Taking a page from my own play book -- for those of you with a penchant for blogging, an interest in joining the dark side, or an unquenchable thirst for advice on how to get started, here's a few ideas for how to blog (even on such exhilarating topics as telecommunication policy):

1. Good posts are pithy and chocked full of info, informal and accessible. Meandering prose and dissertation-length postings have their place, but many of the most important and influential readers don't have the time in their schedules to read a thesis. That said, when getting started, I'd recommend working on some in-depth analysis, critique, or other insightful work and sending synopses and links out to a bunch of relevant lists. When you're starting, it's fantastically important that you're adding to the knowledge base, not just the debate. Take the time to create resources that people value, there's enough pundits and talking heads -- demonstrate your expertise and depth-of-knowledge and your readership will rapidly grow.

2. Ping your friends so that we can put pointers up on our sites to your blog. Interconnections are important and bouncing readers among relevant postings on others blogs can elevate both. Readership isn't a zero-sum game.

3. Relatedly, carve out a niche and stay in contact with your niche-mates. In terms of telecom bloggers, several (though certainly not all) of the key ones are in my blog roll -- make friends with the folks blogging in your area so they know you're working in the area and stay informed about what other folks are writing. Folksonomies, tag clouds, category listings, etc. help quickly situate your blog for new readers. Don't try to be everything to everyone. I love it when folks contact me with leads on new blogs and other information sources -- and I'd rather point folks to another blog covering a related issue than attempt to cover something outside my area of expertise myself. The interconnectivity within the blogosphere domain you inhabit helps everyone.

4. Be humble -- blogging is all about being willing to put information out quickly and getting it right most of the time. When we get something wrong, be thankful when folks take the time to correct you -- 99% of the time your readers are looking to help you out. Acknowledge the mistake, give credit where it's due, and correct it. Never flame your readers (even if they flamed you first ;) -- you should expect that some your readers will know far more than you do about some of the stuff you're covering (often, they're your greatest allies but would rather not be publicly front and center). Reply to folks that take the time to contact you -- I can't tell you how many times folks have e-mailed me to clarify information, correct something I've posted, or educate me about an issue I'm covering -- blogs are a fantastic outreach and educational tool for their owners, not just their readers. A good dose of humility will go a long way -- while blog owners wield supreme dictatorial power, the best blogs maintain open forums and transparent commenting processes. Likewise, my favorite blogs have a sense of humanity to them -- a sprinkling of the personal buffered by immensely useful and insightful critique.

5. Maintain privacy -- you can put out whatever you want on your own blog, but always err on the side of caution when it comes to releasing other people's names, identifying information, or private correspondences. You can always go back and add in a name if someone would like to be credited, but once you put information out there, it's near-on impossible to expurgate it. Once you've garnered people's respect, they will leak sensitive information to you. Rarely is this done anonymously -- take the time to understand what you've been given and the potential consequences of its release. Not disclosing highly sensitive information publicly encourages sources and helps shield them from potential backlash. A vast majority of the time, I don't publicly post about the information I've been handed -- I can often make the same points without the public disclosure (knowing that you've got documentation to back up your perspective if push comes to shove).

6. Combine efforts -- if you find yourself drafting up a useful e-mail that might be interesting to a wider community, think about how you can revamp it for a public posting. If you're working on interesting projects, initiatives, analyses, etc. keep in mind how you might make a blog post about it. I rarely have time to draft up a blog post -- but I can carve out a few minutes to tweak the work I'm already doing.

7. Keep it interesting -- whether through insight, multi-media integration, exploration of new topic areas, or the occasional personal posting -- don't let your blog become stagnant. Mine has an amazing amount of quasi-public pages that folks occasionally stumble upon -- a lot of Easter Eggs awaiting discovery.

8. Keep your interface clean and accessible -- give folks the option to get exactly what they want quickly or stay awhile and mull through your postings.

9. Finally, and most importantly, is regular posting -- especially when you're getting started and/or want to build your readership. If people know there will be something new every day, they'll come back to your site on a regular basis. If you go more than a few days without posting, either let your readers know (e.g., I'm on vacation, in Antartica, suffering from Ebola) or folks will get bored and move on.

Hope folks get inspired. Personally, I still blame my good friend Steven Mansour for leading me down the road of blogging darkness.

Mark my words -- if passed, the COPE act of 2006 will be a disaster for cities, towns, and local communities throughout the United States.

COPE is a blatant attempt by telecom incumbents to usurp local control over franchising, eliminate many avenues for fighting discrimination, solidifying monopoly power, and all but guaranteeing residents will receive exorbitantly-priced, substandard services (especially when compared with the other industrialized nations).

Here's the latest from the National League of Cities:

The telecom reform bill, as it now stands, will, in effect, silence the voices of consumers and local governments. If enacted, consumers will be at the mercy of telecommunication giants and the federal government when faced with concerns about their television and advanced Internet services. This measure leaves the door wide open for service providers to pick and choose which neighborhoods get premium services and which get no service at all. Local governments continue to urge Congress to protect our taxpaying consumers and maintain local government oversight of service providers. We urge them to vote "no" on the COPE bill when it comes before the House. Specific concerns are: 1) The bill strips local governments of their authority to franchise the use of public rights-of-way for video/cable services and gives that authority to the federal government. The FCC has never had the authority to regulate local public rights-of-way and has no expertise concerning local streets, sidewalks, public safety or traffic patterns. 2) The bill gives the federal government the authority to oversee and second-guess all local rights-of-way management practices and all customer service issues. 3) The bill allows broadband-video service providers to pick and choose which neighborhoods they want to serve while bypassing all others completely. The bill would even allow broadband/video providers to avoid maintaining or upgrading facilities in poorer neighborhoods while affluent neighborhoods receive cutting-edge services and lower prices.

[UPDATE 1] My good friend, Angela Stuber, has a number of talking points on the COPE Act -- including the lack of build out requirements or network neutrality, no support for a community's right to network, and the evaporation of funding for community technology centers. Well worth the read.

I've been working with folks to set up a new national coalition called "Save the Internet" focusing on Network Neutrality and maintaining a participatory and democratic Internet. Though the coalition doesn't officially launch until Monday, we've decided to offer sneak peeks through coalition members' own networks. Here's more:

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I've got nothing against WiMax -- in fact, I'm looking forward to having another wireless tool in my networking toolbox. But, as I am constantly telling municipal representative, the press, and anyone else who asks, WiMax is decidedly not an upgrade to WiFi -- WiMax is different technology, optimal in some situations, and far worse than WiFi in others -- and while wireless generally is a new technology, WiMax is so new it hasn't even been standardized yet. And while most folks are more than happy to uncritically sing the praises of WiMax, folks on the ground doing Katrina disaster recovery have had a decidedly different experience with things. Is there more to the story -- absolutely, but here's the info that's publicly available from Katrina Emergency Wireless Response team member Mac Dearman:

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