What makes a Power Player?

This is the second year that Federal Computer Week’s editors have selected a list of Power Players, which, by its nature, is a subjective process.We chose people we believe to be influential in the federal information technology community. There are many ways to measure the state of a community. Budgets, for example, offer a clear indication of priorities. But another approach is to look at the community’s leaders, and that’s the avenue we chose. We hope this list will give you new insight into the government IT community’s priorities and issues.Many of the names on this year’s list appeared on last year’s, particularly those at the top, which is not surprising. However, the lower part of the list experienced some shake-ups, partly because events in the past year caused some people to fall off the list. For example, Lurita Doan, administrator of the General Services Administration, is not on this year’s list largely because the controversies that have surrounded her diminished her influence.We hope the Power Players list spurs discussion and comment. We don’t believe it is perfect. Did we miss anyone? Send your comments to . We will post them on our letters blog, which you can find at .