NYT:Say Goodbye to BlackBerry? Yes He Can, Maybe-Sorry,Mr.President.Please surrender your Blackberry

[Pirate Smile]

Say Goodbye to BlackBerry? Yes He Can, Maybe


Senator Barack Obama with two campaign constants: his BlackBerry and his chief strategist, David Axelrod. As president, he may be forced to rest his thumbs.

By JEFF ZELENY
Published: November 15, 2008

WASHINGTON — Sorry, Mr. President. Please surrender your BlackBerry.
Those are seven words President-elect Barack Obama is dreading but expecting to hear, friends and advisers say, when he takes office in 65 days.

For years, like legions of other professionals, Mr. Obama has been all but addicted to his BlackBerry. The device has rarely been far from his side — on most days, it was fastened to his belt — to provide a singular conduit to the outside world as the bubble around him grew tighter and tighter throughout his campaign.

“How about that?” Mr. Obama replied to a friend’s congratulatory e-mail message on the night of his victory.
But before he arrives at the White House, he will probably be forced to sign off. In addition to concerns about e-mail security, he faces the Presidential Records Act, which puts his correspondence in the official record and ultimately up for public review, and the threat of subpoenas. A decision has not been made on whether he could become the first e-mailing president, but aides said that seemed doubtful.

For all the perquisites and power afforded the president, the chief executive of the United States is essentially deprived by law and by culture of some of the very tools that other chief executives depend on to survive and to thrive. Mr. Obama, however, seems intent on pulling the office at least partly into the 21st century on that score; aides said he hopes to have a laptop computer on his desk in the Oval Office, making him the first American president to do so.

Mr. Obama has not sent a farewell dispatch from the personal e-mail account he uses — he has not changed his address in years — but friends say the frequency of correspondence has diminished. In recent days, though, he has been seen typing his thoughts on transition matters and other items on his BlackBerry, bypassing, at least temporarily, the bureaucracy that is quickly encircling him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/us/politics/16blackberry.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Ha - check this out "He received a scaled-down list of news clippings, with his advisers wanting to keep him from reading blogs and news updates all day long, yet aides said he still seemed to hear about nearly everything in real time. A network of friends — some from college, others from Chicago and various chapters in his life — promised to keep him plugged in. "

[lapfog_1]

1. Nah, he will simply have a "crackberry" assistant.

Someone to be his human interface to the thing.

Why not?

Hell, I'd love that job. I would be WAAAY inside this administration.

[AspenRose]

2. They're called CrackBerries for a reason

I've been tempted to flush my husband's down the toilet. x(

[Pirate Smile]

4. There is footage of him at one of Malia's soccer games, he sneaks a peak at his Blackberry and then

Michelle gives him a shove in the arm - a "put that damn thing away" shove.

edit to add a link to the video - http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/07/02/moos.daddy.o.soccer.cnn?iref=videosearch

[TlalocW]

3. This is probably a good thing just for historical reasons

Our current "president's" paper trail will probably be embarrassing enough to us as a nation; I don't want a text message from Obama that just reads, "LOL Dewd!" in his official records. :)

TlalocW

[Pirate Smile]

7. "Mr. Obama used e-mail to stay in constant touch with friends from the lonely confines of the road,

often sending messages like “Sox!” when the Chicago White Sox won a game."

[Lex]

17. Can't be worse than LBJ's phone call

about his nuts and his bunghole that was released a couple of years ago.

http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/prestapes/lbj_haggar.html

[Warren DeMontague]

5. He should get one of those new iphones.

They're cool.

[NYCGirl]

9. He has one.

http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2008/05/obama-flashes-his-iphone.html

http://www.tuaw.com/2008/11/07/obama-team-chose-apple-on-election-night/

[Clio the Leo]

22. I would commit felony treason....

... before I'd give up my iphone. The only reason I voted for Barack is that I'm convinced he'll find a way for me to surgically imbed the thing into my forearm. :)

[Eric J in MN]

6. He could just send emails which don't contain top-secret information...

...to deal with the security issue.

Or even send emails which do contain top-secret information, but encrypted.

With regard to saving presidential records, it would be even easier to save his emails than his paper letters.

With regard to personal emails, they should be excluded from laws about saving presidential records if they're not already. A president doesn't have to record all his phone conversations for the public, and so he shouldn't have to save his personal emails for the public.

[RC]

8. Personal e-mails? You mean like the current occupiers of the White House?

We know how well that worked out now don't we?

[Eric J in MN]

10. I don't think Obama should stop using email....

...because some Republicans have broken the law by sending White House emails through RNC email accounts.

Obama can use email while following the law.

[Indiana_Dem]

11. What an honorable sacrifice he's gonna have to make for our country!!

:patriot:

[zulchzulu]

12. Ferchissakes, you can export Blackberry data to Blackberry server or MS Exchange and make available

Why should he give it up? Blackberry devices can talk to Microsoft Exchange (which I hate, but that's another matter...)

Wake up peoploids!

Microsoft Exchange Enterprise Edition on BlackBerry Enterprise Server

By mobilizing Microsoft® Exchange, your organization can boost business performance by increasing productivity and enabling workers to make timely decisions based on the most accurate information available.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server is the clear choice for the Microsoft Exchange enterprise. It provides push-based wireless access to the following*:

* Microsoft Exchange email
* Microsoft Exchange calendar, contacts and scheduling
* Microsoft® Office Communicator and LCS (Live Communications Server) instant messaging and collaboration
* Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 instant messaging and collaboration
* Web-based, Java® ME and Web Services applications, .NET
* Other enterprise applications and systems such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and more

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/server/exchange/

Last I checked, keeping data in the digital domain would be a superior solution to 1973 techobullshit.

[Lex]

14. Yeah, I thought so.

Kinda crazy to make him stop using his Blackberry.

[mtnester]

21. Exactly, even our little itty bitty township does that

someone has no real clue about technology if they are writing this stupid crap.

And for the love of GOD, the Repubs routed their stuff for thee last 8 years through a non-secure outside server at the RNC, and then deleted everything they could.

I say he needs to keep it, and get an IT person in there that knows the deal on this better than the article writer.

[Seen the light]

13. I have a CrackBerry and I bet he's regretting being elected at this point

I don't know that even being elected POTUS would be worth giving mine up.

[Lex]

15. I got one this past week and

I'm in love with it already and I probably don't know half of what it can do yet.

[crispini]

16. Dude, it would suck to have to give up your personal email.

I mean, that would REALLY suck.

[kurt_cagle]

18. Won't Happen

All it means is that he will have to use encryption on his emails, and that's a function of the email server as much as anything.

Concerning personal assistants - I suspect that he'll set up RSS news feed readers running over secure HTTPS lines for communicating so that he can get a rapid view of information from both the various agencies and outside news sources. As an editor for an online technology publisher, that has very quickly become my lifeline to keeping up with everything that's going on while at the same time not getting bogged down in the details. Obama does not strike me as the kind of person who would let advisors become his sole source of information about the world, especially given the example of the previous administration.

[Hippo_Tron]

19. Does the law really say the President's personal correspondence has to be put on record?

I think that's a ridiculous invasion of privacy. I can understand it for business correspondence, sure, but the President's personal life should be none of our business.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

20. If you did that, the president could include anything he wanted in his personal correspondance

And we'd never know, because it wouldn't be made publically available.