[JohnHarthorne]

We are not relying on the expertise of the people making public ratings. The ratings account for a very small percentage of the judging scores. 80% of the scores are driven by ratings from expert judges. 10% by public ratings and 10% by endorsements.

The public ratings system encourages teams to ask for a small favor from people in their community (i.e. visit a site and rate my pitch).

The endorsements system encourages teams to ask for a small favor from known experts and network hubs in the community.

These are both devices designed to encourage networking, connectivity, pitching and collaboration. Many many teams from last year have indicated that they made critical connections via these processes, especially via the endorsements process, including meeting future investors, customers, service providers and team members.

These are easy steps but that doesn't mean they aren't valuable. They are starting points.