Obama's 21st century team meets the 20th century White House

The White House tech team is having a retro moment. Geared up for 21^st century cyber communications, they are finding it difficult to communicate online in ways they always dreamed. WhiteHouse.gov is not big enough to send out mass email updates on presidential initiatives. And the system isn't grand enough to handle text messaging either.

Another headache for the tech team is the upgrades needed to enable text broadcasts. "This is uncharted territory," said Macon Phillips, White House director of new media.

Each step is a tentative one. The online team posted the $787 billion economic stimulus package online as Congress debated it. But on WhiteHouse.gov, users were asked to limit their comments to 500 characters, a thimble of what an average person would like to say. Within 36 hours, Phillips and his team upped the character count from 500 to 5,000, an improvement but still part of the learning curve.

For more on the White House stepping tentatively into the 21^st century:
- see this Washington Post article