Web 2.0 Industry and Ajax Community Boosted by OpenAjax Alliance

Group Nearly Doubles Membership, Defines Strategic Goals and Launches Web Site

ARMONK, NY - 20 Sep 2006: OpenAjax Alliance, an open industry collaboration dedicated to developing and expanding Ajax, today announced new partners and initiatives around the Ajax Community, signaling continued momentum for Ajax-based Web technologies.

The group has almost doubled its membership since the launch in February of 2006. The newest OpenAjax Alliance members include: The Ajaxian, American Greetings, Bling Software, Curl, edge IPK, eLink Business Innovations, ENOVIA, MatrixOne, Finetooth, The Front Side, Ikivo, ILOG, IN2, IT Mill, Javeline, JWAX, Merced Systems, Nitobi, OpenLink Software, Seagull Software, Sitepen, Sun Microsystems, Vertex Logic, Vircon, Webtide and Zoho.

The existing group of Alliance members include: Adobe, Backbase, BEA, Borland, the Dojo Foundation, Eclipse Foundation, Fair Isaac, Google, IBM, ICEsoft, Innoopract, Intel, JackBe, Laszlo Systems, Mozilla Corporation, Nexaweb, Novell, Openwave Systems, Opera, Oracle, Red Hat, SAP, Scalix, Software AG, Tibco, XML11, Zend and Zimbra.

“The momentum and benefits of the OpenAjax collaboration are important factors in advancing the adoption of Ajax technology across the industry,” said Jon Ferraiolo, acting director of OpenAjax Alliance. “Ajax is a major phenomenon in the computer industry and will be the foundation of the next generation of the Web. Our mission is to accelerate customer success with Ajax through our technical and marketing activities.”

The Alliance launched its Web site at www.openajax.org which outlines the group’s strategic goals and publishes its first technology white paper. OpenAjax Alliance is also developing an OpenAjax Hub which represents a key part of the technical work and goals of the alliance. The OpenAjax Hub is a set of standard JavaScript functionalities defined by the OpenAjax Alliance, with strong focus on being small and fast, that addresses key interoperability issues that arise when multiple Ajax libraries are used within the same Web page. Version 1.0 of the OpenAjax Hub is targeted for early 2007.

OpenAjax Alliance’s goal is to serve as an industry catalyst so that an Ajax-enabled Web 2.0 can happen as quickly as possible. Through its technical committee activities, the alliance will address key Ajax interoperability issues so that developers can successfully use multiple Ajax technologies within the same Web application. Through its marketing activities, OpenAjax Alliance will educate the community on how to achieve success with Ajax using cross-platform open technologies.

The set of technologies known as “OpenAjax” being developed and facilitated by the alliance will provide the following benefits to Web developers:

* Lower development costs and faster delivery of Web 2.0 innovations;
* Vendor choice and interoperability;
* and richer Web experience and greater collaboration that can be added incrementally to existing HTML Web sites or used for creating new applications.

The alliance will have its second group meeting in Silicon Valley, the first week of October, to elect its steering committee, set 2007 agenda goals, address other procedural issues and plan its activities for the coming months.

About OpenAjax Alliance

The OpenAjax Alliance is an organization of leading vendors, open source projects, and companies using Ajax that are dedicated to the successful adoption of open and interoperable Ajax-based Web technologies. The prime objective of the group is to accelerate customer success with Ajax by promoting a customer’s ability to mix and match solutions from Ajax technology providers to help drive the future of the Ajax ecosystem. To learn more about OpenAjax Alliance, please visit: www.openajax.org.

Member quotes:

edge IPK

edge IPK is keen to help accelerate the global adoption of Ajax and work alongside other technology leaders in the OpenAjax Alliance in promoting Ajax operability and standards. edge IPK is committed to improving the speed and ease in which Rich Internet Applications are developed. The inclusion of Ajax into leading Open Presentation Platform, edgeConnect, not only provides the richness of usability that Ajax affords applications but does so in a way that developers need not know anything about Ajax development. “I believe the ability to create Rich Internet Applications without writing any programming code will greatly accelerate the adoption of dynamic user friendly applications enabled by Ajax,” said Dharmesh Mistry, CTO, edge IPK.

The Front Side Software

“As a provider of cutting-edge Web technologies, The Front Side is eager to see an environment in which a strong Ajax ecosystem can emerge. We support the work of the OpenAjax Alliance in building that environment,” said Charles Lowell, President of The Front Side Software, Inc.

IBM

“IBM is seeing an increased demand from our clients for Web 2.0 technologies, including Ajax. Ajax is high up on the list for many businesses because technology that helps create a rich user experience can lead to attracting new customers and increased revenue,” said David Boloker, IBM CTO for Internet Emerging Technology. “Today’s announcement is a significant milestone for the continued growth of the OpenAjax Alliance and the Ajax community. IBM is excited to be a part of this community and to help accelerate Ajax’s adoption and advancement.”

