Five technologies the Obama administration should (but won't or can't) adopt

Today we have a new president to lead a new American path through what will be a tumultuous time. But President Obama won't be able to do it alone. He and his administration need to work together, and communicate with one another and the country, to ensure everything is running well.

That's why I've compiled a "cheat sheet" for the Obama administration, listing five services it should use in the White House. Sadly, it probably won't. Record-keeping laws and security concerns will ensure that none of my suggestions take effect.

AIM for White House staff

Why shouldn't the White House staff be able to communicate with one another over AIM? I'm sure many of them use it in their daily lives and bringing it to the White House to communicate quickly is, in my estimation, a pretty good idea.

Instead of forcing his staff to walk back and forth between wings and offices, what if President Obama was able to instant message his staff from the Oval Office. I can see it now: PrezObama312: "Where's the dossier on the Russian spy we've been tracking?" WHStaffer35: "IDK. BRB." PrezObama312: "K. G2G. L8r."

Wouldn't that be great?

BitTorrent for distributing government documents

I know BitTorrent has been the target of the RIAA and MPAA over the past few years due to its huge supply of copyrighted material, but why shouldn't the government embrace the technology and use BitTorrent to distribute information to the public?

Sure, there's always that issue of "pirates" running the service, but I don't see what all the fuss is about. Who will they tell? President Obama should look to BitTorrent as an ideal way to get the word out. The distributed network reduces the cost of running data centers by allowing all the network's users to share the load.

It makes sense to me.

Present.ly for internal microblogging in groups based on level

Aside from AIM, I think the Obama administration should use enterprise microblogging service Present.ly to allow White House staff and the president to communicate.

The real beauty of Present.ly is its ability to allow users to create groups. A top-level aide can put the president, vice president, and cabinet in one group so they can discuss world affairs in a Twitter-like format, and the rest of the staff can have their own group to take care of their own work.

Sure, someone might be able to hack their way into the president's Present.ly group ("Michelle10" is an easy password to crack, Mr. President), but it still would help the staff communicate far more effectively than walking back and forth between desks.

Did you see 24 Monday night? That's all they do.

Stickam for White House room streams

I don't know about you, but I'm not always convinced that White House staff is really working. I'm not even sure President Obama would ever really know if his staff is working. How could he? He's busy.

That's why he needs to install cameras throughout the White House and use Stickam to monitor his employees. At any given time, he can log in to Stickam, find the White House channel, and start viewing all the different rooms in the house.

I'll bet that would get everyone working.

Ustream with moderated chat for country-wide town hall meetings

Ustream is a fine video-streaming service that makes connecting with others simple and fun. It's also ideal for a White House town hall meeting where President Obama would be on camera and citizens from across the U.S. would have the opportunity to ask him questions in a moderated chat room.

I don't see any reason why the president shouldn't exploit Ustream in this way. He has shown time and again that he has a real desire to use technology to connect with the populace and capitalizing on Ustream to give citizens a voice would be just another example of him doing just that.

I realize that allowing citizens from across the U.S. to comment on the president's policies could be troublesome, considering millions would probably want to join in, but if the room had a cap on the number of people who could join, or an effective team that could moderate comments, I doubt it would be a problem.

I'd certainly like to join in on that chat.

Check out Don's Digital Home podcast, Twitter feed, and FriendFeed.

[lmasanti]

quote:
"That's why he needs to install cameras throughout the White House and use Stickam to monitor his employees. "

What's the difference between [George W.'s administration] citizen's wiretaping and Don's White House suggestion? (Other than video)

[rapier1]

Because employees, as part of their employment agreement, routinely and voluntarily give up these privacy protections. This is why an employer can monitor your internet usage while at work to determine if you are engaging in non-company approved activity.

[sythara]

yep! I think we all shouold be able to see and make sure the white house staff are working. Maybe a camera in the oval office too, while we're at it.

[aj37viggen]

Um, Don, nobody but a relative handful of geek bloggers knows or cares about most of these "technologies." Hardly a good start to a more inclusive society.

Besides, President Obama is already on record as saying, for example, that the digital television transition should be delayed because it might deprive poor kids who watch 'Sesame Street' via rabbit ears. Those same kids are probably -- gasp! -- still using dialup, so distributing government documents to them via BitTorrent is going to be a little dubious.

[nathantotten]

These are terrible ideas. AIM, really? People use AIM still? You want all the staff in the white house to have to see ads all day for dating sites and teen movies?

[sythara]

I still use AIM. Well Pidgin, but connect to AIM network becuase thats where most of the people I know are on.

[matthew21229]

I work as a consultant in the Federal government. IM, knowledge sharing, wikis and communities of practice are common in DoD, Intel, DOJ, and executive branch. I doubt you'll find the president's staff or the Joint Chiefs micro-blogging any time soon.

The White House and Executive offices are loaded with cameras, but not for work monitoring, for security.

