DPI Podcast: Open Source Communities in the DPI Ecosystem
This episode explores the intersections of open source software ecosystems and digital public infrastructures. Me and Govind Shivkumar from Omidyar Network talk about the role OSS communities play in the DPI ecosystem, the need to think proactively about their governance and financial sustainability. All this while keeping their potential challenges and concerns in mind.
My key takeaways from the episode -
- DPGs are essentially open source and are usually built on open source codebases. DPGs form the key building blocks for many of the DPIs being set up by countries. This is key to how important a role open source softwares play in the DPI landscape.
- DPGs and open source softwares are fundamentally different at an objective level. DPGs are aimed at public good usecases and open source softwares can be open codebases for any purpose. For example — DPGs can be focused on developmental usecases like identity, payments, social assistance, etc; OSS could be used to power weapon systems, solve enterprise architecture issues, etc.
- It’s important to convene OSS communities, DPG builders, governments, and the private sector to create better governance and financing mechanisms for OSS as every stakeholder in the ecosystem builds on the same.
- Interestingly governments are both stewards (legislation, financing, and governance) and customers of DPI. Hence it is a fine balance they have to strike — and the key to do that is reduce their procurement burdens by nurturing and using open source solutions.
About Govind -
Govind Shivkumar is from the Omidyar Network. Govind leads Omidyar’s investments and portfolio in upholding governance and technology in the service of an open internet including Open Source Software, Technical Standards, Cyber Security, Digital Public Goods, Internet Governance, and Web3. He chairs the community of practice on disinformation at the UN Oslo Governance Center, is a member of the executive committee at MOSIP, and manages ON’s portfolio in this sector including organizations Global Cyber Alliance, Open Source Tech improvement fund, and Code for Science and Society, Center for Democracy and Technology.
