Software Heritage

Symposium and Summit 2024

Software Heritage annual community event

Software is all around us: it powers our industry, fuels innovation, supports scientific research and lies at the heart of our societies. 

Software Heritage, the universal source code archive, was launched in 2016 by Inria (France). Software Heritage’s ambitious goal is to collect, preserve and share all software source code, building an essential infrastructure at the service of cultural heritage, digital development, science, industry, and society as a whole. 

On April 3rd, 2017, a landmark partnership agreement was signed between UNESCO and Inria to establish a framework for collaboration on preserving the knowledge embedded in software source code, and making it widely available, centred around the ongoing development of the Software Heritage archive within the framework of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme.

In 2021, we celebrated the 5th anniversary of Software Heritage with the first annual Symposium. A second Symposium took place in 2023. This is Software Heritage’s 3rd Symposium event.

As part of the event, we gathered together to take stock of the achievements and status of Software Heritage, and to highlight the relevance of its mission in the context of today’s dynamic digital innovation landscape, including rapid changes in the field of generative artificial intelligence.

Programme

The half-day event, which followed a hybrid format of virtual and on-site participation at the UNESCO Headquarters, focused on several major dimensions of relevance to the Software Heritage Archive.

Software source code as documentary heritage and an enabler for historical research
Scientific challenges for analyzing and learning from preserved Source Code
Software source code as a first-class research output in the Open Science ecosystem
Software source code as an enabler for innovation and sharing in industry and administration

Below you can find the programme.

14:00 Welcome address and opening

Marielza Oliveira, Director Communications and Information – Division for Digital Inclusion, Policies and Transformation, UNESCO
Gilles Mathieu – representative, French Ministry of Research and Higher Education
Jean-Frédéric Gerbeau, Inria Deputy CEO for Science
Roberto Di Cosmo, Director, Software Heritage

14:45 Industry & Public administration panel

Guillaume Avrin, National coordinator for artificial intelligence, Direction Générale des Entreprises
Omar Mohsine, Office of the United Nations Special Envoy on Technology
Marc Palazon, Board member and President of the Open Source commission, Numeum
Kate Stewart, VP Dependable Embedded Systems, Linux Foundation

Moderator: Roberto Di Cosmo, Director, Software Heritage

15:30 Scientific challenges for analyzing and learning from preserved Source Code

Sebastiano Vigna, Full professor, Università degli Studi di Milano
Harm de Vries, Staff research scientist, ServiceNow and Leandro von Werra, Hugging Face

16:15 Open Science Panel

Claudia Bauzer Medeiros, Professor, University of Campinas – UNICAMP
Christopher S. Marcum, Senior Statistician and Senior Science Policy Analyst, Office of the Chief Statistician of the United States
Vanessa Proudman, Director, SPARC Europe
Kaitlin Thaney, Executive Director, Invest in Open Infrastructure

Moderator: Bhanu Neupane, Programme Manager for ICT and Sciences and Open Access to Scientific Research, UNESCO

17:00 Panel on Software Source code as part of Memory of the World

Rosana Lanzelotte, President, Musica Brasilis
Pio Pellizzari, Delegate of IASA, International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives
Valérie Schafer, Professor, C2DH – University of Luxembourg
Prateek Sibal, Programme Specialist, UNESCO

Moderator: Fackson Banda, Chief, Documentary Heritage Unit, UNESCO

The #SWH2024 Symposium in pictures

: Software Heritage Symposium and Summit, UNESCO, Paris, 2024.

: Arrival of participants at the Software Heritage Symposium at UNESCO’s headquarters.

: Software Heritage Symposium at UNESCO’s headquarters.

: Benoît Chauvet, Project Manager / Morane Gruenpeter, Head of Open Science / Fackson Banda, Chief, Documentary Heritage Unit at UNESCO, Roberto Di Cosmo, Founder and CEO / Stefano Zacchiroli, Founder and CTO and David Douard, Dev Team Manager at Software Heritage.

: Software Heritage Symposium and Summit at UNESCO. Paris, February 1st 2024.

: Benoît Chauvet, Project Manager / Morane Gruenpeter, Head of Open Science / Fackson Banda, Chief, Documentary Heritage Unit at UNESCO, Roberto Di Cosmo, Founder and CEO / Stefano Zacchiroli, Founder and CTO and David Douard, Dev Team Manager at Software Heritage.

: Benoît Chauvet, Project Manager / Morane Gruenpeter, Head of Open Science / Fackson Banda, Chief, Documentary Heritage Unit at UNESCO, Roberto Di Cosmo, Founder and CEO / Stefano Zacchiroli, Founder and CTO and David Douard, Dev Team Manager at Software Heritage.

: Benoît Chauvet, Project Manager / Morane Gruenpeter, Head of Open Science / Fackson Banda, Chief, Documentary Heritage Unit at UNESCO, Roberto Di Cosmo, Founder and CEO / Stefano Zacchiroli, Founder and CTO and David Douard, Dev Team Manager at Software Heritage.

: Fackson Banda, Chief, Documentary Heritage Unit at UNESCO.

: Software Heritage Summit at UNESCO. Paris, February 1st, 2024.

: Morane Gruenpeter, Head of Open Science / Fackson Banda, Chief, Documentary Heritage Unit at UNESCO, Roberto Di Cosmo, Founder and CEO / Stefano Zacchiroli, Founder and CTO at Software Heritage.

: Software Heritage Summit at UNESCO.

: Fackson Banda, Chief, Documentary Heritage Unit at UNESCO, Roberto Di Cosmo, Founder and CEO / Stefano Zacchiroli, Founder and CTO and David Douard, Dev Team Manager at Software Heritage.

