Open Source Volunteers Are Like the Allen Key in a Flat-pack Bookcase: Vital But Unappreciated

Emma Davidson at EO26

Greetings from day three of Everything Open 2026 at University of Canberra. Emma is Program Director of IDEATE & started with a plea for industry to support their open source workers, describing them as like the allen keys in a flat-pack bookcase, pointing out that IKEA depends on open source software: She went onto propose 0.3% of the AUKUS funding be put into open source internships. Emma described AUKUS as a project for "imaginary nuclear submarines". She went on to praise the work of the Open Source Institute at University of Canberra, before outlining ANU Techlauncher program. Emma then moved on to the main theme of her talk about how to get a more diverse technology workforce and IDEATE's role in creating a more diverse university student body.

This being a Linux conference, apart from geopolitics,  Emma was asked which font she used for her slides. ;-)

My picks for the rest of the day:10:45AM  RepRapMicron - The Next Small Thing In 3D Printing, Vik Olliver

11:40AM So You've Decided to Build It Yourself, Leesa Ward

1:30PM Abstracting FPGAs in Python for fun and radio astronomy, Andrew Bolin

2:25PM Open Australia: Who we are, what we do, and what's in it for you., Donna Benjamin

3:45PM Everything Open Everywhere All At Once, Steven De Costa
4:45PM Lightning Talks