A 360-degree look at issues

It has been about six months since long-time rivals Federal Computer Week, Government Computer News and Washington Technology all came together. In fact, just last week, we all came together under one roof at the 1105 Government Information Group's world headquarters in Falls Church, Va. (Doesn't that sound dramatic?) Unfortunately, not everybody has phones yet. (It took forever to get phone numbers from Verizon, apparently.) So we're still working some of the bugs out, but...it's nice to be all together.

And upcoming issues of FCW, GCN and WT, we are doing our first 360-degree focus. The marketing message of the 1105 Government Information Group is that we offer a 360-degree view of the government market. And while that is marketing language, as editors, it gives us an opportunity to really cover issues the way we never could before. So in the issues coming out on Monday, we will take a 360-degree look at the newly awarded Networx contracts. FCW, which is a more policy/management publication, will look at the policy/management implications of Networx, specifically, what 0agencies have to do now that the contract is awarded. GCN, the "technology authority," will be looking at the technological aspects of the Networx contract, and Washington Technology, which covers the business side of this market, will be looking at what this enormous contract means for the vendors.

Also in FCW, we will have a column by John Okay of Topside Consulting offering a FAQ on what agencies need to know as they begin migrate to Networx.

And it won't just be in print. Online, we will have a landing page where you will be able to read all these stories, but we're also pulling together some of the rich history of government telecom as covered in the pages of these three publications.

And we're going to do this somewhat regularly on important issues. So...it isn't just marketing. From an editor's standpoint, it allows us to cover important issues in ways that we never could before.

These will all be out in the issues coming out on Monday, June 25...and I welcome thoughts on what other topics we should cover in this kind of comprehensive way.