Notes: June 18, 2025
United Nations (UN) Open Source Week 2025 / Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) for Good
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United Nations (UN) Open Source Week 2025 / Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) for Good
Editathon - Maintainathon - Hackathon
22 teams from all over world
Maintainathon —> Strengthening the open source infrastructure
50+ breakout sessions
Senior maintainers
Editathon —> Safeguarding the integrity of the information online
6 new articles
234 existing articles
30000+ edits
topics related to UN and mission around emerging technologies
37 editors
Collective effort reached a global audience of 2.000.000 views
Hackathon —> Fostering inclusive collaboration
81 hackers
3 ambitious challenges: Children - Climate - RIS data
3rd edition of OSPOs for Good (happening for 3 consecutive years)
This year (2024-2025) UN:
Released the open source repository
Released the open source catalogue
Released the open source principles
OSPOs for Good sessions:
Continue the dialog that started 3 years ago
How we can build more effective government OSPOs?
Explore the dynamic relationship between Open Source and AI
Discuss how Open Source and DPIs can re-enforce each other
During DPI Day we will
Better connect open source and DPI communities and ecosystems
Help align initiatives in global level and
Ensure that DPI projects actively contribute to the implementation of the Global Digital Compact
UN is a space for all stakeholders not only governments
Global Digital Compact (GDC) is a north-star for every actor in the digital ecosystem
Open AI models and open access to training data
Open Source as a foundation for digital transformation
GDC is open for endorsement for individuals or organizations
Panel: How They Did It: A Look Behind Newly Launched OSPOs
96% of all software has open source components in it
80% is released as open source
OSPO Amazon: Started back in early 00s (2004 - 2007)
OSPO started first to focus on the compliance side of things
The driving motivation for an OSPO starts usually with compliance but then moves to engagement!
We “Africanized” open source projects to have short term project delivery of projects with long term support.
//———————————- Live X(ing)? tweeting started here ——————————//
#AI and #OpenSource: Building #Ethical and #Transparent Systems happening now at #UNOpenSourceWeek.
Sabrina Farmer. At Gitlab we are vendor agnostic. Before we work with services, we make sure there are no violations when our systems interacting with the #data. #UNOpenSourceWeek
Hakim Hacid. AI as a problem is a very complex problem to be dealt by a specific actor only. We need to foster collaboration #UNOpenSourceWeek
Guilherme Canela: Intenational rule of law system allowed the collaboration in different levels and groups (i.e. #scientific #community). But we need to revisit and be careful how we translate everything to #respect the #human #rights agenda #UNOpenSourceWeek
Expected reference to GreatDismal work as the #digital #future and #AI is being discussed. Once again, we are coming to the conclusion that #opensource, by fueling open, collaborative work, can be a force to the right direction #UNOpenSourceWeek
Hakim Hacid: Data is the oil that fuels the AI. However there is part of these data that can be considered high quality (data as such can help researchers to build AI) #UNOpenSourceWeek
Hakim Hacid: Preserving the #privacy of the #data but also fostering the research around AI is a challenge of paramount importance #UNOpenSourceWeek
Hakim Hacid: There seems to be a luck in relevant #talent that will help us build #AI the right way, collaboratively #UNOpenSourceWeek
Hakim Hacid: There is a need for #regulation, but we need to do it the right way. Also there is need for #standardization, but we need to also collaboratively decide what we can do to speed up #development. #UNOpenSourceWeek
Guilherme Canela: Maybe the real #innovation is not whether we have super #regulation or super #governance. Maybe it is how we do things without leaving anyone behind #UNOpenSourceWeek
Guilherme Canela: The scientists that decided to share their research as #open #science during #covid19 era, made the vaccines to be developed very fast. We have been advocating for #openscience years before at #UN #UNOpenSourceWeek
Panel #2 / Breaking Silos: #OpenSource and #OpenData Drive #Interoperability #UNOpenSourceWeek
Egos drive a lot of #innovation in #tech. #UNOpenSourceWeek
In both UN/LOCODE and UN/CEFACT we are applying #opensource solution and we need help #UNOpenSourceWeek
Nabiha Syed / Mozilla Foundation: #opensource is only one instantiation of the general #open #philosophy. This is not about product-market fit but about product-community fit #UNOpenSourceWeek
Nabiha Syed / Mozilla Foundation: #opensource needs not consumers but collaborators in the co-creation process #UNOpenSourceWeek
Masayuki Yamada / Digital Agency, Japan Gov: A digital society where noone is left behind. That is the vision for the Japanese government #UNOpenSourceWeek
Rebecca Mackinnon / Wikimedia Foundation: If we want quality data, we need attribution (highlighting that data produced from AI may be of low quality due to hallucinations) #UNOpenSourceWeek
I heard "we should go back to pre-internet human rights". I would argue that the early days of the internet created collaborative communities that had respect as their core values (at least in the majority of cases). We are talking 1990+ to 2020+ here #UNOpenSourceWeek
Panel #3 / The Role of Open Source in Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) #UNOpenSourceWeek #OPSOsforGood
Adriana Groh / Sovereign Tech Agency: We are trying to create a blueprint is like a new government muscle where solutions are produced but also shared for collective improvement and optimization #UNOpenSourceWeek
Adriana Groh / Sovereign Tech Agency: We are trying to create a blueprint is like a new government muscle where solutions are produced but also shared for collective improvement and optimization #UNOpenSourceWeek
Gabriele Columbro: Providers solutions (meaning proprietary solution) in a very big percentage (up to 90%) probably run on #opensource. Think them as the last mile of open source #UNOpenSourceWeek
(OSPOs for Good / Parts that were available for remote participation)