Another angle to this is to have colleagues on the real world vouch for you in the online world and build credibility that way.

This is a very interesting topic and I’m glad to get your thoughts.

-cc

I think Elliot makes a good point. I also am not the CIO of my organisation but I am a senior IT executive in a very large organisation with revenues over $80BN and 500,000 employees. I don’t describe myself as the CIO in my LinkedIn profile but do subscribe to Groups for CIO’s and have CIO as one of the tags in my Twitter profile. However, I have not asked to join the CIO dashboard because I am not the CIO for my organisation.

The challenge is I feel I have something to contribute to the community and debate yet I don’t have the offical title. What to do? How do we define those that can be classed as CIO in online communities? Is it that their job title must state it? Is it that they must have the ultimate accountability for IT in their organisation? Should it be determined by the budget you are responsible for or the complexity that you deal with?

Interestingly one of my junior project managers left the company a few months back to become the “CIO” of a small firm of 200 employees. He was granted access to a CIO Group on LinkedIn and I was not! He was being honest and I am being honest but with differing results.

Clearly there are no easy answers and I am not sure if you can come up with a foolproof list of qualifying criteria but I do appreciate the fact that you care and want to deal with those who are simply pretending.

Thanks

Neil

I think Elliot makes a good point. I also am not the CIO of my organisation but I am a senior IT executive in a very large organisation with revenues over $80BN and 500,000 employees. I don’t describe myself as the CIO in my LinkedIn profile but do subscribe to Groups for CIO’s and have CIO as one of the tags in my Twitter profile. However, I have not asked to join the CIO dashboard because I am not the CIO for my organisation.

The challenge is I feel I have something to contribute to the community and debate yet I don’t have the offical title. What to do? How do we define those that can be classed as CIO in online communities? Is it that their job title must state it? Is it that they must have the ultimate accountability for IT in their organisation? Should it be determined by the budget you are responsible for or the complexity that you deal with?

Interestingly one of my junior project managers left the company a few months back to become the “CIO” of a small firm of 200 employees. He was granted access to a CIO Group on LinkedIn and I was not! He was being honest and I am being honest but with differing results.

Clearly there are no easy answers and I am not sure if you can come up with a foolproof list of qualifying criteria but I do appreciate the fact that you care and want to deal with those who are simply pretending.

Thanks

Neil

My only wish is for honesty – in absence of that, some kinds independent validation of identity.

-Chris

However – if I may point out one issue that I have!

To be blunt – I am not a CIO – period. I am simply an IT Manager in the Small to Medium Enterprise – my BIO points it out – LinkedIn / Twitter / Blog – where ever

However – “on-line” I do subscribe to, follow, and just downright listen to what I call the “big-kids” the VP and CIO (even CFO/CEO) level folk that are out there.

Simply because while the scale is so much smaller, as the individual tasked with IT strategy, IT costing etc etc – I have many of the same issues – just with less scale!

And learning the practices that have helped larger organizations – in many cases I have been able to utilize bits and pieces at my scal to improve my own operations.

Thank you & Best Regards!

Elliot