Open Source Summit + Embedded Linux Conference North America 2026: Full Schedule

May 18-20, 2026
Minneapolis, MN
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Note: The schedule is subject to change.

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IMPORTANT NOTE: Timing of sessions and room locations are subject to change.

11:20am CDT

Panel Discussion: OSPOs at Scale: Doing More With Less in 2026 - Ashley Wolf, GitHub; Karolyn Maynard, Comcast; Natali Vlatko, Cisco; Paulette Avolio, Ford; Rashida Toliver, Violane LLC

Monday May 18, 2026 11:20am - 12:00pm CDT

200A (Level Two)

Open Source Program Offices are maturing. What started as license compliance and governance functions have evolved into strategic enablers of security, AI adoption, developer productivity, and ecosystem engagement. At the same time, budgets are tighter and expectations are higher.

In this moderated panel, OSPO leaders from Ford, GEICO, Comcast, Cisco and GitHub will discuss how modern OSPOs are scaling impact. We’ll explore practical approaches to automation, policy design, internal enablement, and cross-functional alignment. We’ll share how OSPOs are using metrics to demonstrate value, navigating AI-era contribution models, and leveraging communities like the TODO Group to accelerate learning.

Attendees will leave with concrete examples of how enterprise OSPOs are evolving beyond compliance, how to prioritize when resources are constrained, and how to build influence across engineering, security, and leadership teams.

Whether you're starting an OSPO or leading a mature one, this session offers candid lessons from practitioners operating at scale.

Speakers

Ashley Wolf

Director, Open Source, GitHub

Ashley Wolf is the Director of Open Source Programs at GitHub. She runs initiatives and programs to empower developers to be successful with open source. She is also passionate about helping companies participate in the open source community. Prior to joining GitHub, Ashley led the... Read More →

Karolyn Maynard

Leader of the Comcast Open Source Program Office and The Comcast Dojo, Comcast

I build systems, I build people. I build trust. I build momentum,

I lead two teams at Comcast focused on engineering enablement and transformation: the Comcast Open Source Program Office, which empowers safe and scalable open source participation, and the Comcast Dojo (NPS: 76), which accelerates developer practices through immersive, outcome-driv... Read More →

Natali Vlatko

Director of Open Source Software Engineering, Cisco

Natali Vlatko (she/her) is a Director of Open Source Software Engineering at Cisco, specializing in open software, policy, and governance. She is a SIG Docs Co-Chair for Kubernetes and a member of the TODO Group Steering Committee. She plays on the fun computer in her spare time... Read More →

Paulette Avolio

Open Source Program Office Manager, Ford

I help connect people, policies and products to elevate open source community, compliance and contributions.

Rashida Toliver

Co-Founder & Security Strategist, Violane LLC

Rashida Toliver is a Security Engineer II at GEICO and Co-Founder of Violane Tech LLC. She builds data-driven vulnerability management systems, leads open-source contribution governance, and mentors emerging engineers. Through Violane Tech, she delivers data management, visualization... Read More →

Monday May 18, 2026 11:20am - 12:00pm CDT
200A (Level Two)

OSS Enabling & Management

Audience Experience Level Beginner

1:30pm CDT

Strategic Approach To Demonstrating the Value of OSS Efforts - Dawn Foster, Independent

Monday May 18, 2026 1:30pm - 2:10pm CDT

200A (Level Two)

We’ve probably all had company leadership question the value of our OSS efforts. It can be difficult to frame the value in ways that resonate with leadership and clearly articulate the organizational benefits gained through continued OSS contributions. Taking a strategic approach that connects the OSS work with the broader goals and objectives of the organization can demonstrate the value of this work so that the organization can continue to allocate resources to the OSPO or other OSS teams.

Using examples from my decades of experience in OSS, this talk will provide details about how to demonstrate value by focusing on how your OSS work helps the organization achieve their strategies and goals. Every organization has unique needs and goals based on what they are trying to achieve, so there is no “one size fits all” way of demonstrating value, but aligning your OSS strategy with your organization’s goals and focusing on the most strategic projects can help show the value of your efforts. This talk will help you reason about how OSS efforts allow your organization to achieve its goals along with framing and communicating that value in ways that resonate with your leadership team.

