Yahoo Plans to Open Source Code for Non-core Technologies

From PC World: Yahoo plans to release some technologies, including storage technologies, to the open source community, a senior executive of the company said.

These are systems that Yahoo built to help it handle large numbers of users on its websites, but that don't necessarily give it a competitive advantage, said David Chaiken, chief architect at Yahoo, in an interview in Bangalore on Friday.

In 2009, Yahoo donated its Traffic Server scalable caching proxy to the Apache Software Foundation.

A working group on open source at Yahoo is currently evaluating technologies that could qualify to be released to open source.

The company has to first make sure that each of the technologies will really be useful and provide significant value outside Yahoo, before releasing it to open source, Chaiken said. It takes time and effort to go through the open source process, and to build a community around open source, so the company has to first make sure there will be interest from developers, he added.

Releasing technology to the open source community helps Yahoo build recognition and a technical brand in the technical community, and also develop relationships with universities and companies, Chaiken said. There could also be some financial benefits in getting community developers to work on a project, he added.

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