As we reflected on our 2012 coverage, a few issues stood out as particularly pivotal in today’s government community. We’ve gathered the best of our Breaking Gov articles highlighting those hot topics.

Big data, the cloud and mobile technology were clearly at the forefront of federal minds in the past year as powerful and promising tools to reduce expenses, increase efficiency and improve services.

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This is the first in a seven-part series of AOL Gov’s Best Of 2012
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That means federal spending and innovation weren’t far behind in their impact during 2012. As the government faces a fiscal cliff and unprecedented budget cuts, finding new ways of getting work done and accomplishing agency missions have become more important than ever before.

Finally, it was clear that amid all of these issues, the government’s main goal of serving citizens was continually present.

We’ll tell you more about why we chose these topics in the coming days:

• Tomorrow, read about why big data holds big promise and has already sparked positive changes.
• Monday, read about how the drive toward mobile technology reached race car speeds this year, from the BYOD debate to an explosion in the use of mobile apps throughout federal agencies.
• Wednesday, read about what will happen in the world of cloud computing next year.
• Thursday, read about what the fiscal cliff and sequestration could mean for
• federal spending next year.
• Friday, read about why and how innovation could save the federal government.
• Dec. 31, read about federal workers’ ongoing commitment to serving citizens.

We congratulate all of those who contribute to the federal workforce on all of the past year’s accomplishments and knowledge featured by Breaking Gov. We hope our coverage helps you all gain better understanding of your future and do your jobs a bit better. Happy New Year!