Careers: Building smart teams. “The difference between a group — where the aggregate is dumber than its members — and a team, where it is smarter, depends on trust and alignment,” writes Bob Lewis. Trouble is, neither one is sufficient on its own; you need both. “Especially alignment. Focus on building it and the team will generally figure out the trust part.” Podcasts: David Linthicum shares his notes about the SOA Executive Forum this week. His talk at the conference is about Full Contact SOA. “Service oriented architecture is moving from no contact … to people making time to build their service oriented architectures and doing it right the first time.” Highlights include: the technology is easy but people are hard; focus on using best technology, but not the technology that’s easiest to use; don’t follow the hype; and people can’t take SOA in a huge dose. Tune into SOA Report here. Best of the blogs: Boatloads of cash and 31 years old, Microsoft remains unchanged, espouses Matt Asay in At least Microsoft is consistent. At the heart of this entry is a classic diddy from Bill Gates that highlights how his thinking about open source has lasted so long. “The irony is palpable,” Asay asserts. “This isn’t about IP. It’s about Microsoft’s ‘right’ to a business model under siege.” Related: Jonathan Schwartz to Ballmer: Try innovating, not litigating. Careers