Palo Alto, Calif. - Online social network Facebook has confirmed plans to launch an open source project for its developer platform, according to reports.

"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," the company said in a statement.

"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."

TechCrunch reports that the initiative will be called "fbOpen."

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