Session
Subtheme
Organizer 1: Vittorio Bertola, 🔒
Organizer 2: Astor Nummelin Carlberg, 🔒
Organizer 3: Maffulli Stefano, Open Source Initiative
Organizer 2: Astor Nummelin Carlberg, 🔒
Organizer 3: Maffulli Stefano, Open Source Initiative
Speaker 1: Renata Avila, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 2: Isabela Bagueros, Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 3: Adriana Groh, Government, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 4: Omar Mohsine, Intergovernmental Organization, African Group
Speaker 5: Tiwari Udbhav, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Isabela Bagueros, Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 3: Adriana Groh, Government, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 4: Omar Mohsine, Intergovernmental Organization, African Group
Speaker 5: Tiwari Udbhav, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Moderator
Vittorio Bertola, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Online Moderator
Maffulli Stefano, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Rapporteur
Astor Nummelin Carlberg, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Format
Roundtable
Duration (minutes): 60
Format description: Our first objective is to gain and share knowledge around political trends that affect open source in multiple countries. The organizers have put significant effort in gathering an extensive set of introductory speakers that – as required – can ensure expert knowledge and broad diversity, but the IGF is the right venue to find additional knowledgeable people from more regions of the world, so to complete our picture. Thus, our set of speakers should just be considered as a way to open the discussion on policy questions A and B and encourage other participants to join and offer their experience. We would like to keep this first phase relatively short, around 20 minutes (maximum 4 minutes per speaker), and devote the rest of the session to participant experiences and views, addressing the final policy question (C) and working out how to continue the effort after the IGF.
Duration (minutes): 60
Format description: Our first objective is to gain and share knowledge around political trends that affect open source in multiple countries. The organizers have put significant effort in gathering an extensive set of introductory speakers that – as required – can ensure expert knowledge and broad diversity, but the IGF is the right venue to find additional knowledgeable people from more regions of the world, so to complete our picture. Thus, our set of speakers should just be considered as a way to open the discussion on policy questions A and B and encourage other participants to join and offer their experience. We would like to keep this first phase relatively short, around 20 minutes (maximum 4 minutes per speaker), and devote the rest of the session to participant experiences and views, addressing the final policy question (C) and working out how to continue the effort after the IGF.
Policy Question(s)
A. How do new regulations and geopolitical trends affect the open source community and development processes, and, in case of adverse effects, what is at stake for society and stakeholders?
B. Is there a conflict between sovereignty-focused digital regulation and the ability of open source communities to provide sovereign alternatives to dominant products, and could this conflict endanger the security and stability of the Internet and digital services in general?
C. How can the open source community, the software and Internet industry, lawmakers and governments work together to counter the risks?
What will participants gain from attending this session? The participants will understand how the open paradigm is vital to the Internet and how it opens up opportunities for personal and national self-determination, growth and autonomy; they will also get to know the regulatory and business trends that are emerging around the world, thanks to the diversity of panelists. Then, they will be able to listen to multiple viewpoints and contribute to the discussion. At the end, they should have gained awareness of how certain regulations and geopolitical pressures can impact the basic software layer that keeps digital services running, so that each stakeholder in their own capacity can take these impacts into consideration when dealing with the topic.
Description:
Open source software is the backbone of the digital society, enabling global innovation and providing the foundation for nearly all connected devices, cloud services, and digital infrastructure; it is a prerequisite for the functioning and thriving of the Internet. Its free, easy, and universal availability creates growth and opportunities everywhere, especially in developing countries, empowering communities and parties that would otherwise have no affordable and transparent access to ICTs. However, open source software reached success while remaining largely built on decentralized, volunteer-driven efforts, often underfunded and fragile. Recent regulatory trends across multiple jurisdictions impose on software developers legal liabilities and security requirements that mirror those of physical products, creating new complexities for open source projects. While large corporations can absorb these costs, smaller projects face new burdens that could overwhelm their limited resources, forcing them to either shut down, industrialize, or operate in legal grey areas. Additionally, while open source is generally considered a key tool and a source of alternative, local products for national digital autonomy strategies, national security and sovereignty concerns are shifting digital policies away from the globally collaborative models that underpin its development. This roundtable will bring together diverse stakeholders to discuss the sustainability of open source in a changing regulatory landscape. Can open source continue to thrive on bottom-up cooperation through volunteer contributions? How can it align with national sovereignty needs while maintaining global collaboration? The session aims to raise awareness, gather perspectives from different regions and backgrounds, and explore strategies for ensuring the resilience and future of the open source ecosystem.
Open source software is the backbone of the digital society, enabling global innovation and providing the foundation for nearly all connected devices, cloud services, and digital infrastructure; it is a prerequisite for the functioning and thriving of the Internet. Its free, easy, and universal availability creates growth and opportunities everywhere, especially in developing countries, empowering communities and parties that would otherwise have no affordable and transparent access to ICTs. However, open source software reached success while remaining largely built on decentralized, volunteer-driven efforts, often underfunded and fragile. Recent regulatory trends across multiple jurisdictions impose on software developers legal liabilities and security requirements that mirror those of physical products, creating new complexities for open source projects. While large corporations can absorb these costs, smaller projects face new burdens that could overwhelm their limited resources, forcing them to either shut down, industrialize, or operate in legal grey areas. Additionally, while open source is generally considered a key tool and a source of alternative, local products for national digital autonomy strategies, national security and sovereignty concerns are shifting digital policies away from the globally collaborative models that underpin its development. This roundtable will bring together diverse stakeholders to discuss the sustainability of open source in a changing regulatory landscape. Can open source continue to thrive on bottom-up cooperation through volunteer contributions? How can it align with national sovereignty needs while maintaining global collaboration? The session aims to raise awareness, gather perspectives from different regions and backgrounds, and explore strategies for ensuring the resilience and future of the open source ecosystem.
Expected Outcomes
The rapporteur’s conclusions will be a starting point and an initial takeaway for participants. However, subject to interest and support in the session, after the IGF we would like to start working on a report that could summarize the topic and the answers to the policy questions above, as agreed through our discussion and through subsequent online work by participants interested in the follow-up. This report will then be published and distributed by the organizers as a shared expert guideline for stakeholders that have to deal with open source regulation.
Hybrid Format: Our online moderator will ensure that remote participants have a fair chance of being given the floor and of posting comments in the videoconference chat, which can then be relayed to the onsite audience when appropriate. Moreover, at the end of the first phase of the session, we plan to use an online participation platform (possibly Slido, alternatively Mentimeter) to ask policy question C to the audience (both online and offline, if using a device) and collect ideas from the participants and the related expressions of support during the second phase of the session. The results of this tool will become part of the rapporteur’s conclusions.