Technology: My first strength (and love) is technology: understanding what has been accomplished, how it can be applied, and how multiple technologies and information can be combined into effective products. I am creative: At BBN, over a 20 year period I was directly associated with 8 innovative products or systems, most of them centered on the Internet. At Genuity and at Level 3, I headed up a small group of developers who built prototypes of new applications that demonstrate the power of the Internet. Two of these applications -- "Meetings over IP" and "My NOC" took of existing Genuity / Level 3 products (Voice over IP and customer specific network monitoring and configuration data) and used them in innovative ways that created more demand for our existing products.

Over the past 30 years, I have learned that innovative Internet technology is necessary, but not sufficient for creating a successful business. Critical for success is the cost, simplicity, reliability, and maintainability of a product. In addition, a successful product or service must combine well with existing legacy systems as well as extend into the future by being open to working with new systems that haven't been written yet. At Genuity and Level 3, I took these ideas and built systems with a very small, but highly motivated teams producing rapid product refinements based on customer feedback. I believe these rapid design, development and deployment strategies are the key to succeeding in this era.

At CMGI I was Chief Technology Officer of multiple startups under CMGI's control, including InfoMation Publishing, PlanetDirect and CMGI Solutions. In these capacities, I developed the ideas for new products, worked with developers and customers to implement those products and then worked with customers to make most effective use of our products. In my work at CMGI Corporate I developed new product ideas as well as evaluated the technology of new business opportunities.

I like to build products and solutions that are innovative and solve real problems. Three such products are Meetings over IP, a browser-based (no explicit software download) collaboration system I developed at Genuity linking conference rooms/offices together with voice, imagery/video and data; Echo, a web-based information finding, categorizing and presentation system and the Object Management System, a modular web-content assembly system.

After I left Level 3 Communications, I set up a consulting practice known as Lexington Digital where I consult with small businesses, non-profits and individuals who are interested in using computers and networks in innovative ways. Since I was involved in many early applications of the Internet and have over 35 years of experience in the Computer/Communications industry in both Research & Development as well as application of Internet technology within Corporation, I have been asked to serve as an expert witness in several patent infringement cases. I am interested in additional work in this area.

In addition to the Lexington Digital web site, www.lexdig.com, I also have my own personal web site, www.forsdick.com, which is mostly devoted to my avocations and activities of my family.

Management: At Level 3, Genuity, CMGI and BBN I have had significant management responsibilities, including financial and personnel management, as well as project management and proposal creation. At Genuity, I lead up a small group and have interacted frequently with Executive management and important customers. At InfoMation, a 25-person CMGI startup, I was responsible for the development of our products, accounting for about ½ of the company's employees. At BBN in the early 1990s my department ranged in size from 30-50 researchers and programmers with a budget between $5 and $8M / year.

Marketing and Sales: I enjoy explaining things to people as well as thinking with them about how to solve problems. At Genuity, I work with the Marketing group to develop explanations of our future products and services. At InfoMation I was involved in all major sales opportunities as a technical marketing representative of our company. At Genuity, CMGI and BBN, I have been frequently called on to present a variety of technologies developed at our company, as well as to market our capabilities to commercial and government clients.

• After developing my skills and expertise in a long career in Internet Applications, I have now decided to leverage my experience and become a consultant. I am interested both in projects that draw on the knowledge I have gained by working on numerous projects related to the Internet, as well as other projects that draw on my skills with computers and communication. The most important characteristic of these new projects is that they are interesting to me.

• I was responsible for understanding and exploring the technologies and systems to be used in Level 3's future customer facing products and services. My work involved a combination of investigating the state of the art in Networking and Application technologies, designing and building demonstration prototypes, as well as analyzing and writing up studies on special topics.

