Yes, They Can

Transcription

Yes, They Can

THE VOICE
O F
T E C H N O L O G Y
Spring 2009
Yes, They Can
Technology and the
New Administration
N O R T H E R N
V I R G I N I A
T E C H N O L O G Y
C O U N C I L
V oice
of
T ec h no l o g y
The Voice of Technology is going digital and GREEN! Check
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like to continue to receive the printed version, please send an
e-mail to editor@nvtc.org.
F E A T U R E S
8 Change.gov
The Obama presidency is already being called history’s first Web
2.0 administration, with staggering implications for the region’s
technology companies.
By Mark Toner
PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID KIDD
Spring 2009
6
14 The View From Richmond
NVTC Director of Communications Art Swift sat down
with Governor Tim Kaine to get his take on the Obama
administration’s technology initiatives.
By Art Swift
19 Optimism, Skepticism and Speculation
NVTC members share their views on how well the new administration will live up to its campaign promises.
By Caron Carlson
D E P A R T M E N T S
2
3
Editor’s Note
A message from the Executive Editor.
8
Perspectives
A forum for leaders of NVTC member businesses to address colleagues and the business community at large.
4 Member News
NVTC members that are making headlines.
I N
Council News
NVTC news, developments and events.
Progress
News and updates about distinctive NVTC initiatives, including The Equal Footing Foundation, The Entrepreneur Center @NVTC, NVTC TechPAC and committees.
E V E R Y
I S S U E
13 New Members
26 Up Close & Personal
27 Business & Media Partners
28 Board of Directors
PHOTOGRAPH: MICHAELE L. WHITE
6
24 14
The Voice of Technology is published four times per year by the Northern Virginia Technology Council. It is the official magazine of NVTC. ©Copyright 2009 by NVTC. All rights
reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in part or whole without the
express written consent of NVTC. For reprint information, contact The Voice of Technology, 2214 Rock Hill Road, Suite 300, Herndon, VA 20170 fax: (703) 904-8008. The Voice
of Technology publishes articles authored by industry professionals. The opinions
and/or positions expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of NVTC. NVTC
encourages its members to submit story ideas and comments to: experts@nvtc.org.
Spring 2009 www.nvtc.org THE VOICE OF TECHNOLOGY
1
E D I T O R ’ S
N O T E
Optimism Wins
By Art Swift
O
ptimism is a theme you will be reading much about in this
spring issue of The Voice of Technology. Our guest columnists and those we have interviewed are optimistic that the
new American Presidency will be fruitful for the technology industry and the economy overall. Are they right? Only time
will tell. What is known is that technology is poised to make its
biggest impact on the federal government in history, with cuttingedge measures being adopted in various agencies. The Obama
Administration says they aggressively want to connect with the
American public through technology and this should provide
plenty of opportunities for Northern Virginia businesses.
While much of this issue is speculative—after all, we really don’t
know what will happen in the next four years—Mark Toner and
Caron Carlson present voices
from across the Northern
Virginia technology industry
offering predictions, beliefs
and prescriptions for the new
presidency. In the Governor’s
office in Richmond, I asked
Governor Tim Kaine how he
feels about President Obama’s
technology policy and how
the President’s objectives
dovetail with what the Governor is doing in Virginia.
From an educational perspective, George Mason University President and NVTC Board member Alan Merten discusses how his
institution is making full use of technology, from cancer research
to Western Civilization courses. Dr. Merten also details the common ground Mason has with the Obama administration. In Up
Close & Personal, NVTC Board member Stacy Mendler of Alion
Science and Technology tells us what she might have done had she
not taken this particular career path.
In a grim time, this issue of our magazine is heartening because
of the optimism of our contributors. The spirit of finding solutions
to current problems is a chief facet of why our region has been
so successful in the 2000s, and why it will undoubtedly be strong
again in the next decade. nvtc
2
THE VOICE OF TECHNOLOGY www.nvtc.org Spring 2009
E X E C U T I V E
S T A F F
Bobbie Kilberg
President & CEO
bkilberg@nvtc.org
Christine Kallivokas
Chief Operating Officer
christine@nvtc.org
Josh Levi
Vice President of Polic y
jlevi@nvtc.org
Randy Cisler
Controller
Human Resources Administrator
rcisler@nvtc.org
Colleen Hahn
President/Executive Director
Equal Footing Foundation
chahn@nvtc.org
To view a complete list of Northern Virginia Technology Council
staff members and their contact information, please visit:
www.nvtc.org/about/contact.php
T H E
V O I C E
O F
T E C H N O L O G Y
S T A F F
Art Swift
Executive Editor
aswift@nvtc.org
Sara Daniel
Managing Editor
sdaniel@nvtc.org
David Kidd
Art Director
dkidd@nvtc.org
Send submissions and correspondence to
The Voice of Technology
2214 Rock Hill Road, Suite 300
Herndon, VA 20170
For information about advertising opportunities
in The Voice of Technology, contact Michele Weatherly,
Director of Membership Development, at (703) 904-7878
or mweatherly@nvtc.org.
P E R S P E C T I V E S
Participation and Innovation
By Alan G. Merten
T
he evolution of George Mason University
has been one of constant innovation. We
have grown from being a small, two-year
satellite campus of the University of Virginia in 1957 to an institution with three campuses, a commanding regional presence that serves
as a strong economic engine for Virginia. Our
more than 30,000 students come from every state
in the union and from over 125 nations. We have
exchange and joint research agreements with
other institutions of higher learning throughout
the world and are currently establishing a fourth
campus in the United Arab Emirates. And we
were named by U.S. News and World Report magazine as the number one university to watch.
With the beginning days of the Obama
presidency underway, we are heartened by the
new administration’s positions on technology. Its
priorities include encouraging communication,
improving America’s competitiveness, preparing
students for the challenges of the 21st century,
and utilizing technology and science as tools
to address our most pressing problems. These
perspectives are very much in sync with the
vision we have at Mason.
Technology continues to be a major tool at
Mason in helping to enhance each student’s
total experience as well as in preparing them for
the challenges they face after completing their
studies. Some examples of this include:
■■A joint effort by faculty in the Colleges of
Humanities and Social Science and Health and
Human Services to redesign their courses to
include the use of blogs as a central feature of
their class assignments.
■■Professor Sharon Caraballo of the Volgenau
School of Information Technology and
Engineering teaches an online course that
allows students to access material according
to their own schedules. Unless the students
decide they need to speak with Caraballo in
person, the only interaction they have with the
professor and other students is when they take
the mid-term and final exams.
■■Professors Lance Liotta and Emanuel Petricoin
at the Center for Applied Proteomics and
Molecular Medicine are studying the effects
of experimental treatments on living tumor
cells taken from multiple myeloma patients
undergoing bone marrow biopsy, working
closely with physicians affiliated with FairfaxNorthern Virginia Hematology Oncology PC.
■■Professor Michael Behrmann, Director of the
Kellar Institute for Human disAbilities, has
played a leading role in the creation of the
Accessible Instructional Materials Virginia
Project, which provides free accessible
instructional materials to Virginia public
schools. These materials are made available to
the estimated 70,000 children in Virginia with
print disabilities.
■■Professor T. Mills Kelly of the Department of
History and Art History helped develop the
Western Civilization Webography Project at
Mason, in which he uses a database to teach
students to choose appropriate Web sites for
their research in Western Civilization classes.
The students’ ratings of the web sites are posted,
along with a review, on the Webography project
Web site for others to use. Students and even
teachers throughout the country are now taking
advantage of this site.
An element these examples share can be captured
in one word: “participation.” By making creative
use of technology, more and more students are
better able to take part in the educational process
that defines their experiences and helps shape
their lives.
This, too, is a principal goal of the Obama
administration. Providing students with easier
access into the educational process affords them a
real-world experience in dealing with challenges
similar to ones they will be facing throughout
their lives. With a sense of confidence and the
proper skills to make concrete use of technology,
students are better prepared to improve their
own lives and be better citizens of the world.
nvtc
photoGRAPH: Bachrach
“We are heartened by
the new administration’s positions on
technology.”
Alan G. Merten is president of
George Mason University and
an NVTC Board member.
3
M E M B E R
N E W S
Achieving New Heights
NVTC member companies
included in the list of SEVC
presenting companies are:
BroadSoft
Cernium
GlobalLogic (NVTC
Board Member)
KZO Innovations
NetWitness
“
Working
with Virginia
Tech Intellectual
Properties has
significantly
streamlined the
university’s IP
process.
”
- CPES Director Fred Lee
4
NVTC Members Named as Southeast
Venture Conference Presenters
The Southeast Venture Conference announced
the first round of companies selected to present
at the upcoming conference scheduled for March
11th-12th in Atlanta, Georgia. Several NVTC
member companies were chosen.
A total of 40 showcase companies from around
the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions will present at SEVC 09. The presenting companies represent some of the most promising technologies
from a diverse range of industries, including energy, mobile, defense, health, security, new media
and life science.
Virginia Tech Engineers Speed Up
Technology Transfer with Innovative
Intellectual Property Process
Virginia Tech’s Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES) has developed an intellectual property (IP) process that is almost as fast as industry’s and may be adaptable for other university
research groups, according to CPES Director and
University Distinguished Professor of Electrical
and Computer Engineering Fred Lee.
In 2003, CPES instituted a new IP process that
taps expertise from industry partners and helps
university technology move quickly into commercialization. “Working with Virginia Tech
Intellectual Properties (VTIP) has significantly
streamlined the university’s IP process,” Lee said.
“Now, there is no delay; we are almost as fast as
industry.”
GTSI Moves Corporate Headquarters to Herndon
GTSI, an NVTC Board member company,
moved in November into its new 106,000-square
foot headquarters at Dulles View in Herndon.
The new headquarters provides GTSI with the
ability to showcase its technology solutions in
a fully operational lab with a customer briefing
center. The lab and the customer briefing center
will open in the first quarter of 2009. In addition
to the new facilities being available for customer
activities, it will also be a living solutions center
for several of GTSI’s popular customer offerings
including green IT applications, physical security
operations, unified communications, and offsite
data center connectivity.
“We are delighted with our new first-class
headquarters. The ability to showcase our solutions and services in a real-world environment,
coupled with the testing and briefing facilities,
will provide GTSI’s customers a living laboratory
for practical applications of technology,” said Jim
Leto, GTSI’s Chief Executive Officer.
