Overview
SOSE 2026 will be organized around four parallel tracks, each featuring a series of facilitated conversations and collaborative activities designed to address key challenges in building and sustaining open-source ecosystems.
The four tracks are outlined below, along with illustrative topics that may be explored within each. While the track structure is established, specific discussion topics will continue to evolve as the program is finalized.
Open Platforms, AI Agents, and the Future of Open Source
Possible topics include:
- Distributed development and collaboration
- The evolving role of AI agents in open-source ecosystems
- Open, community-driven, and customizable hardware platforms
- Programmable AI and edge-computing platforms
- Hardware/software co-design for multimodal and AI-enabled systems
- Extensible platforms that reduce vendor lock-in and enable experimentation
- New socio-technical challenges and opportunities
- Human–AI collaboration in development and maintenance
Protocols, Interoperability, Security, and Trustworthy Coordination
Possible topics include:
- Interoperability and shared protocols across open-source platforms and ecosystems
- Modular design and standard interfaces that enable components to be added, replaced, and reused
- Open reference stacks, APIs, firmware, drivers, datasets, and benchmarks
- Reproducibility and portability of research across institutions and platforms
- Provenance and traceability
- Software and hardware supply-chain integrity
- Auditability of AI-generated and AI-mediated contributions
- Authentication, authorization, and trustworthy coordination across heterogeneous environments
- Security risks introduced or amplified by AI agents and increasingly programmable platforms
Governance, Licensing, Copyright, and Accountability
Possible topics include:
- Open-source licensing in AI-mediated environments
- Licensing and stewardship of open software, hardware, data, models, and other open-source assets
- Copyright, attribution, and ownership
- Community governance and decision-making models
- Accountability for AI-generated or AI-mediated contributions
- The role of Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) and other ecosystem-support organizations
- Enforcement and compliance considerations
- Balancing automation with meaningful human participation
Sustainability and Ecosystem Growth
Possible topics include:
- Strategies for enabling open-source projects and communities to thrive beyond individual grants or projects
- Building a sense of belonging to sustain project health and encourage continuing participation
- Sustaining partnerships and creating long-term revenue and funding models
- Workforce development and pathways to broadening ecosystem participation
- Incentives for users, contributors, maintainers, and other ecosystem participants
- Community-driven security and design practices that support ecosystem resilience
- Documentation, manufacturing, maintenance, and support for sustainable open hardware ecosystems