After some thought and discussion, I’ve decided to apply to join the Media Bloggers Association.  I’d gone back and forth on the issue and finally discovered, after talking to Bob Cox who’s largely responsible for making the Association happen, that I had a misperception of what the Association’s about.  Let’s just say it’s a little more ad hoc than I first thought, but in a good way, and it’s also not a professional organization per se, though it clearly offers a lot to media bloggers with professional interests or ambitions.

Even if you’re not into blogging, the MBA’s unique initiatives are worth hearing about.  For example, they helped set up hosting for videos of the tsunami disaster in order to save the bandwidth usage of bloggers, which can go nuts when people post material that lots of folks want to check out.  They’re also setting up a Legal Defense Project and related educational initiatives so that MBA members can not only get legal aid when corporations attempt to silence them but can also understand how not to set themselves up for legal problems in the first place.

You know, whether it works out or not, I’m glad to have a better sense of what these folks are up to.  Bob mentioned some future initiatives that I think are really important but it would be premature for me to comment at this time.  Further announcements and additional coverage can be found at the MBA News Archives.