Speakers

Dawn Foster

Open Source Strategy Consultant, Self-Employed

Dr. Dawn Foster is an OSS strategy consultant. She is also on the board of CHAOSS and OpenUK, and was previously a co-chair of the CNCF Contributor Strategy Technical Advisory Group. She has 20+ years of experience at companies like VMware and Intel with expertise in community, strategy... Read More →

Monday May 18, 2026 1:30pm - 2:10pm CDT
200A (Level Two)

OSS Enabling & Management, Operations Management & OSPOs

Audience Experience Level Intermediate

2:25pm CDT

Scaling Your OSPO With Agents and Automation: Lessons From GitHub's Open Source Program - Ashley Wolf, GitHub

Monday May 18, 2026 2:25pm - 3:05pm CDT

200A (Level Two)

As open source adoption grows, the role of the OSPO expands with it. At GitHub, we saw an opportunity to scale our capabilities by automating the repetitive work—like checklists, scans, reports, and audits—that every program office handles.

In this session, I’ll outline how we evaluated AI agents to handle the heavy lifting of data gathering and analysis. We’ll look at practical use cases for automating OSPO activities like review, compliance, reporting, including dependency analysis and license detection, using data from sources like ClearlyDefined and OpenSSF Scorecard.

Join me as we explore the patterns that worked, the surprises we encountered, and how these workflows provide a comprehensive view of project health for OSPOs. You’ll leave with a framework for applying AI, agents, agentic workflows to your own OSPO’s challenges, helping you scale your operations efficiently across the entire open source lifecycle.

Speakers

Ashley Wolf

Director, Open Source, GitHub

Monday May 18, 2026 2:25pm - 3:05pm CDT
200A (Level Two)

OSS Enabling & Management, Operations Management & OSPOs

Audience Experience Level Beginner

3:35pm CDT

Taming MCP Server Sprawl: Securing and Scaling the Model Context Protocol in Production - Jeffrey Borek & Olivia Buzek, IBM

Monday May 18, 2026 3:35pm - 4:15pm CDT

200A (Level Two)

As AI agents transition from pilots to production systems, enterprises are rapidly adopting the open source Model Context Protocol (MCP) to connect models with tools, data, and services. But this flexibility introduces a new challenge: MCP server sprawl. Proliferating endpoints, inconsistent trust models, weak identity controls, and unclear governance can quickly create operational and security risk. This session explains what MCP is, why its adoption is accelerating, and where architectural pitfalls emerge at scale. Developers will learn key design principles for secure deployment, including authentication patterns, authorization boundaries, observability, lifecycle management, and policy enforcement. Attendees will leave with a practical mental model for building MCP integrations that remain composable, governable, and production-ready as ecosystems evolve.

Speakers

Jeffrey Borek

WW Program Director, Open Technologies, IBM

Working across IBM Research to build a scalable and consistent AI software supply chain security framework, while continuing to lead the consumption compliance Open Source Program Office (OSPO), including policy, execution and guidance. Working with IBM Government & Regulatory Affairs... Read More →

Olivia Buzek

Senior Staff Developer Advocate for AI, IBM

Olivia is a computational linguist turned AI engineer. Her career has focused on data, machine learning, and AI. She subscribes to neither AI hype nor AI doomerism, believing that human creativity and AI can coexist, and that builders of AI applications have a responsibility to their... Read More →

Monday May 18, 2026 3:35pm - 4:15pm CDT
200A (Level Two)

OSS Enabling & Management, Operations Management & OSPOs

Audience Experience Level Intermediate

4:30pm CDT

Lazy Rivers and Open Source Security: Learn About the OpenSSF With Angelah and Stacey - Angelah Liu & Stacey Potter, Linux Foundation

Monday May 18, 2026 4:30pm - 5:10pm CDT

200A (Level Two)

Some people claim that open source and cybersecurity are two things that don't mix. Come join this informative session to learn how the truth is very much the opposite!

Established in 2020, the OpenSSF is the security subject matter experts for the Linux Foundation. While some might claim that security is a Dark Art, hop onto our lazy river as we show you about all the amazing initiatives our community has to offer open source developers and downstream OSS consumers! Don't forget your towel and some sunscreen, and be careful if you sit in the splash-zone... you MAY get wet! HONK!

