Following the two previous Report Phases, State of Open UK: The UK in 2021 Phases One and Two, Phase Three focuses on the values including the financial value of open source software. This follows a financially difficult year in the UK, which saw a dramatic change in the way businesses, society and the government operate. The ability of organisations to “go digital” at pace and efficiently is a decisive factor today for success in this context. Those who tend to be best placed to do so are organisations with sufficient resources and those that think smart about change. Open source software is not only at the core of every technology used around us, like gravity, but is also a valuable asset for organisations that want to innovate, and to develop skills and technologies in a collaborative, low barrier to entry spaces. This need becomes understandably more pronounced in periods when the economy has experienced a shock and financial or human resources are stretched.

Despite Government commitments to increase uptake of open source software among public and private organisations, over the last decade in the UK, there is no consensus on how open source software and its adoption is measured at macroeconomic (economy) or microeconomic (firm) level. This makes comparison and benchmarking of the achievement of this difficult. This Report aims to set the foundation for committed adoption and utilisation of open source software in the long term and the intention is that it will be reviewed and updated on a regular, at least annual, basis.

The intention is for the Report findings to complement and inspire further understanding and research.

The value presented above does not capture the value generation for the more complex benefits from the use and development of open source software for an organisation. Cost savings are not the only benefit that open source software brings and this is precisely what this research has worked to make visible. Value-enhancing aspects of open source software are not fully accounted for in business statistics like skill development, collaboration and ensuring the high quality of the code add significant intangible benefits to a business. They enable businesses to engage directly in specific R&D with reference to open source software, build in-house software expertise, and avoid the risks associated with problematic code, as they have more control over its quality. These additional benefits add value to a business by strengthening its organisational capital and as such they formed the main pillars around which the survey was designed.

Drawing from the base value calculated above (£15.7bn) and the findings of q 8, the potential monetary value of collaboration is estimated at £11.3bn, the potential monetary value of skill development is estimated at £10bn, and the potential monetary value of high quality code is estimated at £9.5bn for businesses in the UK for 2020. This brings the total potential value for businesses in the UK up to £46.5 bn for 2020. This is a very tentative estimate as these pillars (collaboration, skills, quality of code) cannot be easily and fully captured by a small scale survey, because often they depend on each other (therefore there might be some double-counting we cannot avoid in our sample).

Figure 4
Run open source software revenue

Figure 5
Contribution to open source software by revenue

Figure 6

Technologies used by organisations that up to 5% of their revenue comes from open source software

Technologies used by organisations that more than 60% of their revenue comes from open source software

Phase Two demonstrated that most companies surveyed had adopted security provisions (q 14). In terms of revenue, the most popular protection among all groups of revenue were i) having a security policy (a definition of what it means to be secure for this system) and ii) having support for SSL/TLS on website, downloads, and infrastructure.

Out of those organisations that have a security policy 30% have revenue over £50m and 16% less than £1m, while out of those that have support for SSL/TLS on website, downloads and infrastructure 22% have revenue over £50m and 25% less than £1m.

No specific pattern was evident in the type of security provision between companies that earn a high proportion of their revenue (60% or more, or all of it), and those that do not, or earn a small proportion from open source software.

Finally, more organisations with revenue of less than £1m report the pandemic outbreak led them to increase use of open source software (32%) as opposed to organisations with revenue of more than £50m (26%).

Improved access to energy data is at the heart of the UK’s journey to a healthy, growing net-zero economy. This will have an impact not only on the energy sector but also across transport, water, agriculture and the built world.

This is essential to the energy transition the UK must now make—both to meet its Nationally Determined Contributions and to deliver the government’s plan for a green industrial revolution. A functional open web of energy data is an essential piece of national data infrastructure: as important as our roads, rail, water and broadband networks.

Developed with government support, the Open Energy Programme is an emerging, tangible success story that addresses this challenge: a non-profit service that makes it easy to search, access and securely share energy data (for both open data and shared/commercial data). It will unlock access to data held by thousands of organisations and institutions to enable an open marketplace and our net-zero future.

