"Google didn’t come calling because Wilkes was building storage systems. It came calling because he’s someone who re-imagines the way computers work. Google, you see, is now at the forefront of systems research. Its web operation has grown to the point where it’s forced to build a new breed of system — systems far larger than anything that came before.
To be sure, Google’s relationship with the broader web community is still rather complicated. Some outsiders continue to complain that, unlike a Facebook or a Yahoo or a Twitter, Google doesn’t open source the new-age software it builds for its massive data centers. It shares ideas rather than software code. But share it does. And John Wilkes wants to share more."
article:
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/04/google-john-wilkes-new-hackers/.
Wave example:
http://incubator.apache.org/wave/Unfortunately, Google released most of the workings, but not the basic client.. saying it was too wrapped into other services.. which makes sense. Progress has been made. Rizzoma is the closest to the original Wave so far. However, Rizzoma's own "open source" claim has been slow in eventuating..
https://getsatisfaction.com/rizzoma/topics/wheres_the_source-5j021Etherpad example:
http://etherpad.org/
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