IBM's Rational Software unit is considering putting parts of its <A HREF="http://www.cio.com/article/132901/IBM_May_Open_Source_Jazz_Collaboration_Software">Jazz collaboration framework into open source,</A> according to an executive of the company.

"We might think about open-sourcing some of the very lowest layers [of the framework] so that the APIs [application programming interfaces] are available, and people could build on the kernel," said Scott Rich, a member of the management committee of the Jazz project, on the sidelines of a Rational Software conference in Bangalore, India on Thursday. One benefit of this strategy is to make the Jazz framework "more pervasive," he added.