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GLASGOW NAMED TOP INTELLIGENT COMMUNITY

The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) announced that Glasgow, Scotland, was winner of Intelligent Community of the Year in the organization's fifth annual Intelligent Community Awards, held on June 11 in New York City. The awards were presented as part of the Intelligent Communities Conference and Awards program. The New York-based think tank presents its Intelligent Community awards each year to create a greater awareness of best practices, and to promote the role that broadband communications and technology play in economic growth and development worldwide.

The ICF is a nonprofit think-tank that researches the uses of broadband technology for economic development by communities large and small in both the developed and developing world. Its 2001 landmark study, "Benchmarking the Intelligent Community," identified five criteria that define "intelligence" for communities seeking economic development in today's challenging global economy. Founded by the World Teleport Association, ICF conducts research, creates conference content, publishes newsletters and presents annual Awards for Intelligent Community developers.

For many, Glasgow, Scotland was the surprise choice for the Intelligent Community of the Year honor. Chosen from among a group of seven finalists, Scotland's second-largest city was cited for its 34% growth in employment over the past seven years and the role that its regional agencies' and government's initiatives played in that growth. Once one of the richest cities in Europe, the city suffered an intense decline as its shipbuilding, mining, and heavy manufacturing base lost its competitiveness. It suffered a 16.8% unemployment rate at its highest point. Working on a competitiveness model driven from the national government, Scottish Enterprise, a regional agency, engaged a wide range of stakeholders in a transformation that set a goal of making all of Scotland, and especially Glasgow, an e-commerce hub. The goal included ensuring that at least half of Scottish small and midsize enterprises would have Internet connections and that one-third would be engaged in e-commerce, and that 20% of all new business start-ups would be e-commerce companies.

The Scottish Executive established two major programs to help meet these goals. The first, Digital Scotland, aims to ensure that Glasgow plans and maximizes economic and social advantages from information communications technology. A Knowledge Economy Task Force is tasked with ensuring the development of a broad-based knowledge economy for Glasgow and all of Scotland. Through these government-led initiatives, Glasgow, which is the UK's second-largest financial center, became a focal point for the inclusion of broadband technology and infrastructure. According to ICF, telecommunications are 100% digital and highly competitive, with costs among the lowest in Europe. This is a key factor in intelligent community development, according to ICF. Glasgow will be one of the first European cities to go live with 3G wireless services. The ICF pointed to Glasgow's business attraction efforts as well, noting that British Telecom has chosen Glasgow as the location for its Data Hosting facility, the largest in the U.K. This development is consistent with ongoing and significant investment that has been made by both public and private sectors.

Other investment includes a £300m program to develop new office space in the financial services district that will accommodate 20,000 jobs, supported by a new high-speed broadband infrastructure. Most important, the ICF noted that the unemployment rate had dropped to 6.9% of the working age population, a 60% improvement that matched Scotland's average and was only slightly above the UK's average of 5.6%. ICF also recognized that the city continues to transform its community with specific goals and programs. These include a focus on accelerating business uptake of technology, promoting the growth of e-commerce to support industries, and injecting e-commerce into Scottish education and worker training. While Glasgow earned the award by a "slight nod" over the other finalists, including Spokane, WA and Yokosuka, Japan, the ICF cited the distance that the city had to travel to emerge as a leader in multiple categories when compared to other communities, especially those in Europe. Gordon Kennedy, Deputy Chief Executive, Scottish Enterprise Glasgow and Bailie Alan Stewart, a member of Glasgow's City Council, accepted the award.

According to the Intelligent Community Forum, other recipients for this year's awards are: Intelligent Community Visionary of the Year: Pedro Cerisola, Mexico, Secretary of Communications and Transport, The Ministry of Communications and Transport, Government of Mexico for the "E-Mexico National System Initiative."

Under the direction of Cerisola, Mexico has begun a national initiative called, "e-Mexico," to link 90% of the nation's population to the global information highway through the development of 10,000 "Digital Community Centers." The goal of e-Mexico is to increase Internet usage nationally from 4.5 million to 60 million users. The e-Mexico initiative was launched as a directive from Mexican President Vicent Fox and phase one was begun in 2003. As of May 2003, 3,000 sites have been installed. The Intelligent Community Forum identified this vision as one that would bring an entire nation into the Digital Age using non-traditional means, in this case satellite connections, for transporting information. Mr. Javier Perez, General Coordinator for the E-Mexico National System accepted the award on behalf of Secretary Cerisola and the Ministry.

Intelligent Community Technology of the Year: New York Public Interest Research Group's Mapping Assistance Project, New York City, USA

A provider of location-based mapping technology that is intended to help communities improve their quality of life, NYPIRG CMAP was awarded for its customized applications of ESRI and Microsoft technologies that enable non-profit, philanthropic and public service organizations to offer on-line services. These services, which range from the arts to data about poverty, give affordable access and information to citizens, businesses, student, researchers and tourists. Among the projects cited by ICF of note was "Destination Brooklyn," which offers detailed real estate and demographic information for every property and neighborhood to be used primarily by small business owners and community development organizations, and the OASIS project, which provides information about parks, wetlands, gardens and other open spaces for New Yorkers. Steven Romalweski, Director of the NYPIRG CMAP project in New York accepted the award.

Intelligent Building of the Year: Cyberport, Hong Kong, China (SAR)

Cyberport is one of the most-discussed real estate projects in Asia and considered symbolic of Hong Kong's determination to develop as leading information technology (IT) hub and intelligent city. The US$2 billion mixed-use project will be home to 100 IT companies and over 10,000 IT professionals. The project, which was started in 2002, should be completed in 2007. In addition to its business component, Cyberport includes a residential development of nearly 3,000 apartments. IT Street is at the core of the access portion of the development and links buildings to broadband-related services, as well as to the development's digital media and wireless development centers through multiple high-speed networks. ICF noted that because of its broadband and wireless communications infrastructure, Cyberport follows the intelligent building model of creating an atmosphere where "next-generation" companies and tenants will be attracted. Mr. Mark Clift, Director of Campus and Project Management and deputy to CEO Nick Yang for Cyberport in Hong Kong accepted the award.