A PDF Vitae and short web resume are also available

ROBERT H'obbes' ZAKON

Robert@Zakon.org

www.Zakon.org

Academic Background

  • Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Cleveland, OH

    • M.S. - Computer Engineering & Science
    • B.S. - Computer Engineering major with Psychology and Philosophy concentrations

      Graduate course work in operating systems, computational neuroscience, artificial intelligence, algorithms, data structures, computer graphics, and human-computer interfaces. Other class work in human intelligence and cognitive science

      Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity: President, Alumni Chair, Philanthropy Chair

  • The Peddie School, Hightstown, NJ

    • High School Diploma

      Advanced Placement in Computer Science and Calculus

  • Gordonstoun International Summer School, Elgin, Scotland

  • Colégio Andrews, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    • Languages

  • English - fluent
  • Portuguese - fluent but a little rusty (native speaker)
  • Spanish - some reading and speaking
  • French and Hebrew - long forgotten

    • Professional & Volunteer Activities

  • ACSA Senior Fellow, since 2012
  • IEEE Senior Member, since 2000
  • ACM Member, since 2016
  • AAAS Member, since 2016
  • Internet Society Member, since 1993
  • SCORE Mentor, 2003-2020
  • First Run Angel (Investment) Group - Board of Advisors, 2002-2008, 2015-2016
  • OWASP Member, 2008-2015
  • e-Peaks Technology Group - Board of Directors, 2001-2004
  • Co-Chairman - User Interface Symposium, 1993
  • Chairman - Special Interest Group on Networked Information Discovery & Retrieval (SIGNIDR V), 1994
  • Chairman - Foreign Language Technology Symposium, 1996
  • Chairman (2011-2012), Organizing Committee Member (since 1998), Steering Committee Member (since 2011), Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC)
  • Organizing Committee Member, New Security Paradigms Workshop (NSPW), 2007
  • Keynote Speaker, Euro American Conference on Telematics and Information Systems (EATIS), 2012
  • Coach/Mentor, Explorers FIRST Lego League (FLL) Robotics Team, 2013-2017
  • Coordinator, Robert Frost Public Charter School Explorers Club (Robotics/STEM), 2012-2013
  • Big Data Analytics, Session Chair @ ACSAC 2017
  • Web-based Applications Security, Session Chair @ ACSAC 2008
  • Mobile Security, Session Chair @ ACSAC 2009
  • Review Committee Member - IEEE MIT Undergraduate Research Technology Conference 2018
  • Review Committee Member - International Workshop on Internationalisation of Products and Systems (IWIPS), 2003
  • Mount Washington Observatory - Technical Consultant, since 2001
    • Designing and deploying the highest wireless (Wi-Fi, 802.11) network in the Northeast US to provide remote imagery from a solar powered Web camera
  • North Conway Library - Technical Consultant, 2001-2002
  • Interviewed in numerous magazines, radio shows, and online web sites
  • Beta tester of commercial products and services ranging from biometric devices and proxy servers to interactive television (itv) and plasma displays to language identification and translation software
  • Book reviewer:
    • Managing Internet Information Services, O'Reilly & Associates
    • Complete Idiot's Guide to the Internet, MacMillan Publishing

  • Fomer Associations:
    • Cognitive Science Society
    • Internet Developers Association (IDA)
    • International Webmasters Association
    • International Society of Internet Professionals (ISIP)
    • American Library Association(ALA)
      - Library and Information Technology Association (LITA)
    • Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
      - Human-Computer Interface (SIGCHI)
      - Graphics (SIGGRAPH)
    • American Translators Association (ATA)
    • Apple Library Users Group (ALUG)

    • Research Interests

  • Multilingual Computing
  • Speech-to-speech Translation
  • Information Mining, Discovery & Visualization
  • Knowledge Engineering
  • Cognitive Science & Computing
  • Seamless, Pervasive, Intuitive Computing Interfaces
  • Self-powered technologies
  • Wireless Networking of Intelligent Devices
  • Bioinformatics & Computational Biology
  • Micro-Sensors & Location-Aware Wireless Computing
  • Robotics

    • Patents

  • Method for Distributing Software on a Per User Basis, co-inventor
    US Provisional Patent #60/192,588, 2001

