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Obama Staff Finds White House Stuck in the Technological Dark Ages

by Terrence O'Brien on January 22, 2009 at 04:10 PM

Obama Team Finds White House in the Technological Dark Ages
Well, it looks like Obama's staff has a major adjustment ahead of it. The team involved with the most tech-savvy presidential campaign and transition in the history of the country hit a brick wall Wednesday when it showed up for the first full day of work at ol' 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Just how bad is it? Obama spokesman Bill Burton described the transition as "kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari."

The White House is still stuck in the technological dark ages, and it's buried under piles of bureaucracy and security regulations. That means no Facebook, no outside e-mail, no instant messaging. Out are the Macs, in is Windows XP.

To make matters worse, there were glitches and red tape galore, leaving many an aide and staff member to work sans computer and office phone -- literally rushing around the West Wing to communicate messages in person or via personal cell phone.

Even the fresh, new WhiteHouse.Gov was affected by the bureaucratic holdups. No news or blogs were posted Wednesday, and the site continued to indicate that President Obama had not issued any executive orders until many, many hours after he had signed his first three.

We're sure that things will get ironed out eventually and that the Obama administration, like the Obama campaign, will set new standards for the use of technology in government. But, much like most things in Washington, it's just going to take some time. [From: Washington Post]

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Tags: barack obama, BarackObama, blackberry, bureaucracy, expire-images2010-1-22, internet, obama, politics, top, white house, WhiteHouse

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