OpenUK: Ponder procurement & policy perfection, please
Widely-liked open source group OpenUK this week detailed more of its State of Open: The UK In 2024 analysis.
As the non-profit organisation representing the UK’s open technology sector, OpenUK says that it has looked at the factors in any given industry market that shape the success of open source. It has also concentrated on analysing what enables community development around open source public sector releases and the role of procurement in successful development work.
The report covers the UK’s current position in the global open source marketplace – after many years leading the European contribution to open source software in general, that position is now under threat.
Why so?
Because governments in France and Germany have expanded their investment and support for open source software development and contributions in recent times.
“The UK has contributed a huge amount to the technologies and infrastructure that underpin today’s economy. But markets do not stand still – other countries in Europe have increased their level of investment and incentives, putting the UK’s leadership position in jeopardy in future,” explained Amanda Brock, CEO at OpenUK.
Brock says that in this year’s report, the organisations details the considerations to be dealt with for the new UK government to support open source more effectively generating better returns on investment from any new projects, whether those are public sector organisations using open source or releasing new software as open source for others to use and importantly ensuring its adoption and maintenance.
This, she says, is particularly vital for public sector AI developments that aim to deliver on digital public good goals.”
Governance & regulatory understanding
Dr. Jennifer Barth, research director at OpenUK and founder of Symmetry thinks that as open source software reshapes industries, it also presents challenges that require careful governance and regulatory understanding.
“Unlike proprietary software, open source software operates through open licensing, decentralised contribution and community-driven management, which can create complexity in legal and operational standards,” said Barth. “Successful open source software adoption is contingent on comprehending the interplay of governance, technology, and community. For legislators and market participants alike, a nuanced understanding of open source software is essential, as this ecosystem relies on transparency, the protection of intellectual property, and an ethos of equitable use.”
Four use cases
As part of the report, OpenUK has gathered four use cases that detail innovations and best practices in open source:
- The UK AI Safety Institute’s Inspect Testing Platform supports AI safety testing and collaboration among researchers, with an open source model encouraging more widespread participation and reduced barriers to entry
- How standardising healthcare records with OpenEHR using open source reduces the fragmentation of healthcare data, improves global research collaboration, and overcomes potential data siloes or lock-in
- The British Library has adopted an open source and open standard approach to make collections more accessible for researchers, as well as increasing the Library’s market share
- BT Group and Canonical are using open source to modernise and innovate around 5G networks, based on the telco-grade distribution of OpenStack to deliver a software-defined network