Army Knowledge Online (AKO) is the U. S. Army web-based information service and the world’s largest intranet which is used for recruiting and provides the public information about the different organizations and documents. An AKO Army site provides the information of three components such as group, Page and Files (AKO Army). For instance, there can be found the information about such programs as 9/11 GI Bill, Montgomery GI Bill, Army Personal Testing, Education Counseling, etc. All documents are organized and can be shared with a group and open to the public. Besides, a File Community helps store and share the various documents and images. All the U. S. soldiers are required to register a full account on AKO and other people can get a guest account.
After getting a full registration, the following information is available: Active Army, Army Reserve, Army Retired, Future Soldiers, US Air Force, US Navy, Medical Retired, National Guard, etc. For those people who want to get a guest account it is necessary to provide an Army sponsor with an authorized account, and following information is available: Army Volunteer, Federal Civilian Agencies, Local Nation Employee, Medical Discharge, Military Transition, etc. Following DoD security policy, AKO needs a strong password or the use of combination of a Common Access Card and personal ID. Besides, it is necessary to answer 3 personal questions before the system will open the access. Such protection measure helps avoiding a number of problems; however, it is not a perfect solution.
The main function of AKO is providing the e-mail and collaboration facilities. Using the modern technologies, AKO organizes the development of the Business Process Management programs. For instance, “Wounded Warrior” program provides a wide support for the soldiers wounded in the military conflicts. Another example is AKO’s Training function which provides the possibilities to the soldiers and civilians to access Army educational programs online. Those programs are free of charge and help people connected with Army to promote their points and to share the ideas. The financial function of this system helps soldiers to find and learnt the financial records. The medical function provides the same access to the medical records, including the various exams and training results. Moreover, AKO has a number of other functions that help soldiers to get the information about forms, references, legacy, etc.
However, on the other hand, there are a number of critique points about AKO. Thus, according to the article GIs, officials disagree on effectiveness of AKO, the users have a lot of complains and the most common of them are the frustratingly slow working process, a cluttered interface, the cumbersome security features and a useless of the search engine (Gould 2010). Although the public can use the alternative sources, most of the information provided by AKO is available only within this information system. Therefore, it is difficult to overestimate its capability and profit within the process of sharing the information.
Nevertheless, AKO has above 2 million registered users, including as the active and retired soldiers as their family members. The present information system was created in order to transform the U.S. Army into the organization with a knowledge-based structure, research and develop the benefits for Worldwide Army users and make the information about the documents and programs available for a large range of public.
Reference List
AKO Army. (n.d.). Web.
Gould, J. (2010). GIs, officials disagree on effectiveness of AKO. Web.