Open Source at the United Nations

As I stepped into the United Nations headquarters in New York, I felt a surge of excitement and pride. The Open Source assembly was about to unfold, and I was honored to be a part of it. As someone who's been involved in open source for a while, it was amazing to see it take center stage at the UN last week.?

We are talking about the UN, a prestigious international organization focused on global collaboration and progress that makes it a natural fit for open source, which is all about sharing knowledge and working together. It was incredible to experience a richer global presence of diverse open source thinkers, with bigger ambitions and strides for championing open source as a global network for good.?

The symposium was packed with insightful discussions, from leveraging open source for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to governments and organizations promoting adoption. We heard from luminaries, including representatives from the United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies Digital Public Goods Alliance , the UN Department of Safety and Security and the EU Commission DE . he topics of discussion ranged from open source in cities and networked cities, to youth and open source, and the role of academia in driving open source initiatives. We discussed how open source is being used in education, research, and healthcare, and how we can ensure that everyone has access to these technologies.

It was super humbling to be able to represent my initiatives and speak about our open source and AI work at Grace Hopper by Anitab.org, where we're democratizing access to advanced technologies for newcomers in open source. Additionally I represented The Linux Foundation ’s LF AI & Data Foundation , sharing our work from the Technical Advisory Board, where we bring together diverse groups from industry and academia to develop best practices, governance, and a neutral home for projects in AI, Generative AI and Data landscape.

I'm grateful to the organizers and everyone involved for creating this incredible experience. This symposium set a great stage for us to reflect on what is being done and take the learnings to drive the initiatives forward.

If you're interested in getting involved in open source or just want to learn more, let’s connect! Let's keep the momentum going and make a difference together.