Members Newsletter – December 2025

Dear OSI supporters,

As we reach the final weeks of the year, I find myself reflecting on a season that invites both gratitude and giving, two values that feel especially resonant for our community. Serving as Interim Executive Director these past months has only deepened my appreciation for the people who make Open Source possible: the volunteers who share their expertise, the contributors who show up with curiosity and conviction, the board members who devote their time and energy to stewarding OSI’s mission. As for me personally, 2025 has marked my thirty years of engagement and contribution with the Open Source community, not possible without the help of many colleagues and friends made along the way in understanding how and where I might best make an impact.

This month, I’m particularly grateful for the thoughtful leadership shown by OSI board members who have recently offered their insights through new blog posts. Ruth Suehle explores how we can sustain what we’ve built, Thierry Carrez warns about the fallacy of “regional Open Source,” and McCoy Smith provided an important and accessible guide to managing patent risk in Open Source projects — all pieces I encourage everyone to read if you haven’t already. These contributions exemplify the generosity that defines our community: expertise freely shared for the benefit of all.

As you’ll see in the news that follows, this spirit of contribution and collaboration is reflected in the work OSI undertook globally this past month. At the Digital Public Goods Alliance Annual Members Meeting in Brasília, OSI helped lead a year-long effort culminating in a multisector discussion on data governance and public-interest AI, an essential step toward making AI systems more open, equitable, and globally accessible.

We also joined OpenForum Europe and the Open Knowledge Foundation in Rio de Janeiro for the 2025 OpenForum Academy Symposium, where the announcement of the Open Technology Research Network marked a milestone in strengthening the research foundations needed for better policymaking around open technologies. OSI is proud to be part of this new partnership, which will shape an evidence-driven understanding of openness for years to come.

In a season defined by giving, these accomplishments remind me that OSI’s impact is possible only because so many of you contribute what you can — your time, your expertise, your advocacy, and yes, your financial support. As we prepare for a new year filled with opportunity and challenge, I invite you to explore ways to support OSI through our new “Get Involved” page. Your involvement ensures that the values of transparency, inclusion, and collaboration remain at the heart of the technologies shaping our world.

Thank you for being part of this vibrant and generous community. May the close of your year be restful, and may the new one bring renewed possibilities for OSI, for Open Source, and for all who rely on the freedoms it sustains.

With gratitude,

Deborah Bryant

Interim Executive Director, OSI

News from the OSI

Open letter: Harnessing open source AI to advance digital sovereignty

Joint letter prepared in collaboration with Mozilla and other organizations.

Europe is at a crossroads. The Summit on European Digital Sovereignty marks an important milestone for the EU and its member states in aligning on a shared strategy for achieving real and lasting European digital sovereignty. As the EU pursues the goal of digital sovereignty, we urge you to harness open source — that is, technology that is free to use, inspect, adapt, and share — as a key enabler of this strategy.

OSI Board articles

• Patents and Open Source: Understanding the Risks and Available Solutions (McCoy Smith)
• Open Source: A global commons to enable digital sovereignty (Thierry Carrez)
• Sustaining Open Source: The Next 25 Years Depend on What We Do Together Now (Ruth Suehle)

Event updates

• Open Source Without Borders: Reflections from COSCon’25
• DPGA’s Annual Members Meeting: Advancing Open Source & DPGs for the Public Good
• OFA Symposium 2025 and the Launch of the Open Technology Research Network (OTRN)

Other news

OSI in the news

• DHH & Open Source (Matt Mullenweg)
• ‘Source available’ is not open source (and that’s okay) (Dries Buytaert)
• Read all press mentions from this past month

News from OSI affiliates and partners

• Apereo: Open Source in Higher Ed: Early Findings from Apereo’s OSSHE Study — and How You Can Get Involved
• APELL: Declaration of Digital Independence
• ASF: Celebrating 10,000 Committers: The People Who Power Apache Software Projects
• DPGA: Reflections from the 2025 Annual Members Meeting in Brasília
• Drupal Association: DrupalCon Vienna 2025: A Celebration of Open Source and Community Impact
• Eclipse Foundation: 2025 Open Source Congress Report
• Eclipse Foundation: Understanding Open Source Stewards and the Cyber Resilience Act
• Free Software Foundation: Hundreds of free software supporters tuned in for FSF40 hackathon
• Joomla (Open Source Matters): Joomla Now Officially Recognized as a Digital Public Good
• Let’s Encrypt: 10 Years of Let’s Encrypt Certificates
• Linux Foundation: Collective Wisdom: Why the Future of AI Must Be Built in the Open
• Linux Foundation: Revealing the Hidden Economics of Open Models in the AI Era
• Mozilla Foundation: Open letter: Harnessing open source AI to advance digital sovereignty
• Mozilla Foundation: Rewiring Mozilla: Doing for AI what we did for the web
• OpenForum Europe: OpenForum Europe, Open Source Initiative, and Open Knowledge Foundation Announce Strategic Partnership to Advance Open Technology Research
• Open Future: Digital Commons on the EU’s Digital Sovereignty Agenda
• OpenSSF: Recap: Open Source Security Week in Belgium – Highlights from Ghent to Brussels
• Open Source Group Japan: Public Proposal for Building an Open AI Society and Digital Sovereignty Based on Open Source AI
• Python Software Foundation: Sovereign Tech Agency and PSF Security Partnership
• WordPress Foundation: State of the Word 2025: Innovation Shaped by Community

Surveys

Vertical Standards for the CRA

As the deadline for the application of the CRA draws closer, the OSI is happy to announce the beginning of an Open consultation on many of the vertical standards.

2026 State of Open Source Survey

Perforce OpenLogic and Zend, in collaboration with OSI and Eclipse Foundation, is seeking responses from OSS users to gather data for the next State of Open Source Report.

Events

Upcoming events

• FOSDEM (January 31 – February 1 – Brussels)
• SCALE (March 5-8 – Pasadena)
• All Things AI (March 23-24 – Durham)
• OCX (April 21-23 – Brussels)

Thanks to our sponsors

New sponsors and renewals

• Google
• Cisco
• Block
• See all sponsors

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

Hundreds of individuals and organizations worldwide join as members and support as donors or sponsors of the OSI. They trust in our neutral stewardship of open source licensing and our role in enabling a global community. Get involved!