Favorite Pausing the 2026 Board Election Cycle to Improve How OSI Selects Directors and Hears the Community Over a decade ago, OSI introduced an experiment in non-profit governance: a public board election process. We wanted the board composition to be more representative of the broad community we serve, and this process seemed like a real,…
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Open Source Software, Public Policy, and the Stakes of Getting It Right
Favorite Open Source software plays a central role in global innovation, research, and economic growth. That statement is familiar to anyone working in technology, but the scale of its impact is still startling. A 2024 Harvard-backed study estimates that the demand-side value of the Open Source ecosystem is approximately $8.8 trillion, and that companies would…
Top 50 Open Source Conferences in 2026
Favorite At the Open Source Initiative (OSI), we track a wide range of Open Source conferences, including events that intersect with AI, cloud, cybersecurity, and policy. Around the world, conferences bring together maintainers, developers, contributors, policymakers, researchers, legal experts, and organizations working on shared digital infrastructure. Below is a chronological overview of the top 50+…
Carrying Open Collaboration into the Year Ahead
Favorite Members Newsletter – January 2026 Dear OSI supporters, The New Year brings both reflection and a forward look to the months ahead for OSI. I can’t say I subscribe to the practice of making new year resolutions, but I will say for me it’s a time of deepening resolve to seeing important ideas through,…
Open Policy Alliance Welcomes the Open Source Technology Improvement Fund as New Member
Favorite The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is pleased to welcome the Open Source Technology Improvement Fund (OSTIF) to the Open Policy Alliance. The Open Policy Alliance (OPA) was started in 2023 to bring together nonprofit Open Source community members to better understand and contribute to the changing landscape of public policy. OSTIF is a nonprofit…
Top Open Source licenses in 2025
Favorite The Open Source Initiative (OSI) serves as the premier resource for millions of visitors seeking essential information about OSI-Approved licenses. The enriched license pages go beyond basic descriptions, incorporating relevant metadata to provide deeper insights and better support for Open Source users, developers, and organizations. The most popular licenses include the MIT license, Apache…
Celebrating Generosity and Growth in the OSI Community
Favorite Members Newsletter – December 2025 Dear OSI supporters, As we reach the final weeks of the year, I find myself reflecting on a season that invites both gratitude and giving, two values that feel especially resonant for our community. Serving as Interim Executive Director these past months has only deepened my appreciation for the…
Open Source Without Borders: Reflections from COSCon’25
Favorite Last week, I had the honor of delivering the opening keynote at the China Open Source Conference (COSCon’25) in Beijing, as Kaiyuanshe celebrated its 10th anniversary. Standing before a community that this year is witnessing a “Deepseek moment” driven by open innovation was both humbling and inspiring. The conference offered rich opportunities for engagement:…
DPGA’s Annual Members Meeting: Advancing Open Source & DPGs for the Public Good
Favorite This past month, the Open Source Initiative (OSI) participated in the Digital Public Goods Alliance’s fourth Annual Members Meeting (AMM) in Brasília, an energizing gathering hosted in partnership with the Government of Brazil. The event marked the first AMM held in South America and brought together more than a hundred representatives from governments, multilateral…
Patents and Open Source: Understanding the Risks and Available Solutions
Favorite Why Patents Licenses Matter: The Benefits of Explicitness Although most people think of Open Source licenses as primarily creatures of copyright law, patent considerations also come into play any time one is choosing to license software (or any other technology or content) under an Open Source license. One of the first articulations of the…