The Wizard of Oz (a great training video for learning to work with start ups by the way), has a moment where Dorothy asks a newly arrived friend if she is “a good witch, or a bad witch.” Putting aside the obvious “duh” that you wanted to throw at the TV, as Dorothy looks at an angelic, wand clutching Bugsy Berkeley blond pushing every subliminal cue Hollywood could then throw, she does make an interesting point.  Who’s a good witch, depends upon where you sit, or whichever house you are under.

I am reminded of this as I watch Apple get pummeled for its actions surrounding the iPhone, and its relationship with third party developers. The back story, for those of you that have missed it, starts with Apple introducing the iPhone, which is tied to an exclusive sales relationship with a single cellular carrier.  It continued with the development of various software programs by third parties which purported to “unlock” the iPhone so that it could be used on other cellular networks.  Further on, others developed applications to run on the iPhone (a logical thing to do as it provided a way to reach a growing base of new customers).  Then, Apple released an update of its iPhone operating system, which when executed, rendered “unlocked” phones inert, and third party applications wiped away.  What a resulting hullabaloo…..   Now were learn that Apple intends to release software that will facilitate third party software development for the iPhone, and the blogosphere is alight with the debate of whether Apple “finally gets it.”  Well, what exactly are they getting?

As an addendum to a blog I wrote last year, The Fight for Top Performers, I thought that the article from this past Sunday’s edition of the Washington Post, Why AOL Matters, underscores some of the issues facing the Washington DC / Virginia area job market. It turns out that Virginia has the highest concentration of technology sector jobs compared with that of any other state. Nonetheless, it seems harder and harder to higher high-quality technology talent. That’s because the federal government employs most of these high-tech workers, which results in these tech sector jobs paying 99 percent more than the average private sector job.

And as a local entrepreneur starting a technology business in the WashingtonDC / Northern Virginia area, I tend to agree with the Washington Post’s conclusion that these Federal technology jobs are successfully crowding out opportunities for non-government technology resources. With so many low-risk, high-paying opportunities coming out of the Federal technology sector, it often seems that the entrepreneurial spirit of local technology talent has sold out to the highest bidder.

Recently, a friend of mine who is quite ill showed me a tool he is using to manage his health care costs. He logged on, entered his password, and voila, all his medications, some key medical data (blood pressure, blood tests, etc) and procedures popped up on the screen. He said the information has been invaluable in his on-going saga with the insurance companies and the endless claims, appeals, and re-appeals he’s had to submit.

When I asked him the source of such information, he said it was provided by health care providers to insurance companies who in turn contracted with data warehouses to store such information...