About

Who Is the Intelligent Community Forum?

The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) is a New York-based think tank dedicated to the promotion of high-speed internet connectivity (often referred to as broadband) for economic and community development.

The core values the ICF is looking for in designating “smart cities” are:

• Connectivity – To what extent is the community online and active?
• Knowledge Workforce – What are we doing to cultivate internet-savvy students, employees and business owners?
• Digital Inclusion – How do we ensure people don’t get left behind?
• Innovation – How are businesses, institutions and organizations creating new opportunities to engage online?
• Marketing & Advocacy – How are we getting the word out, both within and outside the community?

The Sixth Element

Each year the ICF adds a different sixth indicator, such as how broadband internet connectivity is being used in education, government services, etc. For 2012/13, the sixth indicator employment — how communities walk the line between the job creation of new technologies, but also the job elimination (including lower level ICT jobs like data entry.)

A Bit of ICF’s Background

• The founders, two Americans and a Canadian, are Robert Bell, John G. Jung and Louis Zacharilla.
• The ICF has its roots in the World Teleport Association founded in 1985 which advanced the notion of commercial trading ports trafficking in digital information.
• The “Smart95” conference held in Toronto in 1995 is considered the birth of the ICF.
• The ICF’s first “Intelligent Community of the Year” was named at a conference in New Orleans in 1999: Singapore.

Since then, other winners have been:

• 2000: LaGrange, Georgia
• 2001: New York City
• 2002: Calgary, Alberta and Seoul, South Korea
• 2004: Glasgow, Scotland
• 2005: Mitaka, Japan
• 2006: Taipei, Taiwan
• 2007: Waterloo, Ontario
• 2008: Gangnam District, Seoul, South Korea
• 2009: Stockholm, Sweden
• 2010: Suwon, South Korea
• 2011: Eindhoven, The Netherlands
• 2012: Riverside, California

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can read more about the history of the ICF on their website.