Members Newsletter – April 2026
Dear OSI supporters,
The news you’ve all been waiting for has arrived – OSI’s new Executive Director, Duane O’Brien, is on the job effective April 13th.
Many of you may already know Duane. For those who have not yet had the pleasure, Duane is a long-time Open Source leader with nearly 25 years of experience as a technologist, community advocate and strategist. It’s been a pleasure to have personally worked with Duane and to have directly witnessed his engagement, contribution and support for so many aspects of the Open Source ecosystem over the past decade. I am both grateful and excited to leave OSI’s future in his hands.
It’s been a privilege to have served as OSI’s interim ED over the past six months and to have worked with its team of gifted Open Source professionals. Many thanks to the team for the time together, and thanks to the many stakeholders who lent support through the leadership transition time. The best of OSI is yet to come!
Warm regards,
Deborah Bryant
Interim Executive Director, OSI
News from the OSI
Welcoming Duane O’Brien as Executive Director of the Open Source Initiative
Message from OSI Board Chair Tracy Hinds
On behalf of the Board of Directors, I’m thrilled to welcome Duane O’Brien as OSI’s new Executive Director. Duane understands the economic dimensions of Open Source without losing sight of the people who make it work. His experience in industry has given him insight into how companies engage with Open Source, but his focus has consistently been on supporting the individuals and communities at the center of that work. That balance is essential to OSI’s mission and to the long-term health of the ecosystem.
ClearlyDefined: A Three-Year Roadmap for Sustainability and Growth
A three-year roadmap proposal developed by AboutCode in collaboration with the community to strengthen ClearlyDefined’s technical foundations, expand its capabilities, and grow its global adoption.
OSI in the news
- How to engage with policy makers when you’re a developer (not a lobbyist) (We Open Source)
- Open source isn’t a tip jar – it’s time to charge for access (The Register)
Other news
News from OSI affiliates and community
- ASF: The Apache Software Foundation Launches $10M Responsible AI Initiative with Initial $1.75M Donation
- ASF: The Apache Software Foundation Announces $1.5M Donation from Anthropic
- CNCF: AI Inference Takes Center Stage At KubeCon Europe 2026 (Forbes)
- Creative Commons: Celebrating 25 Years of Choosing to Share
- Digital Public Goods Alliance: 5 Surprising Truths We Learned About Open Source in Government
- DINUM: Souveraineté numérique : l’État accélère la réduction de ses dépendances extra-européennes
- Drupal Association: The Sovereignty Prerequisite (Dries Buytaert)
- European Open Source Academy: The submissions to the second edition of European Open Source Academy Magazine are now open!
- Free Software Foundation Europe: Full speed into conference season with a heartfelt “Thank you”
- KDE: Celebrating 30 years of KDE
- Linux Foundation: Introducing Project Glasswing: Giving Maintainers Advanced AI to Secure the World’s Code
- Linux Professional Institute: LPI Publishes 2025 Annual Review
- Matrix Foundation: The first Public Annual Report is out!
- Mozilla Foundation: Competition, Innovation, and the Future of the Web – Why Independent Browser Engines Matter
- OpenChain: New Executive Director of OpenChain Project
- Open Future: Public Procurement as a Strategic Lever for Digital Sovereignty
- OpenInfra Foundation: OpenInfra General Manager talks sovereignty, governments deploying tech ‘kill switches’ (The Register)
- OpenJS Foundation: The Real Supply Chain Risk: Unsupported Dependencies, Overloaded Maintainers
- Open Knowledge Foundation: ‘The Future of Open Data’: Video Documentation
- OpenSSF: Leading Tech Coalition Invests $12.5 Million Through OpenSSF and Alpha-Omega to Strengthen Open Source Security
- OpenUK: Commonwealth Report: Open Source Africa
- OSTIF: Sovereign Tech Agency and OSTIF Security Audit Report
- OWASP: Impact Report 2025
- Python Software Foundation: Incident Report: LiteLLM/Telnyx supply-chain attacks, with guidance
News from community members
- Why the World Needs Open Source AI (Shuji Sado)
- Beyond the source code: your infrastructure vendor changed its licence, and your legal team probably does not know (Iveta Bozhkova-Yuskeselieva)
- When it comes to tech’s software dependency, what does ‘Buy European’ even mean? (euobserver)
Research and white papers
- Open Technology Research Global Consultations: Key Insights [from the Americas] [from Europe and Africa] [from the Asia Pacific Region] (Open Technology Research)
- Making Sense of Openness in AI: Exploring Theory, Policy and Data on AI Model Releases (Duke University)
- Sustaining Open Source Software in the Research Enterprise (Ithaka S+R)
Reports and surveys
- Tech Giants and Giant Slayers: The case for Digital Sovereignty and the Digital Commons (Open Rights Group)
- 2026 State of Open Source Report: Top Takeaways (OpenLogic)
- Insights from the Global Open-Source Policies & Practices Survey and Interviews (DPGA)
- The State of Open Source Licensing in 2026 (Redmonk)
- Help Shape the 2026 State of OSPO and Open Source Management Survey (TODO Group)
Events
Upcoming events
- OCX (April 21-23 – Brussels)
- Open Source Summit NA (May 18-20 – Minneapolis)
- OW2con (June 2-3 – Paris)
- UN Open Source Week (June 22-26 – New York City)
Check the top 50+ Open Source conferences of 2026 that the OSI is tracking, including events that intersect with AI, cloud, cybersecurity, and policy.
Thanks to our sponsors
New sponsors and renewals
- MongoDB
- OpenProject
- 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!
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