Members Newsletter – July 2025

In June, OSI staff and board members took our “we’ve got your back” commitment on the road—connecting directly with the global Open Source community to listen, inform, and advocate. From New York to Paris, we saw firsthand the growing momentum behind our shared mission—and the work still ahead.

At UN Open Source Week, we joined global leaders to discuss how Open Source AI can serve the public good. In partnership with the Digital Public Goods Alliance, we led a small workshop to discuss how AI systems can adhere to open standards that prioritize equity, access, and good data stewardship. We also met with UN leadership to advance flexible and inclusive approaches to AI governance that respect privacy and local contexts. Finally, Open Forum for AI presented the importance of openness as a design principle for infrastructure, including the development of AI.

At VivaTech, I participated in a lively panel on European AI sovereignty, arguing that real progress depends on genuine openness—licenses without loopholes, data mining that respects the wills of the creators, and infrastructure rooted in collaboration, not control. Europe has a historic opportunity to lead with values, and Open Source is the lever.

And at OW2con, OSI director of standards and policy Simon Phipps, in collaboration with Patrick Masson, Apereo’s executive director, presented the Open Source AI Definition (OSAID) to a packed room, sparking productive debate, especially around the role of training data in academic and education-focused AI systems. This kind of community feedback is precisely what we need as we refine the OSAID in the future.

These conversations are more than symbolic—they shape the policy, standards, and partnerships that protect and grow the Open Source ecosystem. We’re grateful to each of you who continues to show up, speak up, and build alongside us.

Let’s keep going, together.

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

Building digital public goods: Reflections from UN Open Source Week 2025

The UN’s Open Source Week in NYC brought people together from around the world to discuss the promise of Open Source and how it can be leveraged to build sustainable digital public goods and infrastructure. The week included side events focused on openness and AI and two full days at the UN dedicated to Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) and Digital Public Infrastructure.

Other highlights

Open Source and the future of European AI sovereignty: Insights from Vivatech 2025

Keeping Europe safe and advancing Open Source: OSI provides feedback to the EU Cybersecurity Act

Investing in Open Source sustainability: OSI supports OpenForum Europe’s EU Sovereign Tech Fund proposal

LinuxFr.org joins the OSI: strengthening the francophone community

Introducing the new API for OSI Approved Licenses®

OSI in the news

Forging A Responsible, Secure Way Forward For Open-Source AI

Article from Forbes

Before diving into what an open approach to AI looks like in practice, we must first understand what “open-source AI” really means. Defining it is a complex and evolving effort involving plenty of debate, but creating a standard is helpful for providing clear guidelines, promoting transparency and trust, and accelerating innovation and collaboration. One formal definition that has emerged comes from the Open Source Initiative (OSI): the Open Source AI Definition (OSAID), which is a work in progress that we endorse.

Other highlights

What Leaders Need To Know About Open-Source Vs. Proprietary Models (Forbes)

Open Source and AI: Why Model Openness Will Define the Next Decade (Ibrahim Haddad)

Navigating the Open v. Closed Source AI Debate with Kailash Nadh (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)

How AI is changing open source development (Heisi online)

OSBA unterstützt die Open Source AI Definition (OSAID) der Open Source Initiative (OSB Alliance)

Read all press mentions from this past month

Other news

News from OSI affiliates and partners

Creative Commons: Introducing CC Signals: A New Social Contract for the Age of AI

Eclipse Foundation: White Paper: The Vital Role of Open Source in Europe

Eclipse Foundation: 2025 Annual Eclipse Foundation Community Report

Python Software Foundation: The PSF’s 2024 Annual Impact Report is here!

EleutherAI: EleutherAI releases massive AI training dataset of licensed and open domain text

Software Heritage Foundation: Code at the core: Software Heritage at UN Headquarters

European Open Source Academy: Leading with Openness: The European Open Source Academy Showcases European Leadership at the UN Open Source Week 2025

LinuxFr: LinuxFr.org rejoint l’Open Source Initiative

The Document Foundation: An Analysis of the Adoption of the Open Document Format

OpenSSF: GUAC 1.0 is Now Available

Open Future Foundation: Beyond AI and copyright (whitepaper)

PHP: PHP Turns 30: Language and Ecosystem Are Stronger Than Ever

JavaScript: 30 Years of JavaScript: 10 Milestones That Changed the Web

Articles from Opensource.net

OpenServerless

Apache OpenServerless is the easiest way to build your cloud native AI application

Building MCP servers the easy way with Apache OpenServerless

jBPM

jBPM as AI Orchestration Platform (part 1)

jBPM as AI Orchestration Platform (part 2)

Orchestrating AI in clinical settings with jBPM

Survey

DPGA Global Open Source Policies & Practices Survey

The OSI and the DPGA, in coordination with 24 partners, has launched the Global Open-Source Policies & Practices Survey to map the current use of open-source-first approaches across governments and public-interest institutions.

Events

Upcoming events

DebConf (July 14-19 – Brest)

GUADEC (July 24-29 – Brescia)

COSCUP (August 8-9 – Taiwan)

Ai4 (August 11-13 – Las Vegas)

Open Source Summit Europe (August 25-27 – Amsterdam)

Community over Code NA (September 11-14 – Minneapolis)

Nerdearla (September 23-27 – Buenos Aires)

Deep Dive: Data Governance (October 1-3 – Online)

All Things Open (October 12-14 – Raleigh)

Thanks to our sponsors

New sponsors and renewals

Bloomberg

Microsoft

Pretix

See all sponsors

Featured: Bloomberg’s insights shared at the Open Source Summit NA 2025: The Power of “AND”: At Bloomberg, Open Source and Corporate Philanthropy Work Hand-in-Hand.

Interested in sponsoring, or partnering with, the OSI? Please see our Sponsorship Prospectus and our Annual Report. 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 full member

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

Source: opensource.org