| By Laura D’Onofrio |
It started like a corny joke. What happens when a yogi/marketer/writer walks into a room with 5,000+ technologists? This was my feeling heading into All Things Open (ATO) 2025 at the Raleigh Convention Center. There were words like Kubernetes, OpenTelemetry, and NGINX Metrics. I assumed the entire meeting would be over my head and this recap would be pure gibberish.
Alas, I was pleasantly surprised. The lectures I attended underscored the point that we need diversity of views, and that hardcore techies and coders are not the answer to all our problems.
Todd Lewis is the chair of ATO who founded the meeting 13 years ago. “Whether you are a technologist doesn’t matter. We are all impacted by these tools … anyone can attend and find the companies behind the technologies they are using … it is an opportunity to build trust.”
Another demographic imbalance was obvious: gender. It was the first conference I had been to where there was no line in the women’s restroom, and the male line was out the door.
Sunny Myers, coleader of Triangle Women in STEM’s Professional Women Action Team, says her booth was visited by many male attendees who are eager to help introduce their wives and daughters to the field. “We are seen as a conduit, because our organization is a welcoming environment. ATO organizers always make an effort for marginalized voices to have a space at the meeting.”
But her group’s focus isn’t just on access; it’s also on accountability. “We must take a holistic view, are there negative effects to these technologies? What is the ethical, mindful approach to utilizing them? Do we want a planet with only AI and no humans? The environmental cost as well needs to be a joint conversation between federal, state, and local leaders.”
Raleigh has hosted the meeting all 13 years, and Lewis says it is for good reason. The booming private sector (think Citrix, Red Hat, and Bandwidth) are increasingly dependent on technology, and they get a chance to tap into Raleigh’s strong university infrastructure at this event. The universities of the Triangle are feeding some of the best and brightest in engineering—and other technical skills—to the private sector every year.
Brian Proffitt, senior manager of community outreach at Red Hat, says Raleigh is a hub of innovation, but also of creativity. “I can’t code to save my life. My way to contribute is through teaching and communication; for someone else it could be through building websites or designing. Don’t be afraid of looking at other general ways to contribute to open source.”
As to be expected, AI was a key theme at ATO 2025, but it was not unbridled hype. Matt White, GM of AI at The Linux Foundation, noted “There is a shrinking supply of human created data (i.e., less authenticity and nuance), plus data degradation. Basically, our AI large language models (LLMs) are being created by AI-generated content. This leads to an erosion of ground truth.”
In the sessions where optimism bubbled to the top, crowds were told not to fear that AI is going to take over our lives. Rather, we should focus on keeping humans at the center of these tools. How? Again, ideas circled around diversity: Countries outside of the West and China must begin to contribute their language and views to LLMs. Companies also need to invest in the modern data requirements of scalable, flexible, and interoperable data systems. Better inputs, better outputs.
Not to mention, AI, open source, and other technologies are underpinning our physical reality including our electrical grid, banking and security systems, and other critical infrastructure. John Holden, Smart City Manager here in Raleigh, admitted there is quite a ways to go. “Local jurisdictions have shared their challenges implementing their own AI and concerns over how the public may use other AI engines and not get accurate information. We have focused our attention mostly on assuring our data is up to date.”
Holden shared that the city has launched an AI-supported webpage called Ask Raleigh and is exploring video AI to improve traffic management.
No matter your role, skill level, or stage of career, ATO offered a meaningful peek into the world of open source tech—and you can continue the momentum by attending their regularly held Raleigh meetups. As keynote speaker Kunal Kushwaha of CAST AI hinted, you just have to get started. He noted Andrew Ng’s now-famous X quote, that telling kids to stop coding will be seen as the worst career advice in history. And Kushwaha would know—he’s 26. While that may sound intimidating, the message, like Brian Proffitt’s, is clear: The tech world needs all kinds of contributors, and the best time to get involved is now.