Board Member Linda Mills Promoted
NVTC Board member Linda Mills has been promoted to corporate vice president and president
of Northrop Grumman’s Information Systems
sector, after Northrop Grumman IT merged with
Northrop Grumman Mission Systems to create
the new entity of Northrop Grumman Information Systems. She is also a member of the company’s corporate policy council.
Prior to this role, Mills was corporate vice
president and president of the Information Technology sector, overseeing business operations in
such areas as homeland security, health, public
safety and enterprise business transformation.
Board Member Ted Cahall Increases
Responsibilities at AOL
NVTC Board member Ted Cahall has taken on
an expanded role at AOL as President of Products & Technologies, assuming responsibilities
for several key AOL products. Ted will also serve
in a new leadership role on the Dulles campus as
General Manager of AOL Dulles.
As head of Products & Technologies, Ted will
oversee Mail, Truveo, Mobile, Toolbar, Safety &
Security and Parental Controls as well as the AOL
Client. He will continue to manage the Technologies division as well as Search, MapQuest, Global
Publishing Technology and Relegence. As GM of
AOL Dulles, Ted will serve as the on-site executive leader of the campus.
Apptis Technology Solutions (ATS)
Awarded NetApp’s Highest Level of
Professional Service Partnership
Apptis Technology Solutions (ATS), a division of
NVTC Board member company Apptis, Inc., has
been named a NetApp Authorized Professional
Service Partner (APSP).
“We are thrilled to have reached this milestone in our relationship with NetApp,” said Rene
LaVigne, President and Chief Operating Officer
of ATS. “NetApp is a critical component of our
strategy. We have spent years working to enhance
the offerings and services we provide to our government customers. We are proud that our commitment to NetApp has been recognized at the
highest level.”
The NetApp APSP designation recognizes
organizations that have demonstrated the highest level of technical competence in design and
implementation of NetApp branded solutions.
“As one of only a handful of other NetApp APSPcertified organizations in the United States, ATS
is proud to take a step ahead of other solution
providers in the industry and differentiate itself
as a leader in data center management and storage solutions,” said Mitzi Rivoire, Vice President
of Partner Alliances.
Balance Interactive Launches
Website for BotsIQ
NVTC member Balance Interactive, formerly
Balance Technology Group, developed the Web
site for BotsIQ, www.botsiq.org. BotsIQ is an
educational program created by the producers of
the BattleBots television series in which homemade remote-controlled robots face off in competition. Through BotsIQ, students design, build
and compete with their own robotic creations
and gain practical knowledge of math, science,
engineering and manufacturing.
Balance Interactive developed a Web site design that allows the program’s latest news and
developments to be featured on the home page.
A calendar of events and blog were integrated to
foster an interactive relationship among organizers and participants.
“The BotsIQ Web page looks fantastic and is
user friendly. Our educational robotics members
—teacher, students, and sponsors—will certainly
benefit from Balance Interactive’s creative design,” said Jose Negron from BotsIQ.
Balance Technology Group, d/b/a Balance Interactive, is a woman-owned interactive web firm
that helps clients plan and implement cuttingedge web technologies to meet organizational
goals. www.balanceinteractive.com nvtc
“
Teachers,
students and
sponsors will
certainly benefit
from Balance
Interactive’s
creative
design.
”
- Jose Negron, BotsIQ
Clarabridge Partners with Data
Warehousing Leader Teradata
Corporation
NVTC member Clarabridge, a provider of text
analytics software used by many Fortune 1000
companies to improve customer experience
management, today announced a partnership
with Teradata Corporation, the world’s largest
company solely focused on data warehousing
and enterprise analytics.
“The ability to access both quantitative and
qualitative customer analysis through our complementary solutions provides companies with
a very comprehensive and efficient approach to
customer experience management,” said Tony
Lopresti, vice president of sales and marketing
at Clarabridge. Clarabridge is headquartered in
Reston, Virginia.
5
C O U N C I L
N E W S
NVTC Members Attend White House
Briefing and Presidential Signing
Ceremony
NVTC President & CEO Bobbie Kilberg and four
NVTC members were present in the East Room of
the White House when President Obama signed
the Executive Order creating the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board in February. The
ceremony included the Board’s Chairman Paul
Volcker,
former
Chairman of the
Federal
Reserve,
and its 16 members
that included Jeffrey Immelt of GE,
Charles
Phillips
of Oracle, Laura
D’Andrea Tyson of
the University of
California at Berkeley, and John Doerr
of Kleiner, Perkins,
Caufield & Byers.
Kilberg
was
joined at the White
House by Curt
At the bill signing in the White House: Curt Kolcun, Microsoft;
Kolcun of MicroDendy Young, McLean Capital; Bobbie Kilberg, NVTC; Bob
soft, Dendy Young
Dinkel, FedResults; and Suresh Shenoy, IMC.
of McLean Capital,
Bob Dinkel of FedResults—all NVTC Board
members—and Suresh Shenoy of IMC. The
NVTC group had a particular interest in the IT
components of the economic stimulus package
in the areas of health care, alternative energy,
broadband infrastructure, and education.
Kilberg said she looks forward to continuing
involvement with the Obama Administration as
the year progresses.
NVTC Announces Launch of “NVTC
TechAmerica Headlines”
NVTC has joined TechAmerica (a merger of the
Information Technology Association of America
and AeA) to launch NVTC TechAmerica Headlines, a collection of the most meaningful news
for the technology industry. Powered by Infoition, NVTC TechAmerica Headlines will be
an invaluable tool for taking the pulse of the eco6
nomic and political environment that affects our
industry and our country.
Infoition is on the cutting edge, providing
clear, concise and highly customized news. Users will be able to comment on articles as well as
share them with colleagues.
To sign up for NVTC TechAmerica Headlines,
please visit www.infoition.com.
Twin Tech III Breaks All Previous
Attendance Records
Twin Tech — the event series that has defied all expectations — reached another milestone in its third
installment in January. Nearly 2,000 people were in
attendance at Lux Lounge in downtown DC.
Twin Tech was the creation of NVTC and
iStrategyLabs last July, following NVTC’s Hot
Ticket Awards. The first event was designed to
unite NVTC members with the social media set
in Washington, resulting in 600 people gathered
to network at the quickly announced and arranged party. Its success prompted Twin Tech
II in September, where the number of attendees
doubled, prompting a flurry of media attention
and networking success stories.
Twin Tech III rolled out at the opulent, refurbished Lux Lounge, where an open bar and
yet another post-Inaugural DC event enticed attendees. A party bus was chartered from Reston
to take many NVTC members to the event. Vendors demonstrated new technologies for curious
onlookers. Several attendees reported that they
were more interested in networking than ever before—Twin Tech marches on, as robust as ever.
photographs by DAVID KIDD
Moving Forward
“
While the economy is not so great right now,
the opportunities to [provide customers with the
products they need] are as great as they have ever
been. – Michael Dell at February’s Premier Titans event
Dell Electrifies Titans Luncheon
Michael Dell, founder of the eponymous computer company that has been an industry leader
for nearly 25 years, traveled to Northern Virginia
in February to keynote a riveting Titans luncheon
in McLean.
Dell participated in a question-and-answer
discussion moderated by Gary Shapiro, president
and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). Shapiro conducted a wide-ranging
30-minute conversation with Dell, with topics
including green tech, surviving the economic
downturn, the international business climate,
competitiveness, and his support for the IT components of the economic stimulus package pending in Congress.
After the moderated discussion, Shapiro
opened up the session to 20 minutes of questions from the audience. Attendees sought Dell’s
thoughts on, among other topics, future trends
in personal computing — for instance, the developments toward virtual keyboards. During this
segment Dell also discussed an interdisciplinary
approach to computer education.
More than 700 people were at the Hilton
McLean not only to see Dell, but also to pick
up their copies of the 10th Anniversary edition
Techtopia Map. Near the registration area, attendees were treated to a gallery of all 10 years of
Techtopia maps.
Gary Shapiro returns to the next Titans event,
this time as keynote speaker, at a breakfast on
March 13. For more information, visit
www.nvtc.org/events.
”
McAuliffe Lays Out Gubernatorial
Primary Campaign Strategy
Democratic primary candidate for governor
of Virginia Terry McAuliffe laid out what
he believes is his strategy for victory at the
NVTC Board meeting January 27. The former chairman of the Democratic National
Committee and chairman of Hillary Clinton’s
presidential campaign spoke enthusiastically
about the need to create jobs in the Commonwealth. McAuliffe said that job creation
would be his first and main priority, stating
that it is the only way for Virginia to recover
from the recession. McAuliffe’s talk ranged
from the serious to the humorous, when he
recounted wrestling an alligator during the
1980 presidential campaign in order to raise
funds for President Carter’s re-election.
NVTC plans to host all major candidates
for Virginia’s governorship at future board
meetings. Former House of Delegates member Brian Moran and State Senator Creigh
Deeds, Democratic primary candidates, are
scheduled to speak at the March Board meeting, and Attorney General Bob McDonnell,
Republican candidate, is expected at the May
Board meeting. nvtc
Check out NVTC’s
exciting spring
lineup!
Mar. 13
Titans of Technology:
Gary Shapiro, President
and CEO, Consumer
Electronics Association
May 4
NVTC Golf Tournament
at the Ritz-Carlton
Creighton Farms Club,
benefiting the Equal
Footing Foundation
June 3
NVTC Greater Washington
Technology CFO Awards
4CEA’s Gary Shapiro, center, chats with Dell, left,
and NVTC Board Chair Donna Morea of CGI, at the
Premier Titans event.
3Nearly 2,000 people attended Twin Tech III.
7
8
Change.gov
The Obama presidency is already being called
history’s first Web 2.0 administration, with
staggering implications for the region’s
technology companies.
Consider Barack Obama’s BlackBerry as a harbinger of things to come for the region’s technology
landscape. Among Obama’s many firsts as a president is his penchant for always-on e-mail communication, and he brushed off suggestions that he would have to surrender his handheld device upon
taking office—good news about support for technology initiatives coming straight from the top.
“The president’s BlackBerry is just the tip of the iceberg,” says NVTC Board member Stacy Mendler,
executive vice president and chief operating officer of Alion Science and Technology in McLean. “This
is a Web 2.0 administration, and we will see a lot more transparency, collaboration, and multimedia.”
