OpenUK December 2024 Newsletter 2

Zin Lwin

17th December 2024

Newsletter

Read the newsletter Sign up for the OpenUK newsletter

Dear Readers,

The initial schedule for State of Open Con 2025 taking place on 4 and 5 February at the new Sancroft venue in St Paul’s, London, will be shared on Friday 20th December… we think the you are going to like it. Thanks to our volunteer CFP Committees for their dedication and hard work. If you submitted a proposal we will be in touch this week to discuss whether your session is accepted. If it is a no, please don’t be disheartened as that doesn’t mean that there wont be room for the session at some other event next year. We’re always looking for blog posts and if you are interested in writing that’s another opportunity to share your thoughts. Watch out on https://stateofopencon.com/ on Friday 20th for the initial schedule going live.

You can buy your ticket at £250 now. If you are able to support the cost of a free ticket for a community member there is also the opportunity for you to do that this year for the first time. There will be free tickets for the unemployed and students as always, and if you wish to apply for one mailto:admin@openuk.uk explaining why you should have one of these. We are also looking for volunteers to join our staff who receive a free two day ticket in return for working one day.

This will be one of the biggest and most impactful events open tech globally in 2025, as it has been since 2023. As well as 7 tracks over 2 days, incredible speakers for two days of plenary sessions focused on the Future of Open Source (4th) and AI Openness (5th) we will have over 30 table holders. It will likely be one of the most diverse events in open source or tech generally again. We are proud to bring such a width of important voices together here in the UK.

We are having a busy year-end. A group of our senior leadership attended the SME4 Labour Awards when I was delighted to present our AI Minister, Feryal Clark with a trophy as joint winner of the MP of the Year Award. The next day we hosted our final Roundtable in Parliament of 2024, hosted by Lord Wei and attended by Chi Onwurah MP, Daniel Aldridge MP and Sarah Edwards MP. Thanks to all.

These Roundtables are a gradual process of enabling collaboration with the new Government and making them aware of our asks and, ultimately, offering an opportunity to collaborate. They reflect the Open Manifesto asks around Skills, Public Sector use of open source, and AI openness. Our engagement with Government, enables OpenUK to build relationships and support a growth in understanding of the values and needs of open source in the UK to nurture and strengthen our existing centre of excellence and enable its future growth.

Data centres are critical to AI and any interested parties who wish to contribute to our Second Open Technology Blueprint for COP30 should please get in touch.

Following today’s UK Government consultation release on AI and Text and Data Mining, OpenUK will share a final AI Openness Report this week. Having the last word of the year on AI Openness, we will also discuss it at a digital Show and Tell on Friday.

Roundtables in Parliament

The final OpenUK Parliamentary Roundtable discussing Openness in AI when the Parliamentarians had a real treat hearing from the experts Professor Elena Simperl of Kings, Ed Shee of Ignitus, Dr Jennifer Barth of Symmetry and OpenUK, Dr Laura Gilbert of 10 Downing Street, Robbie Jerrom of RedHat, Scott Trowbridge of Stability AI, Simon Wardley of Wardley Maps, and Paul Morrison of Stelia. We covered such diverse areas as the infrastructure needed for AI, challenges of businesses scaling and what AI openness means.

OpenUK will be hosting more of these in person Roundtables in Parliament in 2025 and if you have a topic you feel should be raised, would like to be an expert speaker or join the audience do let us know. Also, contacting your MP and sharing our Manifesto with them is helpful.

State of Open Con 25

State of Open Con CFP is now closed/ We are delighted to be oversubscribed for content and will be in touch with all potential speakers who have submitted to the CFP next week, with the aim of sharing our schedule on Friday 20th December.

Tickets priced £250 (including catering on both days) are on sale now.

Buy SOOCon25 Tickets Apply for Volunteer

Our event staff are primarily volunteers with the organisers coming from OpenUK’s paid staff. We are overwhelmed each year by the generosity of community volunteers who make up the on site staff. Each volunteer is given a two day ticket and asked to work for one day and if you would like to join this fun community of volunteers you can sign up now.

If your organisation would like to sponsor or host a table contact us at mailto:admin@openuk.uk for more info.

OpenUK’s Show and Tell Research and Reporting AI Openness December 20 16:00 – 17:30

For the last word on AI Openness in 2024, join OpenUK to discuss our AI Openness which includes key facts from all recent AI reporting and today’s UK Government consultation on text and data mining.

This will be a relaxed and informal end-of-year event with a presentation and discussion.

GitHub Secure Open Source Fund

OpenUK is an Ecosystem Partner of the new GitHub Secure Open Source Fund. We are proud to help improve open source security and to collaborate with other industry leaders to make an impact. Open source security is crucial and we are committed to creating a safer ecosystem for everyone. If you have a project that OpenUK might recommend for funding please let us know.