Open Source Initiative (OSI)

In October, the OSI hosted the State of the Source Track at All Things Open Conference designed to connect developers with the big policy conversations shaping our ecosystem. Pamela Chestek, emeritus OSI Board member, opened the track with Licensing 201, an advanced but practical look at how licenses get approved and why the right choice matters for community health.

With Cybersecurity Awareness Month drawing to a close, we want to highlight two OASIS initiatives that are shaping a safer digital future, helping organizations build AI that’s secure, transparent, and resilient: ▶️The Coalition for Secure AI (CoSAI) Open Project: Defining best practices and frameworks for secure AI development and deployment. https://lnkd.in/etwdjh7t ▶️The Data Provenance Standards Technical Committee (DPS TC): Advancing data transparency, accountability, and trust across the data lifecycle. https://lnkd.in/erV5-Azu #AI #DataProvenance #DPS #SecureAI #CoSAI #TrustworthyAI #opensource #openstandards #CyberAwarenessMonth #OASIS

Using FreeBSD shouldn’t be scary 🎃 Every reliable update, enhancement, and supported platform depends on the work of the FreeBSD community — and the support that makes that work possible. When you donate to the FreeBSD Foundation, you help: - Strengthen FreeBSD’s security and long-term sustainability - Improve the systems and infrastructure that keep development moving - Expand resources and education for new and experienced users alike - Ensure FreeBSD remains freely available for all Your contribution plays a direct role in keeping FreeBSD stable, modern, and trusted. Support the work that keeps FreeBSD running smoothly: https://buff.ly/sCRQ7ca #FreeBSD #OpenSource #Donate #FreeBSDFoundation #halloween

At GitHub Universe, I sat down with Alyssa Wright Oscar V. and Natali Vlatko to talk about what happens when open source meets AI inside an organization. TL;DR: OSPOs have always been the bridge between open source innovation and responsibility. Now that AI is changing how we write, review, and release code, that bridge matters more than ever. We’re already seeing OSPOs use AI to automate work from license checks, dependency health, to compliance reviews so people can spend more time on collaboration and community. If you want to keep the conversation going, check out the many OSPO resources available including the TODO (OSPO) Group Awesome OSPO tools for OSS management and AI workflows at https://lnkd.in/gHrmZDqB You can review the summary and takeaways from our talk at https://lnkd.in/g9pKNxwN

Katie Steen-James: As the full-time Senior U.S. Policy Manager, my role at OSI is to educate policymakers about the benefits of Open Source software, track policy developments at the state and federal level, and ultimately, ensure that Open Source developers can continue doing their work. Concerns of security in the software supply chain and the rise of AI have seeded policy proposals that have the potential to impact Open Source developers in new ways or in ways that are hard to predict. That’s why now, more than ever, the Open Source community should be at the table when these proposals are being discussed to make sure those developing the policy understand Open Source software development and its existence in the vast majority of technology.

With just three weeks to go until the 2025 OFA Symposium, we’re excited to share more details about the third session of our conference! On Day 2 of the OFA Symposium (19 November) we will explore Track 3: Economic Impact of Open, running from 09:30 to 12:30. This track will examine the special role of open source software and other open source solutions in fostering competitive markets, digital sovereignty, and economic resilience. Discussions will address investment in open ecosystems, business models for sustainability, and the broader macroeconomic effects of openness. For this track, we are welcoming the following papers and speakers: 🔹09:30-09:50:  Valuing the Invisible: The economic value of Openness (Presented by Jennifer Barth) 🔹09:50-10:10: The Value of Openness: Measuring the Total Benefit of Digital Public Goods (Presented by Gordon LaForge) 🔹10:10-10:30: Bridging the Digital Divide: The Role of Free and Open Source Software in Strengthening Community ISPs (Presented by Nathalia Foditsch (LLM/MPP)) 🔹10:30-10:50: Mapping the Open Source Ecosystem for Climate Science and Sustainable Technology (Presented by Richard Littauer, with Tobias Augspurger ᴾʰᴰ) 🔹11:20-11:40: ThingData: Unlocking Economic Value in the Material Commons through Open Data as a Digital Public Good for SDGs (Presented by Felipe Schmidt Fonseca Ph.D)  🔹11:40-12:00: Standardizing Open Source Impact Metrics: A Framework for Academic Technology Transfer Offices (Presented by Andrew Wichmann) Visit the OFA Symposium website to explore the complete agenda and learn more about this year’s sessions and speakers: https://lnkd.in/dCnR62cK Open Source Initiative (OSI), Open Knowledge Foundation, Digital Public Goods Alliance , Carnegie Mellon University, Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard (D^3), FGV Direito Rio, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, and Technische Universität Berlin.

