Get ready to vote for OSI’s board of directors in 2025
Members Newsletter – February 2025
2025 is well under way, and it’s time to elect a new Board of Directors at the OSI! This year two elections will be held simultaneously: One director elected by the affiliate organizations, and two directors elected by individual members. The elections timeline was announced and nominations opened on January 22. Nominations will be open until February 17, 2025. Campaigning will run from February 21 to March 7, at which time voting will begin. Polls will close on March 17, 2025.
All nominees must have been a full OSI member (supporter or professional level) as of January 22 when nominations opened. All full members in good standing as of March 7 can vote. If you’re not a full member yet, now is the perfect time to join. If getting more involved is one of your New Years resolutions (and you’re a full OSI member), cast your nomination to join the OSI Board before February 17!
The Open Source community needs your support and involvement more than ever. The introduction of new licenses, licensing changes, and of course, the important work of ensuring Open Source AI fits the community-generated Open Source AI Definition, all require a strong and dedicated community to ensure the integrity of Open Source is maintained.
Thank you for being a part of this incredible Open Source community. Let’s start a wave of support for 2025 so OSI can continue to be a beacon for all Open Source development worldwide.
Stefano Maffulli
Executive Director, OSI
P.S. Please have a look at the Data Governance in Open Source AI: Enabling Responsible and Systematic Access whitepaper recently published by OSI in partnership with Open Future and reimagine the role of data in Open Source AI!
I hold weekly office hours on Fridays with OSI members: book time if you want to chat about OSI’s activities, if you want to volunteer or have suggestions.
News from the OSI
OSI’s board of directors in 2025: details about the elections
The OSI board of directors is renewing 3 of its seats with an open election process among its full individual members and affiliates. Join as a full member by March 7, 2025, and gain the power to shape OSI’s future—cast your vote in the Board elections and influence the organization’s direction.
Reimagining data for Open Source AI: A call to action
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) and Open Future have published a white paper: “Data Governance in Open Source AI: Enabling Responsible and Systematic Access.” This document is the culmination of a global co-design process, enriched by insights from a vibrant two-day workshop held in Paris in October 2024.
OSI in the news
If DeepSeek wants to be a real disruptor, it should go much further on data transparency
Article from Open Data Initiative
While there are multiple claims to DeepSeek’s ‘open source’ AI model, in reality it is not open source. While both the model weights and the model architecture were shared in a technical paper, neither the code nor the training or evaluation data were shared openly. An analyst for the Open Source Initiative also confirmed that Deepseek is not Open Source AI and doesn’t meet the requirements of the Open Source AI definition. It joins other models which claim to be open source, but score poorly on data transparency.
Other highlights:
- How DeepSeek and Open Source Models Are Shaking Up AI (Bloomberg)
- Why Mark Zuckerberg wants to redefine open source so badly (ZDNet)
- Red Hat’s take on open-source AI: Pragmatism over utopian dreams (ZDNet)
- What DeepSeek Means for Open-Source AI (IEEE Spectrum)
- Hugging Face researchers are trying to build a more open version of DeepSeek’s AI ‘reasoning’ model (TechCrunch)
- Ai2 releases Tülu 3, a fully open-source model that bests DeepSeek v3, GPT-4o with novel post-training approach (VentureBeat)
- Open source AI is already finding its way into production (GitHub)
- The Biggest Winner In The DeepSeek Disruption Story Is Open Source AI (Forbes)
- AI and Open Source: Defining the New Era (Dotan Horovits)
- Open source trends for 2025 and beyond (InfoWorld)
- Read all press mentions from this past month
Other news
News from OSI affiliates:
- Eclipse Foundation: The composition of the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) Expert Group: a key step toward Collaborative Cybersecurity Policy
- Creative Commons: CC Launches its 2025-2028 Strategic Plan
- Apereo Foundation: February Micro-Conference: Unlocking Open Source Grant Funding Opportunities with Josh Baron
- Software Heritage: Software Heritage wants to put 22 billion open-source files to good use
Events
Upcoming events:
- SCALE 22x (March 6-9, 2025 – Pasadena)
- FOSS Backstage (March 10-11, 2025 – Berlin)
- All Things Open AI (March 17-18, 2025 – Durhan)
- The Linux Foundation Member Summit (March 18-20, 2025 – Napa)
FOSDEM recap
The OSI was one of the co-organizers of the “Open Source In The European Legislative Landscape and Beyond” devroom at FOSDEM bringing together European lawmakers and the Open Source community, with participation from Stefano Maffulli, Simon Phipps, and Jordan Maris. Stay tuned for video recordings and recap of this amazing community-led conference in Brussels. In the meantime, please check these blog posts:
- Open Source in Europe Enters a New Era with a Successful First European Open Source Awards Ceremony
- FOSDEM 2025, that’s a wrap (Paloma Oliveira)
Thanks to our sponsors
New sponsors and renewals
- FerretDB
Interested in sponsoring, or partnering with, the OSI? Please see our Sponsorship Prospectus and our Annual Report. We also have a dedicated prospectus for the Deep Dive: Defining Open Source AI. Please contact the OSI to find out more about how your company can promote open source development, communities and software.
Get to vote for the OSI Board by becoming a member
Let’s build a world where knowledge is freely shared, ideas are nurtured, and innovation knows no bounds!