Executive Branch
From Xbox to Atari: Obama Aides Adjust to White House Technology
Posted Jan 22, 2009, 03:48 pm CST
By Martha Neil
Already equipped with a super-encrypted BlackBerry, President Barack Obama apparently is light years ahead of many of his White House staff on the technological front.
His administration, much-admired during his campaign for its avant-garde use of the Internet, is now struggling to update a presidential website on White House computer equipment that utilizes six-year-old Microsoft software, reports the Washington Post in a page-one article today.
"Senior advisers chafed at the new arrangements, which severely limit mobility—partly by tradition but also for security reasons and to ensure that all official work is preserved under the Presidential Records Act," the Post writes. Says Obama spokesman Bill Burton of his new White House technology, "It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari."
A number of new White House staff members don't yet have cell phones or e-mail, the newspaper says, although press office officials have been blessed both with cell phones and Gmail accounts. The latter were specially approved by White House counsel, which apparently has found a way to integrate the private e-mail accounts with federal records preservation requirements.