Throughout China’s long history, the spirit of the Shi has existed as an intangible essence—independent individuals uplifting and safeguarding societal development through public-minded ethos. With the advent of the modern digital economy, the fluidity of digital production factors dissolves physical constraints, the networked nature of collaboration transcends traditional organizational boundaries, and exponential productivity growth transforms value creation dynamics. This threefold transformation is reshaping humanity’s cognitive paradigms and cultural DNA.

China must construct a cultural-intellectual framework compatible with the digital economy. Digital economic structures exhibit decentralized, networked characteristics, where the recombination, collision, fission, and innovation of elements demand organizational and institutional adaptability. As ‘incubators’ and ‘containers’ of such dynamic consensus, open-source organizations will demonstrate unique and extensive value in this era.

The new digital civilization establishes a contribution-quantified dynamic governance system: individuals assert value ownership through digital identities, while collectives achieve collaborative consensus through licenses. In the digital economy, corporate boundaries blur, and the autonomous ecosystems of open-source communities strike an optimal balance between ‘self-organizing vitality’ and ‘systemic stability,’ providing dual cultural-technological safeguards for hyper-scale collaboration:

Value logic undergoes fundamental reconstruction—shifting from ‘resource exclusivity’ to ‘ecosystem sharing.’ Civilizational DNA drives the digital economy beyond growth-centric traps toward value creation centered on knowledge network effects. Innovation paradigms ascend dimensions—open-source collaboration cultivates ‘emergent innovation’ in its cultural soil. Individual intelligence accumulates nonlinearly within open ecosystems, continuously breaching technological barriers while addressing systemic weaknesses in iterative optimization within traditional Chinese culture.

This co-evolution ultimately forms a closed-loop system: digital civilization shapes the digital economic paradigm, while the digital economy feeds back into the advancement of digital civilization.

Speakers:

Qigang Zhu: Vice Director of the Global Open Source Collaboration Research Center, University of International Business and Economics

Deputy Secretary-General, Shanghai Open Source Information Technology Association Deputy Director, Global Open Source Collaboration Research Center, University of International Business and Economics Executive Committee Member, Open Source Development Committee, China Computer Federation Advisor, KAIYUANSHE Open Source Advisor, China Association of Automobile Manufacturers Open Source Advisor, Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence Co-founder, Open Science and Technology National Open Source Platform Former Core Member, OpenHarmony Team, Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Software Former Founding Ecosystem Lead & Education Lead, OpenHarmony Project Former Head of Business Development, Education & Training, and Industry Research Departments, OpenAtom Foundation One of China’s early pioneers in open-source hardware and open-source education