• At Genuity, I was responsible for understanding and exploring the technologies and systems to be used in Genuity's future products and services. Like my work at Level 3, I was involved a combination of investigating the state of the art in Networking and Application technologies, designing and building demonstration prototypes, as well as writing and coordinating the production of a quarterly updated technology roadmap. One prototype that has gotten significant attention is the Meetings over IP system. We showed that it is possible for ordinary, non-technical office workers / consumers to use a simple, self-service, on-demand, web-based voice (VoIP), video and document (MS Office) conferencing service. We did all of this leveraging off the shelf software systems as well as inexpensive, state of the art Internet appliances (e.g., a Panasonic video camera with an embedded web-server that connects directly to ethernet and power).

• In my role as VP of Engineering at CMGI, I was a resource to all of the operating and investment companies of CMGI, advising them on applicable Internet technologies that would benefit their business. I also was involved in several investigations of the technologies for new businesses in the areas of wireless communication, Internet appliances, device independent portals, connected handheld devices, and web authoring systems.

• InfoMation Publishing Corporation was a startup founded by CMGI in 1996. Our business was in the area of personalized filtering, organization, and presentation of public and company private information. Our products were aimed at the Corporate Intranet market, although they worked equally well in the Internet. I invented our first product, Echo, while I was at BBN and was involved in the licensing of the BBN technology to CMGI, prior to participating in the founding of InfoMation. In September 1998, Infomation was merged with PlanetDirect Corporation, another CMGI subsidiary.
• My role at InfoMation was to head the technology team that built products. That included tracking new technologies, systems and components that could be used in our products, tracking competitor's products, designing new products, and guarding the integrity of our products. I represented our company in outside interactions involving technical matters or in technical marketing. In addition, I directly managed several senior developers and the development manager.
• At PlanetDirect/MyWay a group of Echo developers and I adapted Echo to become a vertical news feed generator. The content coming from these news feeds is then assembled into the MyWay local content pages.
• While I was at PlanetDirect/MyWay, I developed the idea of the Object Management System, a modular content assembly system that allowed people to mix and match content from diverse Internet sources. This system served as the inspiration for the formation of CMGI Solutions, a company formed by CMGI whose charter was to deliver solutions built up from the diverse technologies and content present in the over 70 CMGI subsidiaries and investments. When CMGI Solutions was formed, I became CTO and guided the company in the development of a general purpose, reusable framework for combining content and tools into solutions. In May 2000, CMGI Solutions acquired Tallan, a large systems integrator in Glastenbury CT and most of the activity of CMGI Solutions moved to Connecticut. At this point, I became Vice President of Engineering for CMGI.

• For over 20 years I was involved in the development of the Internet - from the early work on communication and application protocols to later work on sophisticated applications utilizing network communications. During that time, I advanced from individual contributor to project manager, assistant department manager, and finally, for the final 7 years as department manager. I created an atmosphere in my department that was conducive for creativity and invention. Our reputation was as a skunk works where interesting things happened.
• I was principal investigator on many Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) projects, both proposing new projects as well as managing those projects. I invented or took part in the development of many early innovations in the Internet, including Multimedia Electronic Mail, Shared Workspace Conferencing, Desktop Video Conferencing, Internet Mail/News/Web Server, Internet Video Servers, Internet Map Server, Wireless Wearable Computers, Large room sized, touch sensitive displays and most recently, the Personal Internet Newspaper (PINpaper).
• Out of this work emerged several commercial products including BBN/Slate, a multimedia document communication system, MMConf, a shared workspace conferencing system, Picture Window, the first Internet-based desktop video conferencing system, the BBN Internet Server, an Internet appliance supporting electronic mail, news and web servers, and PINpaper, a web and agent-based information discovery, filtering, organizing and presentation system. PINPaper is the basis of InfoMation's Echo product.
• Our primary business was doing research and advanced development for various organizations, primarily the US Government. At any point, there were 5-8 separate projects going on among the 30-50 researchers and programmers in my department. I managed this effort sustaining a viable business (ranging from $5M to $8M per year) in a period of decreasing government support.
• I recruited good people into my department, frequently spotting outstanding candidates directly out of college. Building these young employees into effective teams was very satisfying to me.

• Entry level position programming mainframe computers