The 1982 Disney movie, Tron, contains a valuable lesson on the power of the digital systems user today.

In the movie, released 40 years before ChatGPT, the hero is transferred bodily into a computer system under the control of an evil AI. Because he’s the good guy, he tries to lead a revolt, mostly in vain. But just when things look bleakest, he discovers that he has “user power.” Simply by willing it, he can make magical things happen in this alternate universe. Because, under the digital skin, he’s a human being who uses computer systems, not the other way around.

In this episode of The Intelligent Community, ICF co-founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with Krista Nightengale, Executive Director at the Better Block Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to showing communities how to build a more walkable, bikeable, liveable neighborhood to improve quality of life and attract talent.

Dr. Katelyn Jetelina is one of America’s most trusted epidemiologists. She publishes Your Local Epidemiologist, a widely read website and newsletter covering a range of public health issues that translates evolving science into readable language for the general public. In this episode of The Intelligent Community, she discusses information integrity and the politics of COVID in places as diverse as New York and Florida. This episode is the second part of ICF co-founder Lou Zacharilla’s interview with Dr. Jetelina. Listen to Part 1.

Now that COVID is no longer a global pandemic, what is it? And what is the lesson communities learned over the past 3 years? In this episode of The Intelligent Community, ICF co-founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, Director of Population Health Analytics, to learn these answers and more.

Connectivity by itself adds little value – it is what people do with it that counts. Learn from communities that have leveraged their broadband assets for business retention and attraction, market differentiation, talent attraction for remote work and regional partnerships.

ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla delivers a Keynote address at the 2022 Top7 Conference and Announcement in Binh Duong, Vietnam. 

Syd Kitson is Chairman and CEO of Kitson & Partners, a Florida-based real estate company specializing in the creation and development of master-planned communities and commercial properties.

In this episode of The Intelligent Community, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with Professor Jennifer Sherman of Washington State University about rural inequality, what the American Dream now looks like, social interactions and how they've changed over the past 18 months, and more. 

In this episode of The Intelligent Community, Lou Zacharilla speaks with Tallinn City Council Chairman Tiit Terik about his reaction to Tallinn being named the 2020 Intelligent Community of the Year.

Maybe it’s just me, but I keep thinking I hear the sound of “Smart City fatigue” setting in.

Since IBM coined the term and Cisco quickly followed its lead, there have been, according to the web, three generations of smart cities. There have been academic papers and workshops and massive conferences. Multinational, national and local programs have poured billions into projects. Technologies have been developed to improve how cities manage everything from energy, water, public safety and pollution to transportation, healthcare and tax collection. Consultants have prospered, IT systems sales have grown and CIOs have earned new respect. Now, after more than two decades of smart cities adoption, what do we have to show for all that investment?

Frankly, not much.