The UK organisation for the business of Open Technology

OpenUK New Year’s Honours List recognises leaders in Open Source Software in the UK

List recognises the top 100 contributors to open source software in the UK

London, UK – 2 January 2024 – OpenUK, the not for profit organisation representing the UK’s Open Technology sector, today announced its fourth annual New Year’s Honours List to highlight the world-leading open source expertise in the UK. This year’s list recognises the top 100 contributors to open source software in the UK, celebrating the work of individuals in all corners of the country who are powering the UK’s tech economy.

The 2024 Honours List focuses on the top code contributors to open source software. This is based on analysis of GitHub data, highlighting individuals who made the most ‘commits’ (saved changes to a code repository on GitHub) in 2023 to open source software projects. Through this process, OpenUK aims to celebrate the often-forgotten work of open source contributors, and give them the tools they need to move forward in their career.  

The 2024 New Year’s Honours list reflects the UK’s world-leading status in open source. Open source software is a driving force of the UK tech economy, underlying much of the tech ecosystem whether the internet, cloud, AI and ML, or blockchain. OpenUK’s State of Open reports in 2023 revealed the scale of this contribution. OpenUK found that open source software contributed 27% of the UK tech sector Gross Value Added (GVA) in 2022. Driving these contributions are developers with world-leading talent, working at the bleeding-edge of technology: the UK had 3.2 million GitHub accounts in 2023 or 4.5% of the UK population – more per capita than any country in the world.

Several of the individuals recognised in the Honours List will get another chance to share their insights with the community at large when they appear on stage at State of Open Con 24, OpenUK’s second annual conference.

“Our Honours List is something I look forward to each year. Through this very British tradition, we start the year by celebrating all the fantastic contributions made by our open source community. For this year’s list we were delighted to honour the top contributors to open source software – the forgotten crew of our Open Source Submarine that drives much of the UK tech economy. We will use this Honours List to improve understanding and visibility of open source contributors, and engage them in ongoing mentorship. If the UK hopes to become the next Silicon Valley, we need to surface the Open Source submarine and give appropriate support and backing to the future of open source talent around the country,” said Amanda Brock, CEO of OpenUK.

In 2024, OpenUK will build on the New Year’s Honours List by hosting its second annual State of Open Con event on 6-7 February in London. More than 140 leading UK and international speakers will appear at the conference, sharing insights and expertise across 8 tracks.

 The year will see a wide range of events and community development activities from OpenUK to support the UK’s Open Technology sector, including the launch of an All Parliamentary Group for Open Source at the House of Commons on 16 January.

OpenUK will also publish new research into AI and open source, as well as insights on the value and economic contribution that open source software provides for the UK economy.

The full 2024 New Year’s Honours List can be found here: https://openuk.uk/2024-honours-list/

To book your ticket for SOOCon24, click here.

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

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Media contact

Alex Izza

openuk@resonancecrowd.com

0208 819 3170