technology. OpenUK works on three pillars: Community, Legal and Policy and Learning. 

In 2022 OpenUK will focus on Skills, Security and Sustainability. Its Summer of Open Source Software Security is recognised as one of the 8 Open Source Security Initiatives of note in 2022, https://www.csoonline.com/article/3673089/8-notable-open-source-security-initiatives-of-2022.html

OpenUK is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, company number 11209475.

Twitter: @openuk_uk

LinkedIn: openukopentechnology

Website: openuk.uk

About OpenSSF 

The Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) is a cross-industry organization hosted by the Linux Foundation that brings together the industry’s most important open source security initiatives and the individuals and companies that support them. The OpenSSF is committed to collaboration and working both upstream and with existing communities to advance open source security for all. For more information, please visit: openssf.org. 

Contact:

Mark Kember

onebite for OpenUK

+44 (0)1635 887707 

openuk@onebite.co.uk