2022 is almost over, welcome 2023!

As I’m closing out my first full year as executive director of the Open Source Initiative, I’m amazed by what our small team has accomplished. I’m proud to end the year with a solid 20% growth in revenue from sponsors and an even more impressive increase of the total number of corporate sponsors, to a whopping 51 up from 36 last year! 

But it’s individual members like you who make a difference. The OSI is a charity organization, which means that we always serve the public interest, not corporate sponsors. 

We’re running an end-of-year campaign: you can donate, join as a supporting member or at a professional level if you can afford to donate more.

Your contributions help strengthen the voice of Open Source communities, bolstering representation by an organization independent of corporate influence and with an international perspective.  

We started the year with the objective of putting OSI back in the spotlight of conversations about Open Source and open standards. The investment paid off, with 17 interviews published in publications ranging from Marketplace, Venturebeat to ZDNet and more.

2023 will be a challenging year, with a lot of legislation in Europe and the U.S. hitting the negotiating tables. We’re already working with our Affiliates on the EU Cyber Resilience Act and the US Securing Open Source Software Act. 

More challenges are on the horizon, with legislation about artificial intelligence on both sides of the Atlantic. Open Source is under similar scrutiny in other parts of the world, too. We coordinate with our Affiliate organizations worldwide to monitor those efforts and support their action locally.

In 2023 we will need your help and support – as well as joining in to celebrate the OSI’s 25th anniversary. 

I hope you enjoy this time of the year, spending time with family and friends.

If you missed our series and have some downtime over the break, be sure to check out: 

• Deep Dive: AI podcast series
• Watch the recordings of the panel sessions

Stefano Maffulli
Executive Director, OSI
Follow me on Mastodon

I’ll be taking a short break, but I’m looking forward to chatting with you during informal office hours on Fridays, starting up again on Fridays in 2023.

In this month’s newsletter:

• Engagement on policy & standards
• How the OSI got to Mastodon
• Open Source software started in academic circles, and AI is not different.
• The Fediverse unlocks a world of composable distributed apps
• You take a survey, OSI gets a donation
• Notable Open Source news
• Thanks to our new and renewing sponsors
• Where to meet OSI staff and board members next

Engagement on policy & standards

Deb Bryant gave a talk on “Formalizing Mentorship for Community Health and Professional Growth” at the Linux Foundation Member Summit in the US in early November. The focus was on strengthening the open ecosystem by supporting contributor growth, reducing project burnout, and providing constructive opportunities for companies to contribute to upstream projects. As an invited speaker, she also attended Justin Colannino and Luis Villa’s popular talk, “Are ML Models the New Open Source Projects?” which discussed software licenses, data in training models, and policy discussions. Security in the software industry was also a hot topic among attendees.

A lot of legislative change is coming in Europe, and OSI has been engaging to advocate for Open Source developers. Simon Phipps represented OSI at the bi-annual General Assembly of ETSI, a wireless standards body. He also participated in a European Commission panel on promoting sustainability of Open Source and spoke at two European conferences about the challenges posed by software patents in formal standards. OSI will continue to engage in January over the Cyber Resilience Act and other topics.

You can follow Deb Bryant and Simon Phipps’ work on US and EU-related policy in brief by subscribing to the OSI public-policy mailing list.

The OSI on Mastodon

We’ve got a new official social media channel for the Open Source Initiative on Mastodon. We’ve been working to get a proper, authenticated home in the Fediverse for several months and hope you’ll join us there! Follow OSI on Mastodon. Read the full story of how OSI got on the Fediverse.

Open Source software started in academic circles and AI is not different

Check out our fourth panel discussion on AI, focusing on how academics are sharing datasets and models: What do they need to be able to replicate experiments and improve on their knowledge? What legal obstacles do they find? What social norms prevent collaboration? Full video and transcript on Voices of Open Source.

The Fediverse unlocks a world of composable distributed apps

There’s more to Mastodon than just replacing Twitter. Read all about it on Simon Phipps’ opinion piece.

Take a survey – Raise $$ for OSI

The team at Uffizzi is running a survey to inform an open report on how the software community is thinking about on-demand Preview Environments.

For each completed survey, they’ll donate $5 to the OSI. The survey is completely anonymous and participation is voluntary. Take the survey now!

OSI in the news

In case you missed it, the OSI was featured in this article:

• An article on Marketplace, about Mastodon and federated social networks, with comments by OSI’s executive director on the challenges to moderation on the Fediverse.

And a huge shoutout to all of our new and renewing sponsors

New

• Bright Star Systems – Partner level

Renewing

• Lex Pan Law, LLC
• Cisco Systems

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

Where to meet OSI staff and directors

Conferences are back! Our 2023 travel plans start with:

• FOSDEM, Feb 4-5 in Brussels
• State of Open Con, London, Feb 7-8