Here are some of the programs and initiatives we are working on at the CIO Forum.

Our primary and fundamental aim is to build communities of practice with the Chief Information Officer as a central leadership role. We want to facilitate connections between leaders in positions of influence, teachers and researchers and aspiring leaders.

Managed Social Networking is the use of social networking sites, online forums, email and messaging as a means of sustaining an initiative such as the CIO Forum. Managed social networking involves dedicating time and resources towards building online communities.

The CIO Forum seeks to facilitate in providing services that make it convenient for Chief Information Officers, IT Professional, Academics and other stakeholders to connect with one another and to discover opportunities to collaborate in developing the IT profession and sector. We do not seek to compete, control, dominate or represent the industry or act as a professional body. We aim to facilitate and provide a neutral platform and channel that connects individuals who are passionate about Information Technology and who truly want to make a difference.

The CIO Forum seeks to connect people and to build communities and social networks in the ICT sector. This is primarily achieved through social networks but it requires a more holistic approach. We have identified a number of services that we believe are required to grow and develop the CIO Forum community. This is in part facilitated through grass roots volunteerism but also through partnerships and commercial enterprise. The individuals within the network collaborate to provide these services and are encouraged to connect and build models for engaging and discovering what ultimately works to develop ICT related initiatives.

Our program of building events to support our social and knowledge network is evolving ...

• Breakfast Forum and Cafe Conversations: In 2008, we focused on establishing the monthly breakfast forum to establish conversations.
• Research and Conferences: In 2009, we successfully launch our 1st CIO Conference on CIO Research in Africa which we seek to evolve as a platform for academics, CIOs and aspiring leaders.
• Workshops: In 2009 and 2010, we intend expanding workshops to focus on skills transfer, capacity building, enterprise development and social engagement.

We are developing workshops in collaboration with service providers to create value for members and facilitate the development of critical skills and disciplines from systems thinking, strategy and architecture, business facilitation, personal mastery, leadership and emotional intelligence to technical skills such as agile software development, software architecture and systems engineering. We have adopted cafe conversations and other methods to facilitate knowledge management. See our Events section.

In 2009, we assisted in the establishment of the Centre for CIO Research (CenCRA) to develop research on technology leadership and the role of the CIO.

We are working to bridge the gap between academia and commerce to develop CIO research. We hope to increase the collaboration between universities as well as academic institutions and commercial enterprise.

In 2009, we have assisted in the development of the Master Information Officer (MIO) program to help quality technology leadership, CIOs and aspiring CIOs.

Many Chief Information Officers and aspirings CIOs find it difficult to navigate the various programs available and to determine how they can gain a CIO qualification. Through forums such as this, the university academics can collaborate with CIOs and IT professionals to develop relevant programs and qualifications for CIOs and IT professionals.

We are continuing to assist vendors such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft and Open Source Communities as well as university academics and stakeholders to establish programs that can add industry based skills to support the graduate qualification.

We are working with industry stakeholders to promote qualification and graduate certification. We believe that graduates can become certified in specific industry skills to improve the value they bring to employers. They be better equipped to deal with the challenges they will encounter in entering the market. These programs also bring practical learning into academia and can assist academics with the load and burden they carry with the many challenges faced relating to education and skills shortage in our country and the continent.

We are working with potential employers and academics to bridge the gaps in our graduate and internship programs. We have identified some of the difference and disparate approaches and expectations with regards to internships. We believe in increasing the interaction between academics and corporates to help graduates enter the market. It is critical to support graduates as they develop their careers in the first 3 years of entering the market.

Our interests in disciplines such as Enterprise Architecture is that of the broader systems thinking and systems architecture (social systems, organizations, information and technology centric systems and natural systems in our environment). We believe that in order to create leadership excellence and innovation requirements the ability to conceptualize, design, plan and deliver the implementation of complex systems. This includes not only the technical capability to achieve this but also the ability to lead human endeavors of collaboration.

We believe that Enterprise Architecture is an essential discipline for CIOs and aspiring CIOs. The lack of qualified and experienced EAs in South Africa and Africa is a concern. More work is also needed to develop programs in both undergraduate and postgraduate level pertaining to the EA and CIO profession.

Socio-tech research and engagement is essential to ensuring the practical development of information systems and services to meet social needs. Examples of this can be found in community based work in healthcare informatics and social innovation amongst software organizations.

Much can be done in ensuring that business activity flows to small organizations and thus encouraging and enabling entrepreneurship and innovation. CIOs are in a strong position to encourage and ensure that larger enterprises make use of small medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the information communication and technology (ICT) sector who are able to deliver.

We are launched a program in 2010 to encourage the use of social media and mobility to engage in social issues and help deliver access to information in an interactive way to communities. We are branding this program Citizen1. We also helped to develop common programs and themes between ICT communities in the Western Cape and helped to revitalize the Cape IT Initiative (CITi) for the broader ICT Cluster strategy of the region.