Obama's tech overhaul stumbles on bureaucracy

By Andy Sullivan - Analysis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama plans to use cutting-edge Internet tools to make the U.S. government more responsive but he'll have to overcome creaky equipment, cumbersome regulations and potential embarrassment.

Just ask Colleen Graffy, the Bush administration official whose Twitter posts about duty-free shopping and rented swimsuits during a State Department trip to Iceland drew widespread ridicule last month.

"This is why diplomats stay off the record and boring," Graffy said in a later Twitter post.

Chatty diplomats will be only one of worries Obama's administration as it tries to drag the massive federal bureaucracy into the 21st century.

Along with clunky computers and outdated rules, there is the obvious challenge of maintaining presidential dignity in the face of an often unruly online discourse.

Obama's first week in the White House gave a taste of the difficulties to come.

The administration unveiled a sleek new website the moment Obama became president, then failed to update it for days.

Staffers settling in to the White House found their Web browsers filtered and their online chat software disabled. Even Obama himself battled to hold on to his beloved Blackberry e-mail device because of hacking concerns.