    • Training Developed & Taught

  • Lean & Agile Product Strategy Development for Cross-Functional Teams, U.S. Government, 2016
  • Keeping Your Web Apps Secure: The OWASP Top 10 & Beyond, Zakon Group, 2010-2012
  • WebAppSec: Developing Secure Web Applications, Zakon Group, 2008-2011
  • Web Authoring (computer/web-based training), DoD, 1996
  • Internet Tools Administration, MITRE Institute & Sponsors, 1993-1995
  • Internet for Users, MITRE Institute & Sponsors, 1993-1995
  • Net Surfing 101, MITRE Institute & Sponsors, 1994
  • Macintosh 101 & 201, CWRU Weatherhead School of Management, 1991-1992
  • Introduction to Programming, CWRU undergraduate, 1986-1987
  • Pascal Programming & Style, CWRU graduate & staff, 1987

    • Papers & Presentations

  • Blockchain and FinTech Innovation Initiatives, FinTech4Good's Blockchain4SDGs, 2017
  • CyberSecurity Future: AI, Big Data, and the Promise of a More Secure Tomorrow, National Defense University, 2016
  • Creating Your Own $uccess with Crowdfunding, 2014
  • Imagining the Future: Technology Innovation in the Internet Age, Keynote - Euro American Conference on Telematics and Information Systems (EATIS), 2012
  • Keeping Your Web Apps Secure (see Courses above), ACSAC 2010, ACM CCS 2010, PST 2011, ACSAC 2011, ACSAC 2012
  • Enterprise Shared Services Concept of Operations (CONOPs), co-author, 2012
  • CMS Enterprise Shared Services Business, Data, and IT Plan, co-author, 2012
  • Enterprise Shared Services Functional Architecture, co-author, 2012
  • Statement of Objectives for Enterprise Identity Management (EIDM) Services, co-author, 2011
  • Cloud Computing: Beyond the Hype, 2010
  • Continuity of Assessment Record and Evaluation (CARE) Health Information Exchange (C-HIEP) Security Systems Engineering Plan, co-author, 2009
  • Overview of Continuity of Assessment Record and Evaluation (CARE) Security, Privacy, and Processes, co-author, 2009
  • WebAppSec (see Courses above), ACSAC 2008-9, ACM CCS 2009, OWASP AppSec DC 2009/10/12, OWASP AppSec USA 2011, ISS 2011
  • Conceptual View of the Reporting Hospital Quality Data for Annual Payment Update (RHQDAPU) Program, co-author, 2007
  • Independent Assessment of the Reporting Hospital Quality Data for Annual Payment Update (RHQDAPU) Program: Findings and Recommendations, co-author, 2007
  • Internet Secrets of the (soon to be) Rich & Famous, 2004
  • The Highest Wireless Network (WiFi - 802.11b) in the Northeast US, 2003
  • Web & Search Engine Optimization, 2003
  • Securing Online Banking Transactions, 2002
  • A Taxonomy for Off-the-Shelf Consumer Software, 2000
  • Internet-wide Vulnerability Assessments, 1999
  • Security Assessment of commercial biometric and smart card products, 1999
  • Enabling Access to Subsets of Networked Resources in Partially Trusted Networks, Intelink 2000, 1998
  • OSIS International: A Technical Case Study, NATO Conference, 1998
  • Executable Content: Mobile Code in the Age of the Web, 1998
  • A Code Signing Reference Implementation ConOps and Config Guide, 1998
  • A Brown Bag's Worth of Information on Executable Content, 1999
  • CAPCO Labeling Demonstration Concept of Operations and Test Report, 1998
  • Multilingual Computing and Information Retrieval, NATO BICES Information Systems Management Conference, 1997
  • Developing an Information Infrastructure, accepted at INET, 1995
  • Web in the Enterprise, World-Wide Web Conference Darmstadt, 1995
  • Net Culture, Annual Review of Communications, 1994-5
  • The Net Culture, The Telecommunications Review, 1994
  • National Information Infrastructure Phase 0: The Internet?, CIS Breakfast Series, 1994
  • Internet Information Playground, Eastern Communications Forum, 1994
  • Internet Resources, Online Working Group, 1994
  • Integrated View of the Battlespace demonstration
  • Internet & NII, National Contract Managers Association Keynote, 1994
  • How to modify WAIS source files for use with firewalls, 1993
  • Intro to Internet, Internet Tools Administration; training materials
  • Proceedings of the User Interface Symposium, 1993
  • ADNET Open Systems Application (OSA) Integration Guidance, 1993
  • C4I for the Warrior demonstration, 1993
  • Distributed Information Query & Navigation, 1993
  • Of URIs, HTML, and HTTP, 1993
  • Networked Information Discovery & Retrieval, 1993
  • Hobbes' Internet Picks, monthly column appearing in PRISM and Networking Center newsletters, 1992-1993
  • ISLES: Information System for Law Enforcement Support, 1992
  • Graphical Simulation of Ion Flow Through a Neuron's Membrane (Computational Neuroscience), 1992
  • The Design and Implementation of a Distributed Decision Making Tool, 1992
  • POGO: Proteus-Orion Graphical Objects, 1990
  • Object-Oriented Programming Systems (OOPS) / Event-Driven Simulations, 1990
  • Art Manager - A Database Driven Art Gallery Management System, 1989
  • Natural Language Understanding & Knowledge Representation, 1988
  • IETF RFC 2235: Hobbes' Internet Timeline, maintained since 1993 Translated into numerous languages, and printed/cited in thousands of magazines, books, and web sites, including:
  • BYTE Magazine
  • Internet World
  • Science
  • Top Secret Intranet
  • Network World
  • The Internet Business Journal
  • Washington Technology
  • Le Monde Informatique (France)
  • Financial Times
  • US News & World Report
  • 3W (UK)
  • NetGuide (New Zealand)
  • Le Cybermarketing (France)
  • the Net
  • Internet for Legal Research
  • The Computer in the Visual Arts
  • Business on the Infobahn
  • The Internet

