Has Email Finally Reached the Pinnacle?

Jay Love — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 14:15:00 GMT

In this case, I am considering the United States Presidency as the pinnacle. For those of us who spend various portions of our business day interacting via email, and in particular via our Treos, Blackberries, iPhones and other smart/connected devices, it has been fascinating to see the great lengths our newly elected President Obama has taken to insure continued usage of his Blackberry. In case you have not seen the story the basic details are here.

Imagining life without being connected is difficult for me so I can easily relate to Barack’s desire to remain connected. Even more amazing to me is the fact that he will be our first president to actually use email! Obviously, even with higher levels of security restraints this is a huge step in perhaps keeping top officials in touch with other aspects of the real world they may be sheltered from. As we all know, information is vital to decision making and having fairly instant data/news at one’s fingertips, even if it is only to view additional viewpoints, should be beneficial.

During the course of writing this blog I was interrupted long enough to allow me to peruse my latest issue of Wired magazine. Lo and behold the entire subject of our nation’s highest office being connected was taken to the next level. More precisely, it was ratcheted up to 2.0! In the article "America Online" by Evan Ratliff, he explores just what the most connected candidate ever can and cannot do to remain connected as President of the United States. The article is well worth a full reading.

Surprisingly, for those of us who connect in various ways daily, allowing our Executive Branch to take advantage of the Web 2.0 is not an easy task. The graphic below depicts many of the terms associated with next generation of the web we all come to embrace.

I was not totally surprised by the restrictions Obama’s team will face in trying to connect the Executive Branch to the rest of the public, but seeing them spelled out was a bit of an awakening for me. The graphic below from Mr Ratliff’s article outlines some of the key obstacles.

No We Can't

Barack Obama wants to transform the way the White House connects with the public. But there are plenty of obstacles standing in his way.

	A Ban on Endorsements Since the government cannot endorse commercial private organizations, some federal Web pages cannot link externally.	Restrictions on Revisions The Presidential Records Act requires the preservation of all written communications, which limits Web page modification.	Survey Rules A detailed approval process is required to "survey" more than 10 people. Soliciting user input may fall into this category.
Access for the Disabled The Rehabilitation Act requires that all government Web content be made reasonably accessible to those with disabilities.	The US Constitution The First Amendment's prohibitions on restricting speech may limit the federal government's ability to filter user comments.	Purchasing Rules Federal agencies must follow contracting rules when they make commercial software purchases costing more than a certain amount.	License Agreements The Feds can't draw on content from sites like YouTube that require terms-of-service agreements based on state laws.

For those of us in both the tech and nonprofit worlds, we can now witnesses real life case studies unfold. Seeing the Web 2.0 world and the U.S. Presidency interact should be fascinating to say the least! Stay tuned in future blog posts as I try to keep all of us updated.

Epilogue

I have been debating about adding a final thought to my blog posts regarding a subject close to my heart. Today, I decided to take the plunge and commit to adding a little something on as many of them as I can. Now that I have you in suspense, let me explain. I am fascinated by and so enjoy seeing “Random Acts of Kindness” in our busy day to day world. The Wikipedia entry spells this out so much better than I can.

So here is my first one to highlight. More often than not, I write my blog posts during the wait times of travel. During my last flight we were delayed by the fact that the water pipes leading to the toilets on the plane were frozen from sitting overnight. (It happens when it is 12 below zero in Indianapolis!) It took about 45 minutes for the ground crew to thaw out the pipes so they would not explode under pressure in the air. About halfway through the wait, the pilot came on the microphone and made the following statement: “I know virtually everyone has a cell phone, but if there is anyone who does not have one and needs to let family know we will be late you are welcome to use mine.” Within a few minutes an elderly gentleman walked up the aisle to take advantage of the offer to call his wife who was picking him up from his first airline trip ever to see an old friend. Hopefully, that gentleman will have such great service on all of his future flights. Kudos to Air Tran Airways for hiring such a caring pilot!

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Has Email Finally Reached the Pinnacle?