Speakers

Angelah Liu

Associate Manager, Marketing and Communications, Linux Foundation

Angelah serves as the Associate Communications & Marketing Manager at the Linux Foundation, where she supports open source projects' cross-functional marketing initiatives for high-impact open source ecosystems. She drives the marketing efforts for multiple key LF projects, including... Read More →

Stacey Potter

Community Manager, OpenSSF

Stacey brings extensive experience in open source community building, marketing, and event coordination. With a background spanning projects like Minder, Flux and Flagger, OpenFeature, and Keptn, she has played a key role in fostering engagement and driving adoption across cloud-native... Read More →

Monday May 18, 2026 4:30pm - 5:10pm CDT
200A (Level Two)

OSS Enabling & Management, Operations Management & OSPOs

Audience Experience Level Beginner

5:25pm CDT

From Compliance To Code: The Cyber Resilience Act, SBOMs, DevTeams and YOU! - Marcus Ross, Hamburg Port Authority AöR & Peter Dickten, dcs-fuerth Germany

Monday May 18, 2026 5:25pm - 6:05pm CDT

200A (Level Two)

The EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) is reshaping how manufacturers and developers must secure their products—but what does it mean for your Developer platforms, DevOps pipelines, and DevTeams? In this session, we’ll share a real-world implementation for SBOMs (Technical Guideline TR-03183 from the Federal Office of Information Security). We demonstrate how to technically address CRA mandates without drowning in compliance overhead.

You will leave with
- Understand the CRA’s impact on your Developers and Management even outside the EU (and why ignoring it isn’t an option).
- See a production-ready workflow for SBOMs, vulnerability management, and compliance automation with OpenSource-Tools (DependencyTrack, CentralCyclone, GitOps).
- Actionable insights on integrating CRA requirements with SBOM handling into your CI/CD pipelines.
- A clear "why this matters" for your org., and lessons from the trenches of securing critical infrastructure with Kubernetes.
- Get a checklist for team adoption - because compliance is a cultural challenge, not just a technical one.

Speakers

Peter Dickten

Peter Dickten, dcs-fuerth Germany

Marcus Ross

CCoE Lead / Kubestronaut, Hamburg Port Authority

The Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) has been operating future-oriented port management from a single source since 2005 and is active wherever efficiency, safety, and cost-effectiveness are required in the Port of Hamburg. Marcus works as a DevOps Plattform Engineer in a team responsible... Read More →

Monday May 18, 2026 5:25pm - 6:05pm CDT
200A (Level Two)

OSS Enabling & Management, Operations Management & OSPOs

Audience Experience Level Beginner

11:00am CDT

Small Government, Big Problems: Utilizing OSS To Support Our Citizens - Bob Henderson, Cass County Government

Tuesday May 19, 2026 11:00am - 11:40am CDT

200A (Level Two)

Small and local governments face an outsized challenge: rising expectations from citizens paired with shrinking budgets, limited staff, and a complex technology landscape. Finding modern, secure, and sustainable solutions often feels impossible when proprietary systems are expensive, rigid, and dependent on vendors that may not fully understand public sector realities. Staffing constraints make it even harder—small teams are expected to maintain critical services, manage security, and deliver innovation.

This session explores how open source software can help governments break out of that cycle. We’ll examine how open source provides flexibility, transparency, and long-term sustainability, while reducing vendor lock-in and enabling collaboration across agencies. We’ll also address common concerns around support, security, and staffing, and discuss practical models for leveraging vendors and community expertise without sacrificing control.

Finally, we’ll tackle the fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) that often surrounds open source in government, separating myth from reality and showing how open source can empower small governments to deliver big outcomes for their citizens.

Speakers

Bob Henderson

Director of Information Technology, Cass County Government

20+ years in Public Sector IT, from individual contributor to leadership. Advocate of the right tool for the right job, at the right time.

Tuesday May 19, 2026 11:00am - 11:40am CDT
200A (Level Two)

OSS Enabling & Management, Operations Management & OSPOs

Audience Experience Level Any

11:55am CDT

Beyond SBOMs: Making License Data Actionable With ClearlyDefined - Jamie Magee, Microsoft

Tuesday May 19, 2026 11:55am - 12:35pm CDT

200A (Level Two)

SBOMs tell you what's in your software. They don't tell you what you're allowed to do with it. License and attribution data is often missing or ambiguous -- a LICENSE file says MIT, but source files have Apache-2.0 headers. SBOM or not, you still don't know what to put in your notice file.

