I almost forgot one of the most interesting pieces of blogging (although one that I don’t really use): as a means for starting a discussion. Some of the celebrities in the blogosphere will post something like: “I’ll be on a plane for most of today. Go check out this interesting link. Discuss, but be nice.” I’m not kidding — Dan Gillmour (former SJ Merc writer) has done this, John Battelle (former Industry Standard chief and current writer of a book about Google) has done it, and my friend Mitch Kapor (founder of Lotus, EFF, and OSAF) does it as well. And the amazing thing is that because all of these guys have communities that actively read & participate in their blogs, people do have discussions in the comments of the posts. Very interesting. Sort of like that SNL skit Coffee Talk. I’ll give you a topic: the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy nor Roman. discuss. Mike Myers always cracked me up when he did that.