President-elect Barack Obama will most likely be forced to go offline before he arrives at the White House in 65 days when he finally takes office. According to a post in the New York times, Obama is dreading the decision, but expects that surrendering his Blackberry could be a reality, friends and advisers say.
"In addition to concerns about keeping e-mail secure, 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." Source - NYT
With all the hoopla about Obama being a technology savvy president, it's ironic that the one tool keeping him so personally connected to his supporters on the campaign trail will now be stripped away as he becomes our 44th President. The bulk of Obama's memorandums and briefing books were rarely
delivered to him in printed form aides said. His Blackberry became the
link for electronic delivery and review of such documents. Those long nights snuggling up to a warm Blackberry are soon to become a distant memory for Barry. No smartphone for you!
As we reported on election day, Barack Obama is definitely not a cult of iPhone fanatic like the rumors suggested, offering up a bit of levity knowing that one more person in the US will be giving up their Blackberry. Unfortunately it won't be because he's upgrading to Apple's iPhone 3G. It's a missed opportunity not being able to celebrate the first iPhone in the White House.
"A final decision has not been made on whether he could go against precedent to become the first e-mailing president, but aides said that seemed doubtful." reports the New York Times. Would you be willing to give up your iPhone for a dream job? That's one change I can't believe in.
The iPhone is a great interactive offline device too. Don't the thousands of native apps created for the iPhone - including the Obama Campaign app - exhibit the potential for the iPhone to be a far more useful phone than a Blackberry would be for a President restricted from online access?
Posted by: Carlo | November 18, 2008 at 09:53 AM
How ironic!
Posted by: Partners in Grime | November 16, 2008 at 01:25 PM
Dear Mr. Obama: Please don't give up your Blackberry, use it differently!
Even as someone who's camped at the head of the iPhone line, I happily acknowledge the Blackberry as singularly useful to read email and send quicky-replies.
I'd love to have a President who continues to get input via email.
Why not keep doing that, and just post all your replies instantly to a public website so that we can see what's on your mind?
(Blogged in more detail at http://dalelarson.com/2008/11/mr-obama-dont-give-up-your-blackberry-use-it-differently.html)
Posted by: Dale Larson | November 16, 2008 at 10:28 AM
Similar issues apply in state government. On account of Open Records Acts, state governments are wise to insist that employees (including governors) route all business e-mail through a central e-mail archive and to encourage employees to take all personal e-mail to personal accounts. --Ben http://legal-beagle.typepad.com/wrights_legal_beagle/2008/08/local-government-e-mail-and-the-freedom-of-information-act.html
Posted by: Benjamin Wright | November 16, 2008 at 08:38 AM
I am picturing Obama right now looking for a wall socket to recharge his iPhone because it died AGAIN during a press conference. Nice, iPhone fanboy.
Posted by: Me First | November 16, 2008 at 04:48 AM