Obama’s presidential campaign was cited for using the power of social networking to tap grassroots
support, and his administration is expected to encourage government agencies to embrace such tools
at all levels. At the same time, the government’s responses to the current financial crisis and a renewed
focus on green solutions also suggest new opportunities for the region’s technology firms.
“The smart firms are the ones who started working six to nine months ago,” says NVTC Board
member Bob Dinkel, president and chief operating officer of FedResults of Herndon. Small wonder,
then, that Internet search giant Google—which had four employees on Obama’s transition team—
plans to use its recently opened Reston office to pursue an agenda that includes support for network
neutrality and expanded Internet access.
“This administration is more focused on science and technology,” Google Chief Executive Eric
Schmidt told the Los Angeles Times. “That’s positive for all of technology, and particularly Google.”
by Mark Toner
P h o t o g r a p h s
b y
D a v i d
K i d d
9
Change.gov
An Open Door
The Obama administration sent a clear message about how it intends to use technology months before Inauguration Day. His
transition team’s change.gov Web site included a “citizen’s briefing book,” allowing users to submit and vote on each other’s ideas;
more than 125,000 people submitted 44,000 suggestions.
Change.gov is now gone, but the official whitehouse.gov site includes a blog and links to Obama’s YouTube-powered weekly video
addresses. We’ve come a long way from radio fireside chats, and
more social-networking features are in the works for the White
House site and other government agencies. Put simply, the Obama
administration “plans to emphasize the use of technology to improve the deployment of the most modern communications infrastructure,” says Lisa Martin, president and chief executive officer of
LeapFrog Solutions of Oakton and NVTC Board member. “More
government agencies will need to get their messages out more frequently and clearly to relay President Obama’s policies.”
To varying degrees, many federal agencies have embraced the
Internet as a means of communicating with the public and other
stakeholders in recent years (see sidebar, p. 12). But the new ad-
ministration’s call for transparency will lead to new technology
needs—both within the government and outside of it.
“The whole area of opening up information and the processing
of information [by companies] outside of the government is a business in itself,” says Dinkel. “It will open up new areas we haven’t
even thought about.”
Transparency also holds specific potential for the region’s technology community, according to NVTC Board member Gary Nakamoto, chief executive officer of Base Technologies of McLean.
“Providing a better view of how and what the government acquires
in IT will help promote competition and create an environment
where innovation can grow,” he says, adding that being able to
“work in a true performance-based environment” will help companies provide longer-term services to the government.
An ongoing challenge involves preserving records and other
materials, as well as making them accessible to remote workers and
the public via the Internet. FedResults, for example, is currently
working with the U.S. Senate to preserve recordings and video of
Senate sessions for future generations. “We’re approaching an age
of digitizing just about everything,” he says. “Years ago, video was
always on tape. Now, all of a sudden, video is
digitized—what do you do with it?” He points
to growing opportunities for companies that
can encode, index and store digital assets.
“It’s an example of where one new technology
spawns more new technology,” he says.
Business Matters
“Federal procurements
are usually substantially
robust so that even
slight changes to budgets
will still allow positive
results for our
industry locally.”
—John C. Lee IV, Chairman & CEO,
Lee Technologies
10
With the overall cost of the government’s
economic stimulus programs expected to approach $1 trillion, one obvious technology
need arises. “Everybody’s going to have to expand their spreadsheets,” Dinkel jokes. But the
ongoing bailout of the nation’s financial system
is no joking matter for technology firms—it’s
an opportunity.
Dinkel points to the Resolution Trust
Corp., created in the wake of the savings and
loan crisis of the late 1980s. That government
entity ultimately dealt with $394 billion in
assets—“comparatively peanuts to what we’re
dealing with today,” he says. New systems will
be needed to track and evaluate the nation’s increasingly interconnected financial system and
related government interventions.
The regional business community’s focus
on technology implementation goes hand-inhand with the administration’s goals, according to Base Technologies’ Nakamoto. “There’s a
great deal of IT innovation in our community,
Change.gov
specifically in helping people and organizations use technology more effectively,”
he says. “I think the administration will
challenge us to help the government make
a change in how it deploys, manages, and
sunsets technology and technology programs. We think this is a great opportunity
to help our customers think of IT differently.”
“The whole area of
Regardless of their purpose, new technologies and systems always need to be
opening up information
introduced through effective education
and the processing of
and outreach programs, or “no one will use
information [by companies]
them,” says Leapfrog’s Martin. Her company, for instance, is working with Deloitte
outside of the government
to introduce a new tablet-based system for
is a business in itself.
physicians working in the military health
It will open up new
care system.
Green technologies will also become
areas we haven’t even
increasingly important, particularly with
thought about.”
GSA Advantage, the government’s cen—Bob Dinkel, President & CEO, FedResults
tralized procurement resource, soon to
be updated to identify green vendors. The
government will also devote additional resources to reducing its carbon footprint,
including enhanced technology to promote telework initiatives.
Information Technology Investment Board, which played a similar
“The virtual workforce is becoming more of a reality,” Dinkel
role to the one proposed for the federal CTO.
says. “It’s a big issue many companies are embracing, and in turn,
A strong CTO could also help standardize the government’s IT
the government is going to follow in those footsteps.”
footprint, which in turn would increase collaboration across agencies, a perennial technology challenge for the government and its
contractors. Another potential opportunity for change, standardizing the federal contract environment, would also result in greater
While little noticed beyond the Beltway, one of Obama’s campaign
efficiency for agencies and technology firms alike. For that to happromises was to hire the nation’s first CTO, or chief technology ofpen, though, “the federal CTO must have the support from the top
ficer, to “ensure that our government and all its agencies have the
and have the power to enact the changes that need to be made,” Lee
right infrastructure, policies and services for the 21st century,” as
cautions.
he put it on the campaign trail. At presstime, the new cabinet-level
position had not been filled nor the role clearly defined, but it has
the potential to dramatically change the way the government does
business.
Despite the recession—or perhaps because of the need for econom“The impact could be phenomenal, but the position has to have
ic stimulus—there’s wide consensus that government spending on
some teeth,” says Dinkel. He argues that the position must have the
technology will continue to grow, as will the regional technology
ability to control the purse strings of projects that don’t match the
community.
government’s overall technology agenda.
“We in the Washington region are in a better position simply
Former NVTC Board chairman John C. Lee IV, chairman and
because of the federal government and its purchasing power,” Lee
chief executive officer of Lee Technologies in Fairfax, points to
says. “Federal procurements are usually substantially robust so that
Mark Warner’s experience as Virginia governor as an example of
even slight changes to budgets will still allow positive results for
the potential. “He consolidated technology capabilities in Virginia
our industry locally.”
during his term, and he had a positive effect on both technology
“With more government spending in new projects, companies
effectiveness and efficiency, but also lowered the cost of technolwill expand or move to this area,” agrees LeapFrog’s Martin. More
ogy in the Commonwealth,” says Lee, who served on the Virginia
innovation within the technology sector will, in turn, “generate
A Tech Czar
Think Globally, Act Locally
11
Change.gov
Technology Transitions
Technology transitions between presidential administrations
have rarely been flawless. When Bush staffers arrived at the
White House in 2001, they found some computer keyboards
missing the “W” keys—a purported farewell prank by staffers
from the outgoing Clinton administration. Eight years later,
the Obama administration was just as taken aback by outdated PCs and e-mail outages.
Beyond the White House and its high-profile occupants,
though, the state of technology across government agencies
has been more of an evolution than a revolution. Among
technology accomplishments during the Bush administration:
• The GSA and Office of Citizen Services’ USA.gov site
launched a unified search database for a variety of services
and webcontent.gov, a training program to improve the
quality of government sites for federal, local, and state
Web managers.
• After blocking access to video-sharing site YouTube, the
Department of Defense launched its own TroopTube
(www.trooptube.tv), allowing military servicepersons and
their families to share videos across the globe.
• More than a dozen intelligence agencies launched Intellipedia, a secure wiki-like site allowing workers to share
classified data across organizational boundaries. Work
also continues on the broader A-Space collaborative environment, which has been jokingly dubbed “Facebook
for spies.” (See The Voice of Techology, December ’08).
The State Department also launched a similar Diplopedia
knowledge-sharing service.
• The FBI launched a series of widgets (www.fbi.gov/
widgets.htm), allowing other Web sites to incorporate
information about its most-wanted, sexual-predator and
missing-person lists.
• The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office partnered with New
York Law School on peertopatent.org, a site allowing the
public to submit comments about selected pending patent
applications.
• The U.S. Education Department launched College Navigator (nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator), a site allowing prospective students to compare costs and other information
about colleges and universities.
• The TSA launched its “Idea Factory,” a secure intranet allowing its employees to offer suggestions about improving
security procedures and other practices. It also maintains
an external blog (www.tsa.gov/blog) allowing the traveling
public to ask questions and, quite frequently, vent about botched security. “We never expected our blog to be a
haven for our fans to wave their big foam hand that reads
‘TSA is #1,’” a member of the agency’s blog team wrote.
“It’s obvious if you read all the previous comments on our
blog that we’re not shy of criticism. In fact, we may appear
to be masochistic at times.” —Mark Toner
12
more job opportunities in the government and private sector nationwide, internationally, and in NoVa,” she adds.
“Locally, employment will probably remain strong, especially
in our business sector,” Alion’s Mendler says. Yet the outlook does
include some challenges for regional companies, she adds. “There
may be concerns for some companies, since long-term military
plans are uncertain, especially on weapons programs,” she says.
With its engineering and R&D expertise, Alion sees “many opportunities to help advance the state of technology and help the government be more efficient and effective,” she says.
Oversight will likely become more stringent, according to Mendler. “Based on the state of the economy… I believe there will be
“The president’s
BlackBerry is just the
tip of the iceberg.
We will see a lot
more transparency,
collaboration, and
multimedia.”
—Stacy Mendler,
Executive Vice President & COO,
Alion Science and Technology
some substantial changes from the Obama administration in the
way the government directs its investment for the future,” she says.
“There will be much more scrutiny for contractors and much more
oversight of how dollars are spent.”
Another challenge faced by government agencies is recruitment,
particularly at the most senior levels. “With the aging workforce, a
lot of the brainpower is leaving the government,” says LeapFrog’s
Martin, whose company is working with the Department of Homeland Security, among other agencies, on recruiting solutions. “One
of the hardest things to fill is the seasoned professionals.”
