the EC3 was an attempt to try to get a short list of the very most essential things needed by civ3 to actually make it civ3 (a true sequal) and not civ2.5(more of the same with little inovation)
oh yeah a few other points...the list was competitive...the ideas would be voted on on the best (ideas getting the most votes) would make THE EC3 list...the other ideas would make the also getting votes list...each number out from the idea is the actual amount of votes that idea got