As for distributing knowledge out to "the people" there are thousands of vehicles/methods via the press and media. No need for another layer of technology to hold a town hall, or send out ideas.

[ChicagoZ]

I read recently that there is an approved "IM" function within the government already. Can't remember where and I don't have the time to search for it, but correct me if I'm wrong, please. A little research and common thought goes a long way Don.

For instance, tap message boards, twitter, just Google it. You'll find more than you think, albeit, most of the workings of government communication probably aren't online.

[rapier1]

Any IM application needs to provide security and, at the same time, transparency. So it would need on the wire encryption but at the same time the records need to be retrievable for subpoenas, records, and the like. I'm pretty sure applications like this do exist but the question is going to be how useful they are for the exchange of substantive information.

[ChicagoZ]

Well what if Obama is craving a Twinkie and only has his super-duper NSA approved BlackBerry on him with whatever IM system they use.

PrezObama: Twinkie anyone?
WHouseKitch: Coming right up.

Now that's how you use IM at the White House.

[sythara]

DoD uses a chat program for deployed to talk to their friends and such. I'm sure a similar system can be implemented for WH.

Your "Present.ly" link is wrong. Please update: https://presentlyapp.com/ or http://www.present.ly

[The 3rd Nipple]

Yet again another blog with little research done except on the apps the author probably uses regularly. These companies should be thanking you for marketing them to the masses.

[dogmo1001]

These suggestions seem like precisely the sort of silliness proposed by those who don't do much or any real work with computers.

Just Tweet it, ace. You'll reach those who feel like you do... and spare the rest of us the trouble of reading tiresome blather.

[dwcsite]

Mostly bad ideas. Our federal government needs to rebuild its internal IT infrastructure rather than playing around with outsourced services. If our government needs these functions, they need to build them internally for the sake of security and public record-keeping.

IMO, the first technology change the Obama administration needs to make is taking whitehouse.gov off of IIS.

[Crypticblade]

Please forgive Don he's an idiot. Any one who say they need an IM client because he saw them running back and forth in a tv show can't be the smartest. Maybe he's one of the few people who think stuff on the tv is real. Hurry get to his office and home and get his Video games before he thinks he can shoot people.
Then again he say he doesn't think they are working at all. He want's to see what they are doing It could be split personality disorder. I just think he had to get something out to get a pay check and wrote a filler atricle so they would think he did work.
I can google and write about what show up on the first page, also can i have a paying job too.

[Michichael]

AIM? Really? Come on, the MS Unified communications suite at the very least. I use AIM via trillian but I hardly expect any professional org would. Jeeze. ^¬.¬^

[cazakli]

G.E. is one of the largest entities, if not the largest, in this country. They have had their internal IM (which they call something else) since I don't even know when... G.E., a company that has brilliant people to make successful decisions when it comes to corporate world tools, chose to implement such a system in their internal groups. I think that proves us something.

[cazakli]

I think the point of this article is to show that the technologies similar to what is listed above can be very beneficial in the workplace (business criteria: efficiency, performance, communication...).

White House is an example, and yes, it may be a long time from now that we see such tech within White House, but it does not hurt to be open minded, and recognize the benefits of such tools.

I do not use micro-blogging at work, I am not a twitter user, and yes, I have an IM account that I have not used since college, but I can see where social media is heading, and how it can change the work place. I remember people responding in similar ways to networking tools 5 years ago when networking tools were not common. And now what? everybody has a linkedin account, everybody is on facebook. It is just a matter of time and adaptation.

These tools can be very beneficial if used correctly. So, it is totally up to the user/enterprise to take advantange of what these new systems can offer.

If you are not interested, just don't use them, but I think it is not right to make statements/comments like this article is full of bad ideas. This article is full of great ideas. They are just not your type of ideas. and that does not make them "bad."

[MSSlayer]

They are idiocy.

AIM?

Really?

Stickam?

That is idiocy of epic proportions. In other words, just another day of randomly hitting keys for Don.

[nowimcool]

Ha ha ha!!! Don, this is a joke right? right?? please say it's a joke ... it's not, is it ... sigh ...

Your blogs are like train wrecks Don, I just can't stop looking ...

[thoughtdream]

You're going too far. Start with the basics.
-Ubuntu -Open Office -Firefox -Thunderbird -any large file transfer sites as 'official' business

The reality is the software approval process just doesn't allow the flexibility you're looking for. It will never happen.

[ATasteForTea]

I would nominate the Whitehouse using Skype. There is also the issue of smarter hackers and such that would need to be considered.

Meg

[mackdaddie12]

C'mon Don! Yes, the federal government needs to improve it's IT tremendously. The need for security and record-keeping make it difficult to keep up with the times in terms of IT policy and technology, especially when compared to Fortune 500 companies in corporate America. But the federal government already uses IM, wikis, community forums, and even google within its internal secure network. Don't act like a typical snooty liberal know-it-all college undergrad who's never experienced the real world... do some research!