Obama gives up his Blackberry: still techiest President ever

President-elect Obama has to sacrifice a lot when he moves into the White House. But he’s also probably going to give up something most of us couldn’t - his Blackberry.

Jeff Zeleny reports in the New York Times:

For years, like legions of other professionals, Mr. Obama has been all but addicted to his BlackBerry. The device has rarely been far from his side — on most days, it was fastened to his belt — to provide a singular conduit to the outside world as the bubble around him grew tighter and tighter throughout his campaign.

“How about that?” Mr. Obama replied to a friend’s congratulatory e-mail message on the night of his victory.

But before he arrives at the White House, he will probably be forced to sign off. In addition to concerns about e-mail security, he faces the Presidential Records Act, which puts his correspondence in the official record and ultimately up for public review, and the threat of subpoenas. A decision has not been made on whether he could become the first e-mailing president, but aides said that seemed doubtful.

But what happened to all that Change You Can Believe in. Fear not.

Obama has around 130,000 friends on Twitter. He has pledged to create a cabinet-level Chief Technology Officer. He’ll be the first president to have a laptop at his desk in the Oval Office. And, as you can see above, his weekly Democratic radio address was posted on YouTube.

Not convinced? Here's the kicker - He's a big Star Trek fan, (yes, that counts as evidence, you know it does) saying on the campaign trail:

I grew up on Star Trek. I believe in the final frontier

Techiest. President. Ever.

Comments

[sharon mccone]

love the idea of using utube as my students will read and wwatch it quicker

[Paul]

Blackberry doesn't prevent all his correspondence going through corporate gateway, so it could all be tracked.

[Dorian Sajoan]

Obama gives up his Blackberry: still techiest President ever

This will not be a problem they will just issue him a new one like the ones used in the DoD they are secure and use Encryption

[Robin Miller]

Concur with above comments - the device is secure, they are going to deprive him of it for spin-control purposes. Obama's handlers do not want him to pop off a "Reparations begin now" email a la Reagan's "the bombing begins now" microphone gaffe.

[Sleebus]

"love the idea of using utube as my students will read and wwatch it quicker"

Cool, maybe you'll learn to proofread your posts, use (any) punctuation and capitalization, spell major internet brands properly and not contribute to the dumbing-down of America.

P.S. You don't "read" a video.

[David L]

I agree with Sleebus, dumb teachers are part of the problem that's leading to ever dumber students. I work in IT and work with new placement students every year. Year on year they know less about their subjects and are less able to communicate effectively due to bad spelling and grammar mistakes.

[Doog Cunningham]

The "Presidential Records Act" has been PROVEN by Bush to be meaningless, as his administraton has "lost" or destroyed? over 75% of their e-mail records.
Anyone with a suspicious mind might think this was deliberate, but I am sure it was due to technical problems insumountable by even the most technologically advanced country on earth.
"the evil that men do lives after them"..., not if you destroyed the records!!

[Sauce]

Aren't you guys getting a bit off-topic? Why flame someone?

Anyway, maybe Obama should look into tools that provide him plausible deniability. Undoubtedly he's used some during his campaign anyway. It's not about not being able to use technology, it's about not leaving any identifiable traces behind.