Dear Reader,
Welcome to “State of Open: The UK in 2022”
OpenUK’s “State of Open Survey” launched this morning and if you are based in the UK please complete the Survey here.
We are keen to get everyone working in business in the UK (wherever the business is based) to complete the survey, and appreciate you taking the time to do so. We are working to not only repeat the economic work from last year’s report but also to evolve this to pick up on some of the key issues being faced across open source software today, from the journey to open source, to skills, security and maintenance, sustainability and the investment into open source software. Is it time we recategorised open source software as a digital public good?
You can read more about what we are doing in my blog post here.
The report was met with incredible press and public response “I can’t overstate the value of this report. It’s rare to find one that delves into the business value of open source and provides numbers to back it up. As an open source strategist, a resource like this is priceless to me,” commented VM (Vicky) Brasseur, Open Source Business Strategist and author of Forge your Future with Open Source.
Silona Bonewald Executive Director of IEEE SA OPEN, added “Oftentimes I need to explain to government officials and those in the public sector why Open Source is so important. OpenUK State of Open’s reports have been very valuable for bridging that gap. Even in countries that are very different from the UK people find they can relate to the report content. I have cited these OpenUK reports in so many slide decks – I have lost count.”
The Report State of Open: The UK In 2022 will incorporate analysis of the survey output, case studies and thought leadership. This will be launched with a series of events across the 4 nations of the UK in early July.
There will be a number of other activities around State of Open this year, so watch this space for more information.
Burns Supper – 9 June 2022
Time is running out to get your tickets. We have only one corporate table remaining and a limited number of subsidised tickets for this event at the House of Commons, which will include a drinks reception, 3 course meal, wine, entertainment and an evening you won’t ever forget. A once in a lifetime opportunity to attend a Burns Supper in June in the House of Commons. For the corporate table contact admin@openuk.uk and to secure your individual tickets book here.
KubeCon – 16-20 May 2022
Some of our OpenUK team have been busy preparing for KubeCon. This year it is a hybrid event in Valencia, Spain. Find out more here and get your tickets.
Sadly we don’t have a stand at KubeCon, although we will have one at both Open Source Summits in Austin in June and Dublin in September and at All Things Open in Raleigh. If you have time to stop by, then we will be pleased to see you but also feel free to ask more about OpenUK from any of the team at KubeCon in Valencia.
OpenUK Awards – Third Edition
30th November 2022
- Software – TBC
- Sustainability – TBC
- Data – sponsored by the ODI
- Belonging – TBC
- Young Person – sponsored by Jetstack
- Finance – TBC
- Individual – sponsored by OpenSource Connections
- Hardware – sponsored by The Stack
- Security – sponsored by Control Plane
Future Founders
Our two final online sessions in the Future Founders series will take place on 13th and 27th May. Register here.
The next session on 13th May will focus on People, Hiring and Scaling with Lee Wright, Matt Yonkovit, Murielle Brenon and Paul Holt.
We are also planning Tux Tank, a face to face event for the Founders Forum on 7 September in London, and more info will be shared in our next newsletter.
Percona Live and Other Events
I will be heading to Austin to Keynote Percona Live.
You can see many of the team across events and where possible these are listed in our calendar, https://openuk.uk/events-
Leadership Team
Gen Ashley is our Chief Partnership Officer. What does that mean? Well, OpenUK is a member of a wide range of international organisations. Take a look https://openuk.uk/
OpenUK has the opportunity to represent us on these organisations. This involves joining a monthly call to update on your participation and receive a briefing
We have open positions on the Leadership team and also…
Staff Update
We have sad news in that our Chief of Staff, May Cheung who has worked on a part time basis with the organisation has been promoted in her primary role. Sad news for us that May is moving on, but we are sure you’ll see her around and we wish May every success. At the same time as we bid May a fond farewell, we have the exciting news that we now have a new full time Support Manager, Blaise Alert joining us towards the end of May.
Blaise will support me, our event and report organisation and also our Leadership team and volunteer work groups and will be our first full time support staff member. She will be the person behind the ubiquitous admin@openuk.uk email. And if you are interested in writing a blog, representing us, becoming an ambassador or attending any of our events, that’s the email to ping.
Blog
The OpenUK Blog is back – after a hiatus in our Blog, as a result of covid, we are back with a vengeance and have a great series of blogposts lined up from across the OpenUK team as well as special guest blog posts. If you have the urge to write about Open Technology – software, hardware and data – then now is the time. Let us know if you would like to write for us.
In this initial blog post I take a few minutes to write about what we do and how to become part of our ever growing team.
As you can see we’ve been busy in the background over the last few months and there’s a lot coming your way over the next few.
We are always interested in getting more people involved in the organisation, so please don’t be shy in coming forward with suggestions or to get involved.
Cheers,
Amanda
Amanda Brock
CEO, OpenUK
