As 2025 wraps up, the TODO Group community continued to welcome practitioners involved in open source management in their organizations to share proven practices, build useful resources, and strengthen open source management through Open Source Program Offices across industries and regions.
Below is a recap of the year’s community milestones, how TODO programs evolved, and what the Steering Committee recommends focusing on in 2026.
Community Overview
TODO Group is now 90+ members and growing, spanning industry, the public sector, non-profits, and academia. We welcomed 7 new member organizations during 2025 and early 2026: ZTE, George Washington University, IPA, Honda, Cloudera, Hitachi, and Block.
Our structure continues to support multiple ways to participate: Steering Committee, Ambassadors, Project and Working Group Leads, and Member organizations. Any individual is also welcome to join our Slack community or contribute to TODO resources.
Ambassadors supported several regional efforts, including regular local meetups and translation contributions, such as the OSPO Book translated into Japanese.
Programs Evolution
In 2025, we continued refining a program portfolio designed to meet and learn from practitioners involved in open source management at organizations:
- OSPOCon track at Linux Foundation Open Source Summits (best practices, tools, and solutions for open source program management)
- OSPOlogy Live: focused workshops and roundtables around specific OSPO challenges in region/verticals, with tangible next steps
- OSPOlogy Local Meetups: community-organized, ambassador-led meetups sustaining local OSPO chapters
- OSPOlogy BoFs at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon: Open Source Management + Operations + Cloud Native discussions on security and contribution practices
- LF Member Summit TODO Track: TODO member alignment on priorities and shared learning
We also discussed expanding support for KubeCon co-located OSPO activities, especially with more volunteers to help coordinate in North America.
Working Groups and Projects
Our working groups remained a key engine for deliverables and community leadership, including:
- OSPO Book Working Group: delivered print version in Chinese, English and Japanese and improved contributor processes, and translation structure
- CHAOSS OSPO Metrics Working Group: ongoing metrics discussions on the value of the OSPO in their bi-weekly meetings
- Open Source in Business Working Group: ongoing discussion on the business value of open source for enterprises
The community also contributed to the creation of an OSPO Job Board: powered by GitJobs; free for job seekers and employers, with TODO/LF member verification
Education and Research
In 2025 we advanced the professionalization of open source management with:
- TODO Certification and Training
- Continued collaboration with LF Research on the 2025 State of OSPO and Open Source Management report. These insights shaped several Steering Committee discussions this year especially around helping OSPOs communicate value under shifting markets and increasing regulatory pressure.
Community Engagements
Community engagement continued through:
- TODO Touchpoints: live and on-demand sessions, with AMER and APAC/EMEA rotations
- The TODO Group Blog and OSPO Newsletter, which now reaches 300+ OSPO leaders and open source managers
Members also discussed introducing a lightweight all-hands/community update cadence to improve visibility into ongoing work, upcoming opportunities, and ways to contribute, hosted by the Steering Committee.
Collaboration across industries and ecosystems
In 2025, TODO strengthened cross-ecosystem collaboration and industry-vertical connections, including examples across automotive (AutomotiveGrade Linux), trusted supply chain (OpenChain), cloud-native (CNCF), energy(LF Energy), research and academia (CURIOSS), and security (OpenSSF). These partnerships are designed to help scale OSPO/SIG efforts by reusing templates, leveraging ambassador expertise, and cross-pollinating lessons learned across verticals.
A recurring theme in Steering Committee discussions is connecting OSPO conversations across verticals more intentionally (e.g., finance, automotive, energy, cloud-native), so OSPO teams can learn faster and avoid reinventing the wheel.
Steering Committee highlights
The Steering Committee made progress across several 2025 strategic goals:
- Developing shared goals with partner communities
- Recognizing contributors and improving processes
- Repo maintenance and cleanup
Committee members also contributed through conference AMAs, CFP reviews, mentorship research, supply chain security talks, OSPO + AI work, and expanded collaboration with other communities (including OpenSSF, OpenChain and FINOS). Here are some actions driven from SC members in 2025:
- Georg: updated Ambassador documentation; panelist at TODO AMA (OSS North America); co-chaired OpenSSF Best Practices WG; delivered multiple supply chain/CRA talks (CNCF Aachen, LF Europe Roadshow, OSPOlogyLive Lyon).
- Brittany: facilitated TODO AMA (OSS North America) and joined AMA (LF Member Summit); co-wrote FINOS financial services OSS survey; delivered OSPO/InnerSource talks and FINOS blog posts with TODO references.
- Annania: participated in TODO SC AMA panels (OSS North America + OSS Europe); reviewed CFPs; advanced mentorship program research (GitHub Discussion + LFX exploration).
- Ashley: led OSPO + AI engagement at GitHub Universe (panel + Day 0 discussions); contributed guidance around OSPOs and AI/agentic workflows.
Recommendations for 2026
The Steering committe members shared the following recommended goals for 2026:
Keep doing
- Strengthen contributor recognition and repeatable processes, especially for working groups and major deliverables such as the OSPO Book
- Improve regular member meetings and make it easier for members/ambassadors to contribute content regularly
- Maintain and refresh core repos (landscape, guides, governance resources)
New Focus
- Mentorship program – move from concept to launch: Continue the 2025 research/ideation and implement a mentorship pathway that supports new OSPO practitioners
- Connect OSPO discussions across verticals: Build a clear “path” to cross-link work, reuse templates, and share playbooks across industry contexts without fragmenting the community.
- Evolve the OSPO narrative for 2026: AI + policy + measurable value: Create clearer guidance and messaging to help OSPOs explain why they matter now (and beyond), particularly as AI-related workflows and emerging policies increase organizational risk and complexity.
- Revisit UN open source goals and what they mean for OSPOs in enterprises: Continue the 2025 discussion on connecting enterprise OSPO practice with broader public-interest open source goals and frameworks
Get involved
As we head into 2026, there are many easy ways to plug in:
- Submit a blog post idea, case study, or “lessons learned” write-up
- Share a talk proposal for TODO Touchpoints
- Add your org/tool to the OSPO Landscape
- Post an OSPO role to the Job Board
- Participate in discussions in the TODO Group Slack Community