Every morning since Tuesday there have been headlines proclaiming what Obama is getting done, and how he's doing it. We log on and feed our need for information about the first few days of his administration. But we don't get this information from the White House directly: Obama doesn't have an official White House blog, and isn't using social media sites to connect with supporters. Why? According to sources, the White House is stuck in the technological dark ages.
Employees can't use outside email accounts, very few of them have connected telephone lines, there are almost no laptops, and ancient computers running six-year-old Microsoft software aren't outside of the norm.
It seems odd that after the most technologically-enhanced election of our time that we've suddenly cut off all web-related communication with a President who built his foundation with help from his ability to organize online.
For instance, the brand spanking new White House website had no official blog. This was a far cry from the regular email updates and blog posts that we were used to getting from Obama prior to his inauguration. The blog that they have set up now is pretty sad, and contains no new information after his inauguration speech video.
So what's the hold up? Old White House policies prevent Obama's tech-savvy staff from utilizing their knowledge to help inform the public about the goings-on of his new Presidency.
For instance, no outside email accounts are allowed, neither is instant messaging or the use of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.
The only people prepared for these technological roadblocks were those in the press office. They obtained advance permission to set up GMail accounts to send information, and they probably have working office lines and laptops as well.
You'd think the White House would be on top of new technology with advanced security options and super shiny new computers. But they're not. What's to blame? "Information security", and the fact that everything the President does needs to be recorded on paper.
I'm sorry, is this 1943? Computers have printers, right? We don't have to rely on typewriters anymore, do we?
Of course, with any transition there are issues. But really, who thought a problem transitioning from Bush to Obama would be the lack of technological advances available in the White House?