Its work supports UK National Strategies including the Industrial Strategy, National Data and Digitalisation strategies, the climate agenda, the investment community (e.g. FCA/PRA Climate Financial Risk Forum) and the UK’s international leadership around energy and climate (UK is leading the Global Mission Innovation on Energy Data Interoperability as part of the Paris Agreement).

Through open collaboration and open standards, organisations across the UK can unlock sector-wide efficiency and innovation that can enable their own data and technology strategies. It will radically reduce the cost of data sharing and transform access to data by creating cohesion and interoperability: competition should focus on impact, not the rules of the game.

For example, as millions of smart sensors come to market (e.g. in smart meters, heat pumps and electric vehicles) we need to ensure that data can be shared securely and safely, with minimal cost and friction to both operators and innovators. Intervention is needed to address the priorities of resilience and innovation: from enabling double-digit improvements in retrofit efficiency to demand response to better balancing of decentralised flexibility markets.

BEIS, Innovate UK and Ofgem have been supporting the development of Open Energy and other solutions that make data more open and accessible and using a more open infrastructure.

Making this a success requires a mix of interventions: policy leadership, convening industry and infrastructure development— the UK is at the cutting edge of open innovation.

Decarbonisation has changed the whole shape of the energy sector, digitalisation is going to be absolutely crucial. And I think there is a much greater and growing realisation of this. There is an appreciation of this and there is enthusiasm.

An EV car for example, can do two, possibly three things. It can consume energy, it can dispense energy, and it can store energy. That’s three functions per EV car. You then multiply that with solar panels, heat pumps, new technologies, this system is moving really from, a few to millions and millions and millions of actions and assets. And how is that going to happen? It’s certainly not going to happen in an analog way.

Digitalisation is not a charming add on, it is absolutely essential to the whole system operating.

The culture of the energy sector is certainly not open. We went some way with the data taskforce to talk about presumed open. We had this triage process, which allowed people to close things that needed to be closed, but only with the presumption that everything should be as open as possible. You layer on to that open source. And you can start to see quite a clear trajectory, from presumed open data to open source software.

It’s still one step at a time, although I think the digitalization taskforce will push this quite hard, but to do it we must have what I would call some core plumbing across the system.

Our job in the task force is to create the very basic plumbing that allows all these exciting tools to layer on top and that is where open source becomes important to allow you to put your whizzy digitalisation structure on top, but to allow interoperable, interrelated systems.

The only way you’re going to be able to do this is through opening up how and what you’re utilising to make those connections work.

One of the other key areas that’s really important in energy is security and stability. And we’re very keen to reverse the mentality about visibility. So visibility is seen as very frightening. And actually visibility is actually crucial. So everything is about being as open as possible with the understanding that this is critical national infrastructure and this allows one to start to look at openness in its widest sense.

Some people already understand exactly what we’re talking about, but other people are just starting to understand and I think there’s an education job, on what open source is and where it’s appropriate in infrastructure for energy and beyond. The Energy Digitslisation Task Force is going to be reporting back to the Government on this governance framework on its pillars, and there needs to be an understanding of open source software.

The opportunity for the UK energy sector is transformation optimisation, it’s really absolutely crucial to net zero.

About Icebreaker One

Announced at Davos in 2020, Icebreaker One brings together data sources and users to facilitate reaching net zero carbon emissions. Open-source software and open data are critical to the solution. Gavin Starks, Founder and CEO, brings a unique perspective to Icebreaker One. His open-source roots go back to the origins of the World Wide Web itself, and he has decades of experience in the establishment of common data infrastructure standards, most notably in setting the foundations for Open Banking in the UK and as founding CEO of the Open Data Institute. We spoke to him to find out more about why Icebreaker One adopts an open source approach, and why others should do the same in energy.

Open source and sustainability

Open source is embedded in the very fabric of the organisation and its sustainability mission. Gavin stresses, “Everything we’re doing uses copious amounts of open source software.” Everything we produce is also published as open by default on their websites and services such as Github.

