Open Source Day 2025

The OS Day conference, now in its fourth edition, embodies the true essence of open-source: a place where freedom, transparency, and accessibility come together, fostering spontaneous and genuine discussions. But above all, it’s a space where sharing isn’t just a value—it’s a priority.

The Current State of the Open-Source World

Open source has never been more alive! In recent years, more and more companies and developers have embraced this philosophy, recognizing it as a driving force for business and technological innovation.

According to the paper The Value of Open Source Software (still in progress), without open-source, companies would have to spend 3.5 times more on software. This highlights its immense benefits for businesses, but also exposes a major issue: many companies leverage open-source software without giving anything back—whether in terms of code or financial support.

Another concerning insight from the study is that only 5% of OSS developers generate 96% of the value in open-source software. This imbalance often leads to maintainer burnout, which can result in projects shutting down or, worse, security vulnerabilities that impact the software supply chain.

Open source is a fundamental pillar of technological innovation, but to ensure its future, we must make it more sustainable and equitable. Every contribution, big or small, makes a difference—from financial support to active participation in communities, to simply sharing knowledge. If we want open source to remain a driver of growth and opportunity, we must protect, support, and nurture it with our commitment.

It is with this vision that Italia Open-Source was born: to support and sustain the Italian Open Source ecosystem, creating connections, knowledge, and real value for the community. The platform is completely open source and allows you to discover and actively contribute to the Italian open-source ecosystem: you can add your own projects, those of your company, or those you use every day. Open a pull request on the awesome-italia-opensource repository and grow Italian open source with us!

Conference Day

My day started at dawn—at 5:30 AM, I was already heading to the central station. Upon arriving in Florence, I made my way to Nana Bianca, the stunning venue that has hosted the event for the third consecutive year.

Main Topics

The conference lasted an entire day, and you can find the full schedule and rewatch the event livestream on YouTube.

Fortunately, the event wasn’t entirely dominated by the latest trend (spoiler: AI). The topics covered were diverse, with a focus on:

• Accessibility
• Project and community management in open-source

Yet, all talks shared a common theme: open-source is not just about software—it’s a mindset, a way of life centered on support, collaboration, and sharing.

My Takeaways

All the talks were incredibly valuable (I highly recommend checking out the live stream!), but these stood out to me the most:

• Sal Kimmich: “Trust is good, but not trusting is better.” Their talk explored how open-source and confidential computing are transforming digital justice, ensuring transparency, security, and data sovereignty through encryption and concepts like Multi-Party Computation and Zero-Knowledge Proofs.
• Emiliano Pisu: “More accessibility, happier users.” He emphasized the importance of accessibility in UX, presenting wcag-ui, an open-source UI kit designed to simplify web accessibility following WAI-ARIA standards.
• Marco Ippolito: “If a feature doesn’t exist, I’ll create it.” He detailed the process of developing a new feature in Node.js, highlighting the challenges faced and its impact on the JavaScript ecosystem.

A special mention goes to Edoardo Carlesi, who not only delivered an excellent talk but also brought his band’s song to the stage—a must-listen for all developers!

Beyond the Talks

Communities are the heart of the tech ecosystem. Without them, the industry wouldn’t be where it is today.

Beyond the talks, one of the most rewarding aspects of conferences is meeting new people, exchanging ideas, and forging new connections. I had the pleasure of engaging with many professionals and sharing thoughts and perspectives.

A well-deserved shoutout to Maria Pina Cataldo and Sara Battilotti, who presented the Manifesto M71A, an initiative aimed at making the tech world more inclusive and equitable.

Wrapping Up

A huge thank you to all the members of Schrödinger Hat, the volunteers, and the sponsors who made this incredible day possible.

I’m heading home with fresh ideas, renewed motivation, and, most importantly, the certainty that open-source is more alive than ever. And it’s not just about technology—it’s a philosophy of life.

You know, after one conference is over, you’re already thinking about the next one, and I’m already thinking about Cloud Native Days Italy 2025… so for those of you who are cloud and kubernetes lovers, we’ll see you there for a chat.