Google Fiber

[dankrutka]

Why does Newsok need to be first? I dk, isn't being first, the point of any business?

No. Not at all.

[bchris02]

I honestly think much of the negativity at NewsOK surrounding this is to jab at OKCTalk. The way Brianna and even Lackmeyer have handled this is unprofessional in my opinion. Kudos to Pete for all the hard work he does to keep us informed.

[Mississippi Blues]

Others have stated this, but here's a short article that talks about what this means:

Oklahoma City, Jacksonville And Tampa Invited To Explore Google Fiber | TechCrunch

[Plutonic Panda]

Just look at all the BS they had to deal with in Austin. I seriously doubt they will have any of those issues here, especially now that broadband is now a utility, which means the current pole owners must provide access.

Hopefully they will bury these lines.

This is wishful thinking, but this would sure be a good opportunity for OKC to bury a lot of the utility lines where fiber goes.

[Scott5114]

Is this going to be just limited to OKC limits, or is there a chance they're going to go metro-wide? I'm fairly sure they cover the suburbs in Kansas City, but is that an exception or the rule? If Google is interested in hooking Norman up, I doubt the city would turn them down...

Hopefully they will bury these lines.

This is wishful thinking, but this would sure be a good opportunity for OKC to bury a lot of the utility lines where fiber goes.

I don't know a whole lot about the pros and cons of burying utilities vs. poles, but it always seemed kind of strange to me that we have so many above-ground utilities in Oklahoma, considering the weather.

[NWOKCGuy]

I was talking to some friends be in Austin that just got fiber in their neighborhood and they said that you have to have everyone in your neighborhood request it or they won't ever get to your hood.

[Of Sound Mind]

I honestly think much of the negativity at NewsOK surrounding this is to jab at OKCTalk. The way Brianna and even Lackmeyer have handled this is unprofessional in my opinion. Kudos to Pete for all the hard work he does to keep us informed.

100% agree. Very disappointed in Steve. I've come to expect it from Brianna.

[SoonerDave]

100% agree. Very disappointed in Steve. I've come to expect it from Brianna.

I am no longer surprised by Lackmeyer's behavior. I am learning about Briley's. It makes me glad I follow neither of them on social media and even happier I don't take their paper. The insolence is pretty staggering. That the Oklahoman implicitly stamps their imprimatur on it my not putting a stop to it speaks volumes.

Kudos to Pete!

[bombermwc]

Steve is just a repeat of things we learn here before he's able to post them. Beyond that, he's often just flat wrong or believes what developers tell him. I basically ignore most of what he says these days.

[betts]

Revealing news doesn't have to be a contest. Although OKCTalk is a busy website, there are a lot of people in OKC who don't read it. I would have big informative articles in the paper with lots of quotes and it will appeal to readers. We should all be working together to promote OKC and not worry about who said it first.

[Pete]

I don't want to belabor this media stuff but since we are talking about it I wanted to clarify some things.

It's not as simple as being 'first'. News stories are completely binary: Something is either reported or it is not.

Once reported, then everyone generally knows what is going on and from that point it's just very subtle gradiations of various facts, perhaps a bit more new info, etc.

There is this general thought -- perpetuated by local traditional media through their wide-reaching bully pulpits provided and enabled by their employers -- that they already had the story they were just holding it for more and complete information, confirmations, etc. In most these stories that is absolutely not the case.

They see something here or elsewhere where all the hard work of finding the info, verifying it -- all the stuff they claim to do -- has already been done. I could easily just take articles from the local papers, make a couple of calls to add relatively meaningless quotes and really no new info, and act like I had the story the whole time. But that's not what we do. If the Oklahoman or Journal Record comes out with something really new (like the Sunshine Cleaners redevelopment), we are happy to see that fantastic news, post the links with full credit and get on about discussing it. Believe me, there are plenty such stories where I pretty much know it's going to happen but don't put the story out for various reasons. For example, I sat on the Swanson's Tire development for months because the proprietor of Swanson's wanted the deal to close first then tell his employees. So that's exactly how things transpired, then he told me they had been informed and I wrote up the story. Many times someone asks me to sit on a story then they turn around and give it to the Oklahoman. All part of the risk you take by waiting and part of this.

I know enough about all these stories to know when the traditional media knows and when they don't know. And there are many, many times they aren't even close to having the full story until we put something out. And vice versa of course, the difference being we merely post their story, celebrate the good news and start following from that point.

Also keep in mind in this binary "it's either out or it isn't" reality, once something *is* out then is super easy to call people and get them to talk to you about it. Far, far harder to be the person trying to get the story out in the first place and more often than not you get absolute denials and then have to say, "I'm holding the plans in my hands as we speak so you can either provide more information or I have plenty here to put this out". Often, that is the only way people will talk to you.

The rhretoric becomes about rushing to be first (with the implication that is somehow reckless and irresponsible) but that is not the issue at all. It's all about getting the news *out*, otherwise it isn't news at all and there is no guarantee it will ever be reported.

Also,.I personally work my arse off getting this information. I talk and call and research and meet with people and look up court cases and read and then repeat all that until I can put together a pretty full picture. The idea that we somehow come to our stories differently or with less effort is absolute rubbish and anyone who knows me and follows this site somewhat closely knows this. The traditional media knows it too, despite them constantly trying to claim otherwise.

I am also proud to say that in some ways we are simply smarter, more organized, more creative and do a better job of building trusting and trusted relationships. THAT is how you get news and information, plain and simple.


And finally, it is true that more people read the Oklahoman and Journal Record and Gazette than OKCTalk. However, that is absolutely no excuse to steal our work, repackage it and present it as your own. In fact, the whole point is they want to keep our readership as small as possible by replicating our stories so people DON'T come here.


