What will happen after the (postponed but inevitable) Google IPO? Will results oriented shareholders tolerate such a policy? Won't it be regarded as an excuse to slack? It's going to be interesting to watch. It used to be that some companies in the computer industry had very forward looking policies. Employee sabbaticals come to mind. Of course, those are also gone, because companies can't afford them, or because people came back from them and then quit. I wonder if those companies asked themselves whey all their people were quitting when they came back from their sabbaticals.

One benefit that I've obtained from working on open source is that it's been like working on my own personal technology projects. As I've gotten more deeply involved with various communities, it's been inevitable that I have branched out and started working on different stuff. The cross pollination of ideas and perspectives from multiple communities has been wonderful, and a little overwhelming, because there's almost too much input coming in. It seems to me that this is the effect that Google is trying to achieve with their policy.

Many of the advocates of offshoring are saying that innovation is the key to keeping some jobs here in America. If that's true, then figuring out better ways to foster innovation should be high on everyone's priority list.