The UK organisation for the business of Open Technology

Read the newsletter                                                            Sign up for the OpenUK newsletter

Dear Readers,

We have had a busy end to September, so much so that it merits at third newsletter this month with a heads up on what’s happening in early October, including our focus on Data Centres recently re-categorised by DSIT as critical infrastructure, AI and the forthcoming draft AI bill and of course the challenges faced by open source today with licence shifts, open washing and forking.

Labour Conference Report

OpenUK was privileged to kick off the tech discussion at the Labour Party Conference, focusing on two key topics: Data Centres and AI Openness. The session brought real experts to the table, emphasising the importance of sustainable digital infrastructure and clarifying concepts like “AI Openness” and “Open Source AI.”

Key Messages:

🗝️ Open source software democratises technology and is vital to the UK economy

🗝️ The UK leads in open source software in Europe, but France is catching up, especially in the AI openness space where the Tortoise Index shows them ahead

🗝️ Sustainable infrastructure is essential for the digital economy in the AI age and Data Centres have been categorised as Critical National Infrastructure

🗝️ There is currently no clear definition for “open source AI”, and the risks and benefits of opening AI and its components whether partly or fully must be carefully evaluated

🗝️ SMEs need better access to AI and to the data used in AI

Daniel Aldridge MP, Stelia‘s Dan Scarbrough, Asanti‘s Stewart Laing, and CyrusOne‘s Emma Fryer for taking us deep into data centres and what’s needed to meet the Government’s aspirations MPs. Louise Jones MP and Sarah Edwards MP, Professor Neil Lawrence and Will Squires who battled the complexities of AI Openness and deep tech.

OpenUK Research and Reporting Show and Tell #4
Friday, 27th September, 16:00 – 17:30

Since 2021 we’ve reported on open source software and to encourage collaboration  across the global research community, we host  bi-monthly, free-to-attend, digital events sharing research being undertaken and reporting coming down the line across the planet. “Show and Tell session”s are set for tomorrow Sep 27, and Dec 6th. They take place at 4pm UK and last 60-90 minutes.

Tomorrow Redmonk’s James Governor will be discussing the impact of licence changes from open source to proprietary which their recent reporting says has no impact in terms of finance, CHAOSS’s Director and OpenUK Board Member Dawn Foster will be looking at recent research on forking and and we’ll be talking about all of these in terms of shaping markets and our upcoming report on how markets in open source are shaped both positively and negatively.

Sign up

Join us House of Lords – Round Tables Data Centre 9 October

20 spaces are available to join the audience and discuss the above topic with our round table guests from business, academia and parliament on Wednesday, October 9th, 14:00 – 15:30, Committee Room G, House of Lords. Admission only possible with registration. No dress code. Photographic ID required to gain admission. Thanks to Lord Wei for hosting us.

Sign up

Software Sustainability Day for UKRI

We hosted our first Software Sustainability Workshop for 30 leaders in academia and the UK public sector along with a dozen UK-based leaders in open source software on 20th September. We’ll be producing a mini report of outputs from the day focused on how we build sustainable software infrastructure for the UK as we begin the next stage of our work supporting UKRI investigating how open source software might be better funded and “curated” by the UK.  Thanks to Civo for allowing us to use their Tech Junction for the event.

Vote: Who should be the 2024 Most Influential Woman in UK Tech?

OpenUK Meetups

OpenUK in the Press

The Register reports if governments rely on FOSS, they should fund it according to industry leaders Read now

Computing reports on OpenUK’s kicking off the tech discussion at the Labour Party Conference Read now

Events of OpenUK will be at

Percona.connect 10 October, London Amanda Brock, CEO, OpenUK will participate in a Fireside chat from 3:30pm to 4:00pm. Get Tickets

AI for the rest of us 24 – 25 October, London OpenUK will have a number of speakers from its AI Advisory Board joining this event in a fishbowl and panel session Get Tickets

Events of Interest

Devopsdays London 26th – 27th September Sign Up

Kubernetes Community Days London 22nd – 23rd October Sign up

Best wishes,

Amanda

Amanda Brock, CEO

---

For information on anything in this newsletter or to get involved, email us.

Join our Meet-up Group, #Community on Slack, GitHub, and view Event Gallery.

Would you like to add an event? Fill out the Event Form.

---

Thanks to our General Sponsors

---

 

Sign up for the OpenUK newsletter

View all