This Week in Open Source for January 9, 2026
A look around the world of open source
Here we are at the beginning of a new year. What will it bring to the open source world? What new projects will be started? What should we be focusing on? What is your open source resolution for 2026? One of ours is to better connect with various open source communities on social media. We've gotten off to a big start by launching an official Google Open Source account on Bluesky. Already, we are enjoying the community there.
Upcoming Events
- January 21 - 23: Everything Open 2026 is happening in Canberra, Australia. Everything Open is a conference focused on open technologies, including Linux, open source software, open hardware and open data, and the communities that surround them. The conference provides technical deep-dives as well as updates from industry leaders and experts on a wide array of topics from these areas.
- January 29: CHAOSScon Europe 2026 is co-located with FOSDEM in Brussels, Belgium. This conference revolves around discussing open source project health, CHAOSS updates, use cases, and hands-on workshops for developers, community managers, project managers, and anyone interested in measuring open source project health. It also shares insights from the CHAOSS context working groups including OSPOs, University Open Source, and Open Source in Science and Research.
- January 31 - February 1: FOSDEM 2026 is happening at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels, Belgium. It is a free event for software developers to meet, share ideas and collaborate. Every year, thousands of developers of free and open source software from all over the world gather at the event in Brussels.
- February 24 - 25: The Linux Foundation Member Summit is happening in Napa, California. It is the annual gathering for Linux Foundation members that fosters collaboration, innovation, and partnerships among the leading projects and organizations working to drive digital transformation with open source technologies.
Open Source Reads and Links
- [Talk] State of the Source at ATO 2025: State of the "Open" AI - At the end of last year Open Source Initiative gave a summary of Gabriel Toscano's talk at All Things Open. In the talk he discusses how AI models call themselves "open" but often lack the legal or technical freedoms that true open source requires. Analysis of ~20,000 Hugging Face models found Apache 2.0 and MIT are common, but many models have no license or use restrictive custom terms. The study warns that inconsistent labeling and mutable restrictions muddy openness and urges clearer licensing and platform checks.
- [Article] The Reality of Open Source: More Puppies, Less Beer - Bitnami's removal of popular containers last year shows that open source can suddenly change and disrupt users. Organizations must evaluate who funds and maintains each open source component, not just the code. Plan for business continuity, supply-chain visibility, and the ability to fork or replace critical components.
- [Blog] The Open Source Community and U.S. Public Policy - The Open Source Initiative is increasing its U.S. policy work to ensure open source developers are part of technology and AI rulemaking. Since policymakers often lack deep knowledge of open source, the community must explain how shared code differs from deployed systems. Joining groups like the Open Policy Alliance helps nonprofits engage and influence policy.
- [Article] Pebble, the e-ink smartwatch that refuses to die, just went fully open source - Pebble, the e-ink smartwatch with a tumultuous history, is making a move sure to please the DIY enthusiasts that make up the bulk of its fans: Its entire software stack is now fully open source, and key hardware design files are available too.
- [Article] Forget Predictions: Tech Leaders' Actual 2026 Resolutions - We want to know your open source resolutions and perhaps these resolutions from some tech leaders (open source and otherwise) can point you in a direction. Their plans run the gamut of securing and managing AI responsibly, reducing noise in security data, and creating healthier tech habits. The common theme is intentional, measurable change over speculation.
- [Paper] Everything is Context: Agentic File System Abstraction for Context Engineering - GenAI systems may produce inaccurate or misleading outputs due to limited contextual awareness and evolving data sources. Thus mechanisms are needed to govern how persistent knowledge transitions into bounded context in a traceable, verifiable, and human-aware manner, ensuring that human judgment and knowledge are embedded within the system's evolving context for reasoning and evaluation.
The paper proposes using a file-system abstraction based on the open-source AIGNE framework to manage all types of context for generative AI agents. This unified infrastructure makes context persistent, traceable, and governed so agents can read, write, and version memory, tools, and human input.
What exciting open source events and news are you hearing about? Let us know on our @GoogleOSS X account or our new @opensource.google Bluesky account.