There is much, much more to this but those are some points that I think many misunderstand.

By nature I am very determined, disciplined and highly competitive so it's hard for me not to be drawn into the fray, especially when my personal integrity and my business has been attacked... But this has reached the point where it reflects badly on OKC in general and that goes far beyond any personal or business issues.

[SoonerDave]

Power to ya, Pete.

What personally irritates me is the disingenuous way the Oklahoman's reps in this matter are working so hard to make a subtlety in the information into some sort of manifest, important distinction that made their "journalistic" reporting somehow more "valuable" than yours, or to make yours "less credible."

If they truly hold the moral, journalistic high ground on this issue, then the proper, professional response is *not to respond at all," any more than they would have responded to "Aliens Landing in OKC!!!" had it appeared in some rag like "The Enquirer." But the fact they *did* respond so defensively tells us *exactly* how much of a threat this kind of reporting is to them - because it most certainly is credible. And their response makes *them* look very, very bad in my personal, unsolicited, and entirely irrelevant opinion. And I'm equally sure they care not one whit what some former subscriber like me thinks of them "journalistically."

[bchris02]

Power to ya, Pete.

What personally irritates me is the disingenuous way the Oklahoman's reps in this matter are working so hard to make a subtlety in the information into some sort of manifest, important distinction that made their "journalistic" reporting somehow more "valuable" than yours, or to make yours "less credible."

If they truly hold the moral, journalistic high ground on this issue, then the proper, professional response is *not to respond at all," any more than they would have responded to "Aliens Landing in OKC!!!" had it appeared in some rag like "The Enquirer." But the fact they *did* respond so defensively tells us *exactly* how much of a threat this kind of reporting is to them - because it most certainly is credible. And their response makes *them* look very, very bad in my personal, unsolicited, and entirely irrelevant opinion. And I'm equally sure they care not one whit what some former subscriber like me thinks of them "journalistically."

Completely agree with this. The professional thing for Steve and Brianna to do is simply ignore OKCTalk and do their own thing. The subtle jabs in their articles and the flat out attacks on Twitter only make them look bad.

[Stew]

I think I'm with most Oklahomans in that I couldn't tell you who broke what story first or even care. I know if there is something big happening in the OKC area I'll learn about it on OKCTALK.

Yesterday well before the official Google announcement I said out loud OKC is getting Google fiber. Somebody overheard me and asked me my source which I replied OKCTALK.COM. They didn't looked too convinced but I said if the owner of OKCTALK reports it then you can bank on it.

In the end that's all that matters to me.

[Jake]

Yesterday well before the official Google announcement I said out loud OKC is getting Google fiber. Somebody overheard me and asked me my source which I replied OKCTALK.COM. They didn't looked too convinced but I said if the owner of OKCTALK reports it then you can bank on it.

I told a friend of mine literally the same exact thing yesterday.

[Bullbear]

could this be the thing to make Dallas jelous?.. ***I'm so sorry I couldn't help myself****

I had put in my address years ago into google fiber when it launched in KC. I did get an email from them yesterday after the announcement saying basically what we have all read. exciting news.

I don't care who had what first and think the bickering by those two is laughable and makes them seem very unprofessional however seeing the reporting they have done I don't really know that being unprofessional is out of the ordinary. I would much rather read OKCTALK than try to go to one of the news webites and be covered in Ads and crap loading and locking up like crazy. Its like buzzfeed at some of those sites.

[Plutonic Panda]

Rapid expansion: Google Fiber looks at OKC | The Journal Record

[jerrywall]

I told a friend of mine literally the same exact thing yesterday.

Ditto. Said the same on Reddit.

[BG918]

I know Century Link offers fiber in some markets, is there a difference between what they are offering and what Google is doing? I assume with Google you can get your internet, TV and security bundled?

[NoOkie]

I know Century Link offers fiber in some markets, is there a difference between what they are offering and what Google is doing? I assume with Google you can get your internet, TV and security bundled?

The cost to bandwidth ratio is the big thing Google is offering. FIOS bundles TV with fiber in the markets it serves.

Also, to comment on something someone said: Fiber connections are pretty common and have been common in most moderately sized cities for years, you just pay out the nose for them. Fiber to the premise is pretty much exclusively a business thing aside from Chattanooga and other municipal services, Google Fiber markets and FIOS markets.

What makes Google Fiber a great thing is that even if your neighborhood doesn't get it for years, it's already putting pressure on the incumbent ISPs to step their game up. If Cox&co follow the lead of TW and AT&T in KC, our bills will go down and our speeds will go up.

[UnFrSaKn]

Would Cox ever do this if they had such an outage? I know the answer already.

Google Fiber Goes Down in KC, Credits 2 Days Service

[Richard at Remax]

FWIW Pete I think my gold membership on here gets me more than I ever got paying for the paper back in the day. Keep up the good work.

[ljbab728]

I'm going to continue to both get and provide information here as well as subscribe to the Oklahoman. It's silly to limit yourself if you are truly interested just to spite someone. I get unhappy both with the Oklahoman and OKCTALK at times, but here and there I am.

[soonerguru]

Oh she burns him real good.

Newsok is always in a tough spot. They need to be first but they have to be spot on 100%. OKCtalk can get things 75% correct and no one cares.

I agree with your premise but since when is the DOK "spot on" 100%? It is not now nor has it ever been a highly regarded journalistic enterprise.

[tfvc.org]

I know I probably won't see it in Lexington, but I put in my address anyway. Anything is better than dealing with Windstream. My stated speeds are 3/.667 and I only get that when the wind blows right. Streaming is painful!