FCW's resolutions

By now, you have discovered that this issue of Federal Computer Week is a bit unusual. Rather than dissect the news from recent days, we devote most of the magazine to highlighting the ideas, people and policies that could shape the year ahead.

The main feature in this issue consists of a series of short pieces highlighting unconventional wisdom from experts and observers in the federal information technology community. We also profile a handful of unconventional thinkers. Both packages are likely to be the source of much debate.

It's a natural approach for the first issue of the year, which is published after several weeks that are typically light on news. We extensively cover the recent big story on tsunami relief efforts in our News section.

But it's also a way for us to set the tone for our coverage in the year ahead, and change is part of the plan. Here is an overview of what to expect:

• More regular coverage of the contractor community. Beginning this week, FCW includes a Business section, in which we will track the strategies and tactics of companies from which agency officials buy supplies and services, with a special focus on systems integrators.
• More emphasis on online resources. On Jan. 3, we launched the FCW.com Solution Centers. The centers aggregate information from a variety of sources in the federal market. Topics include enterprise architecture, security, defense and wireless technology. For more information, go to www.fcw.com/solutions.
• An expanded Comment section. In 2004, FCW brought back its op-ed section, inviting individuals from government and industry to opine on hot issues of the day and offer lessons learned, best practices and even some unconventional wisdom. There's more to come, so keep an eye on those pages.

In those and other ways, we want to make FCW and FCW.com reliable sources not only for regular news coverage but also for the innovative thinking that makes everyone's work a little easier and a lot more interesting.