The National Virtual Observatory is the highest priority small project in the Decadal Survey and is now funded for development by the National Science Foundation's Information Technology Research program. I will discuss the goals and scope of the NVO development project, and describe in detail just what the NVO is (and is not). I will also describe the NVO in a broader context of future telescope development and international collaboration. After two years of a five year project, the NVO now has a core suite of software components and a series of science demonstration projects layered upon them. Time and network connections permitting, I hope to show some examples of the NVO in action.