Dr. Norman Jacknis is currently Senior Fellow at the Intelligent Community Forum. His responsibilities include leading ICF’s Rural Imperative, building on the ideas he developed for the US Conference of Mayors on a future-oriented economic growth strategy for cities.

This week is the annual summit of the Intelligent Community Forum, where I’m Senior Fellow. Although there are workshops and meetings of the more than 140 intelligent communities from every continent, the events that draws the most attention are the discussions with the Top7 of the year and the ultimate winner.

Dr. Norman Jacknis is currently a Senior Fellow at the Intelligent Community Forum. His responsibilities include leading ICF’s Rural Imperative, building on the ideas he developed for the US Conference of Mayors on a future-oriented economic growth strategy for cities.

Before joining ICF, he was Director, Cisco’s IBSG Public Sector Group (the company’s open innovation and pro-bono strategic advisory group), where he worked extensively with states and local government, the National Association of Counties, the US Conference of Mayors and the staff responsible for the Federal government’s website and citizen engagement. In addition to citizen engagement, his focus was on economic growth, innovation, and the future of technology. Before Cisco, he was technology commissioner for Westchester County, New York, when it was one of ICF’s Top 7.

In addition to his regular Looking Forward blog for elected government executives and earlier articles, Dr. Jacknis has recently written articles and book chapters on “Beyond Smarter City Infrastructure – The New Urban Experience”, “A New Kind Of Public Square For Urban America, “Government’s Role In Facilitating An Innovative Economy” and “Transformation of the Local Government CTO/CIO”. He has been a frequent speaker at state/local government and technology industry events, in North America, Latin America, Europe, China, Korea and Australia. He led frequent economic partnership missions to China starting in 1998.

He received his Doctorate, Master's and Bachelor's degrees from Princeton University. Among several leadership positions in the technology, education and library communities, he is President of the New York Metropolitan Library Council.

To contact Norm, email him at njacknis@intelligentcommunity.org
Follow him on twitter @NormanJacknis and his blog http://njacknis.tumblr.com

Senior Fellows are individuals appointed to represent the Forum in a specific area – whether geographic, demographic, social or political – based on their experience, expertise and personal interest. The Intelligent Community Forum currently has two Senior Fellows:

Norman Jacknis

Dr. Norman Jacknis is currently a Senior Fellow at the Intelligent Community Forum. His responsibilities include leading ICF’s Rural Imperative, building on the ideas he developed for the US Conference of Mayors on a future-oriented economic growth strategy for cities. Before joining ICF, he was Director, Cisco’s IBSG Public Sector Group (the company’s open innovation and pro-bono strategic advisory group), where he worked extensively with states and local government, the National Association of Counties, the US Conference of Mayors and the staff responsible for the Federal government’s website and citizen engagement. In addition to citizen engagement, his focus was on economic growth, innovation, and the future of technology. More

Kees Rovers

Kees Rovers is the founder and CEO of Close the Gap VB in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and is currently a Senior Fellow at the Intelligent Community Forum. His focus is on issues concerning broadband connectivity in European Rural regions and on introducing European cities and regions to the Intelligent Community movement. Before becoming an ICF Senior Fellow, he spent twenty years in senior management positions with the Dutch cooperative bank, Rabobank, founded Telematica International, helped to found the Ons Net cooperative and finally founded Close the Gap (www.closethegap.nl). Kees is a frequent speaker around the world on the Close the Gap cooperative model and was recently awarded a knighthood by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix. More

Speaker Profile

Dr. Norman Jacknis is currently Senior Fellow at the Intelligent Community Forum. His responsibilities include leading ICF’s Rural Imperative, building on the ideas he developed for the US Conference of Mayors on a future-oriented economic growth strategy for cities.

Before joining ICF, he was Director, Cisco’s IBSG Public Sector Group (the company’s open innovation and pro-bono strategic advisory group), where he worked extensively with states and local government, the National Association of Counties, the US Conference of Mayors and the staff responsible for the Federal government’s website and citizen engagement. In addition to citizen engagement, his focus was on economic growth, innovation, and the future of technology. Before Cisco, he was technology commissioner for Westchester County, New York, when it was one of ICF’s Top 7.

In addition to his regular Looking Forward blog for elected government executives and earlier articles, Dr. Jacknis has recently written articles and book chapters on “Beyond Smarter City Infrastructure – The New Urban Experience”, “A New Kind Of Public Square For Urban America, “Government’s Role In Facilitating An Innovative Economy” and “Transformation of the Local Government CTO/CIO”. He has been a frequent speaker at state/local government and technology industry events, in North America, Latin America, Europe, China, Korea and Australia. He led frequent economic partnership missions to China starting in 1998.

He received his Doctorate, Master's and Bachelor's degrees from Princeton University. Among several leadership positions in the technology, education and library communities, he is President of the New York Metropolitan Library Council.

To contact Norm, email him at njacknis@intelligentcommunity.org
Follow him on twitter @NormanJacknis and his blog http://njacknis.tumblr.com

Reviews

- Norm Jacknis provided an inspiring presentation at our 6th annual rural economic development conference. He helped a group of community leaders, business people, policymakers and researchers consider new opportunities for rural prosperity and to think creatively about how they can use technology to transform their economies. – Jeffrey Dixon, Associate Director of the Monieson Centre, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

- [Jacknis is one of the] Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers who, using technology … broke bureaucratic inertia to better serve the public. – Government Technology Magazine

People who live in big metropolises, like New York City, London or Hong Kong, often say that they can always find someone within a few miles who has a special skill they need to complete some project or build a business. I’ve pointed out that the close proximity of millions of people with so many different skills is part of what has made cities successful economic engines during the industrial era.

I’ve written before about the ways that small towns and rural areas can take advantage of broadband Internet connections to gain access to global economic opportunities, educational and cultural resources, even the virtual equivalents of coffee shops that used to be only available in big cities.

Perhaps the biggest remaining barrier to a 21st century rural renaissance is access to world class health care.

Six US Senators, mostly from small rural states, wrote recently to the FCC about the inconsistencies they found between its recent report on broadband progress and its Open Internet order that was issued last March.

When we look at the adoption of new technologies, there often seem to be two simultaneous divergent trends. The innovators and early adopters push the technology forward, making significant progress every year. The laggards still find many reasons not to use the technology.

The current state of videoconferencing provides a very strong example of this divergence.

It’s been clear for some time that the Internet can connect everyone around the globe – in theory. This opens up tremendous potential for collaboration, mutual economic growth, education and a variety of other benefits. We’ve seen many of those benefits, but we still haven’t touched the surface.

Among other reasons the true potential of a globally connected world hasn’t yet been realized is that many people still can’t communicate when they communicate – they don’t speak the same language.