Business Talk Magazine

Open source is rapidly becoming the de facto software development approach. If you work in technology, you will undoubtedly use open source software at some point in your career. 

Amanda Brock, Chief Executive of OpenUK, says that many people recognize the value of open source from a technology standpoint, however, open source has had a far-reaching influence on people, cultures, and communities. 

OpenUK is a unique and progressive organization. Having recognized the need to combine the three opens, open source software, open hardware, and open data, OpenUK is the first organisation in this space to formally recognize the need for this amalgamation.

As Amanda says, “in 2021 data is at the heart of everything we do in technology. The lines between Software and Hardware are increasingly blurred. My Board believed that by pulling together the three opens we were able to capture the gambit of Open Technology.”

She says that her team also realized that the UK is not only the leading country in Europe in terms of its contribution to open source software, but also has a very unique position.  The UK not only has homegrown companies in this space, but many skilled and talented individuals based in the UK who are working for international companies or working for non-technology businesses as open source software adoption becomes more and more mainstream. This breadth of employment is why OpenUK is about the business of open technology, bringing all of these people together.

The Rise and Rise of Open Source

Business migration to open source is increasing, as many businesses, large and small, turn to open source amid difficult economic circumstances. Despite the ongoing changes in workforce and operations caused by the pandemic, open source is supporting business and industry in lowering costs and improving their ability to innovate and collaborate.

“This year we have worked on a Report, State of Open: The UK in 2021,” says Amanda. “The report shows our sectoral contribution is up to £43.1bn a year to UK GDP.”  Amanda believes that the actual figures are much higher and were limited by the data available.

Phase 2 of a survey shared on 7 July surveyed almost 300 UK companies showed that 89% of them are running open source software in their businesses. 

“II can’t wait for us to get to Phase Three in October, when we will be looking at how to value the revenue generated and the non-financial and non-obvious benefits of open source software like collaboration, skills development and improved sustainability.” says Amanda.  

Amanda believes that in reality to make technology sustainable, it must be open and conform with the Sustainable Development Goals and Digital Development Principles. This technology may be reused and recycled to enable the Member States to scale it. 

“We take Sustainability very seriously and this year appointed open source expert and sustainability entrepreneur Cristian Parrino as our Chief Sustainability Officer, ” she shares. We have just shared our first Sustainability Policy and look forward to building our measures and metrics around this. 

Looking forward

The team at OpenUK will also be sharing some of their work on Sustainability and Open Technology at COP26. Amanda is grateful to their Sponsor Federated Hermes, “ we will be hosting and Open Technology and Sustainability Day at the Skypark Fringe (the nearest venue to the main COP26 event where the world leaders will be meeting) on 11 November. One of the highlights will be our sharing the Open Technology Blueprint for the Data Centre of the Future that we are collaborating on.”  

OpenUK is building the Blueprint with a number of international and UK partners, including IT Renew and the Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance. The vision uses the three opens, building the technology on open hardware, running open-source software, and making as much of the data as possible open. Doing this dramatically decreases hardware requirements and facilitates a move towards the carbon negative data centre.  Of course, it will use sustainable energy sources and we hope to put the heat and generated by it back into the local District for the benefit of local communities whether in reduced bills or in heating local projects like swimming pools and green houses. 

Conclusion

Open source is gaining traction across the board, not only in operating systems but in every tier of the technological stack, including the database layer. Many people are replacing outdated software with open source software because it offers cutting edge innovation great stability and robustness. Today, there is a strong commercial open source ecosystem, with corporations increasingly devoting IT resources to contribute and participate to open source projects. Communities and businesses are now collaborating sometimes in coopetition. This accelerates the development and acceptance of open source software. 

Meet Amanda Brock – The woman who is reinventing open source technology

Amanda Brock is the CEO and Chief Policy Officer of OpenUK. She became CEO, in 2019 and has reinvented the organization with insightful and imaginative leadership to build an innovative and diverse organisation. 

Amanda grew up in Scotland and was the first in her family to attend University, going on to achieve three law degrees from the Universities of Glasgow, New York University, and Queen Mary, the University of London. She is also the author of two editions of her first book, EBusiness: The Practical Guide to the Laws and has edited her second book, Open Source: Law, Policy and Practice which will be published towards the end of 2021 by Oxford University Press. 

Prior to this position, Amanda worked as a lawyer for 25 years, 20 of them in-house for a variety of companies. She created and led in house legal divisions for the majority of her professional career including as General Counsel of the legal team at open source software company Canonical.  She credits her broad-ranging legal career as the basis of her ability to lead on Policy whilst running the organisation in her role as CEO. 

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