“Creepin’ Closer!” 🎃 Only a few nights until the OCX and SCaLE Early Bird CFPs close! Don’t let your brilliant open source research ideas turn into cobwebs — submit before they vanish! 🧟 Brain Food Prompt: Have you studied how distributed Apereo communities keep projects alive… or resurrect “dead” contributions? OCX 2026 – Brussels, Europe: Early Bird closes Oct 31 OCX: https://lnkd.in/egcT4Sn6 SCaLE 2026 – Southern California, USA: Early Bird closes Nov 1 SCaLE: https://lnkd.in/eSPDEUaS (Why did the zombie join an open-source project? He loved raising dead code!) 💀 #Apereo #OCX2026 #SCaLE2026 #OpenSource #HigherEd #Halloween #ZombieBrain

What an incredible three days it was at the PyTorch Conference 2025 held at Moscone West in San Francisco. With over 3,000 attendees, the energy and engagement across the main conference and all the co-located events was outstanding. A truly humbling experience. By the numbers: • Speakers: 35 keynote speakers, 139 breakout session speakers, 176 poster session speakers, and 52 co-located event speakers • Sessions: 22 keynotes, 64 breakout sessions, 26 ten-minute lightning talks, approximately 130 posters • Co-Located Program: 3 co-located events, 1 training course, 1 Startup Showcase, 3 Meet the Developers sessions, and 4 Birds of a Feather • Startup Showcase: 12 Startups, 5 VC Judges I want to express my sincere thanks to the Planning and Program Committees for curating such a rich and diverse agenda. The quality of the content selected was exceptional. A special thank you to all of the keynote speakers whose insights helped shape the tone of the conference and sparked so many meaningful conversations across the community. Thank you to Jeremy Howard Percy Liang Nathan Lambert Jim Fan Anima Anandkumar Dawn Song Sergey Levine Ion Stoica Sharon Zhou, PhD Eric Xing Jerry Liu Dylan Patel Noam Brown Mark Saroufim Joseph Spisak Daniel Han and so many more great humans! The co-located events each brought a strong focus to key emerging areas in our ecosystem. The Open Agent Summit highlighted the latest thinking around autonomous AI systems. The Measuring Intelligence Summit facilitated deep discussion on how to define true progress in machine intelligence. The AI Infra Summit brought together leading practitioners working on scaling AI systems in production environments. The Startup Showcase featured some of the most innovative up-and-coming teams in the space and was supported by an excellent judging panel. It was also exciting to see the announcement that Ray contributed by Anyscale is now an official PyTorch Foundation project. This milestone signals major momentum for open AI infrastructure and greater collaboration across the stack. There were simply too many great talks and speakers to mention individually. I want to acknowledge and thank everyone who shared their knowledge, research, tooling, and perspective with the community throughout the conference. But special thanks to Sebastian Raschka, PhD Chip Huyen who commanded huge lines for their book signings. I am already looking forward to the next gathering. PyTorch Conference 2026 will be held at the San Jose Convention Center, running October 19 to 21, 2026. #PyTorchCon PyTorch Robert Nishihara