Chicago Academy for Advance Technology (CAAT) Event

I had the pleasure of attending an exciting event for the Chicago Academy for Advance Technology (CAAT) http://www.chicagotechacademy.org/ on Friday March 6 2009. This event was a student lottery, selecting the first 150 students for its inaugural class starting August 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oLfNKvQy-Q. This is the first High School of its kind, a part of the Chicago Public School system, which provides its students with the opportunity to learn state-of-the-art technology, shadow executives, and be mentored all the way through high school. This institution is supported by many local businesses and entrepreneurs as well as major corporations (IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, too name a few), school officials, and government representatives (Mayor Richard J. Daley, Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan, and President Barack Obama, to name a few).

Being a technology advocate for many years, speaking to high school and college students about the opportunities that focusing on computer science and engineering will bring, brought me considerable joy to see a room full of enthusiastic young people and their parents being excited about their selection into this high school. Please join me in supporting this institution and its students as they represent the future of our country and our ability to compete technologically in a global economy.

Appointing a Chief Knowledge Officer at the federal Level

Now that President Obama has appointed the nations first Chief Information Officer, Vivek Kundra (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/President-Obama-Names-Vivek-Kundra-Chief-Information-Officer/) I believe that it is time to appoint a Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) for the nation. As many of you may know several government agencies already have CKO’s in place (US Army, US Air Force, USDA, Minority Business Development Agency). So, why a CKO for the nation?

In this age of the knowledge economy our intellectual assets are the most valuable assets that this nation has. As more and more baby boomers reach retirement age there will be a tremendous gap in knowledge at our government agencies as well as in the private sector (http://www.afcea-infotech.org/2007/media/bseminars_pdfs/tuePM3_308_KM_Human_Capital_Rhem.pdf). The nation’s CKO will begin to put in place a national strategy to address this phenomenon as well as people, process and technologies that will ensure our nation stays competitive and thrives during this time of the transitional workforce.

In general the nations CKO and its office will be responsible for mobilizing and maximizing the nation’s knowledge assets from the various agencies, being a catalyst for innovation in not only technology but in the way we work, learn, collaborate and share knowledge. I see this office meeting with the CKO’s at the various government agencies to promote the national knowledge management agenda as well as with CKO’s in the private sector to obtain a holistic view of what works and what can be done to effectively keep the United States as a leader on the world stage.

Let me know what you think, I'll be interested in knowing your views on this.