Even we digital immigrants can get addicted to electronic gadgets. For example, just look at the incredible number of cell phone users over age 40. Admittedly, I’m having fun with my Samsung Instinct (just can’t bring myself to stand in a long line for the iPhone). So I’m not sure how I would react if for any reason I was told that I could no longer use my new Instinct.
Meet President Obama. As a digital immigrant, he has comfortably learned to traverse today’s technological landscape and even admitted that his worst habit used to be constantly checking his Blackberry. Well, in becoming President, you’re probably thinking that the worst news he would receive would be information in the PDB (Presidential Daily Brief). However, I dare say that some of the worst news that this tech-savvy guy probably received was being told that he couldn’t use his Blackberry. Trust me, to a techie this is beyond one’s worst nightmare. After some "commander-in-chief"-type discussions, he will be able to keep his Blackberry, with its superduper encryption, even though there is no Wi-Fi in the White House.
But the banned technologies don’t stop here. There’s also no instant messaging in the White House. And we shouldn’t be surprised to find that as of right now, there’s no Facebook, MySpace, YouTube or Twitter. For security reasons, we can understand why some of today’s technologies might be banned, but one must still wonder how this team, that ran such a high-tech campaign, will come to grips with much of the well-known antiquated technology in the White House. My gosh, they’re still using Microsoft software that’s six years old. Since President Obama is a Mac guy, we’ll see if Macs will be used in the White House.
One area that you should investigate is the new White House web site (http://www.whitehouse.gov/), which even has a blog. It’s very nicely done and keeps you abreast of what the President is doing if that interests you.
President Obama has been calling for greater transparency, but in our digital world, I think this might be a tad bit redundant. There’s very little ‘hiding’ in today’s world for anyone, in any position – Google will find you! But it’s good to know that our President is tech-savvy and I believe that it’ll be interesting to see how different technologies will be used under this administration.