Imagine a decision-maker could mandate net-zero, continuously measure progress and act to adapt incentives in a timely, credible manner. The data required to give force to leadership mandates for climate-friendly policies and targets is likely to grow exponentially in the near future and open source can help. Icebreaker One’s own procurement processes include criteria devoted to commitments not only to net zero and to open licensing.

Part of how open is used to instrument net-zero is seen in the development of open standards – frameworks for robust and secure environmental and financial data sharing that can help organisations to understand how best to use data as a continuous flow of evidence that informs positive action.

About ScottishPower

ScottishPower is the first integrated energy company in the UK to generate 100% green electricity. It’s part of the Iberdrola Group, one of the world’s largest integrated utility companies and a world leader in wind energy. They recently established a brand new digital services capability in the IT function to allow the company to keep pace with the broader digital transformation happening in the energy sector. Open source will continue to play a role in the future of engineering at ScottishPower. When it comes to internal engineering, open source software (notably Java platforms) is already used throughout their architectural footprint.

Open source as part of a broader upskill

ScottishPower are investing heavily in upskilling their employees. Educational tools found on online learning platforms are being deployed including open source software content, such as Python, which is used extensively across the company. The need for IT proficiency throughout the organisation will only increase further.

Douglas explains that “the boundaries of IT are becoming very blurred…many more people in the organisation will be engineering software in the future in comparison to what happens today and used to happen”. Citizen data scientists, for ex-ample, are already using Python to develop their latest models.

About RCPCH

The RCPCH takes a holistic view of patient health and wellbeing, representing clinicians who work across the care of babies, children and adolescents. They provide career support for their members, as well as leadership and advocacy to government and the health authorities, and a range of programmes to improve child health. Recently they launched a digital version of the growth charts which are familiar to British parents as core elements of the Red Book, using open source to accurately calculate centiles for a child’s height, weight, BMI and head circumference.

Seeing an opportunity: the context for Digital Growth Charts API

Although we often think of the NHS as a single entity, its organisation and governance are relatively federated, and the IT systems which support it are themselves fragmented. The majority of services are provided by a handful of large providers such as Epic and Cerner, who offer a range of electronic healthcare record (EHR) packages. However, there are specific use cases – such as an accurate digital growth curve tool – where this market structure does not naturally support commercial development as it would – for instance – in A&E triage and processing. Simon and his colleagues represent an intriguing type of open source entrepreneur – the expert clinician and coder.

Open source in action

By embracing open source, the RCPCH[1] has been able to make faster progress in modernising the underlying thinking for this important diagnostic tool. The team’s ways of working have been agile and over the last 18 months they have gone from just a concept to MVP to a stabilised service for customers whereby accurate assessments of growth against normalised standards are delivered straight to the user and can be easily integrated into other interfaces simply and cheaply.

The team uses GitHub to house their repositories, of which they have seven. A repository allows for dynamic conversation which can be scrutinized more thoroughly as every decision is made publicly. Different bits of code are tied to a single slot that is pasted in Kanban boards. Simon observes “this is the first time I’ve really seen the value of open source software”.

Digital Growth Charts API in practice: challenges and opportunities

The valuable characteristics of this open source software project have been about transparency as much as enlisting help through collaboration. Simon explains that, like him, a number of clinicians have been able to contribute to parts of the project alongside their full-time work precisely because of the open source model he and his colleagues have employed. A further enabler for this specific, single-use case approach in terms of medical data is that the tool does not require the storage of patient data – it is at heart a piece of code to act as a sophisticated calculator.

About NHSX

Founded in 2019, NHSX, a joint unit of NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care, supports efforts to digitise services and transform how the UK health sector leverages technology for seamless patient experiences. Developing open source software and code to help do this, NHSX leads digital transformation through products, policy and standards.

Value alignment: Open source and NHSX

Andrew Harding, Open Tech Lead, believes open source software is “where we want to be”, allowing stakeholders to share ideas, solve problems, compare solutions, iterate and amend, while decreasing the burden of development and “making more use of the work we do in house.” Through knowledge sharing, NHSX creates solutions that work across multiple trusts; a step towards solving the problem of interoperability and avoiding lock in.

