Episode 115: Trends from UN OSS Week and OSSNA

Jul 24, 2025

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Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSSCast!

In this double-length CHAOSScast special episode, hosts Harmony Elendu and George Link along with panelists from the CHAOSS community, come together to reflect on their experiences at two major open source events: CHAOSScon North America (co-located with the Open Source Summit) and the United Nations Open Source Week in New York. The episode is packed with personal insights, highlighted key talks, software updates, themes from the events, memorable community interactions, and thoughtful conversations about the future of open source, digital sovereignty, and sustainability. Press download now!

[00:00:19] Harmony and the guests introduce themselves and their roles in CHAOSS and the open source community.

[00:02:36] Everyone shares their CHAOSScon talk highlights.

[00:10:49] Conference moments and experiences are talked about such as Linux Foundation’s puppy therapy booths to reduce stress, knitting as a conversation starter, and spontaneous hallway discussions about software security and SBOMs.

[00:17:10] Software updates: Augur now runs easily via Docker Compose, making it accessible to more users.

[00:18:59] Elizabeth explains behind the scenes of organizing CHAOSScon with Linux Foundation support, and challenges with speaker curation, CFP management, and logistics.

[00:23:17] Harmony invites listeners to CHAOSScon Africa and OSCAFEST’25 happening in August, both in the same week and same location.

[00:23:45] Elizabeth, Laura, and Andrew share their CHAOSS booth experiences.

[00:28:28] The guests talk about meeting longtime online collaborators in person for the first time.

[00:30:16] Cali talks about the Data Science Hackathon, student participation, hands-on project exploration with 8Knot and Auger and the event was hosted by the CHAOSS Data Science Working Group.

[00:36:43] Part 2 starts here as host Georg Link takes over with guests Divya, Ruth, and Daniel, who all attended the United Nations Open Source Week in New York.

[00:39:45] We hear some key moments from the UN Open Source Week 2025: Governments increasingly adopting OSPOs, sessions on humanitarian tech and open source for crisis response, the energy, engagement, and diversity of thought.

[00:50:09] Ruth shares something new she learned going to an Open Source Hardware presentation where they did a demo of DIY microscopes and Georg shares an inspiring story he learned using open hardware.

[00:52:12] After being at this conference, Ruth sees open source headed for digital sovereignty and there’s a discussion on the trend toward collaborative Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and public goods.

[00:55:37] There’s a conversation on sustainability and open source communities.

[01:01:09] Governance and transparency is discussed, Daniel shares an example with Germany’s Sovereign Tech Fund supporting critical infrastructure, and Divya shares going to a session that was focused on payments.

[01:06:05] We end with Georg highlighting to check out some recordings from the UN Open Source Week 2025 website and to check out the UN Open Source Principles.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

[00:32:03] Harmony’s pick is a local coffee.
[00:32:26] Cali’s pick is being able to road bike for the first time since surgery.
[00:33:05] Elizabeth’s pick is feeling grateful to be in an industry that provides opportunities to meet with and connect with people from all over the world.
[00:34:39] Laura’s pick is spending two weeks with open source folks who care far more about people than profits.
[00:35:14] Andrew’s pick is reconnecting with Elizabeth and first time traveling with the Timeshifter App to help with jet lag.
[01:07:32] Ruth’s pick is friends.
[01:08:00] Daniel’s pick is the Digital Resilience Forum.
[01:09:27] Divya’s pick is tinkering with pottery.
[01:11:16] Georg’s pick is his herbal garden.

Panelists:

Harmony Elendu
Georg Link

Guests:

Elizabeth Barron

Andrew Nesbitt

Cali Dolfi

Laura Langdon

Divya Mohan

Ruth Ikegah

Daniel Izquierdo

Links:

CHAOSS