"Intranets are an anachronism. They're gonna die, it's just a matter of time."

These are the prophetic words (see Sun's Schwartz@Syndicate: Intranets are gonna die)of Sun Microsystems president and COO Jonathan Schwartz at the Syndicate Conference in San Francisco last month. Pathetic; the over-embossed hype of an ego-driven media hound with a ponytail (yes, he actually wears a ponytail).

Actually I apologize Jonathan, I’m sure you’re a fine person and I won’t attack you personally. However, your credibility to predict the future of intranets is best summed up by the relative performance of Sun’s stock price of the last five years…

If stock performance doesn’t turn you on then perhaps you’d be interested in knowing that Sun has done nothing but lose money the past four years with operating income losses of more than US$4 billion. More than US$2.4 billion last year alone.

Here’s a tip John: the purpose of a company is to make money. Anyone can spend a loss of $4 billion. Save the prognostications for areas where you have credibility.

What is Schwartz’s rationale for the death of intranets? Blogs. Hehe, I know I am laughing too. Say John, how does a blog run an employee directory, web mail, benefits enrollment, corporate forms, etc.?

Schwartz on employee communications: " There's very little communication internal to Sun that you want to have private…. I just have an external blog."

Schwartz on open Internet access for employees: “"Some people say that if you allow people some conveniences or allow them some connectivity, it will be bad for business.  My fear is that when you give connectivity to your employees, they take [their work] home all the time."

Oh my. Nice work. I really like the ponytail though, hotshot.