By Oliver David, Social Media Manager, and Ash Patel, Marketing Specialist, The Open Group
On Tuesday, January 10th, 2023, The Open Group released its first episode of the new podcast series ‘Open Comments’. The series has been created to serve a unique purpose, to host more informal/personal conversations with a wide range of industry experts on topics that we and the speakers are excited to explore in more detail.
In this series, The Open Group will feature a variety of guests from different backgrounds, careers, industries, and areas of expertise to discuss the relevant issues, trends, and history of the areas the expert guests have the most experience. The Open Group is dedicated to using this new platform to have our invitees share their career journeys. Ash and I encourage them to explain how they got to where they are today, the routes they have taken, any training they picked up along the way, and if they have any career advice for those who may be interested in starting their careers or changing them.
Through this informative yet lighthearted podcast, we hope to give you an inside look into a variety of topics with an equal mix of humor and candor. We will be touching on some of the following topics, with many more coming into fruition:
- Diversity/Access to Technology
- Enterprise Architecture
- Finance
- Healthcare
- Human Resources
- Security
- Sustainability
Speakers thus far include: Dr. Chris Harding, Lacibus Ltd., James Scott (CFO) and Debbie Harrop (HR), The Open Group, Paul Homan, Distinguished Engineer, IBM. We have more podcasts coming soon with: Dr. Jason Lee, Healthcare Forum Director for The Open Group, Scott Sloan, Chief Technical Officer, Kyndryl, and Jim Hietala, VP Security and Business Development, The Open Group. Please stay tuned for those releases.
It has been fascinating to learn more about our guest speakers/experts on a more personal level, further than what they are working on in their organizations, or for our Forums, Consortia, or Work Groups. To learn more about their hobbies, passions, professional and personal journeys, and nuggets of advice for those who may use it, the podcast series has been transformed into something we hope you, the audience, will enjoy, and want to listen to further.
The Open Group would like to thank those who have taken valuable time out of their schedules to help us in this venture. And we look forward to working with some new individuals on topics near and dear to us.
Open Comments is available to listen to on many of the world’s most used platforms, including Apple Music, Deezer, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Listen Notes and more. Find us on any of these platforms by searching “Open Comments”.

Oliver David, Social Media Manager, The Open Group. Oliver joined The Open Group in 2018 and manages the various social media platforms for The Open Group and its Forums & Consortia. He also supports PR activities and events of The Open Group. Oliver has a bachelor’s degree in Sports Business Management from The University of Worcester, England. He is based in the United Kingdom.

Ash Patel, Marketing Specialist, joined The Open Group in 2020, initially working in the Certification Team as a Certification Services Agent, before moving into the Marketing Team where he now works on digital communications, content for the staff intranet (O-Zone), SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and analytics. Ash holds a First-Class Bachelor’s Degree in Media Production (BA hons) from Coventry University and has a background in content writing, copy writing, script writing, photo editing, and video editing. He is based in the UK.