Members Newsletter – April 2024
The OSI wants to breathe life into the stories, case studies and research around maintaining a healthy business while producing Open Source software, so we’ve created a way to spread your insights wider than the conference room stage and provide the Open Source ecosystem with in depth resources that will live beyond the live panel. This blog explains how you can submit your All Things Open (ATO) CFP entries to opensource.net and potentially get your idea published as a full length article, in addition to the chance to participate in the live panel at ATO in October. Submission deadline is May 17, so check out the details and guidelines and tell us your story.
In other news, the OSI board election season has come to a close and we have one new director and two returning directors. Read our announcement and the full election results here.
Lastly, but certainly just as important, draft 0.07 of the Open Source AI Definition was released last Friday. Momentum is strong as we work toward a Release Candidate (RC1) by June 2024 and a stable version of the Definition by October. Weekly updates on this important project are posted on the OSI blog along with recordings of the monthly townhalls. Everyone is invited to participate in this collaborative effort!
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
Submit your proposal for All Things Open – Doing Business with Open Source
From the OpenSource.net program
The Open Source Initiative wants to facilitate discussions about doing business with and for Open Source. Read more.
Results of 2024 elections of OSI board of directors
From the Elections
Congratulations to the returning directors Thierry Carrez and Josh Berkus, and the newly elected director Chris Aniszczyk. Read more.
Letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo urging protection of openness and transparency in AI
From the Policy and standards program
The OSI contributed to a letter asking the White House and Congress to exercise great caution when considering whether and how to regulate the publication of open models. Read more.
OSI’s Response to NTIA ‘Dual Use’ RFC 3.27.2024
From the Policy and standards program
OSI explores the overarching societal benefits of open models, drawing from the extensive adoption and accomplishments of the open source software development model. Read more.
Compelling responses to NTIA’s AI Open Model Weights RFC
From the Policy and standards program
The OSI has compiled a compelling list of responses from nonprofit organizations and companies to NTIA’s AI Open Model Weights RFC. Read more.
OSI participates in Columbia Convening on openness and AI; first readouts available
From the Policy and standards program
Maffulli participates in collaboration on building a framework for openness in AI with Mozilla and the Columbia Institute of Global Politics with technical and policy memorandums being released. Read more.
OSI in the news
The tech industry can’t agree on what open-source AI means. That’s a problem
OSI at the MIT Technology Review
Settling this debate will be essential if the AI community wants to reap the same benefits software developers gained from open source, says Maffulli, which was built on broad consensus about what the term meant. Read more.
Sorry Elon, Grok is not open source AI. Here’s why, according to the creator of the definition
OSI at the Euronews
If a company says it’s open source, it must carry the values that the open source definition carries. Otherwise, it’s just confusing, Maffulli said. Read more.
Preserving Open Values in artificial intelligence.
OSI at OpenSource.net
As a standard, openness should be upheld while still recognizing that its implementation will look different in the context of AI. Read more.
The state of open source in Europe
OSI at The Next Web
Maffulli explains that a truly open AI system needs to be available under legal terms that grant the freedoms to use, study, modify, and share the system. Read more.
OSI affiliates in the news
Kaiyuanshe’s China Open Source Report
Kaiyuanshe collaborates with open-source communities and organizations to publish an annual report on global and China’s open-source trends. The report provides valuable insights into the latest developments in the dynamic open-source field. View report.
Open source foundations unite on common standards for EU’s Cyber Resilience Act
Apache Software Foundation, Blender Foundation, Eclipse Foundation, OpenSSL Software Foundation, PHP Foundation, Python Software Foundation, and Rust Foundation at TechCrunch
Seven open source foundations are coming together to create common specifications and standards for Europe’s Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) Read more.
Mozilla, Center for Democracy and Technology call for openness and transparency in AI
Mozilla and Center for Democracy and Technology at the Mozilla Blog
Mozilla and the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), along with members of civil society and academia, have united to underscore the importance of openness and transparency in AI. Read more.
Linux Foundation Backs ‘Valkey’ Open Source Fork of Redis
Linux Foundation at The New Stack
Linux Foundation is putting its weight behind a new project named Valkey, as “an open source alternative to the Redis in-memory, NoSQL data store. Read more.
Open sourcerers say suspected xz-style attacks continue to target maintainers
OpenJS Foundation and OpenSSF at The Register
The OpenJS Foundation and Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) believe the attempt to plant a backdoor into Linux’s xz data compression library “may not be an isolated incident” given their recent observations. Read more.
Upcoming events
Open Source AI Definition Town Hall
April 19, 2024 – Online
Join Stefano Maffulli, Executive Director at the Open Source Initiative to hear the latest news, and comment on the drafts of the Open Source AI Definition. Read more.
PyCon US 2024
May 15-23, 2024 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
PyCon US attracts a unique audience of Python users and community members, from beginners just learning the language to the leading developers in the field to the contributors who guide the development of the language itself. Read more.
OSPO4Good at the United Nations
July 9-10, 2024 – New York City, New York
OSPOs for Good symposium is set to be a conference with a richer global presence of diverse open source thinkers, with bigger ambitions and strides for championing OSPOs as a global network for good. Read more.
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