Introduction
The CURIOSS community was proud to attend and participate in UN Open Source Week 2025 in New York in June.
This annual conference facilitates global dialogue and collaboration on open source, digital public infrastructure (DPI), and the development of innovative solutions to global challenges. Since its inception in 2023, the event has grown in scale and this year’s conference offered panels, hackathons, and a range of break-out sessions - all focused on offering space for ideation, collaboration, and problem-solving.
CURIOSS co-organized a workshop and a UN community event over the week. Both events explored how open source principles and practices can be strengthened within the academic space.
OSPOs as drivers of the public good
OSPOs were front and center of the discussion with a day dedicated to ‘OSPOs for Good’. CURIOSS members also served as conference speakers with Sayeed Choudhury (Carnegie Mellon University OSPO) speaking on a panel exploring the topic of ‘How They Did It: A Look Behind Newly Launched OSPOs’. While OSPOs are relatively new entities within the public and academic spheres, early-stage OSPOs are already demonstrating significant impact as connectors and catalysts for digital collaboration within public organizations, between statutory agencies, between public and private sectors, and across international borders.
The capacity of public OSPOs to address societal challenges was a central theme of the day. The audience heard about the establishment of public sector OSPOs in France, South Africa, and Trinidad and Tobago and how they aim to bridge gaps in digital service delivery while also leveraging DPI and open source solutions to provide social protection and empower citizens. The impact of public sector OSPOs continues to grow and create benefits across societies.
Building Open Source Capacity in Academia workshop
The CURIOSS Building Open Source Capacity in Academia workshop ran in parallel with UN Open Source Week and brought together CURIOSS members and open source advocates to share open source best practices within open science and open research and to explore the opportunities offered by corporate/academic collaboration.
CURIOSS member, Kendall Fortney of the VERSO OSPO coordinated and co-facilitated the event. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation hosted the event at its headquarters.
Conversations and break-outs focused on fostering partnerships on the themes of entrepreneurship and open source; open source software discovery; identifying OSPO-like activities and communicating the value of OSPOs to institutional stakeholders.
UN Community Event - Building Capacity in Open Source
CURIOSS also had the opportunity to partner with RISE Research Institutes of Sweden and the European Open Source Academy on the final side event at UN Open Source Week. CURIOSS facilitated the track on Building Capacity in Open Source.
The first session on the track, entitled ‘Impactful Open Source in Academia’, was moderated by Clare Dillon (CURIOSS).
The panel explored how OSS education and skills are supported across multiple institutions. Josh Barron from the Apereo Foundation discussed the historical role of higher education in open source innovation, while a number of CURIOSS members discussed how their OSPOs promote open source skills development. Will Gearty from the Syracuse University OSPO raised important questions about the current shift toward industry-led AI developments and the need for academia to maintain its leadership in research-driven advancement. Fang Liu from the Georgia Tech OSPO shared how the number of applicants for the OSPO’s virtual summer internship program has doubled from 98 applicants in its first year to 210 applicants this year. Laura Langdon from the University of California Network of OSPOs described how the emerging ‘nebula’ of OSPOs across UC campuses are promoting open source skills and education within each institution. Julie Stolzer joined the panel to discuss the work of TIES (Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM) in delivering STEM school design, curriculum, and instructional support to schools, districts, states, and the federal government.
The second panel discussion was moderated by Richard Littauer from CURIOSS and was on the theme of open source for research impact. Jonathan Starr of the NumFOCUS Open Source Science Initiative reflected that open source began in academia but now needs to be reclaimed and reintegrated back into the academic system. He argued for a “provenance map” that traces the impact of open source from theory to commercialization. Morane Gruenpeter from Software Heritage agreed on the need to integrate open source software into long-term academic infrastructure and emphasized the importance of archiving and preserving research software to ensure that the knowledge embedded in source code remains accessible and recognized.
CURIOSS member Karla Padilla from the University of California OSPO Network described how the UC San Diego OSPO is connecting researchers and developing a culture of contribution and collaboration.
Fellow CURIOSS member, Bill Branan talked about the work being undertaken at the Johns Hopkins University OSPO to connect stakeholders and to unify support networks across legal, IT, and research offices in relation to open source options and best practices.
In addition to the session focused on academia, CURIOSS members David Lippert (GW OSPO) and Kendall Fortney (VERSO OSPO) presented in the session on ‘Measuring the Impact of Open Source for DPI’. Angela Newell (University of Texas OSPO) shared her insights on the topic of ‘Fostering Resiliency in Digital Public Infrastructure’. Sayeed Choudhury also spoke on the AI track on ‘Open Trusted AI’.
Acknowledgements
UN Open Source Week provided a unique forum for meaningful connections and exploration of open source as a pathway for the global common good.
We were delighted that so many CURIOSS members were able to attend and fully participate throughout the week both as champions for academic OSPOs and as advocates for the societal impact of open source.
Special recognition goes to Kendall Fortney for outstanding workshop coordination and facilitation, and to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for providing the excellent venue.
Collaborating with RISE Research Institutes of Sweden and the European Open Source Academy on the UN community side event was a great way to end the UN Open Source week. We’re particularly grateful to OpenForum Europe Chair, Sachiko Muto, for leading this effort.
Finally, our congratulations and heartfelt thanks to the United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies, the United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology and everyone involved in the organization of UN Open Source Week. We are looking forward to next year already!