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Intelligent Communities
By Robert Bell, John Jung, Louis Zacharilla: Intelligent Communities are those which have - whether through crisis or foresight - come to understand the enormous challenges of the Broadband Economy, and have taken conscious steps to create an economy capable of prospering in it. They are not necessarily big cities or famous technology hubs. They are located in developing nations as well as industrialized ones, suburbs as well as cities, the hinterland as well as the coast.

The Cultural DNA Inside an Innovation Engine

February 22, 2012 By

Biology was one of my favorite sciences in secondary school.  I liked it because it was descriptive rather than mathematical.  It was not about applying abstract rules to make numbers behave in peculiar ways.  It was about how real things fit together.  Or, in the case of those frogs we all dissected, how they came apart. 

If you have read anything about life sciences research lately, you know that this view of biology is very old school.  Since we figured out how to sequence DNA and to data-mine the resulting flood of information, we have been uncovering unbelievably complex chains of action and reaction at the microscopic level. 

And every time we think we understand the pieces of the puzzle, each piece seems to have within it yet another complex chain of action and reaction.  The deeper we look, the more we see.  The sheer interconnectedness of it all is mind-boggling. 

At the end of March, I will visit Oulu, Finland, one of our Top Seven Intelligent Communities of 2012.  And I am fully prepared to have my mind boggled. 

Not because Oulu is a world leader in life sciences research.  It is a remarkable place when it comes to technology innovation but its talents mostly lie elsewhere.  I am prepared for mental boggling because of the way that innovation in Oulu is driven by its cultural DNA.   

You function as a living, breathing whole in part because each cell in your body contains all of the genetic instructions for making a new you. That is pretty much how innovation seems to take place in this mid-sized city only 200 km south of the Arctic Circle. 

Whether the project is a broadband network or a tech incubator, success is built on intensive collaboration among partners in government, business and institutions.  In project after project, the story is the same.  It is as though the partners are cells in a single organism, each carrying the whole of Oulu’s cultural DNA. 

I’m sure they have their inter-organizational food fights and inevitable jockeying for position and influence.  That’s how cultures work.  But this culture of collaboration has enabled Oulu to ride through successive waves of economic change and keep coming out on top.  I look forward to seeing it, and I hope that this particular form of biology has not gone beyond my ability to describe how it works.


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Intelligent Communities

About the Intelligent Community Forum
The Intelligent Community Forum is a think tank that studies the economic and social development of the 21st Century community. Whether in industrialized or developing nations, communities are challenged to create prosperity, stability and cultural meaning in a world where jobs, investment and knowledge increasingly depend on advances in communications. For the 21st Century community, connectivity is a double-edge sword: threatening established ways of life on the one hand, and offering powerful new tools to build prosperous, inclusive and sustainable economies on the other. ICF seeks to share the best practices of the world's Intelligent Communities in adapting to the demands of the Broadband Economy, in order to help communities everywhere find sustainable renewal and growth. More information can be found at www.intelligentcommunity.org.

Robert Bell
Robert Bell is co-founder of the Intelligent Community Forum, where he heads its research and content development activities. He is the author of ICF's pioneering study, Benchmarking the Intelligent Community, the annual Top Seven Intelligent Communities of the Year white papers and other research reports issued by the Forum, and of Broadband Economies: Creating the Community of the 21st Century. Mr. Bell has also authored articles in The Municipal Journal of Telecommunications Policy, IEDC Journal, Telecommunications, Asia-Pacific Satellite and Asian Communications; and has appeared in segments of ABC World News and The Discovery Channel. A frequent keynote speaker and moderator at municipal and telecom industry events, he has also led economic development missions and study tours to cities in Asia and the US.

John Jung
ICF co-founder John G. Jung originated the Intelligent Community concept and continues to serve as the Forum's leading visionary. Formerly President and CEO of the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance and Calgary Economic Development Authority, he is a registered professional urban planner, urban designer and economic developer. He leads regular international business missions to US, European, Asian, Indian and Australian cities, and originated the ICF Immersion Lab program. John is a regular speaker at universities and conferences and serves as an advisor to regional and national leaders on Intelligent Community development. The author of numerous articles in planning and economic development journals, he has received global and Toronto-based awards for his work in collaboration and strategic development and sits on numerous task forces and international advisory boards.

Louis Zacharilla
ICF co-founder Louis Zacharilla is the creator and presenter of the annual Smart21, Top Seven and Intelligent Community Awards and oversees ICF's media communications and development programs. He is a frequent keynote and motivational speaker and panelist, addressing audiences of tech, academic and community leaders around the world, and writes extensively for publications including American City & County, Continental Airline's in-flight magazine and Municipal World. His frequent appearances in the electronic media have included both television and radio in South Korea, China and Canada. He has served as an adjunct professor at Fordham University in New York and is a Guest Lecturer at Polytechnic University's Distinguished Speaker Series. He holds a Masters Degree from the University of Notre Dame.


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