An insanely great resource for we who use Macs to do serious things

This is just a quick plug for something I consider to be a great step forward for the Macintosh platform. The erstwhile Mac OS X Labs Deployment Project has widened its scope to become MacEnterprise.org. (Doug Willen, from our academic computing team, has been heavily involved in the activities of the group.)

The past history of the relationship between Apple and enterprise customers has been cyclical, if not downright spotty. It's always been clear which channels were "hot" in Apple's eyes. All too frequently, the organizational uses of Macs felt neglected for consumer-oriented marketing and development. Now, that might sound like a criticism of Apple, Inc., but in reality the problem was also that the enterprise-oriented user segment wasn't organized to help Apple serve them well. From what I've seen by floating around the outskirts of the present effort, the MacEnterprise.org folks have made a serious commitment of their time and energy, and Apple has responded by nurturing their effort and being highly responsive to them. Kudos and godspeed to all involved.

It looks like the next big step is getting new participants from business, government, and NPO's outside of higher education. If you know of anybody who might be interested, spread the word.

A week from today, it looks like they'll be webcasting a session on the subject of Wireless Security with participation from people inside and outside of Apple. If that's your thing, check it out.