Beyond the Code: A travel report from the EU Open Source Week 2025
As the chill of winter settles over Brussels, a vibrant warmth ignites the city at the end of January. This year, around 11,000 enthusiasts, from Europe and beyond, converged to celebrate the spirit of open-source and open technologies by joining the EU Open Source Week. The heart of this gathering is FOSDEM, Europe's largest open-source conference, drawing a diverse crowd eager to share knowledge and innovation and celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. For those interested in open technology, digital policy, and EU developments, the EU Open Source Policy Summit was a must-attend, bringing together open-source leaders and policymakers to shape the future of open technologies. Several participants from various areas of Bosch joined the event among others, Nikola, Olaf, Philipp and Marcel.
Connecting with the open-source community
By Nikola Babadzhanov, Open-Source Consultant, Bosch Digital
My first EU Open-Source Week was a whirlwind of engaging talks, workshops, and networking opportunities, particularly at FOSDEM and CHAOSSCon. As an open-source enthusiast for over 15 years, and now a member of the Bosch OSPO and co-chair of the Solution Circle Secure and Compliant Containers, I found the experience incredibly valuable. My focus on open-source management, tooling, and governance shaped my itinerary.
My personal highlight: Presenting two lightning talks at the FOSDEM Fringe tooling workshop: one about SEPIA (Bosch SBOM Validator) and another one about ORT-Server/Eclipse Apoapsis. Witnessing over 11,000 attendees at FOSDEM was truly impressive.
Two talks particularly resonated with me. "Open-Source Governance for Software Engineers" emphasized the importance of one-to-one communication for conflict resolution and establishing clear rules for community growth, this even includes banning disruptive members. The "Airflow Beach Cleaning - Securing Supply Chain" presentation showcased how crowdfunding, through initiatives like the Alpha-Omega project (OpenSSF), strengthens open-source projects and their ecosystems, including the collaborative effort between the PSF, ASF, and Airflow PMC.
From fostering healthy collaboration to addressing complex security challenges, the collective effort and the power of the community within the open-source world are truly inspiring.
AI accessibility and a shifting landscape
By Olaf Flebbe, Lead Developer Navigation at Bosch eBike
As an open-source contributor for over 30 years and a passionate cyclist, attending FOSDEM 2025 provided valuable insights into the evolving landscape of AI, cloud and embedded systems. These areas are highly relevant to my work on navigation services at Bosch eBike.
I joined the event mainly because of my interest in the topic of geospatial. However, FOSDEM also highlighted the broad scope of Bosch's involvement with open-source, showcasing its contribution across various domains including embedded systems, automotive, legal aspects, and software-defined vehicles.
My main spotlight of the event was on low level AI: The elephant in the room was the Deepseek R1 models which had just been published, demonstrating the potential to run powerful, open-source AI even on a laptop. This resonated with our work at Bosch eBike Navigation, where we utilize AI inference for route prediction. My key takeaway: optimized open-source frameworks enable the use of sophisticated AI - including transformer models - deployable even on embedded systems.
Growing importance and awareness of open-source
By Philipp Ahmann, Senior OSS Community Manager at ETAS GmbH
FOSDEM is more than just a conference—it’s a cornerstone of the open-source world. From discovering new projects in various fields like open-source scorecards and NGO-focused CRMs to engaging in critical discussions around the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act, FOSDEM offers unmatched opportunities for learning and collaboration. The hallway track, packed sessions, and the growing interest in AI and open hardware all underscore its role as a vital hub for innovation and community building. It’s where the open-source ecosystem thrives, connects, and evolves.
I was particularly fascinated by several initiatives around open-source project scorecards, which aim to assess the health, security, and other key metrics of projects. This is especially relevant and helpful for regulated software as we have it in automotive products. I also learned about a highly interesting CRM software specifically designed for NGOs, focusing on fundraising rather than traditional sales. This brings a focus also on how open-source projects and communities can use CRM tools for their outreach and “customer” management.
In general, as every year, several dev-rooms provided deep dives into specific technologies. Beyond specific topics, the sheer volume of attendees stood out. Even sessions in the main auditorium were packed, a testament to the growing importance and awareness of open-source. During the introductory session, roughly a third of the audience indicated they were first-time attendees. This speaks to the event's continued ability to attract newcomers to the community. And lastly, the impact of the European Union's Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) continued to be a major topic of discussion, as it was last year already. I am already looking forward to next year’s FOSDEM.
Digital sovereignty, sustainable software supply chains, and public and private sector growing together
By Marcel Kurzmann, Open Source and Software Management Consultant, Bosch Digital
As we are currently preparing our OpenChain and Friends event in April, together with The FOSS-LÄND community, the EU Open Source Week was the perfect place to promote our activities, and to reach out to other collaborating communities and potential speakers for our event.
My personal highlight was the panel with our EU representatives during the OFE Open Source Policy Summit, followed by the active participation and moderation by one of the representatives in one of the FOSDEM dev-rooms. How cool is this!
My main take-away of the OFE Open Source Policy Summit was: there is consensus that the software infrastructure in Europe's public sector and in the private companies is critical and open-source can help to overcome the dependency of the big software infrastructure providers to reach digital sovereignty. Thus, the open-source management maturity in the software supply chain is crucial and while the publication of the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) was not considered ideal, the need to implement it unites the community to work on standard interfaces and processes - especially concerning the SBOMs. This also opens possibilities for collaboration between private and public sector on common projects, potentially backed by public money for public code principle and thus could help to ensure healthy open-source projects.
Although I missed the software Heritage Symposium & Summit, I received an update from their ambassador and founder. Their progress and potential for sustainable software supply chain are impressive so I will definitely put my participation on next year’s agenda.