Open Source Software, Public Policy, and the Stakes of Getting It Right

Open Source software plays a central role in global innovation, research, and economic growth. That statement is familiar to anyone working in technology, but the scale of its impact is still startling. A 2024 Harvard-backed study estimates that the demand-side value of the Open Source ecosystem is approximately $8.8 trillion, and that companies would need to spend 3.5 times more on software if Open Source did not exist.

Those numbers underscore a simple truth: Open Source is not a niche concern or a developer-only issue. It is economic infrastructure. And like any critical infrastructure, it depends not only on technical excellence, but on policy environments that understand how it works.

This reality sits at the center of the Open Source Initiative’s (OSI) expanding work in public policy, a move that reflects how deeply Open Source is now entangled with global regulation, security, and emerging technologies like AI.

Check out the good work of the OSI and read the complete post at:

https://opensource.org/blog/open-source-software-public-policy-and-the-stakes-of-getting-it-right