A CKO by any other name
The more we hear about knowledge management, the more evident it becomes that KM initiatives have long been underway--championed by people who may not be called CKOs, but function in every way as if they were.
"I've held the unofficial title of CKO since 1994 when we went 'public' by making institutional knowledge available to our headquarters staff."--Silvio Cutuli, realty specialist, Office of Real Estate Services
"The position has never really existed. My branch chief put it below my name in our latest organizational chart, but exactly what that means I don't know. I just lead the knowledgebase project."--Geoffrey Marsh, knowledgebase administrator, CIT
"No such title or position. Functionally it belongs to whoever leads the charge in managing our intellectual property as the work product of our consulting. I have held the position for 10 years."--Kevin Booth, senior VP, Chicago Group
"Although we don't have an official position deemed CKO, my role of director of worldwide knowledge systems and sales enablement has existed since July 1997.The CIO is responsible for the infrastructure, while my position is to manage the company's intellectual capital and any technology tied to the knowledge systems--such as our document management system."--Glenn Shimkus, director worldwide knowledge systems and sales enablement, Platinum Technology
"There is no CKO. I am the senior work management architect and have been the driver of the work management framework since the position's inception."--Andrea Young, manager document management and workflow, AIG
"I am the most directly responsible for knowledge management, but we have explicitly chosen not to use the title of chief knowledge officer, because that tends to imply that there is a single person who knows everything. My role is more to facilitate knowledge identification, collection, redeployment and exchange."--Chris Boyd, associate partner knowledge management, USWeb/CKS
"I am actually the CIO. I function as a CKO, but the position has not been accepted."--Maureen Casey, CIO of directed energy lab, Air Force Research Lab
"We don't have anyone formally called CKO, but the duties of a CKO fall under my purview and have for the last three years."--Denise Garofalo, director for communications resources, Mid-Hudson Library System
"Doesn't exist. I hold it through my CTO position."--Walt Crosby, CTO, RoweCom
"We don't have an official CKO title. I inherited the job probably five years ago with my management of all of our electronic and hard-copy information."--Sonja Houston, information resource manager, Broadview Associates
"It does not exist as a formal position. I hold it in conjunction with many other tasks."--Art Abbott, operations manager, Masten Lumber & Supply