Vancouver is getting a bit more attention about the innovative tech activity frothing around the community - this time the kudos come from The Intelligent Community Forum.

This nonprofit think tank explores economic development and job creation in the "broadband economy." To accomplish their goals, the ICF publish reports, organize conferences and present award campaigns with a few categories, most notably the Intelligent Community award.

Knock Down Round

The program involves a few steps beginning with the Smart21 announced at a conference at the "defending champs" location - this year that was Waterloo Ontario, home of the Blackberry phenomena.

Here's a snippet from the press release which explains the Intelligent Community awards cycle:

The Smart21 announcement is the first stage of ICF's annual Intelligent Community of the Year awards cycle. It is followed by the naming of the Top Seven Intelligent Communities of the Year, selected from among the Smart21, in January 2008. The cycle concludes in New York City on May 16, 2008 during the annual Building the Broadband Economy summit, where one of the 21 will succeed Waterloo as Intelligent Community of the Year.

The Competition

This year, Vancouver is on the short(ish) list along with a truly global variety including Tallinn, Estonia (i'd love to visit the Baltics); Ashland, Oregon (one of my fave towns); USA, Cape Town, South Africa (home of our man in Africa, Adrian); Dundee, Scotland (Hi Martin); Eindhoven, The Netherlands; (the mysterious) Isle of Man, UK (Crown Protectorate); Malta (temp home of Vancouver's own Darren Barefoot); plus towns in Korea, India, a couple more American burgs, and two more Canadian cities (Edmonton, AB and Fredericton, NB) rounding out the list.

Here's the Vancouver pitch:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada – With its record low unemployment and a rapid rate of growth, this city of 587,891 is enjoying good fortune all around. Its technology industry, especially small businesses, are outpacing the number of workers available.

A new private-sector based broadband wireless initiative will a support a comprehensive technology plan and its website won a "Best e-Government" award from the UN which will help the community absorb the activity surrounding its hosting of the 2010 Olympic Games.

Says Who?

So what are the requirements to make the list? Well, here's a list of economic indicators:

• Broadband Infrastructure
• Knowledge Workforce
• Innovation
• Digital Inclusion
• Marketing

These indicators turn into the criteria for judging who wins the honour, Ergo:

• Creation of jobs in fields expected to propser in the Broadband Economy
• Attracting new businesses to the community or stimulating their formation
• Educational programs that equip young people and adults with the skills to perform knowledge work
• New technology infrastructure investment, whether of "hard" assets, services or software
• Innovation in the delivery of government services such as education, administration, law enforcement or citizen particpation
• Innovation by local business that crate new products and services leads to increase competitiveness
• Ensuring access to broadband and IT resource, as well as skills training, for low-income and at-risk populations

Smart, and Green too

More from the press release talking about the big picture which gets into balancing the environment while promoting the economy:

According to ICF chairman John G. Jung, "Gaining a place among the Smart21 is the first step toward greater recognition as a community or region that is either positioning itself to prosper, or already is prospering in the Digital Age. This year we found that communities have passed a threshold, and no longer question whether broadband is a key to success, but are attempting to take steps to use the technology to move forward in order to 'future proof' themselves and ensure sustainability."

In his remarks, Mr. Zacharilla noted the range of "green" or environmentally-conscious programs which have been undertaken in Intelligent Communities.

Pick a Winner

If Vancouver succeeds in pleasing the judges, this fair city (AKA Vangroovy, Techcouver, Vansterdam, Hongcouver) will join past winners: the aforementioned Waterloo; Taipei, Taiwan; Mitaka, Japan; Glasgow, Scotland; Calgary, AB; Seoul, Republic of Korea; NYC, NY; LaGrange, GA; and city-state Singapore.

Methinks that the reason Vancouver is special is because of all the growing start-ups "getting it done" on their own terms with minimal help from economic development councils, banks, agencies, while also keeping true to their social ideals.

Here in Vancouver (speaking very generally) there is a sense of responsibility to haul the rest of the people along - "rising tide floats all boats" and all that - but also tending to tanglible outreach tasks to ensure the city grows up nice and sustainable and fun so we have an ideal place to live and work in the broadband economy.

Working against Vancouver is the dearth of options for broadband connectivity, the slow moving and regressive regulatory environment regarding questions of spectrum, copyright, privacy, neutrality, and access to the process, and the absurd pricing and attitude of mobile data providers. We'll see how it goes eh.