Building on Phase Two’s focus on enterprises, this report spotlights the UK-based individuals forming the globally employed open source workforce — the crew of the “Open Source Submarine” under the UK’s digital economy. The first report anywhere to seek to understand this workforce, it analyses GitHub data revealing 31,800 UK contributors and maintainers, explores who they are, what they do and how they work, and makes the case that leveraging open source contribution is how the UK develops missing skills, stems talent flight and builds its future tech sector.
Report Includes:
Introduction and Conclusion
- Introduction — Bringing the Open Source Submarine to the Surface, Amanda Brock, CEO, OpenUK
- Conclusion, Dr Jennifer Barth, Chief Research Officer, OpenUK
Thought Leadership
- Understanding the ‘How’ of Open Source Careers, Rebecca Taylor, Associate Professor and Director of the Work Futures Research Centre, University of Southampton
- Unlocking the Power of Tech, Matt Barker, Global Head of Cloud Native Services, Venafi and Co-founder, Jetstack
Spotlights and Case Studies
- Spotlight on Developers: Liz Rice, Chief Open Source Officer, Isovalent and Mike McQuaid, Homebrew
- Case Study: Cloud Native Computing Foundation, Chris Aniszczyk, CTO, CNCF
- Case Study: Civo, Kunal Kushwaha, Developer Relations Manager
Data and Survey
- The UK’s open source workforce: GitHub data, contributor locations and analysis of contribution levels
- The OpenUK 2023 Survey outputs on skills: ICT professionals, recruitment, shifting skills, public sector needs, and inbound talent post-Brexit
- The role of open source software in the UK tech sector: the skills gap, geographical hubs, remote working and international employment
Executive Summary
The Open Source Submarine surfaces
- The first report to map the UK’s open source workforce: 31,800 UK contributors and maintainers identified from GitHub data, to be tracked quarterly — a picture no other country has
- These individuals contributed 27% of UK Tech Sector GVA in 2022, yet remain largely invisible to their home country while being sought-after employees of Bay Area tech
Skills through contribution
- Open source contribution builds a “living CV” on GitHub: as Greg Kroah-Hartman puts it, “If you get five commits in the [Linux] kernel you will get offered the job”
- Contribution offers hands-on experience, mentoring and skills development that formal teaching lacks — and access to highly paid international remote employment from anywhere in the UK with connectivity
What the UK must do
- Get to know its open source workforce and leverage it: retain talent through remote international work, develop commercialisation skills (still a Bay Area strength), and use contribution to diversify the future tech workforce
- The UK is number one in Europe by developers and lines of code contributed — a foundation for the “next Silicon Valley” ambition
State of Open: “Skills or Bust” Documentary
State of Open: The UK in 2023 Report Launch
OpenUK Annual Survey
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