7 Smartest Cities in the World 2013 According to Smart21

You can learn a lot of interesting tidbits about cities and countries through global rankings and I’ve explored this topic in previous posts like the best country to live, the happiest countries, the  most peaceful countries, the most sustainable countries, the friendliest countries, the most charitable countries, the most prosperous countries, the best countries for quality of life, the best countries for business, the top countries for life expectancy, the best countries for working women, the best country for world travel & tourism, the best countries for human development, the top countries for Clean Capitalism, the best country for child well-being, the best countries from social progress, the most popular countries, the least corrupt countries, the best countries for paid vacation days, the countries with the best reputation, the best countries for global professionals,  the most livable city, the best city to live, the greenest city, the best city for opportunity, the best city for quality of living and the most competitive cities. Today, I’ll be adding to this list with the 7 Smartest Cities in the World.

I have previously written about the smartest countries and the best countries for higher education but today’s selections are a short list chosen based on information from Smart21 Intelligent Community of the Year 2013. Smart21 is a list of the 21 smartest communities in the world released by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF). The ICF “is a think tank that studies the economic and social development of the 21st Century community.” The ICF explains that the “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.”

Toronto Waterfront

The process for being named the “Smartest Community in the World’ is a rigorous one. First the Smart21 are announced after the ICF has “review[ed the] nominations received from cities and regions worldwide by an international academic team.” Second, the Smart21 are asked to complete a comprehensive questionnaire. An independent firm then evaluates those results, and the top seven scoring communities are shortlisted. Third ICF co-founders go to the top seven communities and write reports detailing their findings. Those findings are then reviewed by an international jury whose “votes are combined with the analysis of the independent research company to select the Intelligent Community of the Year.”

In alphabetical order the shortlisted seven communities are:

• Columbus, Ohio, United States
• Oulu, Finland
• Stratford, Ontario, Canada
• Taichung City, Taiwan
• Tallinn, Estonia
• Taoyuan County, Taiwan (the 2013 Winner)
• Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The winner was Taichung City, Taiwan and it was announced at the ICF’s Awards Luncheon at the Steiner Studios Stage Six in the Brooklyn Navy Yard Redevelopment. The process begins again when the Smart21 Communities of the Year will be announced on October 21, 2013. It is quite cool to see two Canadian cities make the shortlist of the smartest communities.

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