In the past few days alone, a number of pieces in the New York Times have scrutinized everything from where the kids might attend school to how much smaller, tighter, and more impenetrable Obama’s security bubble has become. His Chicago home is now a fortress, barricaded three blocks out. He and his wife take thirty Secret Service agents to dinner with them.

And then there’s the tech side of the new President’s life, a side that affects both the personal and the political. Twittering, texting, and YouTubing were all instrumental in the making of the President 2.0. Via these platforms record-breaking funds were raised, the message of hope went viral and, on the private side, Obama could stay in touch with his closest friends easily while on the road for two years.

Looks like most of that is about to change. As reported by Jeff Zeleny odds are very high that Obama is soon going to have to part ways with his Blackberry, a device of which he is more than a little fond. Why? Zeleny writes:

In addition to concerns about e-mail security, he faces the Presidential Records Act, which puts his correspondence in the official record and ultimately up for public review, and the threat of subpoenas. A decision has not been made on whether he could become the first e-mailing president, but aides said that seemed doubtful.

On the other hand, maybe Obama’s Twitter account — reportedly down to a trickle of tweets since the election — might come back to life, provided the messages are innocuous and posted by an aide. And all is not totally eLost: Marshall Kirkpatrick reports that the “fireside chat” — long a presidential communication staple beamed out over the radio waves — will be videotaped and aired on YouTube. Could be interesting to watch the video comments these regular postings inspire.

Meanwhile, poor Obama — could you imagine giving up texting and emailing after being so wired for so long?

Obama '08 iPhone app main screen

A couple of weeks ago, Raven Zachary, my friend, open source guru, and iPhone maven out in Portland, gave me a most excellent opportunity. Raven is one of ten volunteer developers working with the Obama campaign to release a free app to iPhone users looking to help make a change. The team needed beta testers that met the following criteria: must have an iPhone, must be able to keep secrets, must be rabid Obama supporter. Sign me up!

I’m thrilled to announce the Obama ‘08 app has just been released. If you have an iPhone, you can pick it up for free at the iTunes App Store. Here’s a direct link to the app.

One of the coolest things about this app is that it sorts your phone contacts geographically so you can call your friends living in battleground states and, if they’re undecided (or, gasp, decided on McCain) you can call and work to get them on board with Obama.

Here’s what I love about this function — I really want to help Obama win in November. I want to be part of the solution in this country. I give money to the campaign, but I want to do more.

On the other hand, the idea of cold calling people or knocking on doors really is not at all up my alley. So now I can do “warm” calls, and I can specifically target personal contacts in states that are undecided. I learned that I actually have quite a few friends in battleground states. Some of them are people I haven’t talked to in ages. What better reason to reconnect?

Beyond the geo-sorting, the Obama ’08 iPhone app has a lot of other functionality. You can keep track of whom you called and how they responded. You can choose menu options that include: Get Involved, Receive Updates, News, Local Events, Media, and Issues. Click on one and drill down to a more detailed menu. For example, if you click on Issues, you can then choose from a dozen options, among them: Civil Rights, Defense, Education, Ethics, etc. Each then leads to an Obama quote and details regarding that topic.

You can also sign up to receive campaign updates, find out how and where to get involved in real time, check out recent media updates, read news, and find local events. This is a total, handheld clearinghouse for everything Obama. It’s one little app, but it’s the kind of thing that gets people jazzed at a grassroots level.

For my part, being invited to help test it has been a real honor. A couple of late evenings spent in a Campfire chatroom talking bugs & politics was truly good for my state of mind — a nice contrast to the dismal news and ugly political maneuvering going on everywhere.

I’d like to send a big shout out and a huge thanks to all the developers of the Obama ’08 iPhone app: Raven Zachary, Jason Grigsby, John Keith, Lyza Gardner, Aileen Jeffries, Jonathan Wight, Dom Sagolla, Mike Lee, Louie Mantia,Tristan O’Tierney.

Thanks to all of you for your hard work, and for the opportunity to participate :)