A system proposed earlier this year by the Mozilla Foundation will be the basis of a global competition. As much as $2 million in grants from Mozilla and the MacArthur Foundation will be awarded to interested parties, in amounts ranging up to $200,000 apiece, who can propose a technical infrastructure and/or physical appearance for what Mozilla describes as a standard system of verified icons for representing individuals' Web developmental skills.

The picture Mozilla paints for us is of a diverse environment of educational providers including online courses and after-school programs, which would be authorized to provide icon-like badges to individuals based on criteria they decide. Those badges could then be displayed on Facebook pages, on Web sites (like the mockup created by Mozilla above), and in resumes.

As a Mozilla spokesperson told RWW this afternoon, "the badge itself is more than a static image or button. Its value comes from the information or metadata attached to it." The plan is for the metadata for the badge file to contain the name and authentication of its issuing party, the date of issue, the way the badge was earned, and links to URIs that describe the works leading up to the badge being earned. There will be, the spokesperson said, an "implicit validation system" that reduces the chances of anyone counterfeiting or illicitly using a badge or something that looks like a badge.

But it's this system, among other components, that will be the subject of Mozilla's and MacArthur's Digital Media+ Learning Competition. For Stage 2 of the competition, applications will be accepted between December 12 and January 12, for grants ranging from $10,000 to $200,000. "Fully developed badge systems will include a badge or set of badges, assessments and the technology required to issue, track, and measure performance," read the contest specifications.

Covering a period including 2008 and into 2009, the report, issued today, found that this concentration had increased 32 percent since 2003 and 6.5 percent in 2008, indicating a significant decrease in competition. Less competition usually means fewer choices and higher prices for both individual and enterprise consumers.

"Over the past five years, concentration has increased in the provision of mobile wireless services. The two largest providers, AT&T, Inc. (AT&T) and Verizon Wireless, have 60 percent of both subscribers and revenue, and continue to gain share (accounting for 12.3 million net additions in 2008 and 14.1 million during 2009). The two next largest providers, T-Mobile USA (T-Mobile) and Sprint Nextel Corp. (Sprint Nextel), had a combined 1.7 million net loss in subscribers during 2008 and gained 827,000 subscribers during 2009."

In a statement accompanying the report, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps agreed.

"(C)ompetition has been dramatically eroded and is seriously endangered by continuing consolidation and concentration in our wireless markets," he wrote.

The report also found that capital investment in the wireless industry has declined relative to size.

Bottom photography from Geograph

Tonight, after an all-star panel of judges had reviewed more than 80 apps over a month-long period, a handful of winning applications were announced.

The BigApps prizes also included a Popular Choice Award, which was decided by an online public vote from people around the world.

The grand prize winner for the competition, Wayfinder, is actually an Andoird app that allows users to find the nearest and best directions to New York City subway and New Jersey PATH stations. It was also selected as the Grand Prize winner for the Data Visualization Award. That team received a total of $7,500 for both prizes.

Other winning applications include:

• Actuatr, a platform that simplifies opening up data to developers;
• NYC Way, an iPhone application that bundles a variety of NYC resources for tourists and locals (also the Investor's Choice for monetization potential and Popular Choice winner, a $5,000 prize altogether);
• PushpinWeb, a platform for public data;
• Trees Near You, an iPhone app that shows data about trees around New York City;
• UpNext 3D NYC, an interactive 3D map for exploring and discovering the city;
• Overview New York City Parks and Recreation Online, a web app for finding New York City parks; and
• Bookzee, a location-based library book search.

"We opened up the 170 datasets of City information to unleash the creativity and ingenuity of New Yorkers, and we were not disappointed," said Mayor Bloomberg, who announced the awards at a dinner tonight. "The apps submitted offer a range of unique capabilities, many of which use the data in ways we hadn't considered. We want New York City to stay ahead of the innovation and technology curve, and we'll continue to capitalize on our greatest asset - New Yorkers - to make sure we do. Thank you to all of those who submitted apps, and congratulations to the winners."

