Thornton A. May, futurist, dean of the IT Leadership Academy at Florida Community College at Jacksonville, and a Computerworld columnist, spoke with Gary Anthes about the Atlanta CIO lunch group.

What distinguishes an average CIO from a great one? It's how externally focused and externally connected the CIO is. World-class CIOs have world-class personal networks. The more bunkered up you are, the more broken you are.

The Atlanta CIOs as a group do a lot for the community.

The CIO role is becoming not only a leader of value creation in the enterprise, but also a leader of social change in the community.

How important is the exchange of best practices among CIOs? "Best practices" is an Industrial Age idea. In fact, best practices has become a fetish item among average CIOs. The Atlanta CIOs use their judgment to choose "most appropriate practices." Every organization is different, so the CIO has to be therapist, anthropologist and technology cartographer. What they are looking for is perspective.