Daily Digest: New Guard Stumbles Upon a Few Bugs

• Obama's Made Up His Mind, He's Gonna Keep His BlackBerry, Ooh...: It was touch and go there for a while. Would Barack Obama emerge victorious from the first major face-off of his presidency? Would he prevail over the dark forces who sought stifle him? Obama for the win! The New York Times' Jeff Zeleny reports that the new President is keeping his much-loved BlackBerry -- though there were a few caveats worked out in the settlement negotiations. Only a small circle of friends and advisors will be privy to the new presidential email address (what, no potus@whitehouse.gov?) and they'll have to be briefed by White House counsel before clicking send. Obama's emails won't be forwardable, and he's been equipped with an extra-special invisible device approved by national security officials. We made that invisible part up.

• Did Bush Leave a Perfectly Modern White House?: You no doubt heard reports yesterday that new Obama White House staffers were upset to find themselves expected to communicate via smoke signals and semaphore. That's bunk, says former Bush Administration officials. (Via Matt Burton) Sure, the White House may be a Windows shop, former Internet Director David Almacy told Fox News' Paul Wagenseil, but it's equipped with "BlackBerrys, Outlook e-mail, plenty of laptops and lots of flatscreen monitors and TVs." Of course, as with any first week on a new job, transitioning the White House isn't without its bureaucratic slowness. "Moving 3,000 people out and 3,000 people in is a Herculean task," argues Almancy.

• The Early Reviews on WhiteHouse.gov are In: Relatedly, some are grumbling that the 72-hour-old WhiteHouse.gov is a huge disappointment. The Next Right's Patrick Ruffini says the new site is devoid of useful content. And our Tom Watson is miffed that blog posts, speeches, and press releases are moving at a snail's pace. Tough crowd! Even the much-praised Change.gov wasn't worth writing home about on opening night, remember? It's worth bearing in mind that while we're all eager to hear from the White House -- and talk back to it -- the administration has a lot on its plate. Communications is one of three or four pillars of a presidential campaign, but it's only part of what a White House has to handle. That said, it's curious that the new media team hasn't dug into its web 2.0 bag of openness and transparency to post a note to the blog along the lines of "Hey, this is a work in progress, folks." Until they get their operations up to snuff, though, take a second or third look at Jim Gilliam's White House 2 for a reminder of what a truly interactive White House could look like.

• New White House Stance on Cookies: CNET's Chris Soghoian reports that the new White House has made a positive move when it comes to online privacy. At launch, the new WhiteHouse.gov made use of YouTube cookies that tracked visitors -- whether or not they clicked play on the video of Obama's inaugural address or other clips. They've since replaced those embedded videos with static images. Videos load only after those pictures are clicked, cutting down on the number of affected visitors. The White House had earlier granted the Google-owned YouTube a waiver from its no-cookie policy. (Why not show us the text of it then?, asks Soghoian.) The episode raises a fascinating question. We all make trade offs to get web goodies -- whether it's our privacy for YouTube server space or our content so that Facebook can make a buck. The White House wants to play in the same online playground as the rest of us, but is it appropriate for a President to make the same concessions?

• A Facebook for the New DC: The Washington Post has launched WhoRunsGov.com, which is, it seems, three things. First, a freshman facebook "chronicl[ing] the new D.C. order." Second, a blog called "The Plum Line" written by Talking Points Memo alum Greg Sargent. (Sargent's take on the name is here.) And third, syndicated WaPo content, like Al Kamen's In the Loop column. Many of the profiles are actually quite good -- less Wikipedia entries than reported looks at why each person is important, in his or her own way. Word is that the largely closed site will eventually make use of the community tools built into its MindTouch Deki-powered back end.

• An Open Government Win in the U.K.: Britain's democracy hacking e-collective MySociety is claiming a notch on its belt. After Parliament was ordered to release records on members' expense reports, legislators quietly moved to tweak the law to prevent that disclosure. MySociety rallied together a 7,000 member Facebook group in protest, and allies poured thousands of disapproving emails in the legislature. Thus exposed, the MPs backed off their plot to keep the data hidden.

• Put It on Your Calendar: Two events coming up on next Wednesday, the 28th, for those of us in the DC area. The New Organizing Institute will hear from Obama campaign new media director Joe Rospars over breakfast. And Google's DC office will play host to a Rebuild the Party "new media strategy briefing" and welcome reception tied to the upcoming Republican National Committee chair vote.

• Two Just for Fun: Check out this elegant word frequency visualization of Obama's inaugural address. The most used phrases? "Us," "can," "will," "new" and "nation." Yep, looks about right. And with fair warning that the song will stick in your head all day, here's a spoof of Beyoncé's "Single Ladies" video with Obama in the starring role.

In Case You Missed It...

Matt Burton reports that open-source's government prospects has found a powerful advocate in Scott McNealy, co-founder of the open-source champion Sun Microsystems. McNealy recently let it be known that he has been asked to write up a paper for the Obama administration on, reports the BBC, "the benefits the U.S. government can derive from open source."

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