They’ve open-sourced both Covid apps, the new ‘Admit Me’, ‘Data Lens’ and ‘Long Stayer’ tools, and more are yet to come.

With the use of open source software comes a need for creating adequate and uniform standards as well as best practices within the healthcare sector, especially when it comes to licensing and copyright. As Andrew says, “What we’re trying to get to is a shared culture, shared standards. And through those shared standards, a system that works better and more efficiently for patients.”

Since its inception two years ago, there’s been a movement within NHSX to increase open policy development and best practices for open source software.

Confidence and Trust

Andrew believes that if we want to see usage and adoption of open source increase, we need to build trust in its value and build the confidence of both users and engineers in its deployment. He sees that one way to build trust is through centralised policy: “If I can say to workers across the NHS, here are the licenses you can use, here are routes to success that other people across the system have used, here’s your best practices, our GitHub policies… if I can give them all of those tools, then they can go to their own local IT teams, their Boards, they can go to anyone who has authority over how they do business locally and say, “Look, we’ve got a mandate, we’ve got permission, we’ve got national commitments in the new Data Strategy, we’ve got specifically written policy and guidance on how to make this work.”

This goes hand in hand with enabling enthusiasm, education and the confidence to use the tools. Investing the time, energy and resources in supporting those people who can be easily encouraged to use open source software is a critical step forward.

Healthcare: a glimpse ahead

The healthcare sector has a lot of will and desire to make things more open, more accessible, more shareable and although there is a lot of distance to be covered, it is on the right path. As Andrew sums it up, “The NHS has over 120 GitHub repositories, and thousands of analysts across our institutions, many unfortunately in silos. Open ways of working enable them to collaborate, increase efficiency, reduce repetition, and ultimately lead to better outcomes for patients. It’s a clear win.”

About Mindwave Ventures

Mindwave Ventures was established to improve the user experience in digital healthcare. It’s one of the leading, NHS approved, Personal Health Record (PHR)/Patient Portal developers in the UK, working with more than eight Trusts. Mindwave’s PHR, Maia, collates a patient’s health information into an easily manageable portal.

Open source software in Mindwave: PHRs

Maia is built as a modular platform, meaning its modules can be easily shared or swapped. It forms a repeatable foundation for each additional implementation. It is available as open source software, thus making it cost effective for new NHS organisations. Using open source software, PHR’s are developed for NHS organisations, taking into account their localised requirements, clinical services and desired user experience.

Software developers at Mindwave rely on open source software. For example, for their front end development they are increasingly using Reactjs and all of their databases are on Postgres. Kumar notes that using open source software enables developers at Mindwave to “learn and improve as [we] go along”. Part of the beauty of creating Maia using open source software is that code can continue to be developed iteratively.

Open source: maximising efficiency

When a new variation of PHR is created for an NHS organisation, modifications that may suit a previously established one can be incorporated at very little additional cost. Using open source software allows for the creation of customised solutions for each trust building on the work done for others. Instead of creating things as a single entity, using open source to build in a modular way makes it easy to reuse – therefore increasing efficiency. Kumar sees using open source as a no-brainer: “as soon as you’re reusing 60-80%, it’s obvious that open source should be your favoured option”.

Going forward: why open source makes sense for the future of digital healthcare Kumar thinks that it’s important to use open source to facilitate collaboration. This, in turn, promotes ongoing development in the digital healthcare space. “Otherwise,” Kumar stresses, “we are going to end up with a cluster of applications all doing the same thing.

What’s the point of having ten different flavours of PHRs that are incomtible when an eco-system can be developed?” It was possible to make Maia into a product as its previous iterations were developed as open source. Kumar explains that “underneath, all the same base code was used and set up as open source. We can take the best of everything and refresh and modernise it and make it available newer clients”. In a fast moving, increasingly digital world, using open source in order to customise offerings, will help drive innovative, scalable and affordable digital transformation in healthcare.

