Digital Resilience Forum: Session Abstracts
Keynotes
UN Development Goals: Making Digital Public Infrastructure more Resilient
Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) hinges on robust and trustworthy Digital Public Infrastructure. Led by Omar Mohsine, OSS Coordinator for the United Nations, this keynote addresses the critical global challenge of embedding resilience into these foundational digital systems (such as identity, payments, and data exchange). We will explore practical strategies—including security, open standards, and sustainable governance—to ensure Digital Public Infrastructure can withstand various shocks and reliably deliver on its promise of inclusive, equitable, and sustainable development worldwide.
Why Do You Trust Software? I don't. (And Why That Matters for Digital Resilience)
Modern infrastructure runs on software, and we trust it far more than we should. From autonomous vehicles and hospital systems to the cloud platforms behind critical industries, recent failures have exposed how fragile our digital foundations really are. The 2024 CrowdStrike crash, the 2025 Google Cloud outage, and cascading supply-chain breaches like MOVEit and SolarWinds revealed that resilience isn’t the default state of our connected world, it’s the missing ingredient.
Drawing on decades of experience leading complex software and systems programs across the automotive, industrial, and embedded domains, John Ellis challenges the notion that “tested” means “trustworthy.” He shows how opacity, convenience, and speed have replaced engineering discipline, and why digital resilience now depends on rebuilding the chain of trust: from source code to system operation, from supplier to insurer.
This session offers a candid look at what it takes to make software truly trustable, measurable provenance, transparent construction, and shared accountability, and on every participant to help build the next
generation of resilient digital infrastructure. Because resilience won’t come from wishing software won’t fail. It will come from designing for the moment it does.
The Engine Room for Digital Sovereignty
Digital Sovereignty and Other Fables
Amanda Brock
Brexit forced a focus on sovereignty in the UK long before the reactive response to Trump Tariffs and geopolitics in 2025. 5 years of learning have shaped the UK’s approach to “sovereignty” in digital and open source, ensuring its recognition that isolation cannot win.
This talk will build on that experience to explore the global Digital Sovereignty phenomenon in 2025, challenging the audience to face the facts and fiction of sovereignty, and the place of open source software and AI in sustainable digital infrastructure.
The Digital History of the BBC
From the BBC Micro to AI: Innovation with Integrity Speaker: Tanu Sahnan, Head of Engineering, BBC
She explores the BBC’s digital evolution — from Ceefax and the BBC Micro to iPlayer, AI, and beyond. Sharing a personal story of resilience during the World Cup, she reveals how trust and collaboration drive the BBC’s technology strategy. With 450 million global users and a mission to serve everyone, the BBC’s innovation is guided by public service, digital sovereignty, and ethical design. This keynote highlights how resilience, reinvention, and integrity continue to shape the BBC’s digital future.
Panel Discussions
Growing Resilience: International Initiatives and Lessons Learned
Open source software underpins today’s digital public infrastructure. However, its sustainability and resilience as a digital public commons depends on furthering global collaboration through multistakeholder exchanges, partnerships, investment and support. States have a key role to play in that process. Around the world, States are increasingly recognising the value and importance of open source as a driver of development, competitiveness, innovation and interoperability, often adopting the language of “digital sovereignty” or “resilience.” Several are asking about how to further benefit from open source in their public administrations and beyond, and also questioning how they can contribute back in supporting this shared digital commons.
This panel brings together leading representatives from Government and academia to share their insights and strategies for how the State can contribute towards growing the resilience of the open source ecosystem. That may include funding and maintenance models, procurement strategies, community building, capacity building or beyond. This session aims to share different ideas and inspire new pathways to solve our shared digital challenges, drawing on lessons learned from their rich experiences from diverse countries and regions.
Digital Resilience in Practice: Securing the Digital Supply Chain
This panel, will explore the practical and strategic building blocks necessary to secure the digital supply chain, a critical topic given new European legislation like the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA).
Moderated by Juan Rico, the discussion brings together a unique mix of technical, community, and geopolitical expertise: Philippe Ombredanne (AboutCode), Stefano Zacchiroli (Software Heritage), Georg Link (Bitergia, CHAOSS), and Darío García de Viedma (Elcano Royal Institute).The panelists will bridge the gap between technical requirements and high-level policy, addressing the need for transparent, quality reference data on Open Source Software, the role of archival and integrity in resilience, practical tools and standards for assessing component trust and health, and the geopolitical implications for Europe. The conversation aims to chart concrete, practical next steps for achieving cohesive, lasting digital resilience for public and private entities.
Workshops
Hands on Workshops Building Resilient Digital Trust Infrastructure with First Person Credentials
In 2023, the Linux Foundation suffered what came very close to being the most devastating malware injection attack in history. The XZ attack was caused by a breach of trust in the open source software supply chain. Executive Director Jim Zemlin asked the LF Decentralized Trust project for a solution, and the answer was First Person credentials— digital credentials that provide cryptographic proof of real-world trust relationships. The First Person Project has since grown into an international multi-
Hands on Workshops Kick-starting your OSPO: a practical approach
This workshop offers an interactive introduction to organizing open source work within an organization. Using the OSPO Book as a guide, participants will explore key themes such as strategy, operations, and security through short presentations and group assessments. The session encourages discussions and exchange of experiences to help participants identify approaches that fit their own contexts.
Hands on Workshops, led by BBC Disaster Recovery
In this Information Age, we are dependent on digital services and connectivity for everyday activities. Businesses run ecommerce websites, and process payments through electronic point of sale systems. Governments communicate with their citizens through SMS and email, and provide public services on websites. News and media streaming is consumed through connected TV and mobile apps. It is therefore more important than ever that digital services are resilient.
Part of this resilience is the ability to recover from a disaster that takes down a service. What happens if your on-premise servers lose power, or you can’t access a particular cloud provider region? How about if you lose access to all of your source code to a cyber attack? This workshop will work through some hypothetical disasters, and formulate plans for mitigation and recovery. Attendees will come away with actionable steps to better prepare for a disaster taking down their services.