And who can blame him?

President-elect Obama is a very tech-savvy fellow, unlike past residents of the White House. The man actually knows what the Internet is (imagine!). He has used a BlackBerry for years and – reasonably, I might add – wants to keep it.

Anyone who has used a BlackBerry or similar smart-phone device, whether a Motorola Q, Apple iPhone, and so forth, will know what he is saying. The productivity gains and easy access to relevant information are something you get used to very quickly.

All of this about “security” is a red herring anyway. Why let his assistants have BlackBerrys if he can’t? If the issue is the President’s BlackBerry being hacked, the hackers will just get the assistant’s BlackBerry and have the same access as if they got the President’s.

No, the real issue relates “public information”. Email is like regular documents and if the President sends an email the entire country should have access to it as public information.

I suppose we could be more backward than that as a nation, but offhand I wouldn’t know what it would be. I thought the idea was to bring this country full-blast into the 21st century? If so, we need to revisit such silly issues as not letting our President use email.

So I am pulling for you, Mr. Obama! Wake Washington DC up. And name that CTO for the country you have been talking about, and give him or her some real power. You’ll scare Congress with such space-age things (“A Chief Technology Officer? What in the world…?”), but keep at it.

The NY Times has an article about the President-elect and his BlackBerry here

Wired Magazine has an article about it here