The best thermometer of how the world views the 2015 finalists for the world’s most Intelligent Community of the Year designation is best found in the press coverage. This year the lesson is that dark horses have reached for the top. Forbes noted that the Top7 “are not the cities you think of immediately” as tech powerhouses. The UK’s Independent said as much and concluded by saying that we can learn from them. Noting the population differences the Independent referred to Mitchell, SD (pop 15,000) as the “minnow” of the group. The South Dakota community, in the mind of the press, is swimming upstream in its quest for further glory in Toronto in June when we will announce the 2015 Intelligent Community of the Year.

Over the past 100 days the people have spoken. In several important cities they decided to lift their voice and open the exits for several incumbents. New mayors and elected officials were sworn in among several Intelligent Community Forum Foundation cities, including three Intelligent Communities of the Year, Toronto (2014), Taichung (2013) and Taipei (2006). These champions replaced familiar, popular and controversial leaders. The most notable for me was in Taichung, Taiwan.

Co-author of new “Seizing Our Destiny” book outlines strategies to keep libraries as key information centres in the digital age

Mexico City, Mexico – Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) co-founder Louis Zacharilla is in Mexico City to help draft a future Trend Report to serve as a guidebook for the world’s libraries and the services they need to provide the public. There are an estimated 315,000 public libraries in the world and Zacharilla joins an elite group of global experts to provide the libraries with a vision of the next five years. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) brought the experts together to map out the major emerging trends in contemporary society that will affect access to information and help libraries determine what they need to do to keep their traditional position as centres of information. The IFLA is the global voice of the library and information profession with members in over 150 countries.

Intelligent Community Forum searches the world’s successful communities for solutions to help rebuild American prosperity

New York, NY - February 26, 2013 – As U.S. President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union address, “there are communities in this country where no matter how hard you work, it’s virtually impossible to get ahead.” In support of the President’s challenge to “build new ladders of opportunity”, the Intelligent Community Forum is offering five ways U.S. communities can seize their destinies to attract and retain high-value 21st century American jobs.

Co-author of new “Seizing Our Destiny” book outlines strategies to future-proof communities in the new broadband-based economy

Oslo, Norway – 10 December, 2012 –Intelligent Community Forum co-founder Louis Zacharilla is in Oslo to deliver a presentation and moderate a symposium on creating collaborative, successful and open communities. The symposium on Tuesday Dec. 11, entitled Visioning the Open Society Forum, is part of Nobel Week events in Oslo. Zacharilla will discuss the inability of many national governments to respond significantly to the social collapse and economic stress of recent years. However he notes that a growing number of communities have found their way back to economic prosperity after being given up for ‘dead’. “The stakes are extremely high for the smaller communities and cities to get it right and to harvest their natural and embedded “intelligence,” says Zarcharilla.