The first day of N2Y2 has been energizing and very informative - thanks to all the NetSquared team! And the conversations today have been exhilarating and enormously helpful to the Maps 2.0 partnership.

Here are some of the questions we have heard, with really brief answers.  Check the Maps 2.0 blog for more on our collaboration.

Q: Will Maps 2.0 provide digital maps or mapping software?

A: No - what we are launching is a combination help desk, information service, and “Consumer Report” on GIS.  We “shed light” on the best sources and practices in GIS.

First, a round of virtual applause to NetSquared and their sponsors for launching this competition - a truly "cool experiment" as an earlier blogger rightly put it!

With apologies to Thomas Friedman, I would like to mention five proposals that recognize how "flat" the world is - meaning that distances and borders do not exist for these solutions - and which I believe clearly meet the six attributes in the Voters Guide.

The other criteria I applied are: (1) based on collaboration/partnership, and (2) a track record of doing projects like the one proposed.