• May 28, 2008

Facebook on Tuesday confirmed rumors that it will announce an open-source project for its developer platform, although details remain sketchy.

"We're working on an open-source initiative that is meant to help application developers better understand Facebook Platform and more easily build applications, whether it's by running their own test servers, building tools, or optimizing their applications," according to a statement from the social network.

"As Facebook Platform continues to mature, open-sourcing the infrastructure behind it is a natural step so developers can build richer social applications and share what they've learned with the ecosystem," continued the statement. "Additional details will be released soon."

Tech blog TechCrunch earlier reported the initiative will be called fbOpen and will allow any social network to become Facebook-compatible--meaning that developers can take their Facebook apps and have them run on other social sites.

--Mark Walsh