The United Nations organised an event “From Open Software to Open Culture Opportunities and challenges of open source to support the United Nation mandate” on 23 September as a Side Event at General Assembly High Level Week. It convened high-level speakers who discussed the ways to leverage open source technologies for sustainable development and for the benefit of underserved communities.
The UN recognises open source software as a ubiquitous public good and aims to support such developments, as well as plans to fully incorporate the open source ethos and culture into its work. The organisation, despite hosting several successful open source initiatives and supporting diverse open source actions, is still on its way to fully leverage open technologies to achieve its goals. This event allowed for discussing possible paths and tools to operationalise UN's involvement in open source.
The event was opened by Maria-Francesca Spatolisano (Officer in Charge, UN Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Technology – Assistant Secretary-General) who highlighted the value of open source, the need for collaboration with diverse actors and to leverage open source as a way to support relief activities. This was followed by the Assistant Secretary-General & Chief Information Technology Officer Bernardo Mariano Junior discussing the need for more connectivity and cooperation in digital solutions. He also announced that OICT and DIGIT will launch a joint Open Source Technology Challenge Initiative and that OICT and the UN Secretariat will build an Open Source Program Office with the work started in the WHO.
The panelists discussed the role of open source in their respective organisations’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic and on the challenges they encountered while establishing open source strategies. Other topics included the Digital Public Goods Alliance and its goals and projects; the latest Open Source Software Strategy and the establishment of the European Commission’s Open Source Program Office; the ways to adopt open source in the government institutions, which requires appropriate digital infrastructure, upskilling of public officials, and robust institutional commitment and effort. The fragmentation of public administration offices was also discussed, as general, actionable procurement guidelines should be available to public officials procuring IT solutions, and those should include open source in its criteria and directions.
Most of the speakers agreed that inter-institutional collaboration and educating public officials are the key elements to advance the shift to open culture that would result in a higher uptake of open source in the public sector. The full recording of the event is available on the United Nations’ website.
Panelists:
• Ms. Natalia Aristimuno Perez - Acting, Director of Digital Services at the European Commission DIGIT
• Mr. Shimon Shore - Chief, Open Source Programme, Israel Ministry of Science & Technology
• Secretariat co-lead, Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) – Ms. Lucy Harris
• Ms. Paola Pisano - Former Minister for Technological Innovation, Researcher and Lecturer University of Torino
• Mr. Sayeed Choudhury - Associate Dean for Research, Johns Hopkins University
• Ms. Mala Kumar - Director of Tech for Social Good, GitHub
• Moderator: Mr. Salem Avan - Director Policy, Strategy and Governance Division, UN-OICT