CTO Blog
You thought you got it all worked out. Used the Web 2.0 like no one else to mobilise a huge crowd of supporters. Announced to appoint a national CTO, in charge of using technology pro-actively to create new jobs and restore competiveness. Created an online dialogue with your citizens, even before your term began. Yes, you were going to be a geek in the best sense of the word, leveraging information technology to reach new innovative heights.
Then the IT guys at the White House told you that you can no longer keep your Blackberry. To start with. Unsafe, unreliable, uncontrollable. And besides, it is not a company standard.
What’s next? Probably handing in your MacBook.
Ah, some of these IT security experts (or should we call them the Innovation Prevention Unit?), they can put a damper on any new initiative. Their remedy against the dangers of the connected Internet: just pull the plug and don’t email ever again. Life is so simple, if you really want it.
Obama will soon face the same challenge that many frustrated business users already know all too well: to see your inspiring, new ideas being smashed to smithereens by the central IT department. Because these ideas don’t fit the organisational security policies and procurement rules or because the existing systems are too petrified to accommodate the change.
But unlike many of us, Obama is in the unique position to change this game. There is just one question he needs to ask. Let’s hope he does (and yes, he can).
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the NSA created a security document on mac/osx http://www.nsa.gov/snac/downloads_macx.cfm
but as an IT worker I agree that it can be an PITA.. on the other side, you should have seen what users install on their computers..
A nice manual indeed, even a bit elegant (what would you expect..). Guess Obama gets to keep his Mac after all. Nevertheless, perimeters and procedures only provide an illusion of security. Sooner or later, we need a dramatically different style of security (check http://www.jerichoforum.org).
I sense some kind of companionship in your post?
Did you also have to hand in yours? (see http://www.capgemini.com/ctoblog/2006/10/dont_touch_that_scroll_wheel.php)
The reason for the blackberry thing is compliance, the President is not allowed to have private communications and right now they haven’t worked out a way to log all of the SMS messages that the president might send.
The email thing isn’t the issue because they could just switch him to using secure email on the Blackberry, and I’m sure President-Elect Obama can cope with the idea of not using his personal account anymore (unlike Sarah Palin, whose Yahoo account got hacked).
So this is a good example of how compliance stops Web 2.0. The breaking thing is SMS recording which plays quite nicely to the concept of private clouds and private social networks. The blocker here is the US constitution and the problem is that a technology can’t fit within the compliance framework so its adoption is banned not by IT, but by compliance.
Well, let’s be honest, many companies have their own ‘laws’ too, and having to comply to it may effectively kill any IT innovation effort. I just can’t get used to the idea that the first thing this technology-savvy President would do, is to hand in his Blackberry. Although it is a nice example of getting ‘Deliberately Disconnected’ (see my earlier blog post on Tech Predictions 2009), it is clearly not on a voluntary basis.
@Maarten: I got my old Blackberry back in 2006 (without all the fancy add-ons of the newer models, so it worked faster and more robust). Still using it. Just recently I had to hand it in, because of some fatal software error (a stack overflow, yes they do exist on the Blackberry too). It has me disconnected ‘on the road’ for weeks now – which is a good catharsis – but will have it back within a few days, I am happy to say. Mr. President, eat your heart out.
@Ron: It seems you are not alone in your wish for feature-less, judging by the attention the Peek device is getting (see http://www.getpeek.com/).
@Maarten: yep, just email on/off (‘off’ is quite important too). And not for corporate email right now, just for private use. Who knows, this neat little device – übergadget of the year according to Time Magazine – could do the job for Obama, and all without the corporate servers. Or was that the problem in the first place…?
Hi Ron,
Reading this, I wonder if some of the people in CG India seem like they are in same boat like Obama! Many of us do not have access to a larger Internet which is pretty much blocked by Websense.
“Obama will soon face the same challenge that many frustrated business users already know all too well: to see your inspiring, new ideas being smashed to smithereens by the central IT department. Because these ideas don’t fit the organisational security policies and procurement rules or because the existing systems are too petrified to accommodate the change.” – This is so true!
In anyways, I think Obama might bring in that change and we may get to see a president who is a lot conteporary but yet has his personal space.
Regards,
Nikhil
@Nikhil: Well, I guess sometimes ‘the darkest place is under the light house’. and maybe it is only fair if every now and then we feel the same frustration that our clients feel. Makes us much more committed (to give this all a positive twist).
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