In this month’s Fortune magazine:

In 2012, Barcelona put out a tender for tech companies to create its OS. The bidding was fierce: 18 companies competed in a process that dragged on for months. In the end, Ferrer signed a contract in May with a consortium comprising Accenture, GDF Suez, and Cellnex to build the system, for the pittance of about $1.6 million. “It was nothing,” Ferrer says. “But for the companies, it was a chance for them to deploy solutions for a lot of cities in the world.”

The whole article is worth reading, an insight into Barcelona’s quest to be the world’s smartest city.

It is interesting that they are calling it a city operating system. One of my preferred brand names for Map Merge is VEaMOS, which is Virtual Experience and Municipal Operating System. Calling it an OS will certainly help convince cities that they need it.