Talk

Openness As Policy

Monday, 19 May 2025 @ 14:50 - 14:55

In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, openness is not just an ethical stance—it is a strategic necessity. From AI to cloud computing, from data to infrastructure, the concentration of power in the hands of a few dominant players threatens innovation, competition, and sovereignty. This talk will explore how openness-as-policy—encompassing open-science, open-standards, open-source, open-data, and open-weights—serves as a powerful equalizer for challengers and a catalyst for sustainable technological progress.

By embracing openness, nations, industries, and individuals can break free from restrictive dependencies, foster collaborative innovation, and build resilient, sovereign ecosystems. We will discuss real-world examples where openness has reshaped industries, from Linux to scikit-learn, and why it must now be central to public policy and industrial strategy.

This is a call to action for engineers, researchers, and policymakers: we must refuse to be mere tenants of technology. It’s time to reclaim control, demand transparency, and shape a future where knowledge and technology remain open, accessible, and empowering for all.