Northrop Grumman’s Hugh Taylor has recently been named one of 2008’s Most Important Blacks in Technology by the editors of U.S. Black Engineer and Information Technology magazine.

Taylor is the former Northrop Grumman Chief Information Officer overseeing more than $1 billion in IT assets, processes and personnel. Now, in his role as Interim President of the Civilian Agencies business group, Taylor provides IT services to federal agencies such as Health and Human Services, the Department of Justice, and Department of Homeland Security.

This is not the first technology award for Taylor, who has been working at Northrop Grumman for over twenty years. At the 2007 Black Engineer of the Year conference, he received the Technical Sales and Marketing award, which acknowledges exceptional leadership in the development, marketing and sale of cutting-edge technologies.

Read the full U.S. Black Engineer and IT Magazine here.

I just finished reading a fascinating report by David Wyld called The Blogging Revolution: Government in the Age of Web 2.0. Not only was it academically rigorous, but it was also a fun read. Now that’s a rare achievement. Wyld is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University, where he directs the College of Business’s Strategic e-Commerce/e-Government Initiative. He is also a noted speaker, and will be presenting as part of a government track panel at the upcoming Web 2.0 conference.

According to Wyld, public officials are just beginning to have blogs, despite the fact that blogs have become popular on corporate and individual Web sites. However, a handful of officials do have them, including members of Congress, Congressional committees and caucuses, governors, state legislators, mayors, city managers, police and fire chiefs, and college and university presidents. Wyld’s report includes links to dozens of their sites. And of course, we are seeing blogs used in the 2008 presidential campaigns; Barack Obama’s blog is probably among the best known.

Blogs aren’t just for individual public figures. Some public organizations are beginning to have blogs. Wyld illustrates this using the U.S. military, which is trying to deal with terrorism in the Information Age through the use of STRATCOM. One core function of STRATCOM is to allow blogging and chats between everyone from generals to privates. The system radically cuts through the hierarchy that normally defines military culture by allowing anyone—at any level—to respond directly to others’ questions.

Wyld is an expert on what government officials should and should not do when setting up and running and a blog, and believe me, he’s seen it all. A few of his key recommendations include making a serious time commitment, posting regularly, writing it yourself, and allowing comments. (He also recommends not posting angry messages at 2 a.m., but you’ll have to see the report for his juicy example.)

Allowing comments is the most delicate area. According to Wyld, Mayor Bill Gentes of Round Lake, Illinois, says, “I allow uncensored comments so I get the negatives, positives, and the inane!” But Gentes loves the format and feels it allows for an honest exchange. However, a much more common model in both the public and private sector for comments is to have registration, moderation, comment policies, and CAPTCHA technology. Without these measures, anonymous negative posters can hijack your blog; this very thing happened to one unfortunate school superintendent, as Wyld illustrates in a case study.

I highly recommend his report, and I know he’ll be an informative and engaging speaker. To hear from David Wyld in person, come to the Web 2.0 conference and attend his panel on Current Web 2.0 Initiatives within Government Agencies.

Since 9/11, the intelligence community has been looking for ways to do a better job of sharing information between agencies. Chris Rasmussen is a knowledge manager and trainer for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency within the Department of Defense, and he’s a dynamic part of that effort. He’s a thought leader in the application of Web 2.0 tools to intelligence goals, especially social software. You won’t want to miss his session in the government track at the upcoming Web 2.0 conference on November 1; Rasmussen is an exceptional speaker.

If you’re part of the intelligence community, then you know about Intellipedia and A-Space, two huge Web 2.0 developments that promote better interagency communication. Rasmussen has made it his mission to promote both tools, along with other social software tools like blogs and mashups—all of which are inexpensive and agency-neutral.

Let’s take Intellipedia first. If you’re unfamiliar with it, here’s a quick rundown. It’s a set of three wikis—one each for JWICS, SIPRNet, and Intelink-U—used by all 16 agencies in the US intelligence community. On screen, it looks exactly like Wikipedia, because it uses the same software, Mediawiki. Just like with Wikipedia, any user can make changes to any piece of data. However, with Intellipedia, the author’s name is always attached to the change.

Rasmussen points out that Intellipedia lets users connect with people who have the knowledge they need. He also believes that information that’s been edited by a huge number of people is much stronger than a single report. And everyone from generals to privates can use the system, he stresses. So people at all levels, from all agencies, involved in all kinds of projects, get involved in improving the information on Intellipedia.

