Top 100 debuts on Monday

Well, it's almost here. The annual Top 100 goes live in three days.

Each year the Top 100 is a challenge: How do we make it different and better than the year before? In our opinion it's a tough standard to beat because the Top 100 is consistently our most read and referred to issue. It sits on people's desks for the entire year.

And if our Web site traffic is any indication, older editions also grab a lot of attention.

As you'll see Monday morning, the 2007 Top 100 has gone in a new direction. We've expanded the scope of what we use to evaluate and rank government contractors. I'm anxious to hear how people react. When you consider the broad range of work so-called IT contractors and systems integrators perform, we could not keep measuring the market by IT standards alone.

I'll be online for a forum on Thursday at 11 a.m. to take your questions and comments. In the meantime, I'll be adding comments here on my blog. A lot of material gets left on the cutting room floor when you work on an issue of this magnitude. So I'm going to do my best to share some of those insights.

For now, I'm taking Friday off and relaxing. I've got a chance to visit my nieces in Memphis. The oldest is 16 and has her first boyfriend. I've promised her I wouldn't do anything embarrassing, but I might just have to challenge him to an arm wrestling match.