MANILA, Philippines – Facebook announced Monday, May 4, that it was building an open platform for its Internet.org initiative, allowing companies, mobile service operators, and developers to join the initiative.

The open platform will try to incorporate developers in the process of getting additional free, basic Internet services on board Internet.org for people to use.

According to a blog post of the announcement, the move seeks to give people more choice over the services they use, and developers have to follow 3 principles in order to “align all participants’ incentives and bring more people online.”

First, the services should encourage the exploration of the broader Internet wherever possible, allowing more people to gain access to wide breadth of information available online.

Second, developers have to build data-efficient aplications, as high-bandwidth applications will not serve everyone well and will not be included in the platform.

Finally, “websites must be built to be optimized for browsing on both feature and smartphones and in limited bandwidth scenarios. In addition, websites must be properly integrated with Internet.org to allow zero rating and therefore can’t require JavaScript or SSL/TLS/HTTPS. Specific technical guidelines have also been outlined at the following link to make developer participation easier.” – Rappler.com