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U.S. Cities Don't Make the Intelligence Cut
coondoggie writes "For the second year running, no U.S. city has made the list of the world's top Intelligent Communities of 2007, as selected by global think tank Intelligent Community Forum. The ICF selects the Intelligent Community list based on how advanced the communities are in deploying broadband, building a knowledge-based workforce, combining government and private-sector "digital inclusion," fostering innovation and marketing economic development."
As based on Broadband deployment?
Instead of basing it on say, the intelligence of the community.
But, it was part of the Pacific Telecommunications Council, so I'm sure they have an agenda somewhere.
My twitter
The ICF met and announced this list as part of the 29th annual Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) conference
This is a political ploy by Telecoms to push governments into subsidizing broadband. It is trolling, just like "You are not intelligent if you don't use vi/java/rails/xml/etc." We've been -1trolled.
Table-ized A.I.
"The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) is a nonprofit think tank that focuses on job creation and economic development in the broadband economy."
This is not an objective measure of how "intelligent" a community is, it's an objective measure of what broadband policies will make the global technocratic elite supporters of the institute the most money. And the "Digital Inclusiveness" blurb means "How can we get more money from taxpayers to line our pockets?"
But I'm sure they appreciate the free advertising. In fact, I would say that was worth $25,000 of free advertizing for them, which means that now Slashdot will have to register as a paid lobbyist. Oh wait, that bill was defeated.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
So IOW, if you don't fit their ideology and/or political agendae, you're not among the intelligent cities on Earth?
Not a very intelligent way to measure intelligence, is it?
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
How typical: you pick what criteria you think are important, define them as "intelligence", and then determine that everybody else is less intelligent than you are.
When it happens at a conference, it's just back-slapping. Scale it up and its racism and then genocide.
Whatever, guys. As long as you stop short of the genocide I really don't care what you think.
... but watching youtube makes you intelligent. Yup, broadband as an intelligence measure beats all those dumb ink blot tests.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Like most government programs, they start out with nice intentions but fail terribly when implemented. The US doesn't have an education service. Maybe we have a mandatory babysitting service, or perhaps a temporary incarceration service, or even a parent/youth entertainment service, but not an education service. The thing that is most sickening though is that no matter how badly education coerced at other peoples expense fails, ther are sill mobs who cling to the concept as if their very life depended on it. It's like communisim, even after the murder of 100 million people, ther are still people who cling to this failed ideology. These people are sick, just sickening.
Firstly, this study is based on a bunch of arbitrary points of evaluation. They could have as easily decided a cities intelligence based on the number of car accidents or the number of fire hydrants.
I'd like to see a study that shows which cities have the most number of universities and the number of successful startups and successful large companies in it.
How about which cities have the highest number of employed people with degrees...
I can think of a lot of ways to measure a cities intelligence, however measuring their broadband penetration isn't one of them.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
before broadband was invented?
I agree. If anyone else does, tag the article "uselessmetric" .
Stupidity is like nuclear power, it can be used for good or evil. And you don't want to get any on you.
hmm how does one answer that... oh i remember now
Your using a PC that has a US invented and designed proc
You came to a US based website
you got you IP address from a US based org (ICAAN)
your connected using a little network based on a US project
to tell a bunch of people from the US that they are stupid
yeah we are the dumb ones.... I am not saying USA is the best.... but I can't think of to many places I would rather live.
The criteria that needs to be met for a city to be considered "intelligent" seems more like criteria that would need to be met to be considered "advanced." Last I checked, broadband, "digital inclusion," etc... have nothing to do with intelligence -- just technological advancement and modernity.
That's nothing, Paco! My *apartment* beats the flying fuck out of every nation on the planet: 100% broadband penetration. 100% employed in the IT field. 8:1 computer to user ratio. All this despite having a GDP several orders of magnitude smaller than any nation on the planet.
Estonia's land area is smaller than 41 of the 50 US states. It has a lower population tha 40 of the 50 US states. Maybe it would be wise to consider the challenges in deploying a cellular service to a massive country vs. to a tiny country.
Finally you ought to consider what it really means to improve your life.
If you want talk "beating pants off technologically" you might want to take a look see about which countries make high performance micro processors.
That's because Canada is two nations, not just one.
PS my country is better than yours.
There's a lot more educational content on YouTube than you'll ever find on most American TV channels.
As a percentage, I would not be so sure - consider broadcast channels alone, you have PBS and basically, everything else.
Now think that for every YouTube video teaching latin there are probably about 10k videos of people taking hits to the groin.
