Vimeo in the house for the White House

Vimeo? WTH?

Well, it is the new video medium the White House is using and has appeared since January 31, 2009 for Obama's Weekly Address.

The first Saturday presidential address on Jan. 24 was made available at the White House as a YouTube file.

But by the next week, on Jan. 31, an administration whose innovative use of YouTube videos had helped propel it into the White House quietly began offering video of President Obama through Vimeo, as well -- and in so doing began a low-key push back at the near-total dominance of Google-owned YouTube in the political video market.

A video-sharing social media site that offers standard and high-definition video options, Vimeo was founded before YouTube, in 2004. But a series of pointed editorial choices has kept the company small while YouTube, founded in 2005, exploded into national consciousness over the next few years. Instead of becoming a cultural byword for online video, Vimeo became a niche favorite among artists and other creative types, particularly in the New York area, where the company is based.

The White House will continue with YouTube, but this shows the White House's capacity to edit, change and embrace on a dime. This includes the use of Vimeo as part of their agenda to inform the public of the Obama Agenda. Another reason that Obama's addresses will continue to stream on YouTube (and will continue to be available) is because of YouTube's closed caption ability for the deaf and hearing impaired. View the YouTube videos from The White House's YouTube page, here.

"Vimeo is not a sea of eyeballs that you must trick into increasing your view count," the company states in its declaration of principles cum user guide. "It is a vibrant community of intelligent and creative people."

It's also one of the online leaders in providing HD video online -- something increasingly valuable as HDTV signals and televisions gain prominence. Now the Obama administration is using Vimeo as one more tool in its efforts to reach supporters, wherever they may be -- and whatever software they may be using to get there.

"President Obama believes we need to open up government to its citizens," explained White House spokesman Nick Shapiro. "The weekly address is just one example of the Obama administration using cutting-edge technologies to create a new level of transparency, accountability, and participation for America's citizens."

I love the above, why? Because the one thing that the Obama Campaign was genius at was reaching folk, especially the youth. My nieces and nephews don't watch cable chatter, they got their information about Obama from The Daily Show and YouTube. They knew all his speeches, where he had been, all the musical and movie artists supporting Obama through YouTube.

This was a medium NO CANDIDATE embraced, but Obama. Other candidates were tepid to embrace YouTube because of the missteps by the likes of George Allen and believed this medium was a "gotcha" medium, when in fact it was a source to get information out to the masses, as Obama demonstrated in its use. This approach worked for the Obama Campaign. Soon my mother was watching Obama on YouTube if she missed a speech. My brothers were at work when Obama made his race speech in Philadelphia, but they sat at home, uploaded the speech from their computer and watched him on their 50 inch, at their leisure.

One thing that has happened from the Obama Campaign is that the old way of campaigning is done. We will still have fundraisers, etc. But the approach to getting to voters has changed, the way to get folk involved in the process has changed and the attitude of new medium has been embraced.

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See the OLD White House Computer Equipment?

See that equipment above? That is ARCHAIC, OLD, BROKE DOWN, computer equipment in the White House.

No wonder Obama's website, whitehouse.gov is not totally there, yet.

I don't blame IT, techies, whining and complaining on equipment like that. In fact, my husband and I went through a bunch of computers (yes, we are both in it) and put them out to pasture that was sitting in a corner in one of our rooms. And that monitor? Are you scared, yet? OMG, have you heard of FLAT SCREENS? Hello? FLAT SCREENS? It reduces the space on your desk/workstation, ultra cool and replaces the 100 pound, clunky monitor.

There is nothing sexy or cool about that old assed equipment above, sorry I had to go there.

White House, first thing on the list, NEW COMPUTER EQUIPMENT, ASAP. For us, we to have a savvy, techie President of the United States and he does not have a laptop or have to look at ancient computer equipment which is not doable for 2009, is just a shame.

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Obama may not lose his blackberry, but everyone else....

Working for the government is ARCHAIC, believe me, I KNOW. My home system is faster, hipper more effective than my job "workstation". Now here we come to the White House, a place of residence and workplace only to look ARCHAIC to Obama staffers.

The lawyers broke the bad news to Obama aides at a briefing Friday morning convened by incoming Deputy White House Counsel Cassandra Butts: Not only are they leaving the modern world to enter a White House where some of the clunky desktop computers still run Windows 2000 but — worst of all — they'll be forced to surrender a form of communication staffers have relied on for the last two years to communicate with each other, outside allies, and the press.

From Axelrod, the chief campaign strategist, down to junior staffers in the press office, Obama's campaign relied heavily on software many of them began using in high school — AOL Instant Messager and Google Chat. Instant messaging, though little mentioned, is — perhaps as much as e-mail—deeply woven into contemporary politics and media, whose fabric is the constant, quick, gossipy transmission of spin and information. But a calculus that's perhaps one part security, one part law, and two parts politics, has long barred instant messaging from the White House.

That's right, NO IM, Instant Messaging. I am not going to LIE, I use it on the daily to keep up with my friends all over the country. This form of medium, while at your workspace, can be quicker than email. But I totally understand the must of giving this up, it is called the electronic trail.