A-Space incorporates Intellipedia and takes another step forward in complexity. It’s essentially a portal designed to eventually include all kinds of things: wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, joint Web-based word processing, mashups, tagging, and more, built on a services-oriented architecture. The goal is to provide an even larger framework in which the intelligence community can share information efficiently.

Intellipedia and A-Space just might be changing the face of intelligence communications. Chris Rasmussen is convinced that these open source methods of intelligence are the best thing for the future. Intrigued? Come hear more.

All of the panels at the upcoming Web 2.0 conference on November 1 look excellent, but there’s one I’m particularly interested in. “Politics on the Web, by the Web, and for the Web” at The New New Internet conference features four very talented individuals from the world of politics and technology. Together, this panel should offer a fascinating and balanced look into the way Web 2.0 technologies are shaping our political future.

Joe Trippi

Joe Trippi, one of the panel members, is the Senior Advisor for John Edwards’s presidential campaign. You may remember him as a Campaign Manager for Howard Dean—the man who was known for being the first to integrate the Web into his presidential campaign in earnest. Joe Trippi was the one making the magic happen.

Trippi has a long history of working on Democratic presidential campaigns—he’s worked in politics for 30 years. In recent years, he has focused on using the Web as a political tool, and he’s earned a solid reputation.

He’s currently guiding the Edwards campaign in implementing various Internet strategies to try to cut through the two-sided Clinton-Obama race. Trippi and Edwards know that using traditional means alone won’t do it, so they’re using social networking, blogging, Web videos, and other Web 2.0 techniques.

Cyrus Krohn

Then there’s the GOP. They dominate talk radio, and now they’re determined to master the Internet. They’ve chosen Cyrus Krohn as their man. More specifically, the Republican National Committee recently picked Krohn to be the Director of their eCampaign Division.

The Republicans are definitely playing catch-up when it comes to the Web, but Krohn has an excellent background to tackle the job. A 10-year Microsoft veteran, he was the publisher of their webzine, Slate.com. He’s done political advertising for Microsoft MSN.com, directed election strategy at Yahoo!, and even interned for Vice President Dan Quayle.

Krohn takes an interesting approach to using Web 2.0 as a political tool. While he feels that social networking and similar “hot” techniques are important, he’s more interested in the solid favorites like Yahoo! and Microsoft MSN. This may be very smart thinking, considering how many people still center their activities around mainstream sites like these.

John Della Volpe

Everyone uses Web 2.0 technologies these days, but the younger generation was the first to discover things like blogging and social networking. John Della Volpe is the third member of the panel, and he understands how young voters’ opinions are being shaped by these kinds of tools. He’s the Director of Polling at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics. Volpe leads public opinion survey groups regarding the Millennial Generation’s attitudes toward politics, public service, and the media. (The Millennial Generation constitutes young adults between 18 and 30.)

Volpe has more than a decade of experience with presidential campaigns and has analyzed dozens of high-profile races. He has seen how voter turnout has increased among young people, the kinds of political issues that motivate young adults today, and how their views on foreign policy differ from those of earlier generations—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. He understands how social media and technology are influencing the 2008 campaign, especially with respect to young voters.

Gary Arlen

Gary Arlen is the panel’s fourth member. He is President of Arlen Communications, a DC-area research and consulting firm that specializes in converging media, telecommunications, and information services. What Arlen brings to the panel is a rich background in new media and emerging technology, areas he’s been analyzing for more than 20 years.

Arlen has foreseen new trends, like the way video and data services would come to be controlled by the customer. He’s also a leader in interactive content and Internet e-commerce. His extensive understanding of media and telecommunications should inform the panel discussion on how Web 2.0 technologies have evolved to become so effective as political tools.

Four Top Leaders

This panel discussion should be lively. Any time you combine politics with four intelligent leaders, you get interesting results. Perhaps we’ll even hear a debate between Trippi and Krohn—Democrat versus Republican—about the relative merits of blogging versus MSN tools. Attend the Web 2.0 conference to find out.

Dr. Brand Niemann is a leader in the use of Web 2.0 technology in the public sector. With a 27-year government career under his belt, he currently serves as Senior Enterprise Architect in the Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Environmental Protection Agency. ExecutiveBiz is honored to have him speak in the government track at our upcoming Web 2.0 conference on November 1 at the Reston Hyatt.