    • Recognition and Awards

  • Senior Fellow, ACSA, 2014

  • Senior Member, IEEE, 2001

  • Recognition Award, OSIS International, 1998
    "Your efforts have resulted in a solution that allows International ... access securely using low-cost commercial technologies in an innovative manner"

  • Recognition Award, BCS - Intelink-J, 1998
    "[The client's] work load has been reduced by between 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours per day. They're are no longer coming in at 4 or 5 am ... and they have stopped coming in on Sunday."
    "Your contributions ... are indicative of the type of behavior that adds value and reflects well on MITRE"

  • Director's Distinguished Accomplishment Award, WebMT, 1996
    "Despite an extremely aggressive schedule, and a limited budget, The ... Team rapidly defined, designed, and deployed" "Working with initially vague requirements, the indefatigable ... Team worked long hours to ensure an excellent product which received customer praise"

  • Director's Distinguished Accomplishment Award, MII, 1995

  • Program Achievement Award, CCDB, 1994

  • Special Recognition Award, NASA Spacelink Interface Study, 1993
    "Your contributions were outstanding and performed under difficult conditions, including short turnaround time and limited funds. Your participation was critical to the success"

  • Case Alumni Scholarship, 1986-1990

    • Work Experience

    Zakon Group LLC
    Founding Partner, 2001 to Present

    Sample Clients: Cyber Defense Agency, Appalachian Mountain Club, Clean Air Task Force, Mount Washington Observatory, MITRE Corp.
    Sample Projects:

    White House, Washington, DC
    Presidential Innovation Fellow, May 2016 to April 2017

    The Presidential Innovation Fellows program brings the principles, values, and practices of the innovation economy into government by pairing talented, diverse technologists and innovators with top civil-servants and change-makers working at the highest levels of the federal government to tackle some of the United States' biggest challenges.

    Selected Activities:

    SoftZoo.com, Reston, VA
    Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. July 1999 to July 2001

    SoftZoo.com was an early cloud computing company and software portal, providing a better way to search, compare, try, rent, and buy software online.

  • Set the vision for SoftZoo's service, expanding the original company goals
  • Involved in raising over 1M from angels and VCs
  • Led all aspects of agile development and operations; always coming under budget and ahead of schedule
  • Hiring and managing responsibility for technical organization, largest in company
  • Technologies: Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Terminal Services, Citrix MetaFrame and NFuse, Linux, Apache HTTP/SSL, Perl, PHP, XML, JavaScript, JAVA, ActiveX, intranet, extranet, MySQL, SSH, Agile, VeriSign PayFlow Pro, Cisco content switches and routers, firewalls, DNS, intrusion detection, taxonomies

    • The MITRE Corporation, McLean, VA
    Principal Engineer & Internet Evangelist. June 1992 to September 1999
    MITRE is a not-for-profit organization devoted to research, development, engineering, and scientific activities in the public interest. MITRE also sponsors Federally-Funded R&D Centers.

