I have that down as reason #17 for leaving your corporate job. Seriously, though -- having your prize projects locked inside corporate walls is a huge problem, a real innovation-stifler. After many attempts to get a couple of my old projects open sourced, and then watching them deteriorate to non-use as they were passed on to others, I've all but given up on starting new projects at $JOB. Glad to see Google is still open to letting some things into the wild.
That Guido got to work on a version of Mondrian for the outside world indicates less about Google's willingness to open up and more about their need to please their superstar.
