Android a stolen idea

I have been reading the numerous Steve Jobs articles since his death and something really bothers me.  I am a big Android user.  My phone, my tablet and almost all of the mobile development my team does.  I like it and I like the potential of where we can take it.  However in reading the Jobs articles, he was very clear that the Android o/s was a stolen idea.  I believe what is bothering me is that even though I was not there personally, from what I have read I tend to believe the reasons behind what Jobs said.

Maybe like most technologist my age, I hang on to some idealistic view of the world and stealing something this significant is wrong even if there is never a court case that is brought forth.

Of course I know the whole "McIntosh was co-opted from PARC" story so maybe this is some type of karma payback.

But oddly I tend to give Jobs a pass but "Google as a thief" keeps lingering in my mind like some giant blue ray bit torrent movie download site.

Intranet Subsite Madness

An intranet home page needs 4 things. News, events, people and programs.  From there everything else is fluff and does not warrant the insane amount of time devoted to the creation of subsites.

Claims based auth using Live ID

This is such a cool capability it is maddening there is not one single place you can go and learn how to get this setup (and yes I have looked at every blog posting currently available). I am sure I can trial and error this till I get it to work, so I am just ranting for now.

Clarifying how to utilize collaboration tools

Interview the department heads for each major segment of the company and ask "who is your top employee?"  What makes them the best? How do you believe they could get better? What does the employee think would help them become better?

Framing the goals of collaboration

I just listened to a podcast from one of the "thought leaders" on collaboration @ avanade. The interviewer asked him how to quantify the benefits of collaboration.  The answer went something like this: "it is hard to quantify, but give the users collaboration tools for a few weeks and then see how hard it is to take them back!".  Gee.  Maybe that explains the numerous Sharepoint deployment craters left behind by avanade. If your thought leadership amounts to "let the users figure it out", perhaps this is not an area of strength for you.