Historic UN Tech Over Event Mobilizes Global Open Source Community to Accelerate Progress on Sustainable Development Goals

USA - English

Unprecedented 3-in-1 hackathon demonstrates transformative power of collaborative technology innovation

NEW YORK, June 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The United Nations concluded its groundbreaking UN Tech Over event yesterday, marking a distinctive departure from traditional UN conferences by bringing together over 200 global technologists, innovators, and open source practitioners in three simultaneous hackathons focused on advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Held over June 16-17, 2025, as part of the 2025 UN Open Source Week, the UN Tech Over hosted three contiguous hackathons and tech-related challenges that celebrated technology's pivotal role in solving real-world problems through multi-stakeholder cooperation and open source innovation.

Breakthrough Results Across Three Innovation Tracks

The event's three distinct but interconnected challenges generated remarkable outcomes:

Ahead of the Storm: Open Geospatial Analytics for Children-Centric Climate Emergency Response brought together over 80 participants who tackled three critical challenges developed by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Teams of up to five members co-created scalable solutions for climate emergency response, focusing on protecting vulnerable children and marginalized communities. The hackathon emphasized building upon existing methods, data, and tools to deliver lasting impact aligned with the Global Digital Compact.

The Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon engaged nearly 40 participants in a collaborative effort to enhance Wikipedia's coverage of UN history and themes. Celebrating the 70th anniversary of Italy and Sri Lanka's admission to the United Nations, participants made over 970 edits, adding 16,300 words across 6 new articles and 234 edited pages. The enhanced content has already received 1.99 million views, demonstrating the immediate global reach of collaborative knowledge creation.

The Maintain-A-Thon spotlighted the often-invisible work of maintaining critical open source infrastructure with over 40 participants across 15 breakout sessions covering the entire open source software lifecycle. Led by Michael Winser of Alpha-Omega and the Sovereign Tech Agency, senior maintainers provided mentorship on issue triage, documentation, and software upkeep, highlighting the importance of sustainability and long-term stewardship in digital infrastructure that powers SDG-focused projects.

A New Model for UN Engagement

Unlike traditional UN events that typically feature panels and presentations, the UN Tech Over represented a paradigm shift toward hands-on collaboration and direct action. The event fostered unprecedented engagement with the global open source community, demonstrating how collaborative technology development can drive meaningful progress on critical global challenges.

"This event marks a distinctive moment in the UN engagement with the open source community" said Omar Mohsine, Open Source Coordinator for the United Nations. "Rather than just talking about solutions, we brought together practitioners who are building them. The open source community has made incredible strides toward advancing the SDGs through direct action and collaborative innovation."

The UN Tech Over emphasized the transformative power of technology when combined with multi-stakeholder cooperation, showcasing how diverse global communities can come together to address urgent challenges through open source solutions.

Building on Open Source Momentum

The success of UN Tech Over underscores the growing recognition of open source technology's role in achieving sustainable development. By bringing together experienced practitioners, the event demonstrated how collaborative innovation can scale solutions for vulnerable communities worldwide.

The event's emphasis on building a community of practitioners reflected a mature approach to technology development that prioritizes sustainability and long-term impact. Vice President of Developer Programs at Intel, Arun Gupta shared, "The United Nations brought together a global community where nations become collaborators rather than competitors. It's thrilling to see the open source community advancing solutions for global problems."

About UN Tech Over

UN Tech Over is part of the 2025 UN Open Source Week, hosted by the UN Office of Digital and Emerging Technologies (UN-ODET) and the UN Office of Information and Communications Technology (UN-OICT) celebrating the great potential of technology and its pivotal role in advancing progress on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The event fosters collaboration, awareness, and engagement with the open source community, demonstrating the transformative power of technology and multi-stakeholder cooperation in solving real-world problems.

For more information about UN Tech Over and future UN open source initiatives, visit https://www.un.org/digital-emerging-technologies/content/open-source-week-2025

SOURCE UN Tech Over