Blogspot:It's been a good week for Damien Mulley in his role as head of the Ireland Offline lobby group, with Eircom announcing it was to broadband-enable more than 300 more telephone exchanges - but the veteran blogger wasn't getting carried away.
On his blog, he pointed out that Eircom has given no timeframe to enable the exchanges and that the poor condition of some lines means that not all customers connected to those exchanges will be able to get broadband.
This is typical of Mulley's no-nonsense blogging style. With the tagline "invisible people have invisible rights", it's no surprise that politics in all its guises forms the cornerstone of his writing. Mulley can be relied upon to give a refreshing view of the upcoming general election and in particular how it is being fought online.
A consistent critic of telecoms regulator ComReg, Mulley applied for the recently advertised position of broadband strategy manager with the regulator - and of course published the application letter on his blog.
Straight-talking Mulley uses robust language and isn't afraid to address controversy. Most recently, he rejected calls for a bloggers' code of conduct following death threats received by US blogger Kathy Sierra, with a headline that couldn't be reprinted in a national paper. Last year, a post entitled "How to use Google to get a girl and get laid" catapulted him to international recognition, with more than 18,000 people visiting his site on a single day.
Showing his light-hearted side, Mulley posts a daily set of "fluffy links", which range from the sublime to the bizarre and also likes to give "link love" to new or deserving blogs.
What's most surprising is that the Cork man even finds time to blog. By day he's a technical writer with an IT company.
In addition to running Ireland Offline, Mulley also organises the annual Irish Blog Awards. At last month's awards ceremony, he received a standing ovation when Bernie Goldbach handed him the best contribution to the blogosphere award, which Glodbach had just won.
Mulley also recently founded the ShareIT initiative, which provides free IT training to small companies and individuals. And did I mention that he's studying for a law degree at night?
Some may categorise bloggers as frustrated journalists that snipe from the sidelines, but Mulley has firmly embraced the community aspects of the medium.
Blog of the Week:Damien Mulley www.mulley.net
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