ObjectWeb Consortium, a consortium focused on delivery of open source infrastructure technologies, announced Tuesday that eXo Platform SARL has joined the consortium and that its Enterprise Portal Solution (EPS) will be hosted by ObjectWeb.

It is the hope of both ObjectWeb and eXo officials that the addition of EPS, which offers users a single point of access to information systems and other resources, will strengthen the open source offering as an alternative to proprietary competitors such as IBM Corp."s WebSphere and BEA Systems Inc."s WebLogic portal suites.

"What we think is interesting about (our joining the consortium) is (not) only can we offer a complete portal code base, but in addition, the code base allows ObjectWeb to cover all the technology needed to supply a true alternative to proprietary products," said Benjiman Mestrallet, the CEO of eXo Platform SARL.

The addition of eXo essentially gives the ObjectWeb project a Web application suite layer that compliments its existing middleware components, which include the Jonas application server, which takes advantage of the J2EE specification.

Executives from ObjectWeb and eXo contend the eXo product delivers a handful of new capabilities made possible largely through the Java Server Pages, a relatively new Web framework standard. One such feature is the ability to dynamically create any page layout that might be able to offer a competitive advantage over competitors, company officials contended.

Company officials note that eXo was one of the first few products to implement the portlet API, known as JSR 168, and received certification from Sun Microsystems Inc. in December of last year. JSR 168 allows any compliant portlet to be deployed in any portlet that also complies with the standard.

The next step for the eXo Platform is implementing the Java Content Repository, or JSR 170, due by the second quarter in 2005. JSR 170 will supply one of the first certified content management systems that will rely on that new industry specification.

The full source code of the eXo Platform is available for download from ObjectWeb"s Web site under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). Under the GPL, the code can be embedded, modified, and redistributed freely, company officials said.

More information about the consortium can be seen at http://www.objectweb.com.