Microsoft joins W3C taskforce - then quits

Microsoft has quit a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) web services taskforce as quickly as it had joined.

The software giant had said that it would not participate in the W3C panel on web services choreography. But two executives attended a meeting held at Oracle's Californian headquarters earlier this month.

However, according to InfoWorld.com, Microsoft has since pulled out of the group.

The web services choreography group is looking at ways of standardising linkages and usage patterns between web services for more automated transactions.

InfoWorld.com reported that Microsoft quit when it discovered that the group's work on contract language did not coincide with its own efforts.

But attendees at the meeting indicated that Microsoft's exit was somewhat mysterious as the two executives made "outstanding positive and valuable" contributions to the group during the session.