Obama Staff Finds White House in the Technological Dark Ages

[babylonsister]

Staff Finds White House in the Technological Dark Ages

By Anne E. Kornblut
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 22, 2009; Page A01


If the Obama campaign represented a sleek, new iPhone kind of future, the first day of the Obama administration looked more like the rotary-dial past.

Two years after launching the most technologically savvy presidential campaign in history, Obama officials ran smack into the constraints of the federal bureaucracy yesterday, encountering a jumble of disconnected phone lines, old computer software, and security regulations forbidding outside e-mail accounts.

What does that mean in 21st-century terms? No Facebook to communicate with supporters. No outside e-mail log-ins. No instant messaging. Hard adjustments for a staff that helped sweep Obama to power through, among other things, relentless online social networking.

"It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said of his new digs.

In many ways, the move into the White House resembled a first day at school: Advisers wandered the halls, looking for their offices. Aides spent hours in orientation, learning such things as government ethics rules as well as how their paychecks will be delivered. And everyone filled out a seemingly endless pile of paperwork.

There were plenty of first-day glitches, too, as calls to many lines in the West Wing were met with a busy signal all morning and those to the main White House switchboard were greeted by a recording, redirecting callers to the presidential Web site. A number of reporters were also shut out of the White House because of lost security clearance lists.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/21/AR2009012104249.html?hpid=topnews

[madrchsod]

1. are there any keys missing?

[IndyOp]

2. PCs! Oh.My.God. May Our Apple Lord Steve Jobs, reign down some new Macs upon our

the good women and men of the White House staff. <- That's the prayer that should've been said at yesterday's morning prayer session.

:hi:

[kwassa]

3. A friend who worked on the Clinton White House staff said the same thing

She said that the email system was the worst she had ever seen, with all kinds of firewalls that prevented communication where no security was necessary, and there was software incompatibilities galore.

[Ezlivin]

4. Thankfully Bush left behind his tech support staff...

[babylonsister]

5. Great pic! Too damned true too. nt

[lonestarnot]

7. Bwwwwwwwwwwa fuckng bahahahaha. Gawd I love DU!

:rofl:

[mwb970]

6. Too bad she brings up the "missing W keys" meme at the very end.

But there were no missing letters from the computer keyboards, as Bush officials had complained of during their transition in 2001.

My understanding is that this was a Republican lie that they made up to make Clinton look bad. Imagine a reputable journalist still believing it!

[Aristus]

8. So the Obama White House is EVE, then. And the Bush White House was WALL*E.

Only, you know, without the heart.