>  I think having version specified is more explicit

You mean to create explicit releases of jclouds-labs? Fine! But with as-is code don't quite see how you are able to change the **jclouds** version to a non-snapshot dep in preparation for a release whilst _also_ keeping jclouds-labs as a snapshot version so it can be released? 

Perhaps my comment was confusing, I indeed meant specify the jclouds-labs `<version>...</version>` **explicitly** rather than inheriting it from the jclouds-project parent POM as I think the as-is code does.