Today we announced that Microsoft has joined the OpenAjax alliance.  

The OpenAjax alliance is a group of vendors, open source projects and companies using AJAX that are focused on developing common AJAX standards and ensuring interoperability across different AJAX frameworks, tools and technologies.  Joining the group will help ensure that the Microsoft AJAX Library and ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions integrate well with other AJAX frameworks and server technologies.  

Interoperability has always been a key ASP.NET AJAX deliverable. We made the client-side Microsoft AJAX Library work seamlessly with other server frameworks from the very beginning, and during the beta we went through and renamed several JavaScript classes/functions to avoid collisions with other frameworks (for example: $() to $get() and Sys.Debug). Through the OpenAjax Alliance we will partner with other industry leaders to provide even deeper interoperability in a way that continues to benefit all developers on all platforms.

Bertrand Le Roy from the ASP.NET Team will be representing Microsoft in the organization's upcoming meetings.  Stay tuned to his blog to stay up to date.