Members Newsletter – March 2026
Dear OSI supporters,
Every March, Open Education Week invites us to reflect on something that will feel familiar to everyone in this community: the idea that knowledge is most powerful when it is freely accessible, adaptable, and shared. It is a principle that open education and Open Source have always held in common, and this month’s newsletter is a good occasion to explore that connection more deliberately.
The open education movement did not emerge in isolation. The legal and technical infrastructure that made Open Educational Resources possible — Creative Commons licensing, open platforms, shared governance models — drew directly from the Open Source tradition. Tools built on Open Source software made open education operational, not merely aspirational. That history matters today, as generative AI introduces new pressures and new possibilities for both communities.
OSI’s recent work reflects this intersection in concrete ways. Our decision to join the Apereo Foundation in signing the Open Letter to the Higher Education Community was a natural extension of our mission: if Open Source is foundational to education, research, and the public good, then higher education has both an opportunity and a responsibility to treat it as a strategic asset rather than a commodity. You’ll find more on that, and on Google Summer of Code 2026 — a program that embodies the mentorship and knowledge-sharing values at the heart of both initiatives — in the pages that follow. There is more to explore this month as well, and I think you’ll find the connections worth reflecting on.
