Software Heritage, the universal source code archive, was launched in 2016 by Inria (France). Software Heritage’s  ambitious goal is to collect, preserve and share all software source code, building an essential infrastructure at the service of cultural heritage, digital development, science, industry, and society as a whole. 

The Software Heritage Symposium which followed a hybrid format of virtual and on-site participation at the UNESCO Headquarters, was focused on several major dimensions of relevance to the Software Heritage archive:

• Software source code as documentary heritage and an enabler for historical research
• Scientific challenges for analyzing and learning from preserved Source Code
• Software source code as a first class research output in the Open Science ecosystem
• Software source code as enabler for innovation and sharing in industry and administration

14:00 Welcome address and opening

• Tawfik Jelassi, Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, UNESCO
• French Ministry representative – To be announced
• Bruno Sportisse, Inria CEO
• Roberto Di Cosmo, Director, Software Heritage

14:45 Industry & Public administration panel

• Guillaume Avrin, National coordinator for artificial intelligence, Direction Générale des Entreprises
• Omar Mohsine, Open Source Coordinator, United Nations
• Marc Palazon, CEO Groupe SMILE and Board member Numeum
• Kate Stewart, VP Dependable Embedded Systems, Linux Foundation

15:30 Scientific challenges for analyzing and learning from preserved Source Code

• Sebastiano Vigna, Full professor, Università degli Studi di Milano
• Harm de Vries, Staff research scientist, ServiceNow

15:50 Coffee Break

16:15 Open Science Panel

• Claudia Bauzer Medeiros, Professor, University of Campinas – UNICAMP
• Christopher S. Marcum,  Senior Statistician and Senior Science Policy Analyst, Office of the Chief Statistician of the United States
• Vanessa Proudman, Director, SPARC Europe
• Kaitlin Thaney, Executive Director, Invest in Open Infrastructure

17:00 Panel on Software Source code as part of Memory of the World

• Rosana Lanzelotte, President, Musica Brasilis
• Pio Pellizzari,  Delegate of IASA, International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives
• Valérie Schafer, Professor, C2DH – University of Luxembourg
• Prateek Sibal, Programme Specialist, UNESCO