Kiteworks has announced a step toward increasing its involvement in open-source activities by launching the Kiteworks Open Source Program Office (OSPO) under the ownCloud brand. The move is described as supporting governance practices and federated collaboration, with a focus on sovereign data exchange.
Open-source has been part of ownCloud’s approach, and this continues under Kiteworks. David Walter has been appointed Vice President of the OSPO. The office’s stated objective is to support an ecosystem emphasising transparency and contributions.
According to enterprise trends cited in the announcement, 92% of EMEA IT managers recognise the importance of enterprise open-source software. The German government has allocated €250 million for open-source development by 2026. The enterprise file sync and sharing market is projected to reach USD 14.0 billion by 2025.
The OSPO is consolidating Kiteworks’ open-source initiatives and formalising governance documentation. This includes an AI-Assisted Contribution Policy and a Governance Charter, which define roles such as Contributors, Reviewers, and Maintainers.
A change has been made from the legacy Contributor License Agreement to a Developer Certificate of Origin, intended to allow contributors to retain ownership of their work. The OSPO will primarily use the Apache 2.0 License for new components, and there are plans to establish a Community Advisory Board by Q4 2026.
The OSPO model is presented as a shift from passive sponsorship to more active oversight, combining Kiteworks’ focus on secure data exchange with its open-source activities under ownCloud.
