CNN.com: This week is Small Business Week. How did that observance originate, and what events do you have planned?

Alvarez: Well, actually, National Small Business Week (NSBW) goes back to John F. Kennedy. He was the first president to declare NSBW, so we're now into our 37th NSBW. It's obviously something that has been proven to be successful, and it very much highlights the entrepreneurial spirit in this country. It gives us an opportunity to showcase 53-plus winners -- people who've been selected, really, by their peers, because the winners are selected by other small businesses who are on a committee, and who use criteria that we provide them with to pick the winners. The criterion is not only success, but it's also overcoming hardships and contributing to your community. Those are the three principal criteria.

Every year, when you think that you've really topped it off, you've got the best of the best, and the following year you've got a new crop of winners, and they're also terrific. They come from all walks of life, they make pasta, they make fiber optics, they make candy, they're environmental consultants, they're restaurateurs, they do clinical drug research. We have one winner who got an SBA micro-loan, which is a tiny loan, in 1995, and this last March he sold his company for $43 million in cash and stock. It's really a whole range and cross-section. Twenty-one percent of the businesses manufacture products, 25 percent are retailers, 19 percent sell professional services.

We have quite a diversity in terms of who owns these businesses: 35 percent of these businesses are owned by women, 30 percent are owned by minorities, 57 percent of the businesses are family-owned and operated. We see that 16 percent of the businesses are exporting their products. If you put these businesses all together, the winning businesses actually employ over 7,300 full- and part-time employees, which gives you a sense of the important contribution that small businesses make to job creation in this country, and employment.

We're very proud to say that 67 percent of the businesses got financial or management help from SBA. Then, of course, in this day and age of information technology, 100 percent of the winners use computer technology in their businesses. NSBW is a time for them to shine, for us to recognize their accomplishment, and also for us to take stock of our accomplishments; that's why the theme is "a history of success, a millennium of opportunity."

It's this sort of public-private partnership that we believe has produced this sort of record success. Twenty-five and a half million small businesses in the United States, driving the longest period of economic growth in our nation's history. And we're pleased to say that since 1992, SBA has guaranteed over $80 billion in loans, which is more than has been done in the entire previous history of the SBA. We're proud of this.

CNN.com: Just to clarify a bit, what are the criteria for the awards, and who votes on them?

Alvarez: There are a number of criteria. Obviously, we look at success, and that means everything from staying power, which means a substantiated history of an established business, growth in number of employees, (and) increase in sales and/or unit volume. We look at current and past financial reports; we look at innovative product or service. So those are under the heading of success. Those are some of the aspects that we look at.

In addition, we look at how they have responded to adversity. All of these winners have, at one time or another, experienced some sort of difficulty, and we examine -- I don't mean we in Washington, but the advisory committees -- look at examples of problems faced by the nominees and how they solved them.

Then, finally, we looked at the contributions made by these small businesses to their communities -- whether it's a combination of their personal time and other resources that they've used to make a contribution to their particular communities.

These are small business owners who actually sit on these advisory committees, and really spend an awful lot of time over the course of a year in this selection process.

CNN.com: What does the phrase "new economy" mean to you, and is there more to it than just technology?

Alvarez: I think nowadays, when you talk about the new economy, you're talking about information technology. Obviously, not everyone who's successful is a high-tech company. On the other hand, just about everybody is affected by technology. The fact that 100 percent of our winners use computers in their business, though they may be candy makers or restaurant owners or pasta makers, tells you something about the impact of this new economy, and the fact that we're now looking at what we call "knowledge workers."

There are some interesting figures around technology and small business; in '98, over 1 million small businesses had a Web site. I think that reflects a new economy. Eighty-five percent of small businesses are expected to conduct business via the Web by the year 2002. That's a lot of small businesses; there are 25.5 million small businesses in the United States. And we also think that by that year, small businesses will generate 30 percent of their annual income from sales online.

Small businesses that use the Internet have grown 46 percent faster than those that have not. That's one of the reasons we encourage small businesses to become technology-savvy, because we think that they'll be much more competitive. And, of course, we also believe that there's a link between the use of technology and participation in the global marketplace.

CNN.com: Has the "new economy" helped people who have been traditionally underrepresented in business, for example, women, minorities, recent immigrants, and the handicapped?

Alvarez: I think so. I think this rising tide has lifted all boats, although there are parts of the country -- the President's focus on the digital divide is his way of highlighting that there are many who are in danger of getting left behind because their communities are not wired, and because folks are just not being exposed to technology. And that is a concern.

Across the board, 35 percent of our NSBW winners are women, 30 percent of them are minorities, and all of them use technology. For those of them who are successful, it's universal.

I also do agree that technology really represents opportunities for handicapped folks. Last year, for the first time ever, we started recognizing handicapped entrepreneurs in our NSBW celebration. This is our second year of doing that, and we're really pleased to do that, because we want to highlight the importance of recognizing everyone, and encouraging our agency to reach out to people that they may not have reached out to in the past.