Originally published at: Open Source takes center stage at United Nations - OpenSource.net
NEW YORK, UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS — There’s a buzz just writing that dateline. A nervous frisson rippled through the two days of OSPOS for Good 2024 when hundreds of participants from across the globe marveled at access to the heart of diplomacy.
Here are our five main takeaways from the two-day event.
Open Source is mature. (But maybe we’re not?)
“In the era of sustainable development goals where we must end extreme poverty but leave no one behind, Open Source almost becomes intrinsic or integral to everything that we do,” remarked Philip Thigo special envoy on technology, the government of Kenya.
The early remarks were a shot in the arm to anyone who thought Open Source was still niche.
“Openness, democratization and the future of democracy, human-centric digital development, trust, co-creation, reducing the barriers between governments and citizens, those values are as important as creation and innovation…Thank you thank you thank you,” said Amandeep Singh Gill, UN secretary-general’s envoy on technology, OSET, who noted that last year there were 60-70 participants and the 2024 conference grew tenfold.
So, the United Nations invited a bunch of nerds, many of whom have been proselytizing for a generation, to sit at little desks in a windowless auditorium usually designated for the Economic and Social Council, ECOSEC for short. This can only be interpreted as a sign that spending so much free time on install fests, wearing penguin costumes and handing out recipes with the four freedoms means something.
That said, the disconnect between protocol and practice yawned wider than a digital divide. Hallway chatter about the ‘business’ dress code—which, in tech, often means dark jeans and clean sneakers—revealed a stark contrast to the expected formal attire. Gussied up in our uncomfortable Sunday best in the oven-like heat bearing down on New York, the geek-out-of-water effect was amplified by the cavernous room, which required the use of plastic hearing trumpets and constant herding in and out of restricted areas and elevators.
The UN’s security gauntlet – four checkpoints and airport-style screening – was par for the course. But rigid, ever-shifting access rules (doors, cafes, stairs!) turned the conference into an endurance test. Jet-lagged attendees were pushed to the brink: no coffee, no coffee breaks, or even easy access to purchase it. Heady as it was to be invited to the UN, comfort was clearly not on the agenda.
Open Source is still evolving
The much-anticipated artificial intelligence segment was the conference’s Rorschach test. Everyone saw something different, a reflection of the technology’s still-forming shape. See for yourself by catching the session online, starting at the 59-minute mark or read Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols’ judicious take (“we’re still writing the story of open source AI”) where he pulls in viewpoints from outside the session. My own notes are a confused game of ping pong, with more questions than answers.
What is Open Source AI, anyway? What is the role of data? Where does responsible or ethical AI come into it? Should responsible and ethical AI be hard-coded into the definition of Open Source AI? How strict should a definition be — or are there “gradients?” What are our goals for the community around this blink-and-it’s-too-late technology?
“How do we port the permissionless innovation and the principles of Open Source that have enabled the immense ecosystem and the immense value it has created into the AI space?” asked Stefano Maffulli of the Open Source Initiative. “How to do that is a complex matter. It needs to be split up into complex pieces,” he says of the AI work the OSI has been doing for two years. Maffulli, speaking last in the first round robin where points ranged from data to licenses to what constitutes “real” Open Source, highlights the real problem.
All the 90-minute blocks were keynotes plus panels. I’ve said it before, but let me repeat: Conference organizers, kill the panels. If you must have a few, work harder to avoid manels – like the opening plenary – and discussing a group but not hearing their voices like the youth panel.
Panel discussions with four or five people are mostly sterile exercises in good manners. Sure, everyone plays nice and takes turns, but there’s no real thread. (On the AI panel in particular, there was no clear direction and the panelists weren’t familiar with each other, either.)
Genuine engagement only happens if someone shakes things up (argues! interrupts! speaks out of turn!), but even then, it’s more likely to be a spectacle that staves off a few yawns than a substantive conversation.
The last-minute decision to scrap the dev rooms for networking sidelined substantive discussions on open science, health and other critical areas.
The solution? Let’s not assume all conferences must resemble big trade industry conferences: Break up the stale lecture format and include birds-of-feather sessions, speed networking/mentoring/job matching, Ask-Me-Anthings, lightning talks (by sign-up, not mediated by committee) and working groups.
Open Source is a culture but not a monolith
“We talk about Italian food and French cinema, but software has a terroir,” said Ben Cerveny, president, the Foundation for Public Code, noted in the panel on Open Source in the Global South.
In his opening keynote, Thigo showcased how Open Source was crucial to mobile money’s revolution in his native Kenya. This groundbreaking innovation would likely have been privatized and inaccessible to those who needed it most if developed differently. “From Silicon Valley to Silicon Savanna or the other way around, we’ve seen the increase in innovation.”
But we can’t treat Open Source development as if it’s all the same the world over. As one participant put it, if it’s American-centric AI, how does it respond to the question: “Is Taiwan a country?”
Open Source: Some sh*t never changes
Got your bingo card? Maintainers, payment, community, burnout, pipeline. It was all there on the, ahem, panel about Open Source at Work in the World and while the participants all gave thoughtful replies, there was something slightly weary about hearing it all, again, at UN HQ.
“We have a sustainability problem in Open Source,” said Mike Milinkovich executive director, Eclipse Foundation. “We’re constantly demanding more from Open Source Developers and communities…And that’s unsustainable.” He points to the Sovereign Tech Fund as one example of a positive effort in this direction. “We talk about infrastructure and sustainability but we don’t spend enough time talking about the legacy infrastructure everyone uses and needs but isn’t exciting anymore.”
The solution? Treat Open Source software like any other infrastructure and develop a maintenance plan.
“If you assume that underlying libraries exist just exist and you can take it for granted, it’s problematic because someone needs to maintain over long term…Because it’s not exciting, because we’ve got 20 years history, people take it for granted, doubly so for governments,” David Nalley, president of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) said at the conference. Governments understand they have to maintain the electrical grid, the rail infrastructure and the highways, most governments see software as a digital public good, but they don’t recognize ongoing maintenance, he added to applause.
Despite the power, scope and reach of Open Source today, many of the problems people gripe about have been in the background for decades.
“There’s an age-old debate about whether contributions are only coders or not,” acknowledges Demetris Cheatham, chief of staff to the CEO at GitHub. A finding from a program she created called All In to develop the next generation of contributors was to have meaningful ways to contribute and recognition, plus clear documentation about how to meaningfully contribute. Most people were put off by a lack of response when they interacted, she said, citing a 2021 report on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), saying they didn’t feel welcome due lack of the wall of silence. “Maintainers were just juggling a lot of things…we have to look at burnout beyond the funding…You can be paid a lot but if you’re burnt out, you will walk away from it.”
What’s next
ECOSOC, the UN’s core forum for discussing sustainable development, is topped by an unfinished ceiling symbolizing the ongoing commitment to this goal. Likewise, this event marks just the beginning of Open Source’s role in the UN’s mission
After the much smaller 2023 event, the UN has established an internal community of practice, issued a report on the state of Open Source in the UN and identified five keys to eliminating obstacles to adoption.
“Engage meaningfully, be bold and think about how to strengthen collaboration,” says Bernardo Mariano Junior, assistant secretary general & chief information technology officer at the Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT). To drive progress, he challenged participants to include Open Source solutions for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in every tech conference they organize or attend between now and 2025.
You can catch videos of both days of the conference – July 9, July 10 – online. And you can drink all the coffee you want, without passing security.