MITIQ Home > MIT-Army CDO Forum

Welcome to the Inaugural Massachusetts Institute of Technology Chief Data Officer (CDO) Forum. This forum recognizes the growing criticality of the CDO's role in modern organizations.

For example, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and its Services strive to provide high-quality data and information that are visible and accessible to support commanders in situational awareness, decision-making, and simultaneous collaborations. In the private sector, the CDO's role emerged during the past five years as the executive guarantor of an enterprise's information reliability and authenticity.

Participants at the CDO Forum will discuss and define best practices to assist all CDOs to provide authoritative, relevant, understandable, trustworthy, and sufficient data in their enterprises' best interests. The Forum will also endeavor to define the CDO's role, mission, and responsibilities.

The discussions during the Forum will address these themes:

• Role: What is the CDO's job and to whom should this executive report?
• Mission: What responsibilities and authorities rest on the CDO's shoulders?
• Objectives: What policies should a CDO promulgate and what programs should the CDO lead?
• Strategies
  • What is the fundamental value that a CDO delivers to the enterprise?
  • What problems inhibit a CDO's success?
  • How best does a CDO address information quality (IQ) problems?
  • What messages does the CDO deliver to the executive team (e.g., CTO, CIO, CFO, and CEO)
  • What experiences or case studies prove most helpful to CDOs?
• Future Events:
  • How would an MIT CDO program help CDOs accomplish their mission?
  • Should the CDO Forum be held annual, semi-annually?

Want to learn more?

• MIT-Army Inaugural CDO Forum Proceedings
• Driving Directions to CDO Forum Venue: Lockheed Martin Global Vision Center
• Hotels nearby CDO Forum Venue

MIT and the U.S. Army are grateful to all Forum participants from the private and public sectors and thank them for their contributions to the discussions. It is through their generous sharing of the strategies that they have used, the challenges they have faced, and the guidelines they have developed that this forum will meet its goals and contribute to the maturation of the CDO's role in support of international security, prosperity, and economic well-being. Finally, participants in the Inaugural CDO Forum are invited to join the Forum's founding members, MIT, U.S. Army, Gartner Group, and Lockheed Martin to:

• Develop strategies that CDOs can use to win executive support
• Define management and technical issues that CDOs should address
• Provide guideliness that help an enterprise adopt the CDO role and disciplines
• Elaborate opportunities for CDOs to engage business units
• Consider guidelines to help CDOs assure their tactical and strategic success

For questions, please contact Richard Wang, MIT IQ Program
e-mail: rwang@mit.edu