About DHCW

Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) are responsible for the digital transformation efforts for healthcare in Wales and delivering programmes to facilitate modern technology-enabled healthcare. One such programme is the expansion of digital patient records by creating a world-leading national data resource.

This is no mean feat; the Welsh NHS is made up of hundreds of legacy applications that are not connected. DHCW’s task of centralising these systems has been made considerably easier through their use of open source software.

DHCW is a special health authority within the NHS who design and create corporate, digital and patient facing applications. They use open source software solution Apache Solr in a clinical setting at DHCW.

Apache Solr

Solr provides distributed indexing, replication and load-balanced querying, centralised configuration, automated failover and recovery… and more. The implementation at DHCW is impressive: there are eight servers divided into four nodes – meaning there are 32 nodes served with upwards of 20 million documents.

As Paul notes, Solr is “quite challenging to learn…it takes a good few months to get your head around all the different moving parts”. The success of Solr at DHCW comes from the extensive support and learning they received through its implementation and ongoing use, with its value including both collaboration and skills development in its use.

Using open source with confidence: third-party support and consultation

Paul explains that due diligence is paramount when incorporating new technologies and this is particularly so in healthcare. Solr, like any other product, had to be approved as complying with their internal processes. In this instance they worked with a third party consultant and support service, OpenSource Connections to give DHCW the confidence to use the application. Solr could be implemented with assurance that they had the support behind them for it to function effectively and in tandem with learning and skills development internally to be able to maintain it going forward.

Adapting open source to suit DHCW

The Corporate Application team have become so well versed in Solr that they have been able to implement their own alternative instances of the application for different areas of their business. They have used a smaller implementation of Solr to index other websites for the Welsh NHS organisation. This is one of the true values to the NHS in using open source software, the ability to freely scale and replicate.

Dr. Jennifer Barth

Dr Jennifer Barth is an experienced ethnographer and social researcher, with a DPhil from the University of Oxford. Her work is informed by empirical research on the intersections of emerging technologies and socioeconomic change. She provides companies with thought leadership and media engagement opportunities on global issues impacting and shaping our current and future socio-cultural lives.

Smoothmedia

Smoothmedia looks beyond the surface and behind the curtain of the fundamental innovations and trends shaping our society, markets, culture, and values. We are academics and researchers looking at the intersections of emerging technology and socioeconomic impact, producing independent research for thought leadership and PR.

Smoothmedia’s mission is to share and grow knowledge about everyday lives. We want to understand the past, present, and future of human interaction with emerging technologies and socioeconomic changes—from behaviour to context, nature to nurture, origin to experiences—so we can help our clients engage their clients and public imagination.

Amanda Brock

Amanda Brock is CEO of OpenUK and sits on a number of Boards and Advisory Boards, including the UK Cabinet Office Open Standards Board, the UK Governments Energy Sector Digitalisation Task Force Advisory Board, KDE Advisory Board, and the Oasis Standards Body Open Projects Advisory. She is the Editor of Open Source Law, Policy and Practise Second Edition to be published in 2022 by Oxford University Press, with open access sponsored by the Vietsch Foundation and a founding editor of the Journal of Open Law, Technology and Society. She speaks and writes extensively on technology and open source.

OpenUK

OpenUK is the organisation for the business of Open Technology in the UK, being open source software, open source hardware and open data. As an industry organisation, OpenUK gives its participants greater influence than they could ever achieve alone. Open UK’s purpose is to promote UK leadership and global collaboration in Open Technology.

OpenUK is committed to promoting UK leadership in Open Technology and supporting collaboration between businesses, public sector organisations, government and communities to expand the opportunities available to all around Open Technology on a global basis. OpenUK creates a visible Open Technology community in the UK, and uses that community’s impact to ensure that the UK’s laws and policies work for Open Technology whilst encouraging the future community in the business of Open Technology through learning.

OpenUK is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, company number 11209475 with its registered office at 75 Kenton Street, St Pancras, London WC1N 1NN, www.openuk.uk, contact admin@openuk.uk