But the administration’s unique perspective may provide an
unexpected boost in that area—and one which may rub off on
the region’s talent-starved companies. “You’re seeing a grassroots
effort—people who want to make sure we’re giving the world a better place,” Martin says. “We’re seeing that with our own younger
employees as well.” nvtc
Mark Toner is a Reston-based writer.
13
The VIEW from RICHMOND
A Conversation
with Governor
Tim Kaine
NVTC Director of Communications
and Public Relations Art Swift
recently sat down with the
Governor to get his take on
the Obama Administration’s
technology initiatives.
14
“
Trying to standardize technology and figuring out all
the ways where technology can advance quality of life for
citizens is something I’m very excited about and obviously
something we’re trying to do here in Virginia.
Q.
A.
What do you see as the Administration’s goals in the area
of technology, especially since so much of Northern Virginia is driven by that?
I think it is very indicative of the way they want to run
government that they want to have a Chief Technology
Officer for the first time and a Chief Performance Officer for the
first time.
Our Secretary of Technology has three jobs: how to build a
technology within state government—doing it in a way that’s interoperable, where everyone talks to one another and allows us to
collaborate; how to use technology to serve citizens; and then how
to spur the technology economy. That’s what our Secretary of Technology does.
The CTO goal in the White House may be less [focused] on
spurring the technology economy—that may be more over on the
Commerce side—but this trying to standardize technology and
figuring out all the ways where technology can advance quality of
life for citizens is something I’m very excited about and obviously
something we’re trying to do here in Virginia. The other thing that
is really at the direct core of what I’m a fanatic about is performance. We shouldn’t be measured by how hard we work or what
our motives are, but we should be measured by outcomes, and these
should be external, real-world outcomes, not how many meetings
we have. So trying to make all government focus on performance
outcomes is something I think this administration is going to be
really passionate about. And it relates to technology because it’s the
technological tools and strategies that give you such good ability
to figure out which outcomes matter, track them in real time, and
make adjustments to federal policies.
Q.
A.
What would you like to hear from the CTO in terms of
how he or she would relate to the Commonwealth of
Virginia?
First, use private sector expertise in an advisory capacity. What we learn in anything that’s technology-related
here in state government is that we’re not the experts, that there’s
a tremendous amount of expertise in the private sector. The CTO
doesn’t just have to carry all on his shoulders. The CTO has to use
”
private sector experience and has to push technology solutions into
all parts of the federal government. Most agencies are using technology solutions but some are probably better at it than others so
the CTO needs to do assessments of who’s doing well and who’s
lagging behind and needs to be muscled.
Q.
You’ve been doing things during your term in a technology capacity, like digitizing records. Obviously you’re in
your last year, so what are some of the things you hope the next
Governor will do in terms of working with the Administration?
I think that there are some huge tasks that the Administration has where a focus on technology and a focus on
performance can help them. It is clearly the case that the stimulus
package is the right thing to do right now. It is also the case that, long
term, we cannot sustain the practices of the last ten years or so.
I don’t think budgetarily, in terms of running massive deficits—
we just can’t. And so you have to do some very targeted analyses of federal expenditures to figure out how to start bringing the
base budget back under some control. You can use technology as
a way to bring services to citizens and look for efficiencies there.
Use performance tools to decide what has value and what doesn’t
have value.
My proudest accomplishment in this area is the unification
of technology and performance and that’s the Virginia Performs
tool that we use to manage state government and hold ourselves
accountable. We use that to manage, we use that to make budget
decisions, we make it publicly available so that citizens and editorial writers and academics, anybody, can look and track how state
government is doing. It creates a culture of accountability in performance improvement. And I know that that’s not going to be dismantled. Once you have something like that up a Governor would
be foolish to say we don’t care about performance management
anymore. I’ve had some discussions with folks at the White House
level about getting some of my staff to work with them about doing
something similar at the federal level, so I’m hoping my successor will continue to use robust technology tools to do performance
management and work with the federal government to get them to
tackle things the same way.
A.
15
T he
V iew
F ro m
Q.
One of the things that I remember from the campaign
persistently was now-President Obama’s desire for universal broadband. How are we with that in Virginia and what efforts are being made for that?
I think we’re doing pretty well because we have had a dedicated source of revenue that we’ve been using for broadband investments. When we settled the tobacco litigation and that
created a revenue stream coming into the state budget, we dedicated half of that revenue to economic revitalization of the former
tobacco-growing regions of Southwest and South Side. A big chunk
of that revenue has gone into broadband and other kinds of telecom deployment in those regions. If we’re going to make these rural and former agricultural areas strong they’ve got to have a robust
telecom capacity so we’ve done significant broadband deployment
there. We’ve got some last-mile issues that I think are interesting.
But we’ve built the backbone that I think can serve X percent of
schools and X percent of industrial parks and communities.
A.
Q.
A.
What do you mean by last-mile issues?
How you get it from the backbone to the house or to the
business. You’ve got it out there—the network is serving
Southwest and South side and we’re doing the same kinds of deployment on the Eastern Shore—but getting that spine into each
house and business is an area where we have some challenges still,
and that’s one of the things that I had a meeting about earlier today—what in the stimulus package could we utilize for broadband
and in particular, these last-mile connections.
“
We have the tools to deal with our
challenges: we have a Rainy Day Fund,
a diverse economy, a great educational
system. So while we have to make painful
decisions at least we have some of the
tools and resources we need.
Q.
A.
”
Are there things that are being scaled back now that you
were hoping for during the campaign?
It’s too early. We certainly have a sense that the economic
challenges are going to slow some things down that we
want to do. Again, the stimulus package is huge and it starts to address two other key priorities that Barack has stated. I don’t know if
you watched the one debate, I think it was the St. Louis debate, the
Town Hall format, and people asked the question, what’s the most
16
R ich m ond
important issue to tackle as president? And Obama really stated
that the two domestic issues were a better energy future—sustainable, clean and a lot more on native sources—and health care reform. And he’s not completely waning on those two. The stimulus
package does contain elements of both of those. On energy there
are a lot of green job energy efficient-type pieces of the infrastructure package, and then on the health side there are investments in
electronic health records. That’s an important part of the stimulus
package. That’s not all of the health care reform that he wants to do
but his basic approach on the health issue is that we’ve got to get
costs under control.
One of the problems with coverage is that these costs are way
out of control. So how do you get to cover everybody? You have to
control costs. How do you control costs? You adopt a more robust
use of technology. The stimulus package already is putting dollars
into electronic health records and some of the creative uses of IT
in the health field. So while I think we have to be patient and not
everything can happen at once—it may not create an oasis in the
economy in two months—I think at least he is building his two key
priorities into the stimulus package right at the beginning of the
Administration.
Q.
A.
So that would be good for Virginia. It doesn’t sound like
anything would be lost at this time.
I don’t think so. We’re all wrestling with tough economies.
So our unemployment rate is the highest it’s been in 13
years but it’s still 2.5 percent below the national average. We have
kind of a Virginia delta that is plus whatever the national trend.
Whether the economy is good or whether it’s bad we kind of have
this little delta where we’re going to be relatively better off. We are
relatively better off now, even when we’re having to make tough
decisions. So when I have to make tough decisions I don’t walk
around too sad about them because I could be the Governor of another state. We have the tools to deal with our challenges: we have
a Rainy Day Fund, we have a diverse economy, a great educational
system. So while we have to make very painful decisions at least we
have some of the tools and resources we need to be able to make
them.
Q.
We’ve been hearing about the outsourcing issue among
our members. What do you predict will happen with that
in the next year or two, especially since so many of our member
companies deal with outsourcing in one way or another?
It’s a big one. We have to focus on areas that put Americans back to work and create a real productive labor force
here, but we have to be wary of strategies that say we can do that
by blocking these opportunities from going elsewhere. The only
real success strategy in today’s world is to be super-productive and
super-competitive and to attract opportunities. Some of the efforts
to block outsourcing are like trying to hold onto your assets but
still they run through your fingers. Because capital and things like
A.
T he
V iew
labor these days are extremely able to go around whatever barriers
you put up. You can put out any outsourcing bills you want and still
find that you lose opportunities. The only guarantor of opportunities is to be really hyper-competitive in the workforce preparation
side. And we’ve got a strategic edge there. Our universities are still
among the very best in the world and we can do more by increasing
standards in K-12. I just am wary of the strategies that say we can
hold all these opportunities here and block them from going overseas. I just think there are too many ways to get around them. That
is Tim Kaine talking. And Barack is an aggressive globalist. He’s not
a sucker about it but he’s an aggressive globalist who believes that
there’s no success strategy for this country other than being super
competitive in the global marketplace. And kind of old-fashioned
protectionism does not have success anymore.
Q.
As you know we constantly hear about the transportation issue. I don’t just want to focus on “what are we going to do,” but I hear so much about these smart traffic lights and
smart tolls, hot lanes and all of that. Do you see these things as
viable, and do you see technologies that are being developed
that you’d like to see in place for Virginia?
Certainly we’re the leader in the nation on innovative financing. Tolls, building public transit like rail to Dulles,
using enhanced property tax assessments in the corridor where
the rail will run—we’re leaders in financing. We’re developing a
technology capacity that I think will be helpful, so not only tolls
with the smart passes and variable congestion pricing but we have
a huge network of real-time cameras all throughout Northern Vir-
A.
“
F ro m
R ich m ond
Barack is an aggressive globalist.
He’s not a sucker about it but he believes
that there’s no success strategy for
this country other than being super
competitive in the global marketplace.
And old-fashioned protectionism does
not have success anymore.
”
ginia that you can use to figure out where traffic is going. A lot of
people look at that to figure out traffic routes for the day. We have
such a good platform of real-time data all throughout the Northern
Virginia area, for example. I think that’s very, very positive.
To some degree it is just a willingness to invest. Businesses invest all the time; they have to make hard investment decisions.
Businesses make investment decisions in technology and we make
investments in infrastructure; I look at it as the same thing. We put
more money into road rail and public transit. We’ve done some
good private financing. We’ve done some good land-use regulations to hopefully mitigate the continuing effects of sprawl which
create transportation inefficiencies. What I have not been able to do
17
T he
V iew
F ro m
is convince my Legislature that they have to spend more money on
roads. And so basically we’re eliminating any new road construction. All our road dollars are going to maintenance. I have a Legislature where one House has an anti-investment philosophy; if they
were in business their businesses would be going bust. You can’t
have an anti-infrastructure philosophy. And it’s interesting that
some who have this philosophy are calling me and saying, “Hey,
there’s going to be an infrastructure package, I’d like your help on
this or that project.” That’s life.