ClearlyDefined, an Open Source Initiative project, fills in that missing data. It runs automated license scans, then lets the community curate the results -- fixing misidentified licenses, adding missing attributions, and resolving conflicts between what a package claims and what its source files say.

In this session, I'll cover:

- Why SBOMs fall short on licensing: what's typically missing and where the gaps are worst
- How ClearlyDefined's harvest-curate pipeline works, with a walkthrough of tracing a component from ambiguous scan to curated definition
- How curations get contributed back upstream and why it matters for projects themselves, not just consumers

This talk is for anyone who's tried to build a license compliance workflow and found that the data isn't there yet.

Speakers

Jamie Magee

Principal Software Engineer, Microsoft

Jamie Magee is a principal software engineer on Microsoft's supply chain security team. He focuses on dependency management and Software Bill of Materials (SBOM).

Tuesday May 19, 2026 11:55am - 12:35pm CDT
200A (Level Two)

OSS Enabling & Management, Operations Management & OSPOs

Audience Experience Level Beginner

2:10pm CDT

Building Sustainable Open Source: The Harper Story - Ethan Arrowood, Harper

Tuesday May 19, 2026 2:10pm - 2:50pm CDT

200A (Level Two)

Open sourcing a core product is easy to celebrate, but hard to initiate and sustain. This is a practical story about economic viability and how Harper open sourced our core product while protecting business health, funding continued engineering, and creating the conditions for durable community growth.
Geared towards founders, CTOs, investors, and developer relations and engineering managers, I share Harper’s intimate story of transforming our nearly decade-old, closed source code base into an actively growing open source community. I share what we learned from customer growth patterns, where adoption stalled, and how we recognized the potential of open source. From there, I dive deep into our execution strategy; separating the open source core from the commercial operations customers valued.
You’ll learn how licensing choices and clear boundaries between shapes trust, and how we approached the organizational and technical realities of moving a long-lived product into the open. If you're building or funding open source and need a sustainable model supporting profitability and momentum, this session offers a concrete path grounded in lived experiences.

Speakers

Ethan Arrowood

Head of Open Source Engineering, Harper

Ethan Arrowood lives in Summit County, CO. He is the Head of Open Source Engineering at Harper, developing a distributed, real-time application platform. Additionally, he is a Node.js contributor that contributed to the development of Fastify, Undici, and Node.js' Fetch. He's also... Read More →

Tuesday May 19, 2026 2:10pm - 2:50pm CDT
200A (Level Two)

OSS Enabling & Management, Operations Management & OSPOs

Audience Experience Level Any

3:05pm CDT

Hidden in Plain Sight: Discovering the Academic Open Source Landscape - Juanita Gomez, University of California, Santa Cruz

Tuesday May 19, 2026 3:05pm - 3:45pm CDT

200A (Level Two)

Academic Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) are emerging across universities to support open source, but how can they identify contributors and know what support is needed?

The University of California launched its OSPO network in 2024, connecting six campuses (UC Santa Cruz, Berkeley, Davis, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and San Diego) to promote open source research, sustainability, and best practices. A major challenge is not only finding projects but understanding how they operate and engage contributors.

To address this, the UC OSPO Network is developing the Open Source Repository Browser (ORB), an interactive platform that maps activity, visualizes community health signals, tracks contributor patterns, and surfaces repository metadata. ORB enables OSPOs to guide targeted support, inform policy, and strengthen open source contributions across campuses.

The browser now visualizes data from 30+ universities, providing a multi institution view of project health, contributor patterns, and adoption of community standards. This talk will cover ORB’s design and implementation and share insights from multiple universities to inform OSPO strategies and engagement.

Speakers

Juanita Gomez

PhD Student, University of California, Santa Cruz

Juanita Gomez is a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at UC Santa Cruz, where her research focuses on improving the security of scientific open source software in collaboration with the Open Source Program Office (OSPO) at UCSC. She is a passionate programmer, mathematician, and... Read More →

Tuesday May 19, 2026 3:05pm - 3:45pm CDT
200A (Level Two)

OSS Enabling & Management, Operations Management & OSPOs

Audience Experience Level Any