(New York, NY – 4 March, 2009) The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) think tank, which studies the impact of technology on the community of the 21st Century, named the three recipients of its prestigious annual Founders Awards. The recipients are Dave Carter, Head of the Manchester Digital Development Agency (United Kingdom); Andrew J. Spano, County Executive for Westchester County (United States); and the Public Administration of Taoyuan County (Taiwan) under the direction of its Governor (Magistrate), Dr. Eric Li Luan Chu. The awards will be presented to this year's recipients at a luncheon in New York on 15 May, during the annual Building the Broadband Economy Summit (
www.icfsummit.org), which takes place 13-15 May, 2009. The Summit is organized by ICF and hosted by the Polytechnic Institute of New York University.
The Founders Awards honorees are selected each year by ICF's three co-founders as part of the annual Intelligent Community Awards. The Founders Awards identify individuals, applications, organizations and innovations within Intelligent Communities that are transforming life in the broadband economy for the common good. The Founders Awards attempt to identify best practices, sustained programs or inspiring initiatives, with the intention to give them global recognition.
About the 2009 ICF Founders Awards
Dave Carter, Head, Manchester Digital Development Agency, Manchester, UK
In the 1980s, Manchester lost one million jobs in the 10-municipality metro region, equal to 25% of the employment base. In 1984, a newly elected Council asked the university to launch research in order to better understand the crisis and how to respond to it. They hired a young visionary named Dave Carter and tasked him with re-envisioning Manchester's economy for the next 10 years. Mr. Carter's recommendations included developing linkages between the city government and its well-regarded university sector, focusing economic development on the city's arts and entertainment sector, and preparing Manchester to prosper from the commercialization of the Internet. Within less than a decade, Manchester had developed a successful science park in partnership with its universities, introduced skills training and investment that significantly boosted employment in arts and entertainment, and developed the UK's third Internet Exchange as a diversity site for London. Though still home to some of the UK's most distressed districts, Manchester today boasts a diverse and vibrant economy. Manufacturing still employs 12% of the workforce but the employment growth in finance and professional services, creative and new media industries, and digital communications far outpaced national averages from 1998 to 2006. Business start-ups during the same period were nearly three times the UK average.
Mr. Carter has moved through a series of leadership positions and today heads the Manchester Digital Development Agency (www.manchesterdda.com), part of the City Council that focuses on ICT systems, Web/new media applications, digital cities, intelligent energy, regeneration, citizen engagement and innovation. The MDDA works across the Greater Manchester metro area, which has a population of 2.5 million people. But in true Intelligent Community fashion, Mr. Carter’s work has not stopped at either the municipal or national border. Mr. Carter is one of the founding members of Telecities, a project of the EC's Eurocities network that promotes knowledge-sharing among European cities. Telecities, since renamed the Eurocities Knowledge Society Forum, focuses on the development of Intelligent Communities based on platforms similar to those of ICF.
Through Mr. Carter's initiative, Manchester was named a
Top Seven Intelligent Community in 2006 and appeared on ICF's list of the
Smart21 in 2009.
Andrew Spano, County Executive, Westchester County, New York, USA
Under the direction of long-time County Executive Andrew J. Spano, the county north of New York City with a population of nearly one million residents has made its broadband and telecommunications strategy the foundation for continued innovation, growth and access. While often in the shadow of its neighbor to the south, Westchester County generates 10% of all patents in the United States.
When carriers refused to introduce broadband beyond the profitable business corridor, the county government worked with 43 independent local governments as well as library systems, schools and hospitals to aggregate demand in order to finance construction of a fiber network. That network today serves 3,500 businesses and is saving government and public-service agencies large amounts of money. The network has been instrumental in the attraction of substantial new investment (including other broadband carriers), improved educational achievement, job creation and an enhanced quality of life. Of note to ICF is Mr. Spano's lifetime of innovation in re-engineering local government processes, which has saved tax dollars and created a local culture of use that has made the Internet a major form of communication between government and citizens at every level. In 2009, Westchester will launch a registry to allow citizens to sign up online indicating whether they would require special assistance in the event of an emergency.
Under Mr. Spano's leadership, Westchester County was named a
Top Seven Intelligent Community in 2008 and named to ICF's list of the
Smart21 in 2009.
Taoyuan County, Taiwan
In the "Age of Obama," which is ushering in a new generation of tech savvy leaders, Taiwan's youngest magistrate (governor) Dr. Eric Li Luan Chu has led the nation's second largest prefecture for the past eight years. With a population of two million and an annual budget of US$1.5 billion, Taoyuan County has emerged as the leading industrialized region in Taiwan. It is not surprising that a young governor is leading this Intelligent Community, since the county's residents have an average age of 34 years. The community's threefold strategy for becoming a model community for the 21st Century includes an ascending transformation into an electronic, mobile and ubiquitous technology-usage community, which will enhance the quality of life and create a sustainable culture of use. ICF specifically noted Taoyuan's "U-Aerotropolis" project, which is a broad and comprehensively planned integration of digital infrastructure and support services for an expanding aviation business cluster. The project implements broadband in the service of various air transport "free trade zones" within the county, which are designed to expedite and expand clearances and the export of industrial technology products. It is envisioned that the "U-Aerotropolis" initiative will continue to drive new business formation beyond the 23,000 service industry jobs at present.
In the past six year, 20,000 businesses have been registered in this Intelligent Community, where 23 industrial parks continue to generate innovative processes and new wealth within the context of a local "broadband economy." ICF particularly commended Taoyuan's public administration and Governor Chu for deciding to continue to invest significantly in infrastructure and services despite the global economic slowdown.
In 2009 Taoyuan County made its first appearance on ICF's annual list of Intelligent Communities as a
Smart21 Community.
About ICF: Life in the Broadband Economy
Noting that the Founders Awards represent innovation and dedication to results in today's broadband economy, ICF Co-Founder Louis Zacharilla congratulated the 2009 recipients. "These are three remarkable leaders and organizations – and examples of why Intelligent Communities are more relevant than ever to the global economy as it attemptst to rebound from the current financial crisis."
ICF is a nonprofit think tank that focuses on the creation of local prosperity and social inclusion in the "broadband economy" of the 21st Century. ICF conducts research, hosts events, offers tours of Intelligent Communities, publishes newsletters and presents awards to help communities understand the opportunities and challenges of the broadband economy. The think tank, headquartered in the NY Information Technology Center in lower Manhattan focuses on the promotion of best practices in economic and social development. The Forum's new book, Broadband Economies: Creating the Community of the 21st Century, is available from Amazon.com.
From global networks connecting business centers to DSL, cable and satellites linking homes, broadband is revolutionizing business, government, education, work and lifestyles. Life in the broadband economy is robust. Communities are being transformed to the roots by this new infrastructure. By opening markets, it creates new jobs and gives new focus and hope to communities in transition. By making possible the export of services and skills, it puts workers into wage and skill competition with people around the globe. For governments, it creates the opportunity for unprecedented transparency and responsiveness but also challenges policymakers to overcome the "digital divide" and use ICT to reduce social and economic exclusion. What we are witnessing is the emergence of the community for the 21st Century.
For more information, contact:
Orly Konig Lopez
240-425-3283 (mobile) 646-291-6166 x104
orly@intelligentcommunity.org www.intelligentcommunity.org
