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JSConf North America 2025 brought together the brightest minds in the JavaScript ecosystem: from maintainers and contributors to companies driving innovation across runtimes, frameworks, and platforms. For NodeSource, this year’s event was especially meaningful, filled with major announcements, community recognition, and deep discussions about the future of JavaScript.

Here are some of our biggest highlights from the week:

1. Robin Ginn Welcome: The Long Game of JavaScript

History, Impact, and What’s Next

Robin Ginn - the Director of the OpenJS Foundation, delivered an inspiring talk on the long game of JavaScript, reflecting on the language’s history, evolution, and massive impact on software development. She even presented a creative “JavaScript Spotify Wrapped,” celebrating the projects, contributors, and trends that shaped the past year.

It was a powerful reminder of just how far JavaScript has come and how collaboration continues to push it forward.

2. The React Foundation Launches Under the Linux Foundation

An exciting announcement came from the OpenJS Foundation’s Executive Director, Robin Bender Ginn, celebrating the launch of the React Foundation under the Linux Foundation.

This marks a huge milestone for open source: giving React, one of the most popular libraries in the world, a dedicated home for sustainability and community growth.

As Robin shared, this opens the door to deeper collaboration between React and other projects like Node.js, Electron, and webpack. Together, these technologies form the foundation of modern web development, and stronger alignment across them means a more secure, cohesive, and innovative future for developers everywhere.

3. Highlights from the Keynotes

JSConf North America featured an incredible lineup of talks that connected deep technical insight with creativity and forward-thinking ideas shaping the future of web development.

Sarah Drasner, Senior Director of Engineering at Google, opened with “A Visual Guide to Fundamentals,” blending her background as a scientific illustrator with software engineering to make complex systems tangible. She walked the audience through how rendering pipelines work, how data moves across the internet, and how concurrency and WebAssembly shape modern computing — helping developers not just understand how things work, but why they matter.

Charlie Gerard, Senior Research Engineer at CrowdStrike, gave a fascinating talk on “Motion Control with Multimodal AI.” Her exploration of using multimodal LLMs to build motion-controlled interfaces showed how developers can bridge AI, hardware, and human-computer interaction in creative ways — turning experimental prototypes into real possibilities.

Joe Sepi, Program Director of Open Technology at IBM, closed with “Open Source AI: Empowering the Next Wave of Web Innovation.” His keynote highlighted how open source AI frameworks and models are transforming the way developers build and collaborate, fostering innovation that’s flexible, transparent, and community-driven.

Together, these talks reminded us that the web continues to evolve through shared learning, open experimentation, and a strong sense of curiosity.

4. NodeSource Joins the OpenJS Foundation Ecosystem Sustainability Program (ESP)

We’re proud to announce that NodeSource has joined the OpenJS Foundation’s Ecosystem Sustainability Program (ESP), a key initiative designed to sustain the health and reliability of the JavaScript ecosystem. Russ Whitman, our CEO and Adrian Estrada CTO, shared the news on the stage:

Through the ESP, NodeSource is helping organizations that rely on older, unsupported Node.js versions stay secure while they plan their upgrades. Our team’s deep Node.js expertise enables us to strengthen the ecosystem’s long-term resilience, ensuring every organization, no matter where they are in their modernization journey, can run Node.js securely and confidently.

This partnership reflects our ongoing mission to support both enterprise users and the open-source community that powers the JavaScript ecosystem.

5. Harper Goes Open Source

A big shout-out to Harper, which officially open-sourced its core technology during JSConf North America 2025.

Harper’s composable full-stack web platform fuses database, cache, messaging, and Node.js runtime into a single, distributed system, offering incredible performance for data-intensive applications. By making its technology open source, Harper is enabling broader adoption, community-driven innovation, and a stronger open ecosystem around Node.js.

6. Celebrating Rafael Gonzaga’s Pathfinder Award

We’re beyond proud to celebrate Rafael Gonzaga, Principal Open Source Engineer at NodeSource, for receiving the ✨ OpenJS Foundation Pathfinder Award ✨ a recognition of his outstanding contributions to the Node.js ecosystem.

Rafael has been an incredible force in advancing Node.js core, improving its reliability, and mentoring developers across the community. His dedication and leadership embody what makes open source thrive. Thank you, Rafa, for all you do for the community 💚

7. NodeSource Becomes a Gold Member of the OpenJS Foundation

We’re also thrilled to share that NodeSource has joined the OpenJS Foundation as a Gold Member, furthering our commitment to supporting the open-source projects that define the modern web.

This milestone underscores our belief in collaboration, transparency, and sustainability: principles that have always guided the Node.js and JavaScript communities. Amazing things are on the horizon, and we’re excited to contribute to what comes next.

8. Community, Connections, and Unforgettable Nights

Beyond the talks and announcements, JSConf North America 2025 reminded us why the JavaScript community is so special, it’s about people, conversations, and shared experiences.

One of the most memorable evenings was the S’mores & Bonfire Night sponsored by Vercel, where developers gathered around the fire to connect, share stories, and enjoy the Colorado night sky. It was the perfect space to slow down, laugh, and bond beyond code.

And of course, no JSConf would be complete without some fun, the Karaoke Night, sponsored by HeroDevs, was a blast! Seeing maintainers, engineers, and speakers let loose and sing their hearts out was a perfect reminder that community is built as much on joy as it is on code.

These moments of connection are what make open source thrive ✨ collaboration strengthened by genuine human connection ✨

Looking Ahead

From new collaborations and open-source milestones to community recognition and deep technical discussions, JSConf North America 2025 was a powerful reminder of why the JavaScript ecosystem thrives: it’s built on people, collaboration, and shared purpose.

At NodeSource, we’re honored to be part of this movement, helping sustain, secure, and evolve the runtime that powers millions of applications around the world.

💚 Thank you to the OpenJS Foundation, the speakers, and the entire community for an unforgettable event.