James McLeod: Open Source Communities, Hackathons, and Why Open Source Opens Doors

In this episode of Risk-First: Stars of Software, Rob Moffat talks with James McLeod, Open Source Lead at NatWest Group, FINOS board member, and organiser of London JS. 

James has spent years at the intersection of enterprise technology and grassroots developer communities — helping banks engage with open source while also building one of London’s best-known JavaScript meetups. Before NatWest, he worked directly within FINOS helping financial institutions collaborate through open source, standards, and shared engineering practices.

The conversation explores how open source communities form around uncertainty, why meetups and hackathons matter far more than most organisations realise, and how the current explosion of AI tooling mirrors the chaos and creativity of the early JavaScript ecosystem.

Along the way, Rob and James dive into:

• How the rise of React, Node.js, npm, and frontend frameworks created a “primordial soup” developers had to collectively figure out together 
• Why London JS was created to help developers learn collaboratively rather than depend on individual experts 
• The importance of creating communities where people can safely experiment, fail, and learn in public 
• Why meetups act as “distilled serendipity” — compressing useful collisions between people and ideas
• How open source communities help reduce dependency on proprietary ecosystems and centralized knowledge
• Why hackathons are valuable not just for innovation, but for exposing firms to external thinking and new technologies 
• The challenge of maintaining momentum after hackathons end and preventing ideas from “rotting in a repo” 
• How open source participation helps organisations avoid becoming technologically entrenched 
• Why enterprises often misunderstand open source as purely an IP issue instead of a collaborative engineering model 
• James’ experiences moving from highly proprietary Microsoft ecosystems into open source development cultures 
• How AI today feels similar to the early React ecosystem: lots of tools, rapid change, and nobody really knowing the “correct” answers yet 
• Why AI communities need openness, shared learning, and emotional intelligence — especially when many developers are anxious about the future of work 
• The idea that “open source opens doors” — creating careers, friendships, startups, and opportunities far beyond code itself

Links

London JS
https://www.meetup.com/london-js/
London-based JavaScript and frontend development community bringing together developers, speakers, and technology enthusiasts.

FINOS (Fintech Open Source Foundation)
https://www.finos.org
Foundation enabling collaboration on open source projects and standards across financial services.

NatWest Group
https://www.natwestgroup.com
UK banking group active in open source collaboration and FINOS initiatives.