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Lawrence is the first of several bloggers we'll be adding who work for industry vendors. But their writing for No Jitter will be vendor-neutral.

As you see below, we have a post from a new blogger, Lawrence Byrd of Avaya. Lawrence is the first of several bloggers we'll be adding who work for industry vendors. But their writing for No Jitter will be vendor-neutral and focused on industry issues, not marketing messages.I decided to approach the leading vendor companies with a request for a blogger, because several of our best commenters on No Jitter were folks who worked for vendor companies: Rurik Bradbury of Unison, "Bithead," and others. They made good points and usually did so in a vendor-neutral way. I thought they could contribute to the conversation, and even help spark some more of it here on the site.

We're putting the bloggers' vendor affiliations out there because, for one thing, we put everyone's affiliation out there. But we also don't want anyone to think we're trying to put one over on them. These folks work for vendors, but they are also thought leaders. I've been working closely with the vendors for a couple of months now to identify the right candidates from each organization--someone who's opinionated, provocative, and who tends to be able to see beyond their own organization's tunnel vision.

The posts from these bloggers get sent to me and posted by me, so if I get a post that tries to do vendor marketing, I'll send it back to the author and politely ask for a re-write. I don't expect to have to do that very often, because as I say, these folks are pros. But it's similar to the process we've just completed with VoiceCon, where we vet the vendor-submitted presentations. There's usually a ton of good information, and every so often we have to engage in a little...dialogue...with the creator to get to the ideas. I won't hesitate to do that here, either.

One final note. We don't have an "Avaya blogger," or a "Cisco blogger" or whatever. We have Lawrence Byrd, Mike Bergelson, etc. I've made it clear that what I want is for these individuals to develop their own voices--we want to make them stars. I appreciate their willingness to take part, and your willingness to hear what they have to say. Let us know what you think.Lawrence is the first of several bloggers we'll be adding who work for industry vendors. But their writing for No Jitter will be vendor-neutral.