"GOOGLE engineers are encouraged to take 20 percent of their time to work on something company-related that interests them personally. This means that if you have a great idea, you always have time to run with it. It sounds obvious, but people work better when they’re involved in something they’re passionate about, and many cool technologies have their origins in 20 percent time, including Gmail, Google News and even the Google shuttle buses that bring people to work at the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif." --Noah Berger for The New York Times
"The Google Way: Give Engineers Room," Bharat Mediratta, as told to Julie Bick, The New York Times October 21, 2007
More about Google
EXPERIENCE "Hackers", on PBS's FRONTLINE
"FRONTLINE's "Hackers" explores [these] questions through interviews with top computer security experts, government officials, and hackers themselves. The one-hour report journeys into the hackers' world--from a Las Vegas hackers conference to hackers' homes where their attacks were launched. It also visits with those on their trail--from security experts tracking individual teen hackers to information warfare experts playing virtual war games to prepare for future cyber terrorists."
EXPERIENCE the Bent Festival
"The Bent Festival is an annual art and music festival celebrating DIY electronics, hardware hacking, and circuit bending. Each year we invite artists from across the country and around the globe to perform music with their home-made or circuit bent instruments, teach workshops to adults and children alike, create beautiful art installations and to generally come together, face to face, and showcase the state of the art in DIY electronics and circuit bending culture."