Since NetSquared attracted such a great diversity of proposals, I felt compelled to spend several hours and review all of the projects.

I am truly proud of all the participants. They have dedicated time to start projects intended to make the world a better place and ask the NetSquared community for feedback.

That said, there are over 150 proposals, and choosing five to ten favorites for my ballot was difficult. I had to come up with some way of narrowing down the list. After reading a bunch, I began to develop my criteria for evaluation:

• Sustainability. I have a preference for projects related to sustainable development, which I summarize as issues related to energy, environment, and equity. A huge part of sustainability is community empowerment. I view grassroots empowerment as the most powerful mechanism by which we can achieve true sustainability. It is really cool that strong communities are both the driving mechanism and the end result of sustainability.
• Innovation. I have a high bar for innovation. I am looking for more than Web 2.0 buzzwords. There were many proposals to apply social networking to various causes, geographic regions, or market segments -- these proposals did not excite me from an innovation perspective.
• Real Results. I preferred projects that spilled over into the real world. I was looking for projects that translated virtual collaboration into real effects.
• Harness Markets. I prefer projects that embrace, rather than dismiss, the importance of markets, incentives, and exchange. Yes, markets have limitations that must be acknowledged. But overall, social entrepreneurship is broader than traditional fundraising and grant-making!
• Geographically Broad. I preferred to fund geographically broad projects. I did not want to fund a project that was too narrow in its geographical scope. I prefer projects that would apply to many geographic regions.
• Underdogs. I preferred "underdog" projects -- projects that were not already well funded or well connected. I'll put it this way: if you have a quote from Bill Clinton on your site, you are probably not hurting for publicity!

That said, here are my favorites:

• CommunityGoals. On my blog I explain why CommunityGoals lines up with NetSquared's criteria. (Yes, this is my project. If an entrepreneur was not completely dedicated to and fascinated by his or her project, do you think they would still be doing it?)
• WiserEarth. "WiserEarth serves the people who are transforming the world." Focusing on sustainability, the site will provide "the platform and tools for NGOs, funders, social entrepreneurs, students, organizers, academics, activists, scientists, and citizens to connect, collaborate, share resources and build alliances." WiserEarth gets bonus points for planning to make their software open source.
• Hooze & Wagn. Even though I don't understand their name, I think their purpose is fantastic. "Hooze.org and its Wagn underbelly are for collaboratively gathering and broadcasting convenient, trustworthy public data about products and companies. With wiki spirit and database power, Hooze gives citizens a new economic voice." I like the focus on helping people spend their money in ways that align with their values.
• Farmer 2 Farmer Learning. "Farmers in developing countries can become more efficient and market oriented when they learn from experiences of themselves and their colleagues. Our tool will provide them with the means to learn by comparison." A community of practice for farmers could result in dramatic gains for the farmers and society as a whole. The project team understands that farmers in developing countries will need assistance in using computer-based technology; so they are planning accordingly.
• Village the Game. Just a few weeks ago, I would have dismissed this project as merely a game. But after hearing Jane McGonical at ETech, I believe that games should play a role in promoting meaningful causes.

Want to take a look for yourself? Browse the list of projects in random order. (The random order feature is brilliant! It reduces the impact of alphabetical ordering and will encourages people to read more of the proposals! James Surowiecki of The Wisdom of Crowds would be proud!)

I would like to hear your criteria and top picks as well.