Andrew Katz, CEO and Head of Tech and IP at Moorcrofts has been named as a member of the Intellectual Property and Open Source Advisory Panel of the United Nations Technology Labs (UNTIL).

The aim of the Panel is to create intellectual property and open source guidelines and processes to support repeatable and sustainable development of digital solutions for United Nations projects. Once created, technology and non-technology organizations will be able to share and benefit from allowing their digital solutions to be used in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) and their requirement to open source.

Clarifying organizational models for open source programs impacts organizations and member states by establishing processes to enable developers and users of code and data to share and adopt open code and organizational practices, processes, and toolsets in a structured and manageable way.

This will allow the benefits of high-quality open source digital solutions to be scaled across member states, resulting in cost savings and circumventing issues of vendor lock-in.   New open source organizational models will likely arise from the continuous non-permanent collaborations created across member states as they share foundational open source software.

Amanda Brock, CEO Trustable and Chair of the UNTIL IP and Open Source Advisory, said:

“We believe that the panel is the first external Advisory of its kind supporting the adoption of open source in a supra national organization.  Other such organizations rely on buying-in experts to manage open source strategy.  However, by sourcing the panel by directly approaching the heart of the communities building and supporting open source, UNTIL have brought together experts spanning open source community, legal, economics, strategy and policy to establish standard policies and processes with tailored guidance as required for organizations wishing to participate with the UNTIL labs.”

As the labs scale globally, so too will the use of the Advisory’s guidelines and processes. Thanks to their work following open source methodologies and outputs being shared on an open, creative commons license, other organizations will be able to adopt and re-use.

Andrew Katz, said:

“Free and open source software is a vital component in meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and it’s great that the UN is taking FOSS seriously. I’m delighted to be involved in the UNTIL IP and Open Source Advisory.”

The Advisory brings a balanced view of how-to best support sustainable development through open sourcing through a group of professionals with deep knowledge and commitment to open source software. The panel members are:

• Allison Randal, Open Source Strategist
• Amanda Brock, CEO, Trustable Software and European Rep, Open Invention Network (Advisory Chair)
• Andrew Katz, Partner and Head of Tech and IP, Moorcrofts LLP
• Carlo Piana, Founder and Partner, Array Law
• Frank Karlitscheck, CEO NextCloud
• Glenn Svennson, SAP
• Isabel Drost-Fromm, Open Source Strategist
• Mirko Boehm, Director Linux System Definiton, Open Invention Network
• Sachiko Muto, CEO, Open Forum Europe

If you need Intellectual Property or Open Source legal advice or have questions, around the UNTIL IP and Open Source Advisory, contact Andrew Katz.