Curtain rises on a new Top 100

The Washington Technology Top 100 is our most highly anticipated issue. Readers want to see where their companies rank and where they stand compared to competitors and partners.As you'll read in my introduction, this year's list is substantially different from previous years'. We needed a broader view of the government contracting market because being an information technology company today means more than selling technology ? it's about solving problems. To capture this, we had to expand the product service codes we used to conduct our analysis.But I swallowed hard when I saw the first data cuts supplied to us by our research partner, Federal Sources Inc.: KBR Inc., Fluor Corp. and the Shaw Group Inc.? No kidding?But after taking a close look at the work those companies do, my anxiety waned.They provide high-end professional services, and they are using IT to win and manage that business.Yet my anxiety returns. Thousands of eyes will peruse this list. And there will be thousands of opinions on whether or not we got it right. Did we go too far? Not far enough? Let me know by posting comments on my blog and participating in my online forum May 17.As always, I want to thank the Washington Technology editorial and art staff for the hard work they put in. I also want to thank FedSources for the hours and days they put into analyzing the data that creates the Top 100.This issue truly is a team effort.