ILOG

“As a leading graphics provider, we are extremely excited by the challenges ahead in helping to ensure the creation of next generation Web applications and Web 2.0. ILOG’s graphics and standards expertise can be a great asset for the OpenAjax community in helping build visually rich Web displays supporting Ajax behaviors,” said Jean François Abramatic, Chief Product Officer, ILOG.

Innoopract

“As the leader of the Rich Ajax Platform (RAP) project, Innoopract is pleased to be a part of the OpenAjax Alliance. RAP is an open source, Eclipse-based project that represents an effort to extend the reach of the Eclipse development model with plug-ins, extensibility and a workbench concept to the Web. Innoopract has been on the forefront of developer solutions for improving how Java Web applications are being built. Ajax provides new opportunities as well as new challenges which the OpenAjax Alliance will help the industry to address.”

IT Mill

“Ajax is today the most influential technology that drives the development of new generation user interfaces. Being part of OpenAjax Alliance helps us to make our software development tools for Java better utilize Ajax and ensure their interoperability also in the future,” said Joonas Lehtinen, CEO, IT Mill Ltd.

JackBe

“Ajax technology is the key to delivering desktop-like interactivity and usability within Web-based applications. Ajax, when combined with Service Oriented Architecture, will empower enterprise users with the same Web 2.0 benefits delivered in consumer-facing applications. We are excited to see the OpenAjax Alliance continue to grow and are committed to supporting the organization in its efforts to further the adoption of enterprise Web 2.0,” said John Crupi, CTO, JackBe.

Mozilla Corporation

“Ajax applications and practices have shown how effective the Web development model can be in delivering innovative, powerful experiences to users all over the world. Mozilla is pleased to join the other members of the OpenAjax Alliance to help people get the most out of the Web technologies of today, and lay the foundations for the improvements that are yet to come. We’ve used Ajax techniques to build industry-leading applications like Mozilla Firefox for most of the last decade, and we’re keenly interested in helping others take advantage of the power of Web technologies as well,” said Mike Shaver, Mozilla co-founder and Director of Ecosystem Development at Mozilla Corporation.

Nexaweb

“Ajax is one of the key technologies for enabling Web 2.0. At Nexaweb, we are focused on providing enterprise Web 2.0 solutions, of which Ajax plays a key role in our ecosystem,” said Coach Wei, Chairman and CTO, Nexaweb. “We are committed to the cause of OpenAjax, and looking forward to bringing Web 2.0 to reality for enterprise environments.”

Nitobi

“Nitobi is proud to be working alongside industry leaders and innovators in the OpenAjax Alliance. These efforts to create high performance and loosely coupled tools and frameworks for the larger development community through an open source project are to be commended. Ultimately the OpenAjax Alliance is going to benefit Internet users everywhere with a better and more rewarding user experience. I am very excited and honored to be part of such a capable and talented team of volunteers,” said Andre Charland, President and Co-founder of Nitobi.

OpenLink Software

“As one of the first companies to promote the technology integration which is evolving into the Semantic Web, OpenLink is pleased and excited to continue that leadership with and through the OpenAjax Alliance,” announced Kingsley Idehen, Founder and CEO of OpenLink Software. “OpenLink extends its dedication to platform independent technologies through the OpenAjax Alliance. Renewing our commitment to open standards and specifications, OAT, the OpenLink AJAX Toolkit, is and will remain fully OpenAjax compliant,” he added.

SAP

“SAP has a strong commitment to providing Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) for business users, and Ajax is a very significant technology for RIAs,” said Michael Bechauf, vice president of industry standards, SAP. “The OpenAjax Alliance should provide frameworks and best practices for integration and interoperability of Ajax capabilities, simplifying development and providing better experiences for end users.”

Software AG

“As a global provider of enterprise-class solutions based upon Ajax, we are very pleased to see the increasing momentum of the OpenAjax Alliance,” said Dr. Peter Kuerpick, Member of the Board of Software AG and responsible for cross vision. “We believe that businesses are seeking a lightweight alternative that will enable them to quickly and easily compose practical applications. The broad adoption of approaches such as Ajax is extremely critical to this new vision for the future of business technology.”

Sun Microsystems

“As a company founded on the core principle of ’The Network is the Computer’, Sun Microsystems is excited to be part of the OpenAjax Alliance,” said Vivek Nagar, Technical Director of Ajax Engineering at Sun Microsystems. “Sun is participating as part of this assembled group of leading industry advocates to help ensure open and interoperable technologies continue to proliferate. As a result, we expect this effort will help developers more easily produce the next generation of innovative solutions that will power the latest network infrastructure build-out.”

Zoho

“Zoho is proud to be a contributing member of the alliance and is committed to help foster interoperability and wider adoption of the rich benefits of Ajax,” said Ian Wenig, Director Business Development, Zoho Inc.

Contact Information

Joe Becker

IBM Media Relations

IBM

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