Dr. Niemann has received a number of accolades for his work in technology and Web 2.0. He’s been recognized by the EPA; the Department of the Interior; LOTUS Best Application; ComputerWorld-Smithsonian Innovation Competition; and the Office of Management and Budget and the Quad Council—just to name a few.

Interoperability—so critical to cross-agency communication—has been a central focus of Dr. Niemann’s work. In fact, he’s using his Web 2.0 knowledge to write an online book titled Data Architecture, Modeling, and Networks: EPA and Cross-Agency Data Architecture, Sharing, and Reuse.

Dr. Niemann is also known as a leader for using Web 2.0 technologies to enhance communities of practice (CoP). For example, he uses Wiki technology to provide training in conjunction with communities of practice. He’s also the Co-Chair of both the Federal Semantic Interoperability CoP (SICoP) and the Federal Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) CoP.

In line with his work supporting communities of practice, Dr. Niemann helps them put on Web 2.0–related events, like the 4th SOA for E-Government Conference. He stays busy with conferences, it seems; Federal Computer Week asked him to help organize The 22^nd Semi-Annual Spring Government CIO Summit, which he did, including giving a keynote speech.

Dr. Niemann sees Web 2.0 as an integral part of the government’s future, and he’s actively involved in making it happen. For example, he has served as Secretariat of the Best Practices Committee of the Federal CIO Council. Also, having worked with XML Web services, emerging technology, eBusiness, webcasting, and many more Web 2.0 technologies, he has seen the agility and productivity they bring to the workplace.

In addition to the upcoming Web 2.0 conference on November 1, those interested in the subject may find the Collaborative Expedition Workshops hosted by the GSA and the NSF to be helpful. And for free Wiki and other Web 2.0 tools, users can go to the Collaborative Work Environment. Thanks go to Dr. Niemann for pointing out these helpful resources.

Hughes Communications is about to make my life so much easier. Let me explain. My mom lives in rural Northwest Washington state, where the biggest development each time I visit is the location of the newest clear-cut. It’s rural. Very, very rural. My normally timid retired mother has learned to drive like a bat out of heck on roads that curve violently around the hills and mountains. When I’m with her in the car, I clutch the door frame and pray.

Yet when it comes to Internet service at her house, it’s always been dial-up…excruciatingly slow dial-up. Nothing else was available. (No broadband provider was crazy enough to string a cable from her clutch of homes to the nearest small city, 35 miles away.) I love my mom, but dial-up makes me want to scratch out my eyes.

Behold, the coming of Hughes Communications to her forested neighborhood. Based in Germantown, Maryland, Hughes provides just the type of services my mom desperately needs: Internet service via satellite to rural areas where other broadband options aren’t available. She’d been talking generically about satellite for a while, but then it happened. We were chatting on the phone this week, and suddenly she said to me, “Well, we got HughesNet up and running.”

“Wait,” I say, “You mean, you really got satellite Internet? Finally? I can send you big files—with pictures, and videos, and…” I continued to sputter in excitement. And anything larger than 48K, I’m thinking to myself. Geez, her old system was so slow. And now when I visit her little paradise near the Pacific Ocean, I can enjoy the same high-speed luxury as when I’m ensconced in my suburban DC office. Now you understand why I am worshiping Hughes Communications like a forbidden idol.

Providing broadband service to consumers like my mom as well as small businesses is, in fact, the firm’s fastest-growing segment. Currently, however, it derives most of its revenue by managing satellite networks for national companies with a multitude of locations and providing government services.

Hughes’s growth since its founding in 1971 has led it to be the 35^th largest public company in the greater DC region, according to The Post 200, a report published by The Washington Post. That’s based on 2006 revenues, which totaled $858.7 million. The company moved successfully to the Nasdaq in 2006 after going through a change in ownership.

Hughes announced three executive appointments to its board in June of this year. All hold the title of director:

As promised, this post follows up on yesterday’s account of the Walker & Dunlop reception. Held last Wednesday, the event was hosted by the firm’s CEO, Will Walker, who has extensive senior management experience. The firm’s gathering gave some of the DC region’s leading executives a chance to exchange business cards, talk shop, and even make a few deals.

Bob Cohen, president and lead producer at DC’s Perseus Realty, was one high-profile individual at last week’s event. His firm focuses entirely on commercial property investments as well as office, industrial, retail, and residential development.