"It sucks. It's really going to slow us down," complained another, saying that lawyers had warned that, along with instant messaging, White House software will restrict users to a range of sites roughly "like your average grade school."

The clunky technology is standard issue for government offices, but the bar on instant messaging is particular to the White House. Legal and security experts say it is dictated by the fear of embarrassment if IMs were to be disclosed. The Presidential Records Act requires White House documents to become public five years after a president leaves office, and most lawyers think it would apply to any instant messages discussing government business.

That lil' thing called the Presidential Records Act can catch you IN THE ACT, with the free wheeling of IMs. I know, some former co-workers got caught with some unsavory conversation and how did it happen? Well, their supervisor was suspicious of the overtly use of IM and wanted to read the conversations, remember the servers are like a date stamp and owned by the company, keeps the records and any admin with rights can pull the conversation off the server. The ease of IM and lingo can easily allow someone to slip and write something that is totally uncool and quite embarrassing.

"They're going to realize, once you go inside the bubble, it becomes much more difficult to maintain contact with the outside world," said Reginald Brown, a former associate White House counsel for President Bush. "IMing encourages a kind of casualness in conversation that will be the bane of the lawyers down the line. The reality is that if you want to engage in the equivalent of IMing, you have to pick up the phone."

Brown noted that, along with entering the permanent record after the presidency, the IMs could become public sooner in response to Congressional subpoenas or lawsuits.

This is the bottom line to all of this. Got something to say, need to catch up, pick the phone up. While my job allows IMs, many jobs don't or restrict IMs only within the job and only for work related issues.

I totally FEEL the young staffers going to the White House, but I have been harping on this, the Presidential Records Act needs a face lift to the 21st Century. It is totally laughable, to a point, that the White House is still behind the times. Just like Obama's blackberry messages and interaction can be preserved and protected for the Presidential Records Act, we can surely attempt to bring the White House up to 2009 technology standards. I mean, my god, Windows 2000??? That is totally archaic.

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Obama prepared to revoke Bush order on presidential records

This is great, no fantastic.

Why?

The Bush Administration has been HIDING much dirt behind this executive order. There is much grumbling on the left about investigations to much of what the Bush Administration has done over the course of the last eight years. Also, this Bush order covered and protected Dick Cheney the mastermind of much chaos in the Middle East.

Bush issued Executive Order 13233 on Nov. 1, 2001, giving ex-presidents and, for the first time, their heirs, broad authority to block release of White House records for any reason and in perpetuity.

Bush administration officials say the change was not significant, but some historians characterize it as a monumental shift in the way presidential papers are treated. The incoming Obama Administration has signaled it will rescind the order.

The Office of the President of the United States is an elected office, not an inherited office, this is the difference. There is much debate going on right now on whether Barack Obama should or should not keep his blackberry. As Obama struggles to keep sanity, with his blackberry and to know what is REALLY going on outside of that presidential bubble, the other reality is that any communication from President Obama is under the Presidential Records Act.

Georgetown University Professor and Presidential tech analyst Diana Owen says that the possible hacking of the Obama BlackBerry is a threat that is best dealt with by not using it at all. And though maintaining the security of personal communications is the main reason why he will be forced off of it, the Presidential Records Act is another thorn in his side. The act says that any correspondence by the President or VP is owned by the public and subject to historical review.

The Bush executive order stated basically that ex-presidents and vice-presidents don't have to hand over or give access to the public any records, only what THEY SEE FIT.

Until the order, the 1978 Presidential Records Act made the records government property and established procedures for release. Under that law, presidents could restrict access to some types of White House records for 12 years after they left office. Exemptions for national security and privacy could be claimed beyond the 12-year period.

In addition to giving ex-presidents and their heirs broad authority, Bush's order applies the same procedures to vice presidential records.

Bush signing to deny presidential records continues the cloud around this non-transparent administration.

But some historians say they view Bush's order as a step backward, and from the day it was issued, the order has been targeted by open-records advocates.

"It became clear very early on that this president was uneasy about disclosure of public records and wanted to assert maximum executive authority over public access to those records," said Steven Aftergood, head of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy.

"The most shocking thing about the order is it suggests that executive privilege can be inherited by family members and others," he said. "Many fateful decisions were made in the Bush years, and in many cases the only prospect for accountability lies in publication of the records."

The Obama Administration is looking to rescind order.

The Democratic ticket of Obama and Joe Biden promised on its campaign Web site to "nullify the Bush attempts to make the timely release of presidential records more difficult." The language now appears on its change.gov site.

As for Obama and his blackberry dilemma, my take, the Presidential Records Act needs a face lift. This is the world and age of instant information. Obama is not the only soon-to-be president who lives with his blackberry, laptop, etc. These are the tools and information of the times. Emails today are wireless, instant paper trails ask the exchange or domino servers which stores this information, same with blackberry servers. You mean to tell me that the White House can't have a certified network admin hired specifically to monitor these servers for historical archive? Companies perform data, network archives weekly, monthly all the time. Can this not be done for the President of the United States?

All this sounds so 20th Century, to me, I mean we did elect Barack Obama because he was very forward thinking and we admired him because he is first president that understands the technology of today and USES IT. Why hold him back? We need to find a way to help him.

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