It’s always a treat when The Intelligent Community Forum announces their list of the Top Seven Intelligent Communities of the Year.

The chosen communities are well researched and provide best-practice role models for the creation of competitive local economies and vibrant societies.

The 2007 Intelligent Communities of the Year are:

1. Dundee, Scotland:
   The University of Abertay Dundee established a research center devoted to computer games and digital entertainment. A £20 million (US$39 million) Digital Media Park entered into development, promising 100,000 sq. feet (9,290 m2) of space for e-businesses in its first phase. By 2006, Dundee had achieved 100% broadband coverage through the private sector, supplemented by wireless pilot projects, with 33% penetration as of 2005, and local schools enjoying data rates up to 15 Mbps. One in every four adults is involved in continuing education, while the population of full-time students is one of Scotland’s highest.
2. Gangnam District, Seoul
   South Korea’s capital city, Seoul, appears among the Top Seven for the second time. Government leadership explains the country’s #1 ranking in broadband penetration, with more than 12 million broadband subscribers in a total population of 48 million and speeds of 10 Mbps a standard offering in urban areas. This, from a starting point in 1995, when fewer than 1% of South Koreans used the Internet. The next step is development of “ubiquitous” services that integrate IT, mobile and wireless technologies, and global positioning via satellite (GPS). Systems under discussion include a direction-finding system to enable blind citizens to get around more easily, and location tracking for children, using GPS and radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.
3. Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
   In January 1998, the French government ended the monopoly of France Telecom - and Issy once again seized the opportunity. Foreseeing the change, the city had already negotiated deals with competitive carriers that led to the construction of new fiber networks. By 2006, local government’s IT and communications infrastructure had undergone vast changes. Government, school, library, and health care buildings are fully wired with broadband, and there is one PC for every 11 students in the primary schools. There are six alternative broadband providers serving Issy today, and Wi-Fi covers all public buildings and the entire business district. According to an April 2006 survey, 89% of the population uses the Internet daily, compared with a French average of 56%.
4. Ottawa-Gatineau, Ontario, Quebec
   In 2001, the area completed a political reorganization that united a regional government body and 11 urban and rural municipalities, including both Ottawa and Gatineau, into one local government structure. The new government published a plan called Ottawa 20/20 to establish a unified planning, zoning and development scheme. An Entrepreneurship Center offers assistance in starting and growing companies, and connects them with local venture capitalists. More than 2,400 clients started businesses in 2004 alone, and they created more than 7,800 new jobs and C$205 million (US$174m) in new investment. The Ottawa Rural Communities network (ORCnet) helped service providers build a business case for extending broadband into low-density markets. To sweeten the pot, local government put C$1 million (US$850k) into a public-private partnership that is investing C$3 million (US$2.5m) in a network build-out scheduled for completion in autumn 2007
5. Sunderland, Tyne & Wear, United Kingdom
   The Sunderland Strategy (2004-07) has focused on exploiting the city’s global connectivity and growing knowledge workforce to attract even more inward investment and encourage the formation and growth of small and midsize companies. For the past five years, the number of net new jobs has increased 4.87% compared with the UK average of 3.17%. The city’s activism about deploying broadband, and willingness to create joint ventures where necessary to reduce risks to the private sector, convinced carriers including NTL-Telewest, BT and Tiscali to provide broadband at competitive costs for speeds up to 10 Mbps. Broadband penetration has leaped from 25% two years ago to 75% today. The City Council has taken advantage of this connectivity to create an e-government portal that delivers a wide range of services to about 30,000 visitors per month.
6. Tallinn, Estonia
   Located on the shores of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn is the capital of a nation that spent 51 years as part of the Soviet empire. It gained independence in 1991 and saw the last Russian troops depart in 1994. Yet by 2006, Estonia was a member of the European Union, had an economy growing at double-digit rates and was ranked in 25th position for international competitiveness by the World Economic Forum. As part of “Tiger Leap”, the government made wholesale purchases of computers and persuaded banks to support leasing programs that included Internet access. State funding also went to building a backbone network linking Tallinn to other municipalities, which now supports a WiMax network covering 90% of Estonia.
7. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
   Like Stanford University in Silicon Valley, the University of Waterloo spurred spin-outs of technology-based businesses, and local entrepreneurs began to build clusters of companies working on the most exciting technologies of the day. It is also the home of companies that, over the past eight years, made up 10% of successful IPOs on the Toronto Stock Exchange. In 2000, the city undertook a year-long project called Imagine!Waterloo. This city-wide public consultation aimed to determine the best possible future for the city. Its recommendations ranged from environmental protection to transportation, culture to city communications. Waterloo’s public libraries have become ICT learning centers that, thanks to company donations, lend laptops as well as books. Each fall, the Waterloo region celebrates Entrepreneur Week, North America’s largest innovation festival.

Posted by Sam Churchill on Monday, February 5th, 2007 at 11:43 am.