Bill Wolfe from First Washington Realty in Bethesda also came out to greet his compatriots. First Washington is a privately-owned investment and management company specializing in community shopping centers throughout the US and abroad. Wolfe, a Harvard-educated president and CEO, also served in the Executive Office of the President of the United States.

Stan Sloter, president of Bethesda’s Paradigm Companies, joined the many real estate and business executives filling the Metropolitan Club on September 5.

Speaking of business, who can keep Washington DC’s Carlyle Group far from mind these days? It’s been all over the news lately regarding mergers and acquisitions, making powerful moves to grow the firm. Some of its former executives are doing pretty well for themselves, and Carlyle graduate Esko Korhonen was present at this suit-filled shindig. He’s a founding partner of Federal Capital Partners (FCP), a leading real estate development and investment company.

Yes, the movers were shaking and the shakers were moving. Well, symbolically anyway. It’s kind of hard to really get your groove going in your best suit and silk tie—or heels and a straight skirt. But there’s a certain fire present when you know you’re surrounded by the best of the bunch.

The Post’s WashBiz Blog published a piece on Friday that looked like the “bold” setting had gotten stuck on the writer’s keyboard. The usage was appropriate, though, as the article highlighted the names of top executives who had attended Walker & Dunlop’s Wednesday reception at the Metropolitan Club. Located in Bethesda, Walker & Dunlop is an investment bank and real estate company, and their reception brought together high-ranking business and real estate professionals from the Washington DC region.

The name dropping started with Daniel Mudd, CEO of Fannie Mae, who attended the event with Ken Bacon, executive vice president for housing and community development. More CEOs dotted the scene, including Tom Bozzuto of The Bozzuto Group, who won Executive of the Year in 2005 in the multifamily housing industry. Mark Ein, founder and CEO of Venturehouse Group—and entrepreneur extraordinaire—joined the impressive guest list.

More big names were mentioned as attendees, like Frank Saul III, a leading executive at Chevy Chase Bank, as well as successful developer John Mason. Bernstein Management, a real estate management and investment company, was represented by its president, Josh Bernstein. And the JBG Companies, a powerhouse in the real estate industry, was present via managing partner Rob Stewart.

This was definitely an important networking event, especially for the real estate and investment community, and I’m sure at least 1,000 handshakes were exchanged. To find out about additional top executives who attended the Walker & Dunlop reception, stay tuned for my second post on the topic, which will be published tomorrow.

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This week, we interviewed Timothy Ferriss, a dynamic 30-year-old CEO on the West Coast. His new book, The 4-Hour Workweek, has been the number one New York Times business bestseller and Wall Street Journal bestseller. In his book, he reveals an entirely new way of doing business. We talked with him about what inspired him to write the book and how he believes it can help others make time for the good life.

Read the full interview here.

Paul Cofoni has been tapped to replaced Dr. J.P. “Jack” London as CEO of CACI. Dr. London will stay on board as Chairman.

A former Naval Officer, Dr. London’s leadership brought stunning growth to CACI, and led CACI’s rapid entrée into the information security and Intelligence Community arenas. Cofoni has big shoes to fill as he steps into the CEO role as CACI flourishes through its fourth decade of growth.

Dr. London turned CACI into a voracious buyer, making 35 deals since 1993, including acquisition of two firms just this year. “The most important thing to me,” Dr. London said when asked in a 2005 interivew about his acquisition strategy, “is the people and the business culture; their view of what they do in the market place and their attitude toward the government contracting arena. I am obviously interested in their skill sets and technology and customer relations, but I’m very keen on cultural attitudes of an organization.”

Prior to joining CACI, Cofoni was President, Federal Sector, of Computer Sciences Corporation. Federal Sector revenues under Cofoni exceeded $5B in 2005, according to CACI’s website. In a speech last November to shareholders, he was optimistic about CACI’s continued growth. “Congress is solidly behind strong funding for our clients,” Cofoni said to shareholders. “We are strategically positioned in our markets, and offer advanced and innovative solutions aligned with our customers’ highest priorities – defense, intelligence, homeland security, and government transformation.”

Click here for the full 2005 interivew with Dr. London, and here for full bios of Dr. Jack London and Paul Cofoni.

Dr. Jack London will be the speaker in our series: “Been There Done That“, Executive Biz’s newest members-only series focusing on bringing expert speakers to discuss strategies in successfully building and selling your business. Visit Executive Biz for more details and to register for the September event.