Joshua Ku shares actionable insights on how the International Telecommunication Union transitioned its closed technology stack to open source, offering a structured, four-step process for organizations considering a similar move.

How the International Telecommunication Union Open Sourced Its Tech: A Four-Step Guide

By Joshua Ku

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a United Nations agency specializing in digital technologies, recently took a major step in democratizing its technology by moving from a closed Azure DevOps setup to an open source community model. This article outlines the process for organizations and nonprofits considering a similar transition, leveraging ITU’s six-month collaboration with GitHub volunteers.

1. Researching Effective Open Source Practices

  • Repository Exploration: The team analyzed a variety of open source repositories—ranging from new to mature—to identify documentation, community guidelines, and contributor onboarding practices worth emulating.
  • Key Takeaways: Effective READMEs, clear documentation, and inspiring contributor guides set the foundation for successful community engagement.

2. Refining the Open Source Mindset and Preparing Code

  • Code Scrubbing: Sensitive or non-public code sections were removed, and sample data with clear formatting guides was introduced.
  • Onboarding Materials: The team developed a comprehensive “Getting Started” guide and a CONTRIBUTING.md file outlining the responsibilities and expectations for new contributors.
  • Quality Assurance: Automated tests and linting were instituted to ensure code consistency, with continuous integration recommended to maintain software reliability.

3. Addressing Licensing

  • License Selection: ITU settled on the BSD-2 license to allow broad use while requiring source and binary redistribution to include attribution.
  • Compatibility Assessment: Existing project dependencies and usage scenarios were considered to ensure license compatibility.

4. Engaging the Open Source Community

  • Lowering Barriers for Contribution: “Good first issue” tags and clear issues were created to welcome newcomers.
  • Community Building: By actively involving external developers and adopting open documentation and contribution workflows, ITU fostered broader collaboration.

Key Results and Takeaways

  • Collaboration with GitHub volunteers helped ITU align with current open source best practices and prepare for wider external engagement.
  • The organization became more adept at supporting a global contributor base and is committed to open-sourcing more of its projects in the future.
  • The model demonstrates that, with structured planning and incremental steps, even large organizations can successfully foster open source communities.

Resources and Ways to Get Involved

By focusing on clarity, collaboration, and incremental progress, your organization can successfully shift from proprietary development to vibrant, public open source communities.

This post appeared first on “The GitHub Blog”. Read the entire article here