When source-code archival is recognised as Digital Public Good: Insights from Software Heritage’s 10-year journey at UNESCO

January 2026 has been not only the month of Wikipedia’s anniversary. On 28th January, UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris celebrated the 10th anniversary of the foundation of the Software Heritage (SWH) archive. As Wikimedians collaborating with the SWH infrastructure and ecosystem, we see how closely the SWH mission, in terms of licences, digital commons, and reuse, aligns with our own movement. If Wikipedia is the world’s free encyclopaedia, then Software Heritage is its “Library of Alexandria” for source code. Through its ISO/IEC-compliant SWH identifiers (aka SWHIDs, also integrated as P6138 in Wikidata), the archive allows referencing as permalinks and tracking specific release or commit versions.

As we look towards our common future of public digital goods and open knowledge, here are the key insights from the summit and why we believe they matter to the Wikimedia movement too.

Code as Human-Written Cultural Heritage (Not Just Technical)

Tawfik Jelassi (Assistant Director-General at UNESCO) opened the symposium with a powerful declaration. “UNESCO considers software source code to be more than a technical infrastructure; it is knowledge, it is memory, and it is a component of our shared documentary heritage with universal value” — he said, further adding: — “Without preservation, societies lose their ability to understand how systems were built, why decisions were made, and how knowledge evolved over time. Preservation, therefore, is not about looking backwards; it is about enabling continuity. When software is preserved, knowledge remains verifiable. When software is accessible, learning becomes possible. When software is documented, innovation can build on what already exists. This is especially important for communities with fewer resources, where losing digital knowledge means losing opportunities“. Thus, source code is no longer just a technical byproduct, but the primary cultural record of the 21st century, serving the UNESCO-recommended digital commons for an ethical and inclusive AI, particularly for emerging communities from the Global South. Just as we preserve every revision of a Wikipedia article to ensure transparency and accountability, SWH organises, curates, and preserves code so that present and future generations can understand and share the systems governing our lives. Without such preservation, societies lose the ability to verify knowledge and innovate upon what already exists.

Digital Sovereignty together with Digital Commons, Public & Transparent AI

A theme discussed in the summit was how the Digital Commons enables “Digital Sovereignty”. Hakim Hacid (Technology Innovation Institute) emphasised that sovereignty is not merely about owning data, but about being able to self-determine ourselves on our own infrastructures, tools and algorithms.

Guilherme Canela de Souza Godoi, who directs the division for Digital Inclusion and Policy at UNESCO (he also appeared towards the end of the “Wikipedia 25 virtual birthday party”), remarked that innovation is not a threat to human rights; rather, it can be about advancing digital innovation and advancing human rights together.

This is a crucial conversation for Wikimedians. As Large Language Models (LLMs) become more integrated into how people consume information, public policies should resist “black box” narratives that obscure the underlying technical decisions of AI platforms. SWH leverages its position to ensure AI develops responsibly, based on the principle that the foundations of our digital world must remain open and traceable.

Now, the focus is on ensuring these technologies adhere to the principles of the digital commons. There are challenges, yet also some promising results. BigCode’s StarCoder2, for instance, has been the first-ever AI model for code trained on SWH-derived data and fully aligned with SWH principles for data reuse.

We didn’t set out to do AI, but it happened

– Roberto Di Cosmo, Director and Co-Founder of SWH

Moving Beyond the “Afterthought”

Dario Taraborelli (Head of Research at the Wikimedia Foundation) issued a blunt challenge. We must stop treating software as a research afterthought, as the “invisible” labour of maintainers who look after essential libraries for Python or R provides the foundation of modern science. This vision resonates with our community discussions about the sustainability of the tools, bots, and scripts that keep Wikimedia projects running. Technology is a human product, and maintaining it requires intentional, planned, long-term support.

Connecting with the European and Global Community

One of the most inspiring aspects of the symposium was acknowledging the expansion of the network. The announcement of a new mirror in Spain (IMDEA), joining existing nodes in Italy (ENEA) and Greece (GRNET), demonstrates a commitment to decentralised preservation. There is a forthcoming mirror in Germany (UNIDUE) as well, and the SWH network plans to expand worldwide soon.

For the Wikimedia community, this represents a significant opportunity for connection, whether you are a developer working on MediaWiki, a FOSS enthusiast, a researcher and/or an affiliate (as we are) analysing digital ecosystems, or an activist for the digital commons; there is always a seat at the table. Software Heritage is actively seeking to bridge the gap between local infrastructure and international standards, and our movement’s experience in building global, multilingual communities closely aligns with this vision and this endeavour.

Recognition as a Digital Public Good

This celebration also highlighted the official recognition of the Software Heritage Archive as a Digital Public Good by the Digital Public Good Alliance, aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As with Wikipedia and Wikidata, the SWH archive has been added to the registry, underscoring the project’s centrality in the global digital ecosystem. Archiving source code is a unique opportunity to ensure access to our technical and cultural digital artefacts, enabling software knowledge to be shared with all citizens of the world.

Reinforcing the narrative for the source code as a cultural artefact: a UNESCO exhibition

Beyond recognising international partnerships, there is also a clear need to foster a better understanding of the impact of source code — and its preservation — on everyone’s daily life. Thus, the SWH team developed a UNESCO exhibition titled Source Code as Historical Testimony, elevating programming code to full-fledged human and cultural artefacts, worthy of being at the centre of an exhibition.

The code artefacts on display sought to capture the relationship between world cultures and code at different historical, technical, and societal levels; a journey across different world regions and epochs that provided insights into the data complexity archived in Software Heritage and that underscored its critical mission in preserving human knowledge variety. Of course, beyond providing access to specific code content, the challenge is also to provide access to open knowledge collections hinging on transparent, open-source infrastructure. Wikimedia’s world provides a prominent realisation of this vision; by preserving and curating code, Software Heritage ensures that future generations will continue to have access to current open-source solutions.

Summing Up: Making the Invisible Visible

The symposium concluded by bringing the intangible nature of code into the physical world — using 3D-printed “source code trees” representing the SWH logo and the underlying community (you can find the blueprint here to print your own).

As Wikimedians, we know that knowledge is fragile and deserves care. For us who collaborate with Software Heritage, our efforts help protect the very foundations of our free digital world. If software is the cornerstone of innovation and digital inclusion of our modern era, we must ensure it remains a public good: accessible, transparent, and preserved for the good of everyone.

When we realise the importance of SWH within the digital ecosystem, we cannot wait to witness and participate in what the next 10 years of Software Heritage will be. Happy birthday again, Software Heritage!, and congratulations to the team that has been thoughtfully leading this project.