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September 2024 Members Newsletter

It’s been a busy couple of months, and things are going to stay that way as we approach All Things Open in October. Version 0.0.9 of the Open Source AI Definition has been released after collecting months of community feedback.

We’re continuing our march towards a stable release by the end of October 2024, at All Things Open. Get involved by joining the discussion on the forum, finding OSI staff around the world, and online at the weekly town halls. The community continues iterating through drafts after meeting diverse stakeholders at the worldwide roadshow, collecting feedback and carefully looking for new arguments in dissenting opinions. All thanks to a grant by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. We also need to decide how to best address the reviews of new licenses for datasets, documentation and the agreements governing model parameters. 

The lively conversations will continue at conferences, town halls, and online. The first two stops were at AI_dev and Open Source Congress. Other events are planned to take place in Africa, South America, Europe and North America.

On a separate delightful note, the Open Source community got some welcome news on August 29, as Elastic returned to the community by adding the AGPL licensing option for Elasticsearch and Kibana. This decision is confirmation that shipping software with licenses that comply with the Open Source Definition is valuable—to the maker, to the customer, and to the user. Elastic’s choice of a strong copyleft license signals the continuing importance of that license and its dual effect: one, it’s designed to preserve the user’s freedoms downstream, and two, it also grants strong control over the project by the single-vendor developers.

We’re encouraged to see Elastic return to the Open Source community. And who knows… maybe others will follow suit!

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

Community input drives the new draft of the Open Source AI Definition

From the Research and Advocacy program

The Open Source AI Definition v0.0.9 has been released and collaboration continues at in-person events and in the online forums. Read what changes have been made, what to do next and how to get involved. Read more.

Three things I learned at KubeCon + AI_Dev China 2024

From the Research and Advocacy program

KubeCon China 2024 was a whirlwind of innovation, community and technical deep dives. As it often happens at these community events, I was blown away by the energy, enthusiasm and sheer amount of knowledge being shared. Read more.

Highlights from our participation at Open Source Congress

From the Research and Advocacy program

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) proudly participated in the Open Source Congress 2024, held from August 25-27 in Beijing, China. This event was a pivotal gathering for key individuals in the Open Source nonprofit community, aiming to foster collaboration, innovation, and strategic development within the ecosystem. Read more.

OSI in the news

Elasticsearch is open source, again

OSI at elastic.co

“Being able to call Elasticsearch and Kibana Open Source again is pure joy.” — Shay Banon, Elastic Founder and CTO. Read more.

Meta is accused of bullying the open source community

OSI at The Economist

Purists are pushing back against Meta’s efforts to set its own standard on the definition of open-source AI. Stefano Maffulli, head of the OSI, says Mr Zuckerberg “is really bullying the industry to follow his lead”. Read more.

Debate over “open source AI” term brings new push to formalize definition

OSI at Ars Technica

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) recently unveiled its latest draft definition for “open source AI,” aiming to clarify the ambiguous use of the term in the fast-moving field. The move comes as some companies like Meta release trained AI language model weights and code with usage restrictions while using the “open source” label. This has sparked intense debates among free-software advocates about what truly constitutes “open source” in the context of AI. Read more.

Other Highlights

• Open source AI now has a definition. This it what it means and why it’s still tricky (Euro News)
• We’re a big step closer to defining open source AI – but not everyone is happy (ZDNet)
• We finally have a definition for open-source AI (MIT Technology Review)
• We’re a long way from truly open-source AI (Financial Times)
• Like it or not, this open source AI definition take a giant step forward (ZDNet)

Other news

News from OSI affiliates

• Mozilla Foundation: Celebrating An Important Step Forward For Open Source AI
• Python Software Foundation: Python Developers Survey 2023 Results
• OpenJS Foundation: OpenJS Foundation’s Leader Details the Threats to Open Source
• Linux Foundation: How open source is steering AI down the high road

News from OpenSource.net

• ClearlyDefined at SAP: enhancing Open Source license compliance through Open Source data
• Open Source visibility hacks — No icky marketing needed
• So, You Have Your 20-Page Open Source Strategy Doc. Now What?
• Pajamas to profit: Launch your Open Source empire
• Demystifying Open Source as a Business

Voices of the Open Source AI Definition

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is running a series of stories about a few of the people involved in the Open Source AI Definition (OSAID) co-design process.

• Cailean Osborne
• Hailey Schoelkopf
• Deshni Govender
• Jean-Pierre Lorre
• Mark Collier
• Ezequiel Lanza

2024 Generative AI Survey

This survey aims to understand the deployment, use, and challenges of generative AI technologies in organizations and the role of open source in this domain. Take survey here.

Events

Upcoming events

• India FOSS (September 7-8, 2024 – Bengaluru)
• Open Source Summit Europe (September 16-18, 2024 – Vienna)
• Nerdearla Argentina (September 24-28, 2024 – Buenos Aires)
• Hacktoberfest (October – Online)
• SOSS Fusion (October 22-23, 2024 – Atlanta)
• Open Community Experience (October 22-24, 2024 – Mainz)
• All Things Open (October 27-29 – Raleigh)
• Nerdearla Mexico (November 7-9, 2024 – Mexico City)
• OpenForum Academy Symposium (November, 13-14, 2024 – Boston)

CFPs

• SCALE 22x (March 6-9, 2025 – Pasadena)
• Consul Conference (February, 4-6, 2025 – Las Palmas de Gran Canaria)
• Nerdearla Mexico (November 7-9, 2024 – Mexico City)

Thanks to our sponsors

New members and renewals

• Mercado Libre

Interested in sponsoring, or partnering with, the OSI? Please see our Sponsorship Prospectus and our Annual Report. We also have a dedicated prospectus for the Deep Dive: Defining Open Source AI. Please contact the OSI to find out more about how your company can promote open source development, communities and software.

Support OSI by becoming a member!

Let’s build a world where knowledge is freely shared, ideas are nurtured, and innovation knows no bounds! 

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