The New York City Economic Development Corporation and the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications worked with around 30 agencies to provide more than 170 datasets for the competition. The data included geographic locations of all sidewalk cafés, laundry facilities, playgrounds, dog runs, city landmarks, as well as census data, extensive property valuation and assessments, the results of restaurant inspections, lists of permitted citywide events and even side parking and traffic updates.

The Map Maker Global Competition, which challenges users to add high-quality data on universities, schools, hospitals and medical clinics in Google Map Maker, will run from Dec. 15, 2009 to Jan. 31, 2010. The grand prize for the user who adds the greatest quantity of data is a $50,000 UNICEF donation to the winner's home country.

Google's Map Maker shows users satellite images and asks them to add data to make actually useful maps. These citizen cartographers can add directions, streets, schools and more; data is subject to peer moderation. The app is available in English, Spanish, French, Russian, Romanian and Vietnamese, and in more than 170 countries.

UNICEF representative Gerrit Beger told Google, "We know that mapping is a proven method to enhance community development. Google Map Maker is a powerful tool to create better situational awareness for both young people and communities at large. It will enable organizations like ours to better deliver services, respond to crises and adapt to change."

Google has also just wrapped up a similar competition focusing on Latin America. In that event, more than 50 teams from all over the world participated, which led to a 500 percent increase in mapping activity for several Latin American countries.

The competition will be hosted by ChallengePost, an online network for organizations and individuals to create and offer competitions. The launch of NYC BigApps will be also be officially announced at tonight's NY Tech Meetup. So, what's in it for developers? Read on.

"Last week, we launched the Connected City Initiative to put technology to use improving services and providing information to New Yorkers as fast and in as many ways as possible, and BigApps will be yet another," said Mayor Bloomberg.

"The information we're providing is the public's, and we're relying on the creativity and talent of New York City's tech and entrepreneurial communities to come up with innovative and helpful ways to use it. It's a great example of a 21st-century, public-private partnership."

The New York City Economic Development Corporation and the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications worked with around 30 agencies to provide more than 170 datasets for the competition. The data include geographic locations of all sidewalk cafés, laundry facilities, playgrounds, dog runs, city landmarks, as well as census data, extensive property valuation and assessments, the results of restaurant inspections, lists of permitted citywide events, and even side parking and traffic updates.

Another important aspect of the competition is the expectation that official, city government support of startups will add a measure of vitality to an already vibrant local startup culture.

"Supporting entrepreneurs and startups is an important component of our five borough economic opportunity plan and the launch of the Big Apps competition does just that," said Deputy Mayor Lieber. "By partnering with the private sector to encourage innovative and forward-thinking applications, we are leveraging existing resources to increase efficiency and transparency in government, stimulate investment, and create jobs."

Apps will be judged based on their benefit to residents, visitors, and government; their originality; their visual appeal; their effect on data accessibility and government transparency; and yes, their commercial potential.

The NYC BigApps Competition is open to individuals, startups, and non-profit organizations with fewer than 50 employees. Datasets will be available for download today from the newly-created Data Mine.

Submissions will be judged by a panel that is to include NY Tech Meetup co-founder Dawn Barber, Betaworks CEO John Borthwick, Mahalo co-founder Jason Calacanis, EDVentures Founder Esther Dyson, FirstMark Capital CEO Lawrence Lenihan, AlleyCorp co-founder Kevin Ryan, DFJ Gotham Ventures managing partner Danny Schultz, and Union Square Ventures managing general partner Fred Wilson.

To kick off the launch of WorldSings, the company is launching their annual contest which is open to any musician or band performing original music. After creating a profile and uploading content, artists can participate in the contest while also growing their fan base through traditional social networking. On WorldSings, artists are expected to interact directly with fans via wall posts, chat, and direct messages.

Artists also get to know who exactly their fans are as WorldSings plans on sharing key demographic information regarding fans' age, gender, location, etc.

