WH tech officer pokes fun at her Blackberry

President Obama’s top technology adviser is poking fun at her government-issued Blackberry and “thick laptop,” joking that the White House’s information technology needs an upgrade. 

White House chief technology officer Megan Smith said the technology can be “frustrating” at times, but the president is “pushing hard” for upgrades. 

{mosads}”My son saw me with my BlackBerry, and he was like, ‘Hi, ’90s mom.’ Also, I had this big, thick laptop, and my other son, who was born in 2005, was like, ‘What is that?’ He’d never seen such a big one,” she told The New York Times, in an interview published Friday. 

Once the most popular smartphone in Washington, Blackberry has been overtaken by competitors. A recent survey in The Hill found 71 percent of congressional members who responded use an iPhone, while 28 percent use a Blackberry and 9 percent use an Android phone. Some lawmakers use more than one device.

Smith was appointed last month to the job to replace Todd Park. She was formerly a vice president of the Google X research lab. She worked with Google for nine years and previously worked on business development. 

Obama created the White House chief technology officer position after he took office in 2008.

Smith’s portfolio is broader than technology upgrades.

“We’re working with talented regulators, figuring out how to help innovators have a space in which to prototype and plan — what we call ‘sandboxing’ — while we’re still protecting the American people,” she said. 

She encouraged young people to consider working for the federal government, calling it one of the “most significant” things a tech person can do. She said people are allowed to bring their own methods, and it will “be whatever we all make of it.”

“So many kids at the top schools apply for Teach for America,” she said. “I’d like to talk to those young people and say: Consider government. It’s real service, and you can affect hundreds of millions of people. And if you’re working for USAID and the State Department, you can affect billions of people.”