(New York City, June 29, 2010) – 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.
At their inaugural meeting in New York on 19 May before the start of ICF’s annual Summit, Building the Broadband Economy, the Founding Members elected a Board of Directors and named Mayor Brenda Halloran of the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada (2007 Intelligent Community of the Year) as its Chairperson. John Jung, co-founder of the Intelligent Community Forum, was named President.
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.
