WiFi Roundtable

Great to see so all the people who attended the roundtable at American Intercontinental University on Thursday. Some really good questions were pointed towards the panelists:

• Don Berryman - President, Earthlink Municipal Networks
• Janis Jefferson - Deputy Director, City of Houston IT Dept.
• Manuel Rodriguez - President, HISD Board of Directors

A few good answers came out of it, too.

• The build-out will begin around July 1. Only hurdle left is for Earthlink to sign agreement with Centerpoint for the usage rights to their light poles.
• Earthlink must complete 1/2 the network build-out within 1 year of that start date. A steep $$$ penalty woulld levied if they don't hit that mark.
• The entire project must be done within 2 years from the start date.
• Zones will be built and "lit up" after the City deems them ready and working. The first zone most likely will be in and around downtown Houston.

YouTube the next Clear Channel?

Mark Cuban is pissed. Maybe because his Mavericks were knocked out of the NBA's first round of playoffs. But he ain't happy.

His latest blog goes off on YouTube (remember late last year when he said any company thinking of buying YouTube would be a stupid mistake?). YouTube just announced a pay-for content program that would pay content owners money for their content (note to self...create content!).

Cubes says that YouTube

immediately went from a small but interesting community for its original content, to basically being just like Clear Channel, responsible for programming its different "formats" with the "best" possible content that creates the greatest number of eyeballs and maximizes advertising revenue. It's big business, just like Clear Channel.

And what's wrong with Clear Channel??

Internet Predator Interview

Local 2 investigative reporter Stephen Dean will join me in studio Tuesday morning. He has a new book called "Setting the Trap for Internet Predators."

If you have seen Stephen's reports you know how he busts people lurking for kids online as they hide behind their computers. We will discuss some tricks kids are now using to avoid detection by their parents, where law enforcement is on all of this right now and why they are having so much trouble.

We'll also touch on the latest dangers on social networking sites and a growing threat that's gotten some kids hurt already on new phone and Internet chat lines.