The vital role of Open Source maintainers facing the Cyber Resilience Act

This year’s Maintainer Month feels different given what’s happening with the European Cyber Resilience Act. Their role is under more pressure than usual and yet, it’s often misunderstood. 

Open Source maintainers are the cornerstone of collaborative software development. They dedicate their time and expertise to ensure the smooth functioning and growth of Open Source projects. As gatekeepers of the code, they review contributions, manage repositories, and maintain the software’s integrity. They provide guidance, mentorship, and support to the community of contributors, fostering an inclusive environment for developers of all levels. Maintainers also serve as community managers, facilitating discussions and resolving conflicts. 

Their voluntary contributions result in significant technological advancements, yet their role as volunteers is too often mischaracterized. Even when paid by corporations, maintainers of Open Source projects do it on a voluntary basis. This is hard to comprehend. Recognizing and supporting their efforts is crucial for the sustainability of projects. 

Open Source maintainers are the driving force behind the success of collaborative software development, and their dedication deserves our appreciation and support.

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.

Stefano Maffulli

Executive Director, OSI

In this month’s Open Source Initiative Newsletter:

• What Is Open Governance? Drafting a charter for an Open Source project
• The importance of Open Source AI and the challenges of liberating data
• Things I learned at Brussels to the Bay: AI governance in the world
• Open Source ensures code remains a part of culture
• Salesforce: Why we sponsor OSI

What Is Open Governance? Drafting a charter for an Open Source project

Building a healthy Open Source community is much more than just choosing an Open Source license for the project. It involves creating a contributing guide, adopting a code of conduct, and establishing an open governance structure that allows all members to actively participate in and contribute to the project.

This article by ClearlyDefined Community Manager Nick Vidal provides a hands on guide on how to establish an open governance structure for an Open Source project. In fact, he is currently in the process of proposing an amendment to the existing charter of the ClearlyDefined project.

The importance of Open Source AI and the challenges of liberating data

The values in Open Source are encapsulated in its Definition, but can be distilled to “autonomy, transparency, frictionless innovation, education, community improvement”. The licenses are a way to enable these things in the face of copyright law that defaults to the contrary. The licenses are not the mechanism to achieve these goals. Instead it’s the community and innovation that they produce when you remove legal barriers to collaboration.

This blog post by Executive Director Stefano Maffulli was taken from a speech given remotely at LLW 2023.

Things I learned at Brussels to the Bay: AI governance in the world

Recently Executive Director Stefano Maffulli participated in Brussels to the Bay: AI governance in the world, a conference hosted by Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) and EU in the US, to learn more about the status of international policies on AI. Here is his takeaway.

Open Source ensures code remains a part of culture

Software is a cultural artifact, a proxy for the law in the lives of every citizen, a tool for control and for freedom depending on the hand that wields it.  It is imperative that all software is open for scrutiny and preserved for posterity. Standards & EU Policy Director Simon Phipps explains further in this blog post.

Salesforce: Why we sponsor OSI

We asked Alyssa Gravelle, Salesforce Senior Program Manager, Open Source to share the organization’s intrinsic ties to Open Source, its reasons for supporting the Open Source Initiative, and its hopes for the Open Source movement. Here’s what she said.

Are you interested in sponsoring or partnering with the OSI? Contact us to find out more about how your organization can promote open source development, communities and software

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