    My role at MITRE was quite diverse, often cutting across organizational lines and impacting several sponsors. At any one time, I was likely to be managing/ mentoring various staff, chairing/presenting at internal/external conferences, leading technical projects, advising/setting vision for a variety of projects and sponsors, etc. Below is a sample of some of these accomplishments.

    Information Systems Security Group:

  • Led several teams investigating key storage issues in NT/IE, secure PDF products, and the use of biometric and smart card devices with public-key infrastructures.
    Technologies: PageVault, Windows NT, Internet Explorer, Litronic, Compaq Fingerprint ID, BioMouse, PKI, Datakey
  • Performed analysis of foreign Internet infrastructures and national wide-area Internet vulnerabilities.
  • Designed a capability to enable the automated transfer of Web data between networks of different classifications.
    Technologies: Guards, digital signatures, WWW, XML, metadata
  • Representative to the Intelligence Community XML Study Group and Technical Working Team.
  • Led the security code review of a GOTS application.
  • Prototyped a web-based, security label document management system that provided a means of binding metadata with documents and the first proxy-level digital signature verification mechanism.
    Technologies: WWW, PICS, DSig, Proxies, Jigsaw, metadata, digital signatures, Java, RDF, ISL, CAPCO, Perl, LDAP
  • Provided policy guidance to the US intelligence community on the use of mobile code.
  • Prototyped a PKI-based reference implementation for code signing, and evaluated various mobile code security products such as Finjan, Digitivity Cage, Security-7 SafeGate, Network Associate WebScanX.
    Technologies: Activator (Java Plug-in), digital signatures, X.509, GTE CyberTrust, Java, JavaScript, JScript, ActiveX, Plug-ins, VB

    Technical Ambassador:

  • Spent one year at MITRE sites around the world prototyping new capabilities, educating engineers and managers on emerging technologies and facilitating collaboration with their corporate counterparts. Locations: South Korea (USFK), Hong Kong, Hawaii (PACOM/USCINCPAC), Japan (USFJ), Germany (EUCOM)

    Commands, Technology & Intelligence Integration Group:

  • Led the deployment of a multi-national network for the sharing of open sources among the intelligence components of various countries. Brought in to jumpstart this stalled program with responsibility for both the design and implementation of the network and information infrastructures, and lead technical discussions with government officials of participating and interested countries (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Israel, Netherlands, UK). Program Award
    Technologies: Netscape Proxy Server, Encrypting routers, Perl, SSL, VPN
  • Developed an information infrastructure (Intelink-J) for US Forces Japan (USFJ-J2) bilateral network. This included a complete intranet design/development, as well as providing various bilingual (English/Japanese) capabilities such as the integration of language translators and dictionaries with the web. Also supported KeenEdge'98 with development of a web-based RFI tracking system. Program Award
    Technologies: WWW, HTTP, HTML, JavaScript, JAVA, MT, Perl, CGI
  • Researched streaming and multicasting technologies for MITRE-wide and potential sponsor deployment of live and on-demand audio/video.
    Technologies: MBONE, streaming, multicasting, audio, video, MPEG
  • Coordinated various technical exchange meetings with academia and industry, including SUN, Netscape, Microsoft, Oracle, ...
  • Developed web-based training (WBT/CBT) for Intelink authors.
  • Led design and development of the MITRE Information Infrastructure (MII), one of the first corporate intranet. The MII integrated MITRE's distributed information spaces with the purpose of enhancing information sharing and access across the corporation, including publishing/profiling/browsing/searching of documents, briefings, projects, financial data, etc. Director's Distinguished Accomplishment Award
    Technologies: AFS, WWW, WAIS, PDF, SQL, Lotus Notes, Oracle, Perl, C, *sh, PLWeb, dynamic doc conversion, IR, search/profile engines
  • Led design of the FLCommunity Intranet, a 3-tier virtual Foreign Language Community network built on Intelink, OSIS, and Internet, providing language learning, processing, and management services and resources. Concepts include multilingual computing, distributed audio/video collaboration, encodings/Unicode, virtual environments, ...
  • Led the integration of Systran's machine translation system with WWW and e-mail, including support for multiple encoding formats. Translation of 9 languages to English with multiple glossaries. Director's Distinguished Accomplishment Award
  • Technical consultant for UNOJUST, a prototype for sharing information across 13 UN Criminal Justice institutes from around the world using the Internet. Integrated Globalink machine translation system with WWW; developed searching mechanism across HTML and PDF. Prototype shown at 9th UN Congress for Criminal Justice in Cairo.
    Technologies: WWW, WAIS, language and format translation, Perl, C, *sh
  • Developed an open source coverage & capabilities database for the US Intelligence community, under the Open Source program Program Achievement Award
    Technologies: WAIS, Gopher, World-Wide Web, Perl, C, *sh
  • Systems design consultant during the early phases of the Intelink project
  • Evangelized/implemented networked (distributed) information navigation, discovery, search, and retrieval servers (i.e., WAIS, Gopher, WWW) within MITRE and for sponsors
  • Formed the Online@MITRE working group to coordinate and lead different corporate efforts in the area of information retrieval. This effort was the genesis for the MII, MITRE's intranet
  • Developed a collaborative environment for the production of technical docs