“
We are globally connected and
we have a powerful educational system.
That will keep us near the top for a
long time. As long as we invest in those
resources.
Q.
A.
”
Do you think the only way to solve this problem is
through more roads?
Well, no. I’d say maintain what you have. I think rail and
public transit have to be a bigger part of the equation. I
think there are some telework and other options. We have some
great state agencies, like the Department of Taxation, that’s a real
telework champion. But there is some degree [to which] you need
road funding. For the movement of goods and the movement of
people you’ve got to have road funding and that’s a real weakness in
the state.
Q.
A.
Have you been thinking about what you’d like your legacy as Governor to be?
Not really, because legacy, to me, is about “me.” And I’m
not really about me; I’m about what I can get done. I’m
happy about things we’ve gotten done: open space preservation,
the Chesapeake Bay work, I’m happy about this higher-ed bond
package that we did which is the biggest in Virginia history. I’m
happy with some of the things we’ve done about the expansion of
the healthcare safety net, the expansion of pre-K, mental health reform, foster care reform.
There’s a lot more things that I’m happy that we’ve gotten done,
but in terms of what I’ve done I’m going to leave that to others. That
sort of question is Tim Kaine-focused and I’m more externally focused than Tim Kaine-focused. But maybe I will say another thing
that I like: I like being the best-managed state in America. I am
a fanatic about performance management. The Governing magazine survey, we take that very seriously. I’m very happy that Forbes.
com three years in a row named us the best state for business. We
18
R ich m ond
worked really hard on that. And I’m amazed we got that two years
in a row, much less three. But the one that I like the best is Education Week saying we’re the best state in America for a child to be
born in if they want to have a successful life. It doesn’t really get
better than that.
Q.
A.
Even though in the last Forbes survey this past year they
did have a comment that while Virginia is still good,
there are chinks in the armor…
Chinks in the armor? So they may not always be able to
stay number one? Hey, I know that. This is a very competitive world. We got it the first year and they said it was going to be
annual, so I assumed we wouldn’t get it the second year because
they want to sell more magazines next year. Why would they write
it and then Virginia’s ahead again? So the chance of us being number one four years in a row? Doubtful.
Q.
A.
I think they were talking about how other states might
be gaining on Virginia and becoming overall more
friendly to business.
They have all these categories and I think they’re trying to
make it objective and not subjective and I think that that’s
good. We’re not worried that Virginia’s going to be 15th when they
say there’s chinks in the armor. I would suspect there’s a year when
we won’t be first. We have two things going for us which if we continue to keep them strong we’re going to be at the top, or the top
few, and they are: an education system that is extremely outcomefocused so we’re third in the nation for kids who take and pass AP
exams. So you’re talking about No Child Left Behind as the minimum standard, but minimum standards really don’t mean much to
people these days, it’s excellence standards that matter. AP would
be a common measure of excellence that you can compare state
to state. And the percentage increase in students passing AP each
year has been extremely robust. The National Governors Association just standardized the way graduation rates are measured, and
if you look at that Virginia is definitely in the top five. Somebody
the other day told me we were second but I haven’t verified that
yet. And in our K-12 institutions we have some of the best in the
United States. So that is one factor. I think the two factors that are
the greatest guarantors of economic success are a powerful education system and the second is global connections.
Most states don’t have a Dulles airport with 400 nonstop flights
a week to foreign cities. And most states don’t have a Port of Hampton Roads, the second most active port on the east coast of the
United States, that connects logistics, services, freight to every part
of the globe. We have other global connections too—Volkswagen
moves their North American headquarters to Virginia, Ikea opens
up their first North American production facility. I can give you
more. We are globally connected and we have a powerful educational system. That will keep us near the top for a long time. As long
as we invest in those resources. nvtc
Optimism,
Skepticism,
and Speculation
By Caron Carlson
H
ow can the new administration translate lofty
ideals and campaign
promises into actual programs and directives that
will bolster our sagging economy and, in
Obama’s words, “reaffirm the greatness of
our nation”? There is speculation all around
in the NVTC community.
“The impenetrability of government
and the mystery of government may be
over,” said NVTC Board Chair Donna
Morea, president of CGI, U.S. and India.
“This government is all about innovation.”
Government agencies “are going to have
to look for efficiencies much more aggressively than they have in the past,” said Steve
Perkins, vice president for Washington
Operations at Northrop Grumman. “In the
past, it was good government business to
do so, but now it’s an absolute necessity. I
think it will be helpful in breaking down
the normal resistance you run into.”
“Hope springs eternal,” Dr. Jack London, chairman of CACI International and
NVTC Board member, said of the big plans
out of the White House to use technology
for transformational purposes. “The thing
“This government
is all about
innovation.”
—Donna Morea, President, CGI
is, I’ve been in this industry for nearly 40
years, and this corporation has seen 10
administrations. Campaign rhetoric, I’ve
learned, for both parties, says a lot of things
that don’t get translated into actions.”
The U.S. government is a massive organization, and the White House brings
a relatively small number of people to it,
London said. What’s more, changing the
way ponderous agencies use technology
can take a very long time.
“The administration’s commitment to
interoperability and accessibility requires
that we take a really hard and new look at
cyber security,” CGI’s Donna Morea said.
“The environment for innovation will increase substantially, and there will be no
barriers between citizens and the data.
The more open and interoperable the government is, the more the need for cyber
security.”
“Today, even the most attentive network administrator or government process
manager is almost always playing catchup in trying to defend their network,” said
Northrop Grumman’s Perkins. “It’s clear
this is going to be an area of tremendous
investment.”
“The big thing is that the federal government should be using its buying power
to force the improvement of security in
commercial products and services,” said
Earving Blythe, CIO of Virginia Tech. “If
the federal government pays little attention
to the embedded security in its commercial
services and products, then the private sector is going to treat it as a lower priority,
too.”
19
The New FCC:
At the Intersection of Telecom and IT
I
t wasn’t so long ago that the federal government tried to stay out of the technology industry’s business, at least in terms of regulating it. The Federal Communications Commission tried to keep its rules focused on “communications”
services, relegating broadband to an “information” service. But the Internet’s
near-ubiquitous role in American daily life is changing that. The new FCC will likely
take on issues that blur the lines between communications and IT.
“Everything in communications is about to change,” said Jeffrey Ganek, chairman
and CEO of Neustar and NVTC Board member. “The Internet changes everything
about the business. There’s a huge gray area of overlap between voice and data, and
the market is going to make that gray area wider and wider. It’s going to take a brilliant FCC chairman to guide policy through this disruptive period.”
Two policy matters the Obama team has expressed support for are network neutrality and universal broadband. One way to make broadband available to all Americans is by reforming the age-old federal system of supporting telephone service
in hard-to-reach areas (called the Universal Service Fund). It’s something that the
FCC has worked on in the past, but there’s widespread hope that it will be further
advanced during this administration.
The idea is well-received in many parts of industry, but service providers want
to make sure that any new rules or incentives do not give one category of providers
an advantage over others. Cable companies are eager to make sure that any universal broadband rules are technology-neutral and that funds don’t flow to areas that
already have two competing providers. The policy has to focus on un-served—or
“very under-served”—areas, said NVTC Board member Janet Barnard, senior vice
president at Cox Communications.
Net neutrality has meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but
at the FCC it boils down primarily to the obligation of Internet providers to treat
all Internet traffic equally and refrain from restricting content, platforms, or service
quality to any given category of customers. The previous FCC did not wade too
deeply into the issue, but the current one is expected to. For cable companies like
Cox, it will mean mostly playing defense.
“To some degree, we feel like the net neutrality issue is a little bit of a solution looking for a problem. We don’t necessarily feel like there should be sweeping changes made to the current model,” Barnard said. “We certainly don’t want
anything to happen from a policy perspective that would limit our ability to provide
different things to meet the needs of different customers.”
One regulatory issue that is likely gone—and hopefully forgotten, from the cable
perspective—is the “a la carte” subscription initiative favored by former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. There is also hope that the new commission will take a new look
at the interconnection requirements between communications providers that make
it possible for customers to switch from one to another.
“The former commission approach was probably more favorable to the [incumbent local exchange carriers], and so we see the new administration coming in as a
hope that we are successful in receiving some level playing field treatment,” Barnard
said. “Based on what we see from this administration, they will be very interested in
promoting competition, which we’re quite fine with.” —Caron Carlson
20
Wayne Allan of Micron Technology:
“IT solutions can help with the
green technology jobs that you’ve
heard a lot of from the Obama
administration.”
O
ne week into his new job, President Obama announced plans for
investing in broadband as a way
of helping put unemployed Americans back
to work. Billions of dollars are slated for the
Department of Agriculture to expand broadband into the far reaches of the country, and
more will be channeled through the highertech agencies to further extend high-speed
connectivity.
“If you look at some of the unemployment that happens in some small towns, they
don’t have access to broadband,” said Wayne
Allan, site director for Micron Technology
and NVTC Board member. “A lot of technology jobs can be done from anywhere.”
“What we’re talking about is a digital grid
across the United States,” Allan said. “A smart
grid ties information together and allows us
to manage sources of energy. IT solutions
can help with the green technology jobs that
you’ve heard a lot of from the Obama administration.”
“We are big proponents of a smart electricity grid,” said Adam Kovacevish, a Google
spokesman. “Part of the reason renewable
energies haven’t lived up to their potential is
that we haven’t figured out how to get the energy to where people live.”
opti m is m ,
s k epticis m ,
and
spec u lation
“We have under-invested in this country in science, technology,
engineering and math education and research. Educating someone in science and math is expensive, on the capital side and on
the operational side,” said Dr. Alan Merten, president of George
Mason University and NVTC Board member. “We’ve kind of gotten lazy in our public policy.”
“Being unprepared [for university course work] is a problem
that starts basically in middle school,” said Dr. Donald Lehman,
executive vice president for Academic Affairs at The George
Washington University. A new emphasis is necessary to educate
teachers on how to teach mathematics, Lehman said, adding that
“one of the things that’s reassuring is that President Obama recognizes that.”
