The paperless President
"Mr. Obama’s memorandums and briefing books were seldom printed out and delivered to his house or hotel room, aides said. They were simply sent to his BlackBerry for his review. If a document was too long, he would read and respond from his laptop computer, often putting his editing changes in red type...
...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."
Email being held as the equivlance of the Nixon tapes? A shame, I think emails direct from President Obama would make a fascinating historical record down the line.
In other transition news, Youtube is continuing to be used by the Obama transition team, hosting his weekly address - I guess this is the first sight of Obama as President. Doesn't feel quite the same without 100,000 people cheering him along, does it? :-)
I still think we'll see 'new' media (rather stale phrase, isn't it) being co-opted for straight-to-citizen pitching, in an attempt to route messages without the filter of media punditry. As I access stuff from the UK, this is rather useful, actually.
