Thousand-year-old water town, encountering the "Open Source Galaxy" - Sidenotes of the 2026 World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit

Reporters Shi Yu and Wang Yusi

On the stone arch bridge, mottled bluestone slabs catch the footsteps of people coming and going; under the bridge hole, the awning boat cuts through the reflection, and the sound of oars permeates the time sequence of thousands of years. On November 3, the Wuzhen Summit of the 13th World Internet Conference opened, and this ancient waterside town once again switched to "Wuzhen time".

In 2015, the concept of "building a community with a shared future in cyberspace" was first proposed in Wuzhen, like a clear spring pouring into the water veins of the south of the Yangtze River. In the following more than ten years, every appointment in Wuzhen was the stirring echo of this "living water" rushing forward and converging into a sea.

This year, "open source, co-construction and sharing" was written into the theme of the summit. These eight words are like two sides of a water town: "Open source and openness" means dredging rivers and opening gates to let the "living water" of technology flow freely; "co-construction and sharing" means that people along the riverside work together to protect the river and divert water for irrigation, so that digital intelligence can benefit thousands of families.

In the venue, a series of ideological confrontations were like the intersection of rivers, creating new waves. In the "Artificial Intelligence Wuzhen Dialogue" session, the world's leading technology companies and the heads of well-known open source large model companies and top scientists conducted in-depth dialogues around the construction of the global artificial intelligence open source ecosystem. The number of 27 sub-forums is the highest in recent years, covering topics such as robots and embodied intelligence, space-time intelligence, etc., reaching the forefront and core of governance in the digital intelligence era.

Outside the venue, the country's first open source themed ecological experience hall was completed and opened, giving the concept of "open source and openness" a more concrete expression. In the core exhibition area on the first floor, Moda Community, the largest AI model open source community in China, brings together developers and users from all over the world. The model matrix rolls slowly, like a huge "digital reservoir" that openly shares resources such as basic large models, computing power, and open source bases. Developers do not need to "create water" from scratch. They only need to "draw water" from it to quickly build their own AI applications. According to the museum, the open source themed ecological experience hall will be retained for a long time after the summit and will continue to be open to the public, making it a mobile, replicable and sustainable public resource.

The "water" of open source flows from Wuzhen to the wider world. On November 2, the second training course of the 2026 Global Internet Talent Excellence Plan and Future Digital Intelligence Leadership Development Plan opened in Wuzhen. Students from nearly 30 countries and regions gathered here across mountains and seas to participate in this training course in the field of digital intelligence.

At the same time, the summit's reservation channel is open to the general public, and the "Wuzhen Talk·Open Source Youth Talk" special session has been held for two sessions. There are young scientific and technological innovation practitioners on the stage, and university students and young scientific researchers in the audience. Everyone talks, exchanges, and discusses on cutting-edge open source issues. The subsequent "Wuzhen Lecture Hall" will also be open to the public, and ordinary enthusiasts will also have the opportunity to have direct conversations with top scientists. The "open source and openness" of the code world is the contemporary translation of the ancient wisdom of the water town: only if the rivers are connected and the boats can travel, can there be endless prosperity.

The "water" of open source will eventually merge into the river of "co-construction and sharing". A few days ago, Wuzhen held the 2026 "Join Hands to Build a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace" high-quality case release and display event. People can see:

——The integrated energy and network Internet infrastructure project in rural Nigeria allows villagers in remote African villages to connect to the world;

——The "Digital Mark" initiative launched by the International Committee of the Red Cross provides a digital shield for humanitarian protection objects in cyberspace;

——A new base project for secure and resilient global networking built by relevant partners to build a stable and reliable cross-border network and empower a new ecology of smart projects along the Belt and Road Initiative.

From the exploration of digital inclusiveness to the transnational projects supporting the “One Belt, One Road” smart project, there are more than 360 practical cases in more than 80 countries and regions, with multiple parties participating and collaboratively practicing. The concept of “co-construction and sharing” is reaching every corner of the world along the digital river.

Countless innovations that benefit the public are coming to us with the "wave" of openness and sharing.

At the first digital smart consumer market, the "Jumping" crab robot ran flexibly, sometimes interacting playfully, and sometimes demonstrating its "special skills" in doing housework. The crowd of onlookers raised their mobile phones to freeze the interesting moment. From smart cars, to AI office equipment, to smart learning equipment, there is a dazzling array of cutting-edge technology products. After experiencing it up close, many people placed orders on the spot to take the "smart" home.

What is even more touching is the "Technology to Help Warmth" campaign: People with physical disabilities can use their minds to control robotic hands to complete grasping actions through brain-computer interface devices; a silver-haired old man wears an exoskeleton rehabilitation robot, and his staggering steps become steady... These "warm technologies" are entering people's daily lives.

This water town has been used for ferrying people, goods and years for thousands of years; today's "water" of Kaiyuan starts from this water town, crosses mountains and seas, and benefits the world. On the giant screen at the main venue of the summit, the digital light stream converged into a "galactic river", complementing the canal that has been flowing for thousands of years underfoot. A new voyage belonging to the digital intelligence civilization of all mankind is sailing from this bright "Galaxy" to a more inclusive, safer and more prosperous place.