45+ countries assembled for 1 shared mission: Open source at United Nations
HQ. Last week at the UN Open Source Week 2025, I witnessed something truly powerful.
Over the span of a week, the event hosted an Edit-a-thon, Hackathon, and Maintain-a-thon, focusing on essential documentation, building solutions to global challenges, and fostering sustainable OSS stewardship.
What made the event truly special for me as a researcher and OSS advocate was its participatory spirit. It wasn’t just about listening to talks, everyone engaged deeply in breakout sessions as contributors, collaborators, and community members. I had rich, meaningful conversations with people from Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs), industry leaders, government agencies, NGOs, OSS consulting firms, journalism, academia, and student groups. Each brought a unique lens to what open source means in their context, and how it can drive local and global impact.
For me, it was a week of shared learning, building relationships, and reflecting on how open source is not just about code, but community, inclusion, and collective action.
A massive shout-out to the organizing team for executing such a seamless, inclusive, and impactful event. Thank you for making it a grand success! Omar Mohsine Mithusha Kajendran Mélina Emdadi and many others