Measuring What Matters: Closing the Gap Between Open Source Policy and Implementation
Interest in open source at the policy level has grown considerably in recent years. What's still missing is a shared understanding of what it takes to make that endorsement operational. This panel brings together three evidence bases for closing that gap: new research identifying 13 concrete capacity indicators that separate policy intent from practice; the UN's Open Source Enablement Compass, which is turning that kind of research into a yearly benchmarking tool for governments worldwide; and Software Heritage's State of Public Code, which tracks what governments actually contribute, not just what they claim. Together, they ask: what would it take to move open source in government from policy to evidence-based action?
Omar Mohsine, UN Open Source Coordinator
Omar Mohsine leads the open source team within the UN Office of Information and Communication Technologies and serves as the co-chair of the UN Open Source Community of Practice. With over 15 years of experience working in various capacities across different continents, Omar Mohsine is a digital cooperation and open source advocate working at the intersection of technology, policy, and multilateral collaboration. He has contributed to shaping global initiatives such as the UN Open Source Principles and plays a key role in advancing open digital ecosystems within the United Nations. His work focuses on fostering innovation, promoting collaboration across institutions, and leveraging open technologies to address global challenges.
Sachiko Muto, Chair, OpenForum Europe; Senior Researcher, RISE
Sachiko Muto is the Chair of OpenForum Europe, a senior researcher at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, and a Board member of the Drupal Association. She originally joined OFE in 2007 and served for several years as Director with responsibility for government relations and then as CEO. Sachiko has degrees in Political Science from the University of Toronto and the London School of Economics; she received her doctorate in standardisation policy from TU Delft.
Bastien Guerry joined Software Heritage in October 2025 as Head of Partnerships, Public Sector & Industry. With a background in cognitive science, he became deeply involved in the Free Software movement and served as a maintainer for GNU Emacs Org Mode. In 2018, he brought this Free Software expertise to the French public administration, where he founded and led the Open Source Program Office for the interministerial digital directorate from 2021 until 2024.
Lea Beiermann is Partnership Lead at the German Centre for Digital Sovereignty (ZenDiS), where she fosters strategic partnerships across the public sector and the open source ecosystem to promote digital sovereignty. She has led multi-country projects on sovereign IT and has been involved in the recent establishment of the Digital Commons EDIC (DC EDIC). With an academic background in Science and Technology Studies and History of Technology, Lea brings a deep understanding of the social implications of technological transition, informing her current work at the intersection of software and digital policy.