The OpenAjax Metadata for Widgets specification is at the first draft stage and should be completed and approved by the end of 2008, Ferraiolo said.

Much of the progress for the OpenAjax specifications will rely on the outcome of the OpenAjax InteropFest, where the organization will test OpenAjax Metadata interoperability across multiple vendors, and also test OpenAjax Hub 1.1 for reliability, performance and suitability.

"As we head into the fall, the goal is that each of the tool vendors in the IDE working group will demonstrate via the OAA InteropFest how they can consume these description files for a variety of widgets from various sources like Google, Yahoo, Dojo, jQuery, EXT JS, Prototype, Scriptaculous, Mootools … and have the things described be easy to use in the context of the tool," Hakman said. "With this group of tool vendors behind the specification, we'd hope that developers creating libraries and widgets will have strong incentive to produce the description files or annotate their code with ScriptDoc/JSDoc such that their libraries and widgets can benefit from the tooling of many leading companies."

Also, "We see mobile AJAX as the next big frontier," Ferraiolo said. "We've been trying to advance the ability for AJAX to be successful for mobile initiatives."

The OpenAjax Alliance is working to promote mobile device APIs, including open-source JavaScript, to access GPS, camera, address book, SMS (Short Message Service) and more, Ferraiolo said. The effort targets both existing proprietary, system-dependent APIs (via plug-ins) and emerging industry standards, he said. And the organization is collaborating with the OMTP (Open Mobile Terminal Platform) and tracking work being done by the World Wide Web Consortium in areas like geolocation, he said.

Ferraiolo mentioned the OpenAjax Alliance feature wish list, where the group polled 222 participants and came up with a list of top requests. The top feature requests include: two-dimensional graphics, security, improved low-level DOM (Document Object Model) hooks for visual layout, DOM performance, rich text editing, server push (Comet), video and audio, Ferraiolo said.