About the Competition

The World's Best Song competition, an effort to expand people's musical knowledge, is somewhat like a cross between an American Idol-type competition (or any of its overseas counterparts) and the Eurovision Song Contest, a popular European contest and one of the longest-running TV shows in the world. On WorldSings, fans will vote for their favorite songs throughout the year and on March 19th, 2010, the top 20 vote getters will fly to Las Vegas, Nevada to compete in a live competition at Planet Hollywood. The winner of the competition will receive $500,000 and the title of World's Best Song. The other $500,000 will be divvied up among the other 19 finalists.  Music fans have an opportunity to win, too. They can compete for prizes during the year including the grand prize - an opportunity to fly to Vegas to see the top artists perform.

Without the competition aspect to WorldSings, the social network would just be too much like MySpace Music to be of interest to anyone but the most serious of music aficionados. However, the contest could actually be a big draw for this new music destination site. Don't believe us? Just look at the millions of viewers tuning into American Idol and Eurovision's Song Contest.

WorldSings will officially launch during SXSW on Friday, but it opens to the public today.

This morning between 6:30 a.m. PST and 7:25 a.m. PST every Google search result displayed the notice "This site may harm your computer." Clicking on the link would take you to a support page effectively blocking any access to all sites in the results.

"We periodically receive updates to that list and received one such update to release on the site this morning." Mayer said in the post, "unfortunately (and here's the human error), the URL of '/' was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and '/' expands to all URLs."

Google reports the errors first appeared between 6:27 a.m. and 6:40 a.m. and began disappearing between 7:10 and 7:25 a.m.

If you're interested in learning more about Google's efforts when it comes to malware, take a look at their analysis of malware in The Ghost in the Browser (PDF).

Update: The StopBadware blog talks about the 'Google Glitch'

StopBadware says that the glitch "led to a denial of service of our website, as millions of Google users attempted to visit our site for more information."

Additionally, StopBadware claims Mayer's statement about Google getting URLs from StopBadware is not accurate: "Google generates its own list of badware URLs, and no data that we generate is supposed to affect the warnings in Google's search listings. We are attempting to work with Google to clarify their statement."

Update 2: Google post updated

Google updated its post to say that StopBadware does not in fact provide a list; instead, it helps Google to "come up with criteria for maintaining this list."

Matt Cutts tweets that the error was on Google's side

In addition to offering value adds like traffic data, search by semantic or natural language meaning is an option for search that's widely discussed. Social search is yet another. Researchers at Stanford posted an interesting study this week on the role social bookmarking could play in augmenting search.

On Google

I find myself consistently impressed with a lot of what Google does but the fact remains that Google web search isn't changing much. They are folding all the various search engines into one, but the experience isn't changing dramatically. Does it need to? Check out this rant below from Doc Searls, on recent episode of the excellent NewsGang Podcast. Searls calls Google, "the Windows of search."

I think Google is vulnerable in search. Google hasn't changed search in 7 or 8 years, they are fat and happy. There are so many ways search can be improved. Google is way too locked into Larry and Sergey's original vision, which has hardly changed at all; it's not the only cannonical way to do search. There's so many ways to granulate search and make it conditional and do a much better job. Google's search is lame in a lot of ways, it's very minimal - it's just become common but that doesn't mean it's perfect. It is the Windows of search.

There's a huge vulnerability there. I was talking to someone who used to work at Google who said that the reason Google Blogsearch has been moribund for years...is because Larry thinks that Google ought to have one search experience and that search experience should never change. Since Larry wants it that way, Google Blogsearch is just sitting there and may actually go away. It's inexcusable, I don't care how much research they are doing - they are blowing smoke up their own ass if they think that there is only one good experience we can have with search. It is not enough. There is enormous room for other people to compete with that...Get out of your shell where you think the whole world is these companies and what they bring to the table now.

Ask's integration with Compete is just one small example of what's possible. Searls doesn't take into consideration Google's mindshare in the passage above but I agree with the basic premise that some major new feature, algorithm or user experience could prove very compelling for searchers at large. Here at the ReadWriteWeb network, we've got a whole blog about alternative search engines.

Google isn't the most lovable brand in the world and no one can be the coolest cat in school forever.