We need open source now, more than ever. There is an urgent need to foster global connections, knowledge exchange and cross-border collaboration. Only by working together can we make bigger strides in solving some of the world’s most pressing problems. People from around the world work together on open source projects. They show every day how a fruitful and successful collaboration on a global scale to the benefit of all is possible despite different views, personal and historical backgrounds and experiences. In this session, Hong Phuc Dang will speak about the state of open source software and hardware - challenges and opportunities. What we have learned from the pandemic, how individuals can contribute and help to build global solutions the open source way.

Speakers:

Hong Phuc is the founder of FOSSASIA, an organization that strives to improve people’s lives through sharing open technologies and fostering global connections and sustainable production. She chairs the annual FOSSASIA Summit and organizes Open Tech Summits in countries from Vietnam, India, China, Sri Lanka, to Germany. She serves as a Vice Chair of the Open Source Committee, IEEE, a board member of the Open Source Business Alliance and VP of Open Source Initiative. With over a decade of open source expertise, she supports companies in their technology transition to open source and innersource development models. Her recent efforts focused on bringing open source hardware into production at scale. Hong Phuc believes Free and Open Source is not just a way to exchange code freely, it is a collaboration model that sets an example of how people around the world can work together peacefully to solve any problem.