The technology community is eager to see how Obama’s vision
translates over the years into policies and practices. While a spirit
of optimism remains widespread, it is tempered with an understanding that inside the Beltway, change is never easy.
Said Virginia Tech’s Blythe, “I think the main hope we have today is that Obama is really the first computer and network technology user, in a big way, in the White House.” nvtc
Caron Carlson is a Washington, D.C.-based writer.
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21
NVTC TechPac 2009
A
s Virginia policymakers convene for a challenging 2009
Legislative Session where difficult decisions will be made in
an effort to address Virginia’s declining revenues, Northern
Virginia’s technology community urges the Governor and members
of the legislature to act to preserve Virginia’s status as a global
technology center and preferred location to start, expand and grow
technology businesses.
Even as state governments wrestle with substantial revenue
shortfalls and budget cuts, businesses will continue to seek locations
to expand and relocate, congestion will grow even greater in
Northern Virginia’s technology corridor, more innovative research
opportunities will present themselves, climate change will continue,
and demand for a top-notch educational system will grow along with
global competition for the workforce it produces. It is critical that
2009 budget actions preserve the gains Virginia has made in building
a globally branded technology business climate that continues to
earn the Commonwealth accolades as the best place for business, the
state with the highest concentration of tech workers, the state with
the largest number of fast-growing firms, and the second-best state
in the nation for entrepreneurs starting businesses.
Virginia’s policies and budget priorities must reflect the fact that
Northern Virginia’s technology community will be a substantial
driver of Virginia’s economic recovery and the Commonwealth’s longterm economic growth. Virginia’s technology future demands that
long-term investment not yield to short-term savings. Virginia must
aggressively deploy innovative solutions and leverage public-private
partnerships, and sustain investments in transportation, workforce,
technology-based economic development, entrepreneurship and the
Center for Innovative Technology, higher education, and research.
Address Northern Virginia’s Transportation Crisis
Addressing Northern Virginia’s transportation crisis in a significant
and meaningful way is critical to the growth of Northern Virginia’s
technology economy—and by extension to the long—term health of
the state.
■■Enact a Northern Virginia transportation funding plan to provide
a new, sustainable and dedicated annual revenue stream of $400
million to address transportation and mass transit funding needs
for this region.
■■Provide for $50 million per year in dedicated Metro funding over
the next ten years. The federal government requires Virginia, DC
and Maryland each to provide these matching funds in order to
receive $1.5 billion in federal funding for Metro.
■■Continue to advance the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project extension.
■■Implement policies, tax incentives and broadband infrastructure
to expand the use of telework in both the private and public sector
throughout the Commonwealth with a goal of 20 percent of all
eligible positions taking advantage of telework.
■■Increase cohesion within the Northern Virginia Delegation to the
General Assembly to enable our region to speak with a strong, unified, bipartisan voice on regional needs, particularly with regard to
transportation.
22
Preserve Funding for Virginia’s Institutions of Higher
Education and Do Not Impair The Flexibility of Individual Institutions In Dealing With Budget Cuts
Virginia must increase funding for its colleges and universities over the
long term. Given this year’s budget challenges, however, and the budget
cuts already placed on our colleges and universities, it is critical that
funding cuts to higher education are minimal and that policymakers
not impair the ability of individual schools to deal with budget cuts.
George Mason University (GMU) and the Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC), in particular, are primary anchors for Northern Virginia’s technology community. Despite chronic underfunding
from the Commonwealth of Virginia, these institutions have been tremendously successful in educating the technology workforce of today
and tomorrow while accommodating a disproportionate share of the
state’s enrollment growth.
■■Minimize cuts to Virginia’s institutions of higher education.
■■Do not constrain the ability of individual colleges and universities to
deal with budget cuts. It is imperative that they maintain the flexibility to ensure they are able to continue to offer a world class education,
expand capacity to accommodate student demand, recruit and retain
faculty, and drive innovation.
■■Provide Virginia students with access to all of Virginia’s colleges and
universities by increasing funding for need-based financial aid and by
funding tuition assistance grants (TAG) at adequate levels. Increase
support for the Virginia Community College Transfer Grant program to provide financial assistance to students who have completed
an Associates Degree and are transferring to a four-year institution,
and continue preferences for students in science, technology, math,
engineering and other critical need disciplines.
Keep Virginia Competitive in a Global Economy
Virginia’s technology industry operates within a highly competitive
global economy. Policymakers must ensure that the entire Commonwealth remains competitive and is poised to benefit from today’s
global economy.
■■A strong Secretary of Technology, continued support for the Virginia
Information Technologies Agency (VITA) and public-private partnerships are critical to achieving the goal of being the best place to do
business in the world. NVTC continues to support IT governance reforms that more strongly align authority, accountability and responsibility within state government.
■■Ensure the multi-state streamlined sales and use tax agreement gov-
erning taxation of e-ecommerce-based transactions provides for a
small seller exemption, a single entity for collection and audits and
adequate reimbursement for businesses prior to supporting its implementation in Virginia. In its current form, Northern Virginia’s technology community has substantial concern about the efficacy and
efficiency of this system, the additional tax collection burdens and
audit responsibilities placed on small businesses and the expansion
of tax collection responsibilities to include service-based companies
in Virginia. NVTC also remains skeptical that any revenue benefits
justify the additional burdens placed on technology business.
legislative agenda
■■Provide $5 million in annual funding for CIT which, over the past ■■Narrow the scope of the Angel Investment Tax Credit by limiting
25 years, has been instrumental in ensuring that Virginia’s education, research and workforce investments remain in the Commonwealth. CIT returns $14 to Virginia’s economy for every $1
Virginia invests.
eligibility to investments in small Virginia-based technology, biotechnology, life sciences, university spinoffs and alternative energy
start-ups, to target industries with strong potential for statewide
economic growth and job expansion.
■■Provide tax incentives to make Virginia a preferred location for ■■Increase
non-state research funding at Virginia universities
through (a) expanded efforts to secure federal funding of basic research and (b) identify opportunities to provide research services
(as opposed to transferring IP) to large corporations. Longer term,
explore opportunities to keep companies better informed of the
research being performed at Virginia universities and to improve
the pace and amount of technology transferred between universities and industry.
green technology companies and green jobs. Promote publicprivate collaboration to develop and employ green technologies;
establish incentives to encourage faster commercialization of alternative sources of energy; support voluntary, market-oriented
programs such as Energy Star to accelerate the adoption of energy
efficient technologies; and support recycling programs for information technology products that have reached the end of their
useful lives.
■■Restructure
laterally impose blanket policies on state procurement officials in
order to restrict their ability to procure goods and services from
companies that utilize offshore labor. Such policies isolate Virginia
in the global market place.
■■Update Virginia’s sales and use tax exemption for research equip-
■■Oppose the adoption of protectionist legislation that would uni-
■■Ensure broadband access for every Virginia business and citizen.
Support CIT’s Commonwealth-wide mapping initiative launched
by the Broadband Roundtable to allow state and local leaders to
identify and focus on un-served areas, offer tax incentives to promote private-sector deployment of broadband in rural areas, and
strengthen the Office of Telework and Broadband Assistance.
Increase Research Funding and Commercial Technology Transfer at Virginia Universities
Increased research funding is critical to leveraging federal and private sector research investment. University research supports the recruitment and retention of world-class faculty and graduate students,
the international credibility of Virginia’s research institutions and an
environment of entrepreneurship. Experience over the past few years
has shown Virginia universities can leverage each research dollar invested by the state to produce an additional $4 in federal and private
investment. Through strong and sustained research investments,
Virginia has the opportunity to grow its capacity for innovation and
to advance technology, to build knowledge capital, to create intellectual property with long term commercialization potential and to create new companies and new industries across the Commonwealth.
Through a strong Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), Virginia
has the ability to retain and leverage the knowledge capital we build
within the Commonwealth.
■■Restore budget cuts to CIT’s successful GAP Fund which has
earned national recognition for its efforts in encouraging Virginia
entrepreneurs and innovative technology start-up companies to
locate and grow within the Commonwealth by investing in seedstage firms and university spinoffs with a high potential for successful commercialization, rapid growth and downstream private
equity financing.
■■Preserve the $30 million plus in directed research funds appropri-
ated this fiscal year as the final installment in the 3-year $100 million plus university research package.
the Commonwealth Technology Research Fund
(CTRF) to provide for targeted state research investment on a competitive basis with an emphasis on collaborative research initiatives
between universities and the private sector with high potential for
intellectual property commercialization and job creation.
ment to reflect current research practices and activities and to elevate Virginia’s competitive research environment. While not as
competitive as the R&D tax credits offered by many states, a more
meaningful tax exemption for research will help attract more private research activity.
Provide More Highly Skilled Workers to Power
Virginia’s Technology Economy
The growth potential for Virginia’s technology industry is limited by
an insufficient number of qualified technology workers, and the education system is not graduating a sufficient number of people with
degrees in math, science, engineering and technology-related fields.
Revamp the system for accrediting teachers to address the statewide shortage of math and science teachers and to ensure all teachers have sufficient proficiency in math, science and technology.
■■
■■Incorporate industry-validated standards for knowledge regarding
technology into the Virginia Standards of Learning and provide
resources for all school systems to establish science- and technology-intensive centers of excellence.
■■Consolidate Virginia’s workforce programs and training initiatives
and ensure we have strong business community participation and
oversight. Virginia continues to operate inefficiently with more
than 20 workforce programs spending over $300 million, spread
among nine state agencies. Local workforce boards must be smaller in number, better reflect the need of local communities and in a
position to make policy decisions on workforce issues.
■■Grow Southwest Virginia’s technology economy by expanding
Virginia’s “Return to Roots” program to encourage highly skilled
workers to return to the region to live and work.
■■Better align high school graduation requirements with university
admissions requirements to make math and science requirements
more rigorous, as has been done in 12 other states.
23
P R O G R E S S
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
say they now plan to pursue a degree in a technical or math-related field.
EFF was the first organization to bring Botball
to the area in 1998, sponsoring a Gum Springs
Clubhouse Team. Since then the program has
grown to 37 teams from across the region, representing various robotics clubs and schools. The
final tournament takes place on April 18, 2009 at
Northern Virginia Community College.
Students design
their robots for the
Botball competition.
The 2009 Botball Robotics Season
Blasts Off!