: Fackson Banda, Chief, Documentary Heritage Unit at UNESCO, Roberto Di Cosmo, Founder and CEO / Stefano Zacchiroli, Founder and CTO and David Douard, Dev Team Manager at Software Heritage.

: Silvia Benvicelli, journalist at Software Heritage Symposium at UNESCO.

: Software Heritage Summit at UNESCO.

: Software Heritage Summit at UNESCO.

: Software Heritage Summit at UNESCO.

: Software Heritage Summit at UNESCO.

: Benoît Chauvet, Project Manager / Morane Gruenpeter, Head of Open Science / Fackson Banda, Chief, Documentary Heritage Unit at UNESCO, Roberto Di Cosmo, Founder and CEO / Stefano Zacchiroli, Founder and CTO and David Douard, Dev Team Manager at Software Heritage.

: Morane Gruenpeter, Head of Open Science at Software Heritage.

: Laetitia Cruse, CFO at the Software Heritage.

: Fackson Banda, Chief, Documentary Heritage Unit at UNESCO, Roberto Di Cosmo, Founder and CEO / Stefano Zacchiroli, Founder and CTO and David Douard, Dev Team Manager at Software Heritage.

: David Douard, Dev Team Manager at Software Heritage.

: Software Heritage Summit at UNESCO.

: Software Heritage Summit at UNESCO.

: Benoît Chauvet, Project Manager at Software Heritage.

: Software Heritage Summit at UNESCO.

: Software Heritage Summit at UNESCO.

: Sponsors and guests at Software Heritage Symposium and Summit at UNESCO.

: Coffee break during the Software Heritage Symposium and Summit at UNESCO.

: Jean-François Abramatic, EIT and advisor / Vincent Sellier Sysadmin Team Manager both at Software Heritage.

: Coffee break during the Software Heritage Symposium and Summit at UNESCO.

: Roberto Di Cosmo, Founder and CEO / Laetitia Cruse, CFO both at the Software Heritage.

: Keith Bergelt, CEO at Open Innovation Network.

: Software Heritage Summit at UNESCO.

: UNESCO’s headquarters, Paris, 2024.

: UNESCO visit during the Software Heritage Symposium and Summit.

: UNESCO visit during the Software Heritage Symposium and Summit.

: UNESCO visit during the Software Heritage Symposium and Summit.

: UNESCO’s headquarters, Paris, 2024.

: Sponsors and guests lunch at the Software Heritage Symposium and Summit at UNESCO.

: Sponsors and guests lunch at the Software Heritage Symposium and Summit at UNESCO.

: Software Heritage Symposium at UNESCO.

: Marielza Oliveira, Director Communications and Information – Division for Digital Inclusion, Policies and Transformation at UNESCO.

: Gilles Mathieu, representative, French Ministry of Research and Higher Education.

: Software Heritage Symposium at UNESCO.

: Software Heritage Symposium at UNESCO.

: Jean-Frédéric Gerbeau, Inria Deputy CEO for Science.

: Software Heritage Symposium at UNESCO.

: Software Heritage Symposium at UNESCO.

: Software Heritage Symposium at UNESCO.

: Software Heritage Symposium at UNESCO.

: Guillaume Avrin, National coordinator for artificial intelligence, Direction Générale des Entreprises / Roberto Di Cosmo, Founder and CEO at Software Heritage / Omar Mohsine, Office of the United Nations Special Envoy on Technology / Marc Palazon, Board member and President of the Open Source commission, Numeum and Kate Stewart, VP Dependable Embedded Systems, Linux Foundation.

: Roberto Di Cosmo, Founder and CEO at Software Heritage.

: Marc Palazon, Board member and President of the Open Source commission, Numeum.

: Kate Stewart, VP Dependable Embedded Systems, Linux Foundation.

: Omar Mohsine, Office of the United Nations Special Envoy on Technology.

: Alexios Zavras, Open Source Compliance at Intel Corporation.

: Software Heritage Symposium at UNESCO.

: Guillaume Avrin, National coordinator for artificial intelligence, Direction Générale des Entreprises.

: Software Heritage Symposium at UNESCO.

: Sebastiano Vigna, Full professor, Università degli Studi di Milano.

: Harm de Vries, Staff research scientist, ServiceNow.

: Landro v. Werra, Hugging Face and Harm de Vries, Staff research scientist, ServiceNow.

: Landro v. Werra, Hugging Face.

: Coffee break during the Software Heritage symposium at UNESCO.

: Coffee break during the Software Heritage symposium at UNESCO.

: Software Heritage community at the Software Heritage symposium at UNESCO.

: Christopher Steven Marcum, Senior Statistician and Senior Science Policy Analyst, Office of the Chief Statistician of the United States and Kaitlin Thaney, Executive Director, Invest in Open Infrastructure.

: Bhanu R Neupane, Advisor – ICT and Sciences and Open Solutions at UNESCO and Claudia Bauzer Medeiros, Professor, University of Campinas at UNICAMP.

: Kaitlin Thaney, Executive Director, Invest in Open Infrastructure.

: Claudia Bauzer Medeiros, Professor, University of Campinas at UNICAMP.

: Bhanu R Neupane, Advisor – ICT and Sciences and Open Solutions at UNESCO.

: Andreas Enge, Research Director at Inria (Guix).

: Claudia Bauzer Medeiros, Professor, University of Campinas at UNICAMP.

: Fackson Banda, Chief, Documentary Heritage Unit at UNESCO / Valérie Schafer, Professor, C2DH – University of Luxembourg / Rosana Lanzelotte, President, Musica Brasilis / Pio Pelizzari, Delegate of IASA, International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives and Prateek Sibal, Programme Specialist at UNESCO.