UN Open Source Week 2026 Sets New York Programme for AI, DPI and OSPOs

Global open source policy and implementation will be the focus of UN Open Source Week 2026, scheduled for 22–26 June 2026 at United Nations Headquarters in New York. The event is co-hosted by the United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies (ODET) and the United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT).

The programme is relevant to Drupal and adjacent open source communities because it connects technical collaboration with public-interest digital policy. Sessions will examine artificial intelligence, Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), and Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs), with links to the Global Digital Compact, digital public goods, and public-sector implementation.

The opening day, UN Tech Over, is scheduled for 22 June 2026 at UN Headquarters. The event site describes it as a session for working on UN challenges and building practical open source tools. An invite-only LinkedIn side event will also examine the impact of artificial intelligence on the workforce.

Open Source x AI follows on 23 June 2026, with discussions on open hardware, open robotics, digital divides, responsible AI development, and AI capacity-building. DPI Day on 24 June 2026 will focus on how Digital Public Infrastructure can support digital transformation and how commitments under the Global Digital Compact can move into implementation.

OSPOs for Good on 25 June 2026 will examine how Open Source Program Offices can support adoption, capacity-building, and knowledge transfer across UN agencies, governments, and private-sector institutions. Community-led side events on 26 June 2026 will take place at IBM One Madison in New York, with workshops, presentations, and cross-sector discussions.

The published speaker list includes Sachiko Muto, chair of OpenForum Europe, senior researcher at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, and a board member of the Drupal Association. Her inclusion gives the programme a direct but limited Drupal community connection within a broader global open source policy agenda.

A related Maintain-a-thon 2.0, convened by the Sovereign Tech Agency and ODET during UN Open Source Week, adds a stronger open source maintenance and governance angle. The programme is organised around two parallel tracks: Technical Maintenance and Capacity & Stewardship.

Tim Hestenes Lehnen, chief technology officer at the Drupal Association, is listed for a session titled Platforms Weren’t Built for How Open Source Actually Collaborates. The session connects Drupal’s 25-year project history with the tooling challenge of sustaining contributions across third-party platforms, including the Drupal Association’s migration to GitLab and the custom workflows built around it.

Tiffany Farriss, CEO and owner of Palantir.net, is listed for Governance at Scale: What Actually Travels, a structured workshop on diagnosing governance needs as open source projects grow. The Maintain-a-thon agenda also includes Governments, Open Source and Accessibility: Contributing to a Common Solution, led by Mike Gifford, and Erik Möller’s session on how the Sovereign Tech Agency invests in critical open source infrastructure.

A related community gathering, Open Source Community Drinks NYC, will take place on 23 June 2026 from 19:30 to 22:30 EDT at Clinton Hall, 16 W 36th Street, New York. The event is organised by Evolving Web, CivicActions, and amazee.io, and is aimed at people working across Drupal, WordPress, Typo3, open-source CMS platforms, civic technology, digital experience platforms, and the wider open-source ecosystem.

Mike shared the gathering on LinkedIn and noted that he would be in New York for UN Open Source Week. He also referred to related sessions and panels on digital accessibility, open source, and procurement.

The official UN Open Source Week site lists livestreams for Open Source x AI, DPI Day, and OSPOs for Good. Registration for Open Source Community Drinks NYC is available through the event listing.