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Dear Readers,
Attending Liz Kendall’s first AI speech since she became Secretary of State for the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, I had the opportunity as part of a small group of attendees to ask her about the UK, AI and open source, to be told that this was “being discussed”. We are following up with the various teams on this, to ensure that the UK’s vibrant AI and long-standing open source communities are engaged in that discussion. As and when there are opportunities for wider community engagement we will also make our audience aware of this. I have written a blogpost on it and a couple of press pieces.
Last week we also attended the EU’s Open Source Policy Day – a FOSDEM fringe event in Brussels – where sovereignty was the key discussion. We will be sharing press around that as it is published. A number of the OpenUK team spoke at FOSDEM including Sal Kimmich whose infrastructure talk was attended by a packed “big room” at FOSDEM. Congratulations Sal. On the subject of Europe our legal group is working on a response to the recent EU consultation on Open Source Digital Ecosystems which you will find in our legal group website page shortly.
SOOCon26 On The Road
This year, the Honours list is broad and incorporates not only software contributors and maintainers, hardware, data, but also AI and those building community and managing governance in open source. This includes the founders of MCP who are based in London. You can see details of our full 2026 list below.
A reminder that SOOCon26 is going on the road this year, reconvening in London in February 2027. We hope to confirm all of our dates for the regional events by 31st January, and at present can confirm that we will be at Pembroke College, Cambridge, on 8th July and Belfast on 19 November. We expect to be in Edinburgh in June and Bristol in October. But further details will be with you shortly. If you would like to get involved, please drop a note to mailto:admin@openuk.uk, and please don’t worry if you have contacted us and not heard back, as we are waiting to gather our organisers and participants, as we are clear on firm dates.
Global AI Impact Summit, Delhi, India
OpenUK and its sister OpenHQ will be participating in the global leaders’ sessions at the AI Impact Summit in Delhi, having been invited by the Indian Government to participate. You can look forward to a report from us, along the lines of our report from the Paris Action Summit in 2025. We will be hosting a number of events and speaking at events hosted by others as part of the week-long activities that will see New Delhi become the epicentre of AI. We will share an update with a list of open source events around Delhi in a special Summit newsletter shortly for anyone attending, and look forward to Anil Madhavapeddy joining this trip and welcome Karan Saini as our Operations Manager on the ground.
I Love Free Software Day
14th of February is I Love Free Software Day, and countless other organisations and individuals will be celebrating, https://sharepic.fsfe.org/#ilovefs
Events OpenUK will be at
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India–AI Impact Summit 2026 19-20 February 2026, New Delhi |
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KubeAuto Day Europe 2026 23 March 2026, Amsterdam |
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Events of Interest
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FOSSASIA Summit 9 – 10 March || In-person || Thailand |
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OpenUK Blogs
You can read our latest blog focused on the UK’s AI action plans and the role of open source in China’s success, and perhaps you’d like to boost your profile in Open Tech by writing a blog for OpenUK.
OpenUK in the Press
- What Tailwind teaches us about open source in the age of AI
- Can the UK take its open source opportunity with China? Amanda Brock, our CEO, delves into China’s success and the UK’s challenges
- Open Source in war-torn Ukraine and around the world ❧ Open Path #4
- Amanda Brock, CEO of OpenUK, commenting on the place of small data centres in the future of AI in TechSpot
- Amanda Brock, CEO of OpenUK, commenting on the place of small data centres in the future of AI in El Balad
- Amanda Brock, CEO of OpenUK, commenting on the place of small data centres in the future of AI in Filmogaz
- Amanda Brock, CEO of OpenUK, commenting on the place of small data centres in the future of AI in BBC News
- Heriot-Watt university featured PhD student recognised in 6th OpenUK New Year Honours List
If you are interested in being more involved in our work, do let us know by dropping us a note mailto:admin@openuk.uk. Please follow us on LinkedIn to keep up with our news as it happens between newsletters.
We are currently renewing annual sponsorships and working with partners on various events, including small group dinners, SOOCon26 on the road and of course, our Awards sponsorship.
We are also recruiting new members of the team and looking for a community and events manager and a research and policy managers – you can find the job descriptions and application requirements at openuk.uk/recruitment.
Best wishes,
Amanda
Amanda Brock, CEO
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