The Equal Footing Foundation’s six Computer
Clubhouse Botball teams kicked off the 2009 competition with a weekend workshop at the University of Maryland, College Park. The purpose of
Botball is to engage students from all backgrounds
in using science, technology, engineering, and
math (STEM) as they work together as a team to
achieve a long-term goal. Botball gives students
the opportunity to be on the creative side of technology as they design, build, program, and document a pair of autonomous mobile robots to play
in a competition.
Each regional program begins with
its own hands-on
workshop for educators and students,
and culminates in a
public tournament
of student-built autonomous robots. As
Botball focuses on
system design and
autonomous control
(as well as mechanical
design and strategy) there is never any joystick
driving used, unlike many other robotics events.
Students must learn computer programming and
they must anticipate and plan, as they program
their robots to play on a dynamically changing
game board, in advance of the tournament.
Just over one-third of Botball students were
undecided about their college careers, but after
participating in Botball, 100% of these students
24
Equal Footing Foundation Receives
$48,000 Donation from Welz & Weisel
Communications’ Run!Geek!Run!
The Equal Footing Foundation received a total of
$48,000 in cash and technology donations from
Run!Geek!Run!, an 8K race hosted by Welz &
Weisel Communications last November.
The first-annual race featured more than 600
runners from around the region. (Learn more
about it at www.rungeekrun.net.) The next
Run!Geek!Run! is scheduled for October 2009,
in West Potomac Park, MD.
“Welz & Weisel Communications is dedicated
to playing an active role in the community and
is passionate about supporting the Equal Footing
Foundation’s mission to help kids embrace and
use today’s latest technologies,” said Evan Weisel, principal and co-founder of Welz & Weisel
Communications. “As the importance of technology continues to play an integral role in education, children’s participation in the Equal Footing
Foundation’s programs will give them the opportunity to explore all subjects, and learn professional and technical skills that will help them
become effective community leaders.”
Technology Transfer and Innovation
Forum
The Entrepreneur Center @NVTC was a co-host
of events for the Technology Transfer and Innovation Forum in December and February. Mark
Frantz, General Partner at RedShift Ventures and
NVTC Board member, headlined the December
event and discussed how in today’s challenging
economic landscape, innovators, technologists
and investors will need, more than ever, to develop and build very capital-efficient long-term business models. The February event featured Barry
Welz & Weisel Communications presents a check to Equal
Footing Foundation’s Executive Director Colleen Hahn.
Datlof, Licensing Officer, Office of Research and
Technology Applications, Medical Research and
Material Command, United States Army, and Jill
Tarzian Sorensen, Founder, Bilyan, LLC (former
Director of Tech Transfer, Johns Hopkins University), who discussed the importance of web-based
innovation management tools (multi-media and
Web resources) for building and engaging social
networks for business development and technology transfer purposes.
Young Entrepreneurs Academy 2009
The Entrepreneur Center @NVTC co-hosted
the 5th Annual Young Entrepreneurs Academy
with the George Mason University School of
Management on February 20, 2009. The event
brought together aspiring student entrepreneurs
to learn practical business skills and gain advice
from seasoned entrepreneurs on strategies for
successful business development. This full-day
event, attended by more than 80 promising college students, featured a series of panel discussions, a roundtable discussion so students could
discuss their business ideas, and the opportunity
for one-on-one advising sessions with seasoned
entrepreneurs.
Panel discussions were held on key important
entrepreneurial topics, including what is an entrepreneur, taking an idea and making it an opportunity, marketing, finance and team building.
At one of the sessions, successful young entrepreneurs described their personal experiences, the
strategies required to build a better business, and
the tools needed to compete in today’s market.
A highlight of the academy was the keynote
address by Dr. Edgar Cahn, founder of TimeBanks and an Ashoka Senior Fellow, who discussed the importance of social entrepreneurship
in today’s society.
Emerging Business and Technology
Showcase
On December 18 the NVTC Emerging Business
& Entrepreneur Committee hosted an event focused on how to survive in an economic downturn. The event featured a lively panel discussion
that allowed the audience to hear from individuals with first-hand knowledge and experience in
living through an economic decline.
The panelists for the event included Ken Bartee, Former President of McDonald Bradley; David Wiley, Founder, CEO and President, Widelity; and Matt Goddard, CEO and Co-Founder,
R2i and the discussion was moderated by Darlene
Darcy, Washington Business Journal. Also, for
the first time, the EB&E Committee showcased
a number of the area’s emerging technology businesses. The exhibiting companies were selected
because they offered innovative cost-saving solutions, efficiency and productivity that are essential to surviving uncertain economic conditions.
(Exhibiting companies listed at right.) nvtc
The following companies
exhibited at the December
Technology Showcase:
KnowledgeBank
LeverPoint, inc.
American Remote Help Desk
www.ClickforHelp.com
CrossMine
Intridea
KZO Innovations, Inc.
Results Software
Unanet
WorkProducts
Carpathia Hosting, Inc.
Cranial Tap
LogicStudio
AccessibleTech
Aptela
Equilibrium Networks
Searchles
Softential
CC Pace
NexVortex
R2Integrated
Trusted Integration
Students learn about practical business skills at the Young Entrepreneurs Academy.
25
UP CLOSE
Stacy Mendler
& PERSONAL
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Alion Science and Technology
NVTC Member Since:
In 1998, IITRI (our predecessor) joined NVTC. That’s when we
started having a more prominent presence in the NoVA area.
I try to be home at 6:00 to have dinner as a family and focus on
homework. After the kids are in bed, I usually continue with
work.
Favorite NVTC Memory:
There are so many it is impossible to pick!
What’s your view of the current economy?
I don’t think we know the full impact of what has occurred yet.
However, I am seeing a change in the dynamics of our workforce. In
general, I think people are a little more conservative in their career
choices and there is a little less interest in hopping from job to job.
Value of NVTC Membership Is:
Social networking is extremely valuable. I have met so many
people that have introduced new ideas to me, and as a result,
Alion has benefited.
“Routine” Work Day Includes:
Starts with getting the kids ready for their day. I am usually in
the office by 8:00. At 9:00 the meetings start and they go all day.
26
How does Alion stay ahead of the game, in terms of tech
innovation?
Alion has a lot of really smart scientists, engineers and PhDs.
We learned a while ago that we need to continually invest in
innovation through internal research and development, which
B U S I N E S S
excites our employees. This investment has
created a stream of high-tech products and
tools that we use to solve problems for our
customers and stay ahead of the game.
P A R T N E R S
www.aol.com
www.cgi.com
If I wasn’t working at Alion, I would be:
Spending more time with my family.
When I was a kid I dreamed of being:
An anchorwoman
Proudest Accomplishment
(professional or otherwise):
Helping create Alion as an employee-owned
high-tech company.
Three adjectives that best describe you:
Honest, hardworking, reliable
www.csc.com
www.cit.org
www.deloitte.com
www.eds.com
www.ey.com
www.kpmg.com
Suit, khakis or jeans:
Ugh…suit and jeans for my double life.
PC or Mac?
PC
www.leetechnologies.com
Blackberry or Treo?
Blackberry
www.microsoft.com
www.northropgrumman.com
Technology you CAN’T live without:
Cell Phone and Blackberry
www.pwc.com
Technology you CAN live without:
Fax
Last book you read:
Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas
Friedman…if I don’t include the books I
read with my kids.
www.pillsburylaw.com
www.saic.com
Favorite Movie of All Time:
Elf
DAVID KIDD
Top Vacation Destination:
Vail or Aspen
Words of advice for any emerging
entrepreneur:
Partnering can be a key step in making your
way to the customer or to the top. There is
no substitute for hard work.
