OpenSocial backers form foundation

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 26 March 2008 01:41

Your IT - Home IT

The main backers of OpenSocial - Google, MySpace and now Yahoo! - are setting up a foundation to oversee the development of the platform.

The idea behind OpenSocial is to provide a common set of APIs so that applications can be developed to work on more than one social networking site.

The OpenSocial Foundation will be a non-profit organisation, and according to the founders will ensure that all stakeholders share influence over the platform's future direction. Documents released by Google suggest it may be modelled on the OpenID Foundation.

"OpenSocial has been a community-driven specification from the beginning," said Joe Kraus, director of product management at Google.

"The formation of this foundation will ensure that it remains so in perpetuity. Developers and websites should feel secure that OpenSocial will be forever free and open."

The transitional agreement between the three parties includes a patent non-assertion covenant and calls for the release of OpenSocial specifications are released under a Creative Commons Licence. Google has also licensed the OpenSocial trademarks to MySpace and Yahoo! pending the foundation's creation and the transfer of intellectual property to the new body. That process is scheduled to be complete by July 1.

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