Councilman BlackBERRY

It's always nice to see government in action...technology action. The wireless waves were flowing throughout Houston's City Council Chamber Thursday afternoon. COH Chief Technology Officer Richard Lewis was holding court at the Information Technology Committee meeting. I attended to check on the citywide WiFi status.

Councilman Michael Berry presides over this committee (Berry and I are friends and he also hosts a radio show on TalkRadio 950 KPRC) and was getting updates from Lewis' department on the WiFi RFP and timeline. The five bidding companies will soon be reviewed by a special internal committee. An October 2006 launch of the initial network is expected, according to the timeline presented.

Sitting in Mayor White's center spot at the semicircle table Berry looked very mayorly. I noticed him sipping my favorite soft drink, Coke Zero, and sent him a text message requesting one myself. Not 10 minutes later one of his staffers walked into the room with an icy cold bottle. Now THAT is taking care of his constituents. (too bad I didn't vote for him. But maybe one day I'll move inside the city's boundary!)

Here are some very crude cell phone pics from inside the chamber. Two members of the city's EMS team spoke about the usefulness of a WiFi network on their jobs. Another shot shows Lewis and CTO Deputy Director Janis Jefferson presenting facts to the committee.