InformationWeek

or months now, I've been struggling with a paradox that seems to follow me everywhere. On the radio, TV, and the Web, in newspapers and magazines--including this one--and in daily conversations, I keep hearing about the tough times in the technology industry, the so-called tech wreck that's left our 401(k) accounts several notches below where they were last year. Yet when I talk to business and technology managers, executives at technology companies, and other people who work in our circle, my impression is that things aren't really that bad. So which is it?

Movie buffs will recall the Japanese classic Rashomon, directed by Akira Kurosawa in 1950, in which a violent assault is remembered through the eyes of different witnesses. It's used in college classes to illustrate that people experience, perceive, and remember things differently. Maybe some of that's at work here. Wall Street analysts have one experience. Investors another. And so on with tech vendors, venture capitalists, business managers, and IT managers.

This week's cover package, "Defying Gravity," is meant to provide a different point of view on the drumbeat of negativity that's characterized the tech sector recently. While it's true that major forces--the slowing economy, budget constraints, failed dot-coms, overstocked warehouses--are having a dragging effect across the board, there's still positive momentum in the world of business technology.

It's a four-part package: Our lead news story by senior editor Paul McDougall shows there are bargains to be had among enterprise technology suppliers; even if tech budgets have leveled off, IT buyers can get more for their money. In other stories, we identify pockets of healthy tech spending (p. 24), vendors that are still selling strong (p. 28), and the investment opportunities some businesses see in technology startups (p. 32).

This cover package isn't meant to come across as imbalanced or naive. We're well aware that some businesses have curbed IT spending, that earnings are down, that layoffs are taking place, and that stock prices have dropped like rocks (although they rebounded notably last week). But to focus on those things, and only those things, is to get just part of the picture. Indeed, Alan Greenspan has cited "long-standing optimism" among business managers regarding the future returns to be gained from technology in explaining his policy making ("Testing Greenspan," March 19, 2001).

Is your company getting sucked down by the gravitational forces of the tech slowdown? Or is it successfully resisting the pull? Let me know how you see it.