Technology and the President intrigues me (see previous entry on President Obama’s blackberry). Obama promised Change throughout the campaign. I feel confident that everyone knows this. With a system like ours, one that is wrong and broken on so many levels, the right kind of change could lead to some significant progress. One element of Obama’s prescription for change involved the new political buzzword — transparency. The idea that we as citizens and people footing the bill for this stuff should know what’s going on is a novel, but very powerful concept. I can’t wait for it to be real.
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Since being elected, it seems as though he’s running into some obstacles bigger than the petty politics of the beltway — the technological infrastructure of our government. Unfortunately for President 2.0, it seems as though the government’s use of the technology is stuck in dial up mode. Some of this stuff really trips me out. What a shame.

I just read an article that outlined that some of his goals of transparency are being impeded by some technical difficulties. What his team is realizing now is that running change.gov is a lot different than running whitehouse.gov. Here’s are two examples that were pointed out in a recent Washington Post article:

1. Obama, for example, would like to send out mass e-mail updates on presidential initiatives, but the White House does not have the technology in place to do so. The same goes for text messaging, another campaign staple.
2. Hours before the $787 billion economic stimulus package cleared Congress, Obama’s online team posted the legislation on WhiteHouse.gov. The team recognized that many Americans would not only want to read the bill, which runs 1,071 pages, they would want to comment on it. On WhiteHouse.gov, however, users were asked to limit their “comments, thoughts and ideas” to 500 characters, a restriction that didn’t go over too well. Within 36 hours….they upped the character count from 500 to 5,000. “It’s an improvement,” said Macon Phillips, White House Director of New Media, who called for patience.

If you think about it, this technical snafu undermines one of his core promises during the campaign. Obama is a brand, make no mistake about it. His brand promise is change and without the right tools, his ability to deliver on this will be seriously impacted. He understands the power of the same tools we use to build brands and he deserves credit for it.

It will be very interesting to watch over the next couple of weeks, months and eventually at the end of the President’s first term to see how the role of technology impacts the day-to-day interaction between us citizens and our elected officials. This idea of true transparency is a game changer. I hope they can figure this stuff out without needing a technology bailout. My quick fix solution is for Obama to send a note to Al Gore from his blackberry (I’m happy he was able to work that one out) requesting some assistance. If the inventor or the Internet can’t figure it out we’re in real big trouble.

I just found out that you can’t have email if you are President. According to The Patriot-News, “As President, Obama might have to live without his blackberry.”

That officially takes me out of the running in 2012. I love politics as much as the next person, but not that much. When they said McCain didn’t use email, he should have promptly responded, “It doesn’t matter, if I’m President I can’t use it anyway.” As the article states, ” (Obama) faces the Presidential Records Act, which puts his correspondence in the official public record and ultimately up for public review, and the threat of subpeoneas.”

Obama is an admitted addict. I can relate, as I am sure all of us can in some way (varying levels of course). Think about no email for four years…possibly eight. No way. I attempted this feat, using hours instead of years, and it was still tough to comprehend.

On the surface it struck me as one of those, how in the world can that be kind of things, but after reading the article, it makes complete sense given the whole “leader of the free world thing and potential security breaches that might occur if our Commander in Chief were allowed to fire off e-mails to advisors and friends at all hours of the day and night.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for it, just not for me. I’ll sleep better I guess, not sure about him. I can’t even begin to imagine the resources and support needed to make this even a possiblility for the President Elect. For Obama this has got to be one aspect of “Change” he might not have seen coming. Good thing he’s got 60 or so days to let everyone know the best way to reach him besides e-mail. Sounds pretty novel, huh? I wish him luck.