Regular readers of this space will know Mark Cuban as a recurring character in my two online novels, The Chinese Century and The American Diaspora.

I think it's important to note that the Mark Cuban of those novels is a fictional character. He has the same name, face, and background as the real Mark Cuban, but his motivations and actions are purely imaginary. The world of my alternate histories diverge from the real world right after the last election, with the imagined meeting of an American ambassador and a Chinese official. From there on out it's my world, not your world, not the real world.

There is, of course, a real Mark Cuban. You can find this Mark Cuban at his personal blog, BlogMaverick. It's telling that, to my knowledge, Cuban is the only blogging billionaire. I hope it's telling in a good way.

What's the real Mark Cuban like?

From the evidence of his blog he cares about the NBA, about his own Dallas Mavericks, he wants compromises found to the copyright wars, and since he became rich he thinks others can, too.

Personally I think luck means more in making a fortune than most billionaires believe, but that's an observation and not a criticism. The fact is that Mark Cuban has built his own world, which he's pretty happy with. He has never, to my knowledge, ever met Richard Branson, although I suspect if they did meet they would get along. And I also believe he is far too conservative with his money to plunk $1 billion into a South African venture, as he did in my books.

Now if he wants to argue with any of this, he knows where to find me.