Ah, the irony. President-elect Barack Obama has to give up his BlackBerry when he takes office on Jan. 20, despite being the “first tech president”. Yes he can, but yes he should?
Sure, there are the security issues to consider (overly curious Verizon Wireless workers are not the only concern). But the real conundrum of the BarackBerry* lies in something called the Presidential Records Act, which makes all presidential correspondence part of the official record — recording it for posterity and public review, but also for subpoena purposes should that become necessary. The situation brings up the age-old question of public versus private speech (and whether there’s a distinction for public officials), but mostly, it shows a massive cultural disconnect.
The problem is that the second something is recorded, whether on paper, in audio or in the form of electronic data, it’s considered to be correspondence. That’s why presidents to this day have all been e-mail-less.
But in today’s modern world, people throw all sorts of ephemera out there, via IM, Twitter, texts, e-mail, MySpace, whatever. It’s just what we do. Virtual ramblings are increasingly replacing the spoken word. Should such off-the-cuff conversation (like, “should I tell Hillary her hair looks good today?” and “LOL, you are SUCH a card, Rahm!!”) attain the lofty designation of “correspondence?” Imagine: If Obama were allowed to have a Facebook page, his daily status updates would be part of the public record. Correspondence is the province of spidery handwriting on ivory parchment paper, right? Or at the very least, official letterhead...?
So it is that our heads of state are destined to languish as Luddites, hopelessly behind the real world they claim to help govern. And it’s all very ironic for the man who plans to appoint an official CTO, and whose campaign spent more than $1 million on Verizon Wireless services to do things like send texts to voters.
So should he give up the BlackBerry? Or should the Records Act be amended given the rapid pace of innovation in the tech sector and its potential in government? One other tangential issue to consider is the famous Presidential Bubble — security tightens and a person goes from campaigning, being tapped into the people, to only touching the outside world via a filter of advisors and secret service. Cutting off comms is just one more isolation method. It’s almost sick when the person in question has relied on BlackBerrys and e-mail to keep it real with the folks at home.
And besides, should Obama care about his conversation being kept for posterity? He wouldn’t be the first if the answer is “no.” There are those in the past who obsessively recorded their legacies: Nixon famously taped the Watergate conversations, even the really, really incriminating stuff. He had just that much of an ego. FDR, Eisenhower and Kennedy also secretly taped private chats, unbeknownst to anyone else. And Clinton, well ... he just wrote a very, very long memoir. No stone left unturned with that one, eh?
Of course, if Obama were allowed to stay tech savvy, his section in the Library of Congress would require the construction of a new wing by virtue of the sheer electronic volume of things.
* P.S. Thank you, Word God, for making Obama’s first name end in “ack” so I can make that silly “BarackBerry” pun.
Now on to the real point: Richard is a Southerner, which makes the balance of power in my department between Southerners (of which, as a Texan, I count myself) and non-Southerners to the Southern side of the equation. But he lives in Denver, and this just points out a wonderful success in the realm of the remote workforce.
Virgo Publishing, the company that owns xchange, PHONE+, B/OSS and VON, decided several years back to embark on a telecommuting strategy that basically sent everyone whose jobs allowed (read: writers and editors) home to telecommute, so the company could reap the benefits of a happier, more productive workforce, and less HQ overhead. Remote workers would be connected via a remote desktop application, VoIP and broadband.
All of this was very much ahead of its time and somewhat of an experiment. There was the danger that workers would slack off (not with the kinds of deadlines we have, I’m afraid). There was the defeat of micromanagement since the literal looking over the shoulder became a thing of the past. There was the rise of e-mail as the primary form of communication. There were creative ways to share files and the creation of new editing processes and content management strategies. There was the reduction in the number of lengthy meetings in the conference room.
For us, the experiment not only worked, but has allowed us to draw from such a deep well of talent in a way we never would have been able to had the remote policy not been instigated. We’ve hired seasoned telecom reporters Bob Wallace (residential and landline content beats) and Tim McElligott (BSS/OSS), and now Richard, whose experience is really such a boon to our VON launch, and whom I’m very much looking forward to working with. It’s also allowed the team to retain editors whose outside-Virgo lives necessitated a move. Like me — I moved to Massachusetts. Channel Editor Cara Sievers moved to Tennessee. It’s also, by virtue of being scattered across the country, allowed us to be more timely — we can cover all the time zones, you know.
And it’s all the power of IP. And IT, for that matter. For us, a publishing company that would fall into the SMB category, our communications solution is very much matched up with our business needs.
So what happens now, in the age of unified communications, FMC and cloud computing? The idea is that companies like mine will be able to be even more nimble, more productive and more competitive — and be able to save even more money. It’s this last point that comes home to roost. Today I spoke to a Verizon Business UC expert, Laurie Shook, who explained to me that what she’s found is that businesses look at things through the lens of dollars and sense — productivity is a hard sell for an IT department. I think this is worth considering amongst all the discussion of business IP. It’s the reality of it that matters, not the marketing hype. This became clear to me as I considered Virgo’s distributed nature.
And why do I have a feeling that all manner of communications pitches will start to roll into Virgo now? Sorry, IT guys.
More info on the VON launch:
Virgo announced in October its plans to create new industry-leading products based on certain assets, including the VON databases and trademarks, which formerly were owned by Pulvermedia and recently purchased by Virgo.
“The VON brand will be positioned as ‘The Voice of Network Convergence,’” said Mike Saxby, group publisher, Telecom Division for Virgo Publishing. “It won’t stop at voice over the net, but will cover the broader opportunity afforded by IP-based communications of all kinds — from IP telephony and IP video to unified communications and fixed-mobile convergence.”
VON.com explores the world of enhanced IP communications — IP telephony, IP video, unified communications, fixed-mobile convergence and blended services — for the entire value chain. Whether service provider, developer, channel partner or enterprise/SMB user, VON.com delivers news, analysis and insight to help executives better understand and act on the global IP revolution. Search, reader channels and topical categories help them find the information — news, analysis, Webinars, eBooks, buyer’s guides — that is most relevant to their businesses.
I came to the “good bet” conclusion given the fact that analysts think the segment will grow and given the continuing success of the iPhone and the G1. People might opt for a smartphone for their loved ones this year, since the vacation and the flat-screen are likely out of the budget, I reasoned to myself, using the logic I picked up from various sources throughout my life, like playing endless amounts of the original “Raiders of the Lost Ark” game on Atari and figuring out how to smuggle a keg into a dorm room (answer: Persian rug).
But who are these “people” of which I speak? Well, all I know is that I’m not one of them. I would love a smartphone and would like to get friends and family smartphones as well because they’re cool and useful and cool and ... cool! And the dropping prices are awfully attractive. But who has the dough? Not me. My peeps will be lucky to get a handmade reindeer made out of the twigs I pick up in the backyard.
Basically, I am not the target consumer this year, and it’s all because of our lovely economic crisis, which I’ve started to personify. He looks like a bald, overweight, dead-eyed flabby man. Kind of like Karl Rove.
And, OK, I admit I feel a little bitter about it all. And I’m wondering if we can do a reality check on the analysts. Are YOU planning to purchase a smartphone this season? Why not? I’d love to hear some anecdotal background for my reporting and commentary. It would be especially telling considering all y’all work in telecom.
