"Rapid Changes in IT Environment... Importance of Open Source Development"

Seunghyeonjun Samsung Research Director
Opening Address at Open Source Conference
2000 Software Developers Participated

Seunghyun Jun (Sebastian Seung), Head of Samsung Research (President), is delivering the opening speech at the 7th Samsung Open Source Conference (SOSCON) held online on the 14th.

Photo by Samsung Electronics

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] "With the recent COVID-19 pandemic causing rapid changes in the IT environment, the importance of open source development is growing even more."

Seunghyun Jun (Sebastian Seung), Head (President) of Samsung Research, stated this during the opening address of Samsung Electronics' 7th Samsung Open Source Conference (SOSCON) held online on the 14th. Open source refers to programs whose source code is publicly available, allowing free modification and redistribution.

Under the theme of "Openness and Open Culture," about 2,000 software developers participated in this conference. Since 2014, Samsung Electronics has held the Open Source Conference annually to share information and insights on the latest technologies such as 5G communication based on open source, artificial intelligence (AI) robots, and big data. Seunghyun Jun explained the reason for selecting "Open Culture" as this year's conference theme, saying, "An open culture is essential for developers, organizations, and companies that form open source communities based on trust and communication."

Seunghyun Jun expressed his conviction that open source is essential to prepare for future technologies, emphasizing, "We aim to create opportunities for communication and mutual growth in such a rapidly changing environment." He also pledged that Samsung will lead research and development (R&D) to create future-leading technologies and integrate open source developed by talented developers into products and services.

This year’s conference featured 7 keynote speeches and 16 sessions, including lectures by renowned open source leaders from home and abroad. Keynote speakers included Seungbeom Choi, Executive Vice President leading technology strategy at Samsung Research; Jim Zemlin, Chair of the Linux Foundation; Denise Cooper, Chair of InnerSource Commons, a foundation promoting open source development and collaboration within companies; Myungsoo Jung, Professor at KAIST; and Sujeong Kim, Head of the Seoul team of the global women developer community Women Who Code.

Starting with EVP Choi’s keynote titled "The Role of Samsung Electronics Open Source in the New Normal Era," the keynote speakers presented on topics such as the role of open source in the non-face-to-face era, recent trends in open source utilization, and key emerging challenges including hardware platform innovation through open source. Dongyun Jung (17) and Donghyun Hwang (14), winners of the Samsung Junior SW Creation Contest, also delivered keynote speeches sharing their experiences as junior software developers. Open source developers from various industries including Naver, Microsoft (MS), SK Hynix, and Kakao participated in technical sessions. Additionally, the "SOSFest" event was held, where programs developed using Samsung Electronics' open source were showcased and outstanding developers were recognized.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.