15:31
My friends and colleagues have noticed a pronounced silence from me over the past several months. This blog and my company, Emerging Media Dynamics, have been uncharacteristically muted since early summer – a quiescent period that followed an intensely busy three years during which I started my company, launched this blog, hosted three live conferences and four audio events, authored dozens of premium reports and conducted a number of private consulting projects.
The slow-down was, at first, an intentional and much-welcomed sabbatical from the entrepreneurial life, planned to coincide with a big change in lifestyle. Although I launched my current advisory services practice in 2005, in truth I’ve been a full-fledged entrepreneurial analyst since 1999, when I launched my first publication in the full heat of the dotcom and telecom boom. And it’s been a wild and wonderful ride ever since.
Along the way, I have made great new friends across the tech, media, communications, publishing, blogging, policy, legal and political worlds while staying connected with the old friends who span my long career devoted to media and communications research.
Something about that sabbatical, however, made me take stock of my working life and once the break ended, I felt that something was missing. It wasn’t enough anymore -- and at the same time it was too much -- to create projects, pitch clients, develop conferences and blog away every day as a solo practitioner (although I was never really alone. I enjoyed generous support from partners, colleagues, former employers, clients, contractors, friends and so many others).
In short, I needed to become part of a team again. And I’ve found an excellent team to join at the Utilities Telecom Council (UTC), a trade association that represents companies, specifically gas, electric and water utilities, that own, manage, or provide critical telecommunications systems in support of their core businesses.
Most people who work in the mass media world (which includes the Internet industries) aren’t really aware that utilities design, build and maintain their own vast communications networks instead of relying on the public telecommunications infrastructure. In some respects, these communications facilities are even more vital to our economic well-being and national security than are the more familiar telecommunications networks that deliver consumer and enterprise voice, data and video services.
Although UTC advocates on behalf of its members in Washington, just as every other trade association does, it also runs a research program dedicated to helping member companies run their networks and stay abreast of new and important developments. That’s where I come in – as of December 15, I’ll be running the UTC’s research initiatives.