www.sprint.com
www.venable.com
M E D I A
P A R T N E R
www.1105govinfo.com
27
B O A R D
O F F I C E R S
Chair
Donna Morea, CGI
donna.morea@cgi.com
President & CEO
Bobbie Kilberg,
Northern Virginia Technology Council
bkilberg@nvtc.org
Vice Chair
Jim O’Neill, Siemens Enterprise
Communications
jroneill@siemens.com
Vice Chair
Brad Antle, Bradford SCG
brad.antle@bradford-scg.com
Secretary
Chris Cantarella, Heidrick & Struggles
ccantarella@heidrick.com
Treasurer
Chris Simmons, PricewaterhouseCoopers
chris.j.simmons@us.pwc.com
General Counsel
Scott Hommer, Venable LLP
SHommer@Venable.com
Public Relations Advisor
Evan Weisel, Welz & Weisel Communications
evan@w2comm.com
O F
D I R E C T O R S
Wayne Allan, Micron Technology
wrallan@micron.com
Paul Leslie, Apptis
paul.leslie@apptis.com
David Lucien, DCL Associates
David.Lucien@comcast.net
John Allen, BB&T/Windsor Capital Markets
jallen@bbandtcm.com
Jack London, CACI International
jlondon@caci.com
Sudhakar Shenoy, IMC
ss1@imc.com
Anne Altman, IBM
altmana@us.ibm.com
Lisa Martin, LeapFrog Solutions
lmartin@leapfrogit.com
Honorary Members
Janet Barnard, Cox Communications
janet.barnard@cox.com
Kevin McNerney, Korn/Ferry International
kevin.mcnerney@kornferry.com
Doug Boggs, Patton Boggs
dboggs@pattonboggs.com
Stacy Mendler, Alion Science
and Technology
smendler@alionscience.com
Loren Burnett, StackSafe
lburnett@stacksafe.com
John Burton, Updata Partners
jburton@updata.com
Ted Cahall, AOL Platforms and Technologies
Ted.Cahall@corp.aol.com
Ed Casey, Serco, North American Division
ed.casey@serco-na.com
John Mendonca, KPMG
jmendonca@kpmg.com
Alan Merten, George Mason University
amerten@gmu.edu
Linda Mills, Northrop Grumman Information
Systems
Linda.Mills@ngc.com
Dan Gonzalez, Appian Realty Advisors
Equal Footing Foundation
dgonzalez@appianllc.com
Gerald Gordon, Fairfax County Economic
Development Authority
ggordon@fceda.org
Peter Jobse, Center for Innovative Technology
pjobse@cit.org
Gary Shapiro, Consumer Electronics Association
gshapiro@ce.org
Senior Advisory
Kent Murphy, Luna Innovations
km@lunainnovations.com
Greg Baroni, Digital Management
gbaroni@aol.com
Gary Nakamoto, Base Technologies
gnakamoto@basetech.com
Mark Bisnow, Bisnow on Business
Mark@bisnow.com
Gary Pan, Pancea Consulting
gpan@panatech.com
James Bundschuh, Marymount University
james.bundschuh@marymount.edu
Kevin Parker, Deltek Systems
kevinparker@deltek.com
Jim Duffey
jduffey1@gmail.com
Mark Frantz, RedShift Ventures
mfrantz@redshiftventures.com
Gerald Rubin, Janelia Farm Research Campus
of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
rubing@janelia.hhmi.org
Hooks Johnston, Valhalla Partners
hooks@valhallapartners.com
Jeffrey Ganek, NeuStar
jeff.ganek@neustar.biz
Rene Salas, Ernst &Young
rene.salas@ey.com
Bob Kahn, Corporation for National Research
Initiatives
rkahn@cnri.reston.va.us
Stanley J. Gutkowski, Accenture
stanley.j.gutkowski@accenture.com
David Schaefer, AH&T Insurance
dschaefer@ahtins.com
Jim LeBlanc, Unity Resources Group
jleblanc@ix.netcom.com
Peter C. Harrison, GlobalLogic
peter.harrison@globallogic.com
Brad Schwartz, Blue Canopy
bschwartz@bluecanopy.com
Andy Harrs, Deloitte
aharrs@deloitte.com
Jim Sheaffer, CSC North American
Public Sector
jsheaffer@csc.com
Donald R. Lehman, The George Washington
University
lehman@gwu.edu
Craig Chason, Pillsbury
craig.chason@pillsburylaw.com
Brooke Coburn, The Carlyle Group
brooke.coburn@carlyle.com
Enrico Della Corna, PNC
enrico.dellacorna@pnc.com
Bob Dinkel, FedResults
Bob.Dinkel@fedresults.com
Deepak Hathiramani, Vistronix
Deepak.hathiramani@vistronix.com
Ted Hengst, Harris Corporation
ted.hengst@harris.com
Steve Hills, The Washington Post Company
hillss@washpost.com
Bob Johnson, Sprint Nextel
bob.l.johnson@sprint.com
Dan Johnson, General Dynamics IT
s.daniel.johnson@gdit.com
Sudhakar Kesavan, ICF International
skesavan@icfi.com
Bruce Klein, Cisco Systems
klein13@cisco.com
Curt Kolcun, Microsoft
curtk@microsoft.com
Jim Leto, GTSI
jim.leto@gtsi.com
Paul Lombardi, INpower
pvlombard@aol.com
Dennis Stolkey, EDS, an HP Company
dennis.stolkey@eds.com
George Newstrom, Lee Technologies
gnewstrom@leetechnologies.com
Lydia W. Thomas, Noblis
lthomas@noblis.org
Len Pomata
pomatalen@yahoo.com
Chairmen Emeriti
Doug Poretz, Qorvis Communications
dporetz@qorvis.com
John Backus, New Atlantic Ventures
john@navfund.com
Knox Singleton, Inova Health System
knox.singleton@inova.org
Dan Bannister, Bannister Enterprises
dbannister@mintex.net
Charles W. Steger, Virginia Tech
steger@vt.edu
Ed Bersoff, Advanced Technology Systems
ebersoff@atsva.com
Bob Templin, Northern Virginia Community
College
rtemplin@nvcc.edu
Kathy Clark
katherineclark@cox.net
Mike Daniels, SAIC
michael.a.daniels@saic.com
John C. Lee IV, Lee Technologies
jlee@leetechnologies.com
Earle Williams
ewillms@aol.com
Dendy Young, McLean Capital
dendy.young@gmail.com
Mission
The Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) is the membership and trade association for the technology community in Northern Virginia, and is the largest technology council in the nation. NVTC has more than 1,000 member companies representing approximately 200,000 employees. Its membership includes companies from all sectors of the technology industry and the service providers
that support those companies, as well as universities, foreign embassies, non-profit organizations and governmental agencies. NVTC is
recognized as the nation’s leader in providing its technology community with networking and educational events, specialized services
and benefits, public policy advocacy, branding of its region as a major global technology center, initiatives in targeted business sectors
and—in the international, entrepreneurship, workforce and education arenas—the Equal Footing Foundation that focuses on venture
philanthropy and public/private partnerships and The Entrepreneur Center @NVTC to mentor new technology entrepreneurs.
28
N E W
M E M B E R S
A SOLID, ECONOMICAL, AND EXPEDIENT PATH
FOR WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT IN ENGINEERING
Technology Companies
ACCESS Litigation, an EDMOND
Scientific Company
www.edmondsci.com
Amplifier
www.amplifierventures.com
C3 Integrated Solutions
Canvas Solutions Inc.
www.gocanvas.com
Centinum Consulting Inc.
www.centinuminc.com
Consult2Comply
www.consult2comply.com
Counterpoint Consulting, LLC
www.counterpointconsulting.com
Distributive Management
www.distributive.com
EKT Group
www.ektgroup.com
Four Gates, LLC
www.4gatesllc.com
Goal Inc., The
www.thegoalinc.com
Greystones Consulting Group, LLC
www.greystonesconsulting.com
Integrated Secure
www.IntegrateSecure.com
Intelligent Office
www.intelligentoffice.com
Intridea, Inc.
www.intridea.com
JNetDirect, Inc.
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NEMEA
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Projility
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Rally Software
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Steel City RE, LLC
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Trinity Video Communications
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Twin Technologies
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Visual Mining, Inc.
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Volkswagen Group of America
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Associate Companies
1105 Government Information Group
www.1105govinfo.com
Accounting Principals
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AOC Key Solutions, Inc.
www.aockeysolutions.com
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Braswell Nees Group
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MSBD, Inc.
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PeopleCom Inc.
www.people com.net
Phoenix Management Services
www.phoenixmanagement.com
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Racepoint Group
www.racepointgroup.com
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RTM Consulting, LLC
www.rtmconsulting.net
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Snowbird Capital
CM
www.snowbirdcapital.com
MY
TBP Services, Inc.
Technology Support Center, Inc. CY
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CMY
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www.TheChiefStoryteller.com
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winmarkcorporation.com
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BDO Seidman, LLP
Beers + Cutler
Bisnow on Business
Blue Canopy
Bowne DC
Burke Consortium, Inc.
Cabot Consultants
Canadian Embassy
Capital One
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June 24,
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6:30-9:00 pm
Nominate your company today
for the following categories:
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Hottest Buzz
Hottest Emerging Government Contractor
Hottest Exit
Hottest International Company
Hottest Management Team
Hottest Venture Capital Deal
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31
No magazine reaches
more technology
decision-makers
than The Voice of
Technology.
The Voice of Technology delivers to advertisers the
largest number of technology industry decisionmakers in the region. Published quarterly, the
magazine, which is the official publication of
NVTC, delivers your message in a well-packaged
format along with “must know” news for northern
Virginia’s technology community.
To learn more about The Voice of Technology, call
Michele Weatherly at (703) 904-7878 or e-mail
advertising@nvtc.org.
Summer 2009 Issue (June)
Features: Gadgets and Gizmos
Reservation Deadline: April 15, 2009
32
ENCOURAGING A NEW
GENERATION OF DIGIGIRLZ
By Donna Woodall,
Community Outreach Manager, Microsoft Corporation
In recent years, fewer
young women have
been pursuing degrees
in information technology (IT). Experts offer many reasons: limited awareness of technology careers, stereotypes about
people who work in IT, few women mentors and a
lack of encouragement for girls to take science and
math courses. This decline has occurred despite
the fact that technology continues to have a profound impact on our daily lives—and that many of
society’s most exciting innovations are taking place
in computing and on the Internet.
Microsoft’s DigiGirlz program aims squarely at
changing this trend. Over the past eight years, the
program has given thousands of high school girls
the opportunity to learn, up close, about the wide
range of career choices available in business and
technology—and to see the important contributions
that women bring to the workplace through their
diverse viewpoints, creativity, unique talents and
ability to work collaboratively.
At 16 day-long workshops and seven multi-day
camps held around the country this year, DigiGirlz
participants will get to know women who work at
Microsoft, experience cool new Microsoft technology and products, and participate in hands-on
computer experiences.
At a DigiGirlz Camp in the Metro D.C. area at
the end of July, I will talk about the incredibly broad
range of technical and nontechnical jobs at Microsoft—from software development to product design
and marketing.
I owe my long career in the technology industry,
in part, to mentors who helped expand my horizons. Throughout my school years, I excelled in
math and science, but I wouldn’t have considered a
job in the IT industry if it hadn’t been for a mentor
who encouraged me to take classes in computer
science. Captivated by the numeric puzzles of computer algorithms, I earned a degree in computer
science and engineering, which led me on my path
to Microsoft.
In addition to the rewarding parts of my job
as a community outreach manager – working with
talented people, helping bring technology into our
communities and travelling to interesting places
– I’m proud to work for a company committed to
attracting talented women to the IT industry and
to its own workforce. We do this through college
internships, leadership and career development
opportunities for employees, generous work/life
balance programs, and awareness programs like
DigiGirlz.
DigiGirlz has given thousands of young
women the opportunity to learn about career
choices in business and technology.
With as many as 1 million new IT jobs becoming available in the United States over the next
six years, the importance of creating a pipeline
of talented young women interested in IT careers
is greater than ever. Equally important are the
contributions that the next generation of DigiGirlz
can make by applying their talents and diverse
viewpoints to help companies innovate and develop
products and services that meet a wide range of
customer needs.
Donna Woodall is the Community Outreach Manager and
citizenship lead for the Mid-Atlantic District and Public Sector
business for Microsoft in Washington, D.C. Donna holds a
Computer Science and Engineering degree from Brown
University and a MBA in International Business from the
McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.
Learn more at microsoft.com/issues
© 2008 Microsoft Corporation
NVTC Golf Tournament
to benefit the Equal Footing Foundation
May 4, 2009
The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club at Creighton Farms
Aldie, VA
Recent accolades for The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Creighton Farms
Travel and Leisure Golf : Best New Private Golf Course for 2008
Golf Digest: #4 Best New Private Golf Club for 2008
Golf Magazine: #6 Best New Private Golf Club for 2008
Sponsorships are now available
Contact Christine Kallivokas at 703-904-7878
or christine@nvtc.org
2214 Rock Hill Road, Suite 300
Herndon, VA 20170
www.nvtc.org

Yes, They Can

Transcription

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