Love it or hate it, Navy Knowledge Online will soon be gone. 

Navy officials will decommission the 14-year-old online training, education and cyber gathering place and replace it with the recently launched My Navy Portal, currently undergoing beta testing.

NKO's "sunset" as the Navy is calling it, was announced April 6 in NavAdmin message  087/17.

"We believe that My Navy Portal is easier to navigate, provides sailors a more user-friendly interface, all while keeping the majority of popular training content previously found on NKO," said Lt. Cmdr. Nathan Christensen, spokesman for the chief of naval personnel.

"Sailors will still be able to access tools such as Navy eLearning, Navy Advancement Center information, Personnel Qualification Standards and other career management tools from My Navy Portal's front page."

The new site is located here.

In recent years, NKO has become a lighting rod for sailor discontent with complaints ranging from firewall navigation issues, poor connectivity, broken links and a Windows 98-style interface.

And what's replacing it isn't perfect, yet. But officials say it is newer online technology that will be easily upgraded and tweaked as the Navy works through the new portal's beta testing period, which officials call a "field test" that's expected to last up to a year.

"There are currently challenges for platforms with limited, low, or intermittent bandwidth or connectivity," said Lt. Jessica Anderson, spokeswoman for CNP.

"We are diligently working to improve sailor access and use in these environments. A sailor will be able to view information in My Navy Portal differently than in NKO through a better user interface that is easier to navigate and search."

And officials say that the most commonly used parts and content from NKO will find their way to the new site, My Navy Portal, which is expected to become the single home for all sailors' online service records over the next few years.

According to the message, much of what was formerly available on NKO will be found on My Navy Portal in "Communities of Practice."

It's here that commonly used content such as the "Navy Advancement Center, General Skills Training, Personnel Qualification Standards, Career Management, and 'Learning and Development Roadmaps,' are accessed by hovering over 'Professional Resources' or 'Organizations,'" the message says.

It's the end of an era as NKO was the first of it's kind military web portal and is also the last vestige of the Navy's early 2000's "Revolution in Training."

"NKO was a first-of-its kind Navy website created in 2003 designed to provide important educational, leadership and personal development resources to our sailors," Christensen said. 

"While it has served an important purpose throughout the years, we've heard our sailors loud and clear, and that is why we have been working hard to provide them with a better online system using current technology."

Mark D. Faram is a former reporter for Navy Times. He was a senior writer covering personnel, cultural and historical issues. A nine-year active duty Navy veteran, Faram served from 1978 to 1987 as a Navy Diver and photographer.

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