Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2014

The Intelligent Community Forum has announced the 2014 Top7 Intelligent Communities of the Year. The Top7 list includes three from Canada, two from the United States, and two from Taiwan. Candidates are evaluated based on the five Intelligent Community Indicators, which provide the conceptual framework for understanding all of the factors that determine a community’s competitiveness and point to its success in the broadband economy.

This year’s Top7 group is unusual in that they represent only three nations. However, they collectively are a canvas that represents our movement. Each made it to the list by demonstrating how they have begun to fuse technology, culture and collaboration for economic sustainability. They have set a new course for other cities to follow. We look forward to welcoming them to New York in June for the selection of the Intelligent Community of the Year

said Lou Zacharilla, Intelligent Community Forum co-founder as he announced the Top7 at a conference hosted in Taichung City, Taiwan, the 2013 Intelligent Community of the Year.

In alphabetical order, the 2014 Top7 Intelligent Communities are:

• Arlington County, Virginia, USA, which is building its own fiber network to boost broadband service and re-energize government-business-university collaboration
• Columbus, Ohio, USA, which in its recovery from the 2008 recession has 20,000 more jobs than it did at its last economic peak in 2007
• Hsinchu City, Taiwan, the first city in Taiwan to implement e-learning platforms for its students and establish a science park
• Kingston, Ontario, Canada, which leveraged its educational institutions to build an innovation economy focused on environmental sustainability
• New Taipei City, Taiwan, a new city forged from communities surrounding the nation’ s capital, which is creating a unified and dynamic knowledge economy
• Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with a renowned waterfront development that will provide Internet at 500 times the speed of conventional residential networks
• Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where reinvention of its agricultural legacy is creating strong growth while preserving a valued heritage

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Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2014 named by Intelligent Community Forum