NEW YORK CITY – The Canadian cities of Winnipeg and Hamilton have been named to the list of the Top7 Communities of 2018 as selected by Intelligent Community Forum (ICF).
According to the ICF, the Top7 represent models of economic and social transformation in the 21st Century, with each demonstrating “best practices in broadband deployment and use, workforce development, innovation, digital inclusion and advocacy that offer lessons to regions, cities, towns and villages around the world.”
ICF said that it uses a “rigorous analytic method” to select the seven cities, including a detailed questionnaire based on ICF's Intelligent Community Indicators that is reviewed and scored by an international academic team of analysts. The other five cities selected are Chiayi City, Taiwan; Tainan City, Taiwan; Taoyuan,Taiwan; Espoo, Finland; and Ipswich, Queensland, Australia.
One of the Top 7 will be crowned ICF's Intelligent Community of the Year based on a second round of analysis, site visits by ICF's co-founders and the votes of an international jury. That announcement will take place June 7 during an awards dinner at the ICF Global Summit in London, England. The 2017 winner was Melbourne, Australia.
Canadian telecommunication technical consulting firm Clearcable, which works locally in the Hamilton community, including on the Digital Hamilton Task Force of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, is also a private-sector member of ICF Canada.
“The Top7 are remarkably forward-looking communities who are coming through a great transformation,” said Clearcable president Rob McCann, in a statement. “Clearcable is delighted and inspired by the opportunity to collaborate with their local governments, institutions, and service providers as they take the lead in digital disruption.”
