The
Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), a New York-based think tank dedicated to
studying the use of information and communications technologies to build the 21st
Century community, announced today the formation of the Intelligent Community
Association (ICA). Formed at the request
of the political and business leaders of communities honored over the last
decade in ICF's Intelligent Community Award program, the nonprofit association agreed
in its charter to deepen personal interaction among the public, institutional
and private-sector leaders of the member communities, and to promote economic
growth, social advancement and cultural development. The new association will also create a
sustained program of research and a best practices database to improve the
ability of member communities to achieve their goals, as well as share
knowledge with other communities around the world.
Speaking to the new Board, Mayor Halloran
said, "Our member communities will now do collectively what each has done
individually since being named an Intelligent Community.
We now have a structure to further our collaboration,
which is going to create economic growth and social inclusion, and to build
prosperous, relevant communities in the Broadband Economy.” Halloran, who represents the Canadian
community that is the home to Research in Motion and nearly 10% of all
publicly-traded companies in Canada, added, “But what is most exciting for me
personally is that this group wants to follow ICF’s path and to share our
knowledge and best practices with communities around the world."
Membership in the association is limited to
communities that have been named a Smart21 Community, Top Seven Intelligent
Community or Intelligent Community of the Year in ICF's annual Award
program. The Founding Members of the
Intelligent Community Association are:
·
Arlington County, Virginia, USA
·
Dublin, Ohio, USA
·
Dundee, Scotland, UK
·
Eindhoven, Netherlands
·
Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
·
Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
·
Manchester, UK
·
Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada
·
Riverside, California, USA
·
Stockholm, Sweden
·
Suwon, South Korea
·
Tallinn, Estonia
·
Taoyuan County, Taiwan
·
Trikala, Greece
·
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
·
Intelligent Community Forum
More than a dozen other Intelligent
Communities have signed a Memorandum of Understanding supporting the start-up
of the association.
"The launch of the Intelligent Community
Association fulfills a vision that the founders of ICF have had
since the beginning," said ICA president John Jung. "Through its research, services and
international Award program, ICF has created a global network of community
leaders who know that the old paradigms of economic development, social
progress and urban design are not keeping up with the demands of the new
century. The members of that network
demanded an ongoing platform for collaboration, and forming ICA was their
answer."
About ICF
The Intelligent Community Forum is a think
tank that studies the economic and social development of the 21st Century
community. Whether in industrial or developing nations, communities are
challenged to create prosperity, stability and cultural meaning in a world where
jobs, investment and progress increasingly depend on broadband
communications. For the 21st Century community, connectivity is a
double-edge sword: threatening established ways of life on the one hand, and
offering powerful new tools to build prosperous, inclusive economies on the
other. The Intelligent Community Forum seeks to share the best practices of
the world's Intelligent Communities in adapting to the demands of the Broadband
Economy by conducting research, hosting events, publishing newsletters and producing
an international awards program.
Contact:
Orly
Konig Lopez
Communications Manager, Intelligent Community Forum
orly@intelligentcommunity.org
+1 240-252-5928
+1 646-291-6166 (x104)