    Distributed C4I Systems Group:

  • Developed software providing a fused view of the battlefield (C4I FTW) through the integration of C2 systems
    Technologies: CORBA, DHIS, UNIX, X Window, Motif, C
  • Administered Macintosh and UNIX (Solaris, HP/UX, Ultrix, A/IX) systems
  • User interface consultant for a team evaluating and re-designing NASA Spacelink. Special Recognition Award
  • Designed and developed user interface for two large-scale projects: ISLES - Information Systems for Law Enforcement Support, and DEA/IAW - Intelligent Analyst Workstation
  • Designed and implemented an inexpensive collaborative editing / information retrieval system across Macs, PCs, and UNIX workstations
  • Tested and integrated 40+ COTS and GOTS applications incl. Imagery, GIS, OA
  • Integrated many of the above applications on a Compartmented Modal Workstation (CMW)
  • Researched computer-supported collaborative work technologies

    • CWRU, Weatherhead School of Management (WSOM). Dec 1990 to May 1992

    Director - Distributed Decision Making Research Lab
  • Project coordinator and chief programmer of a distributed decision making application composed of spreadsheets, cognitive maps, text editors, and graphs which could be linked together and communicated with other users
  • Technologies: VaxStations, Ultrix, X Window, Motif, C

    Systems Consultant - WSOM Computer Lab and Support Group

  • Developed a Macintosh training program, both wrote and taught courses
  • Developed the WSOM Executive Information System - a knowledge base system with an intuitive, visual front-end containing information on the school's personnel, room control, key control, and equipment
  • Technologies: Macintosh, HyperCard, MS Word, MS Excel, C, Pascal

    • Independent Consultant, Cleveland, Ohio Jan 1988 to Dec 1990

    V.A. Hospital, Vascular Surgery department.
  • Implemented a Vascular Journal References database
  • Developed a patient database / vascular diagnosis expert system.
  • Technologies: Macintosh, HyperCard, Pascal

    • Apple Computer, Inc.
  • Promoted the Apple Macintosh computer line at CWRU by hosting special events/seminars, meeting with students, faculty, and administrators, and providing technical support to university organizations

    • NCR Corp, Human Interface Group
  • Researched user interface technologies at MCC (Austin, TX)
  • Ported the POGO object-oriented graphics package to Windows
  • Technologies: OS/2, Windows Presentation Mgr, Xenix, Lisp, C++, X Window

    • Scheele Fine Arts
  • Computerized the gallery's mailing list and inventory, and implemented an accounting system.
  • Technologies: Macintosh, HyperCard, Pascal, C, MS Excel

    • TechPool Studios
  • Developed an Encapsulated Postscript (EPS) interpreter for QuickDraw, and an image translator supporting various graphic formats
  • Technologies: Macintosh, Pascal, Postscript

    • CWRU, WSOM - MIDS department.
  • Research programmer for a forecasting expert system.
  • Technologies: Macintosh, HyperCard, Pascal, C

    • Accurate Adjustments Bureau
  • Developed a database program to run the company's mail order business
  • Technologies: Turbo Pascal, IBM PC

    • Case Western Reserve University Sep 1986 to Dec 1990

  • Manager - Guilford Computer Lab.
  • Assistant Manager - Undergraduate Computing Labs.
  • Programming Instructor - taught undergraduate and graduate students

    • West End House Camp, East Parsonsfield, Maine. Senior Counselor. Summer 1989

    Camp Timanous, Raymond, Maine. Senior Counselor. Summer 1986

    The Peddie School, Hightstown, NJ. Librarian. 1983 to 1986