Yahoo!, MySpace and Google to form OpenSocial Foundation

New Delhi, Mar 26 (UNI) Yahoo, MySpace, and Google today said they have agreed to form the OpenSocial Foundation to ensure the neutrality and longevity of the organisation as an open, community-governed specification for building social applications across the web.

The Foundation will be an independent non-profit entity with a formal intellectual property and governance framework; related assets will be assigned to the new organization by July 1, 2008, a company statement said.

The foundation will provide transparency and operational guidelines around technology, documentation, intellectual property, and other issues related to the evolution of the OpenSocial platform, while also ensuring all stakeholders share influence over its future direction, it added.

It will also offer developers the potential to connect with more than 500 million people worldwide, said Yahoo Vice President (Platforms) Wade Chambers.

Our support builds on similar efforts with the OpenID community and will expand the opportunity for developers and publishers to benefit from an open and increasingly social web, Mr Chambers said.

UNI SR MP GC1954