President Obama’s staff is known for their tech-savvyness. Accustomed to Macs, social media and always having the latest gadgets. They were all used to cutting-edge technology.
We could see throughout the 2008 campaign Obama and his staff are well connected on the web. From YouTube channel to Facebook to Obama’s tweet on twitter (I actually followed him on twitter). They had grown way pass then just blogging.
It is clear that Obama’s team wants to bring this culture to the White House. It fits well in Obama’s call for more transparency in the government. However this comes as a huge challenge for the new Obama presidential administration team, especially the IT team. They found themselves dealing with Windows PC with Microsoft Office 2003 and other six to seven year old software.
They found themselves in a technology museum. “It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari” said one of Obama’s staff on this Washington Post article.
The team were having trouble at first to do simple task like updating the redesigned White House website and adding subtitles to videos. Communicating with supporters on Facebook? sorry that website is block. No instant messaging.
Then again, change has come to the White House. There is a blog on the new redesign White House site. It has a RSS feed that I could subscribe to. President Obama’s weekly address video if up there, powered by YouTube but strip away of any YouTube branding. You can even subscribe to President Obama’s weekly address & key speeches on iTunes under the podcast section.
Also President Obama could keep his Blackbarry.
Welcome to the 21st century.
This is how I would want my government, the Malaysian government to run. A government that could be reach on the web and that it actually works, none of this e-crap stuff.
However, it is something very unlikely to expect anytime soon from a government that thinks blogs are its enemy.
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