Today, the Ecma International Technical Committee 39 (TC39), a standards body that influences implementations such as JavaScript, JScript and ActionScript, has announced it will focus work on the next ECMAScript standard, ES3.1 (ECMA-262 Edition 3.1), with full collaboration of all parties involved in the committee. Work on ES3.1 will unite the committee in its work to create the next Ecma JavaScript standard, targeting two interoperable implementations by early 2009 and to develop a roadmap to future editions of the standard (for more technical information, a white paper is available).

John Neumann, TC39 chair, worked with ES3.1 and ES4 principals including Dan Smith and Lars Hansen (Adobe), Brendan Eich (Mozilla), Mark Miller (Google) and Allen Wirfs-Brock (Microsoft), to unify the committee around shared values and a common roadmap (“Harmony”) for the specification. While some members of TC39 favoured the ongoing effort called ES4 (ECMAScript version 4), a major fourth edition to ECMA-262, and others advocated ES3.1 based on the existing ECMA-262 Edition 3 (ES3) specification. The two factions have resolved to collaborate on the new ES3.1 as well as pave the way for the successor edition (currently unnamed).