OpenUK, the Open Technology advocate organisation for Open Data, Open Source Hardware and Open Source Software in the UK, has launched on 31 March 2020 its inaugural Awards for Open Technology companies and projects. The Awards will recognise communities and companies demonstrating best practices around Open Technologies with a ceremony to announce the winners taking place in October 2020.

The OpenUK Awards, sponsored this year by Bristows, are planned to take place at our offices in the Unilever Building on 20th October at 6:00pm. At the ceremony, open source community leader and author of People Powered Jono Bacon will provide the keynote presentation.

The judges for the first OpenUK Awards are:

• Cheryl Hung, Director of Ecosystem, Cloud Native Computing Foundation and Linux Foundation
• Jeni Tennison, CEO of The Open Data Institute
• Chris Lamb, Leader of the Debian Project

“It’s important to recognise all the important strides that UK businesses and organisations are taking around Open Technology with these new Awards – this is an area where the UK community continues to play a vital role in developing new technologies and collaborating as part of international projects. As a sector, we make a huge contribution to the success of the technology sector more widely around the world, whether you measure by financial gain or societal impact. As the UK develops its relationship with the rest of the world heading through 2020, the Open Technology sector has an incredible opportunity to continue that work and to promote UK Leadership in Open Technology,” said Amanda Brock, CEO at OpenUK. “We want to make open technology the default approach to software, hardware and data, and continue that contribution to the world.”

Partner Toby Crick, member of the OpenUK Legal and Policy Committee commented: “As a technology lawyer, I can’t stress enough how important it is to have an ongoing discussion on open tech. We’ve worked with many clients either creating, licensing or using open software and we know very well the challenges and opportunities this brings. Bristows welcomes the collaboration with OpenUK, a great facilitator of conversation and activities around open technology, and we’re a convinced supporter of its many activities.”

The Awards will be made up of five categories:

• Open Data Project or Company
• Open Source Hardware Project or Company
• Open Source Software Project or Company
• Individual Contribution to Open Technology
• Young Person in Open Technology – open to those aged 25 or under

The deadline for entries into the Awards is 12:00pm on 15th June 2020.

The website for more details on the awards and potential entries is https://openuk.uk/openuk-awards-nominations/.
For questions, contact OpenUK on awards@openuk.uk.