Editing Army Knowledge Online (section)

==History and development==

AKO was established in the late 1990s as an experimental outgrowth of a project of the [[General Office Management Office]].  This early project led to A2OL (America's Army Online), but legal concerns over this name and the parallelism to other commercial vendors caused the Army Project team to seek a new name.  Early Project Officers for AKO were charged to develop, research and expand the portal to benefit Army Users Worldwide and to grow the system from its less than auspicious roots.   The project has run through various incarnations and later project leaders, but still the fundamentals of this system apply: centralized name spacing of email (with webmail access), white pages, unification of data conduits, central capability of authentication and repudiation of credentials and the ability to remotely access content.<ref name="Ft. Lee Document">[http://www.lee.army.mil/cpac/Inprocessing/Army%20Knowledge%20Online.doc Ft. Lee's AKO document] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070624223025/http://www.lee.army.mil/cpac/Inprocessing/Army%20Knowledge%20Online.doc |date=June 24, 2007 }}</ref>

At the time of creation, the Army did not have a centralized portal construct.  Army intranet presences on networks were not highly developed, or were more limited in capability and scope. AKO attempted to become a central portal for  communication among Army (military and civilian) Service members and contractors.  Efforts like "email for life" piloted by AKO was an early precursor to "Soldier for Life" initiatives in the Army.  Other initiatives, such as PKI, were also piloted by AKO, prior to widespread adoption by the Army.  Over time, AKO incorporated many centralized functions to improve utility as an intranet portal and central services hub.