Extending the OSI’s reach, together

Members Newsletter – July 2025

In June, OSI staff and board members took our “we’ve got your back” commitment on the road—connecting directly with the global Open Source community to listen, inform, and advocate. From New York to Paris, we saw firsthand the growing momentum behind our shared mission—and the work still ahead.

At UN Open Source Week, we joined global leaders to discuss how Open Source AI can serve the public good. In partnership with the Digital Public Goods Alliance, we led a small workshop to discuss how AI systems can adhere to open standards that prioritize equity, access, and good data stewardship. We also met with UN leadership to advance flexible and inclusive approaches to AI governance that respect privacy and local contexts. Finally, Open Forum for AI presented the importance of openness as a design principle for infrastructure, including the development of AI.

At VivaTech, I participated in a lively panel on European AI sovereignty, arguing that real progress depends on genuine openness—licenses without loopholes, data mining that respects the wills of the creators, and infrastructure rooted in collaboration, not control. Europe has a historic opportunity to lead with values, and Open Source is the lever.

And at OW2con, OSI director of standards and policy Simon Phipps, in collaboration with Patrick Masson, Apereo’s executive director, presented the Open Source AI Definition (OSAID) to a packed room, sparking productive debate, especially around the role of training data in academic and education-focused AI systems. This kind of community feedback is precisely what we need as we refine the OSAID in the future.

These conversations are more than symbolic—they shape the policy, standards, and partnerships that protect and grow the Open Source ecosystem. We’re grateful to each of you who continues to show up, speak up, and build alongside us.

Let’s keep going, together.

Stefano Maffulli

Executive Director, OSI 

I hold weekly office hours on Fridays with OSI members: book time if you want to chat about OSI’s activities, if you want to volunteer or have suggestions.

News from the OSI

Building digital public goods: Reflections from UN Open Source Week 2025

The UN’s Open Source Week in NYC brought people together from around the world to discuss the promise of Open Source and how it can be leveraged to build sustainable digital public goods and infrastructure. The week included side events focused on openness and AI and two full days at the UN dedicated to Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) and Digital Public Infrastructure.

Other highlights

OSI in the news

Forging A Responsible, Secure Way Forward For Open-Source AI

Article from Forbes

Before diving into what an open approach to AI looks like in practice, we must first understand what “open-source AI” really means. Defining it is a complex and evolving effort involving plenty of debate, but creating a standard is helpful for providing clear guidelines, promoting transparency and trust, and accelerating innovation and collaboration. One formal definition that has emerged comes from the Open Source Initiative (OSI): the Open Source AI Definition (OSAID), which is a work in progress that we endorse.

Other highlights

Other news

News from OSI affiliates and partners

Articles from Opensource.net

Survey

DPGA Global Open Source Policies & Practices Survey

The OSI and the DPGA, in coordination with 24 partners, has launched the Global Open-Source Policies & Practices Survey to map the current use of open-source-first approaches across governments and public-interest institutions.

Events

Upcoming events

Thanks to our sponsors

New sponsors and renewals

Featured: Bloomberg’s insights shared at the Open Source Summit NA 2025: The Power of “AND”: At Bloomberg, Open Source and Corporate Philanthropy Work Hand-in-Hand.

Interested in sponsoring, or partnering with, the OSI? Please see our Sponsorship Prospectus and our Annual Report. Please contact the OSI to find out more about how your company can promote open source development, communities and software.

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