Looking at what is popular vs. what is availiable on YouTube yields a very different conclusion than the one you come to. For those that wish it, YouTube is a great educational resource. But like any tool infused by the Power Of The Internet, it is also capible of being the ultimate BoobTube. It's basically TV amplified and magnified, and I'm not sure really all that much better or worse since it's even more a product of the viewers.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Estonia was more or less rebuilt from scratch by Nokia, Talinn is probably the most technically advanced city in Europe.
Here's a novel idea: the same content, and sometimes even better is available at your local library. Yet I don't see the number and quality of libraries mentioned in their measure of intelligence. People have been using their brains before YouTube too, you know.
;) Lots of, ahem, "educational" videos on _that_ kinda topic.
Language? I learned English from tapes and books, and then from a teacher. I got taught French by my grandma using Pif comics. You don't need a video to learn a new language, you just need to hear and read it. Even if (for whatever psychiatric reason) you're absolutely _only_ able to do it over the Internet, you don't absolutely need broadband for that: to learn to read you only need a freakin' ASCII file, and to hear it you need an MP3. Trust me, you can squeeze those even through an analog modem if you really want to, especially since you don't need to stream them in real time: you can download them in advance just as well.
Learn to play an instrument? How about getting one of the about a million books on the topic? Again, chances are your local library carries several. I know a ton of people who've learned to play the guitar without broadband.
Etc.
Plus, as the unused libraries prove, there's a heck of a difference between something being available and people actually using it. Just because a community has broadband, it doesn't mean automatically everyone starts using it to learn stuff. Except if by "learn" you mean, "my word, I didn't know a double anal penetration was even possible."
Now I'm not against broadband or anything, but measuring a community's intelligence by the available megabits per second is at best PR trolling (seeing as the "independent think tank" is actually just a lobby group to push for more subsidized broadband), and at worst genuine techo-utopian stupidity.
Even if we're to spend tax money to improve intelligence (a good idea, by all means), I'm still waiting for any study to show that broadband is the best return on investment. How about investing half that amount in improving the schools, for example? A good teacher can help more than just upgrading someone's internet connection. How about, political correctness and feel-good education be damned, someone actually make a class out of the nerdiest kids who actually want to learn? And I mean really learn stuff, not get some watered-down bullshit and "brain gym" pseudo-education.
Are kids that much more likely to learn foreign languages well on the Internet than from a teacher, for example? Really? Because so far I've seen people even forgetting whatever proper English they knew after a couple of years on MMOs. The English I could learn on, say, City of Heroes, is of the caliber of, "soz m8, g2g, got skewl 2moz". (Translation for those who aren't fluent in l33t: "sorry mate, got to go, got school tomorrow." Yeah, I know, it made me go cross-eyed trying to decode it too.) Genuine quote off one of the UK servers. No kidding. I swear to God, someone actually typed that abhomination.
There's a whole generation by now who's learned to write badly not even in the name of typing speed, but out of some idiotic notion that writing "skewl" instead of "school" is somehow cool, hip, elite, or whatever. And it's contagious. People who _are_ capable of writing proper English and typing fast enough, end up getting that idea too. I was shocked to discover that a middle-aged mid-level manager I know had started to type like that on a MMO. That's broadband intelligence for you.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Although I also like Waterloo (and I do live there) I think Ottawa has a lot to offer that Waterloo does not. For example, Ottawa has access to lakes, real skiing and cottages whereas Waterloo is at least a 90 minute drive from the closest lake and (real) ski hill. Try comparing the transit system and Ottawa wins hands down. Ottawa also has great museums whereas Waterloo does not. To top it off you can't even find a good Mexican restaurant in Waterloo :-). Granted the price of homes is higher in Ottawa but I don't see why you feel Waterloo is so much better than Ottawa?
Adventure City Tours
Sorry, but you're way off base.
I too live in Ottawa. I chose to live here. For Hi-tech.
Many, many, many people flock here from around the country to get into the hi-tech sector.
Unlike other hi-tech boom areas; the business here is stabilized through work with not only the public sector, but also government. So when a lot of other areas went through the Bust; Ottawa wasn't as severly affected.
Add to that the area is the country's capital, so it is made a priority to keep the city looking clean and there are festivals and tourist attractions all the time.
It also boasts a great green space, access to rivers, lakes, and is close to rural and recrational spaces.
Ottawa is a great place. The only real downsides I have is that it is a bit quiet for those that like the "big city" life, and because of the geography it can get really cold in the winter, and really muggy and hot in the summers.
Perhaps because like any capital of a nation the city is not 'full' of politicians. As an Ottawa resident I can attest to the fact that the federal political 'scene' is not some overpowering force you can't ignore if you drive down the 417. I would agree that Ottawa is not the best place to live if you are a teenager as it's not exactly a party town, but if you are over the age of 25 and enjoy quality of life over hip martini bars then it's a great city.
Please stop APK.. you're only hurting yourself.