Open Source As Institutional Infrastructure: Lessons From The Uc Ospo Network
Open source software underpins modern research data workflows, yet many academic institutions lack coordinated support for the people and practices that sustain it. Academic Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) address this gap by providing shared infrastructure, policy guidance, and community support for open source activities. This presentation examines the University of California OSPO Network, a multi-campus collaboration spanning six UC campuses, as a model for supporting data-intensive research through coordinated open source governance.
The UC OSPO Network leverages distributed expertise to deliver services that individual campuses often struggle to sustain on their own. These services include open source licensing and legal guidance, security best practices, sustainability and community health metrics, and coordinated educational programming. By treating open source as institutional infrastructure rather than a collection of isolated campus efforts, the network places data professionals at the intersection of research software engineering, data management, and institutional policy. This approach advances core data values such as reproducibility, transparency, and ethical practice through the software layer that researchers rely on every day.
Key components of the network include cross-campus governance structures, integration with existing research support services, and collaboration with data literacy and training initiatives. The network also conducts landscape analyses using surveys and data-driven methods to understand open-source activity across the UC system better. To date, the UC OSPO Network has secured over $1.85 million in external funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, demonstrating a viable and sustainable model for academic OSPO work.
The presentation shares lessons learned from two years of network operations, focusing on service models, governance approaches, and practical intersections with data management and research computing services relevant to IASSIST members.