Taipei City was selected as one of the most "intelligent communities" in the world this year on the strength of its highly developed broadband infrastructure, "knowledge" workers and digital democracy.
"Knowledge worker" is a term coined by Peter Drucker in 1959 to describe one who works primarily with information or who develops and uses knowledge in the workplace.
"Digital democracy," also known as "e-democracy" or "cyberdemocracy," is a philosophy that aims to leverage technology to make it easier for citizens to participate in public policy decision-making.
Seven finalists
Taipei City, as well as South Korea's Gangnam, Japan's Ichikawa, Britain's Manchester, China's Tianjin, the US' Cleveland and Canada's Waterloo were selected as the seven finalists for the 2006 Intelligent Community of the Year Award to be presented by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) in New York City tomorrow.
More than 200 mayors, diplomats, high-tech corporate executives and Internet technology experts from around the world are expected to take part in the annual ICF gathering today and tomorrow.
Taipei Deputy Mayor King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) will attend the forum's discussion sessions and award presentation ceremony on behalf of Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Taipei City was also a finalist in 2004.
During the award presentation ceremony that year, then Taipei deputy mayor Ou Chin-der (歐晉德) delivered a speech on the development of wireless telecommunications and digital technology in Taiwan's capital.
Five critical factors
In a study funded by the province of Ontario, Canada, the ICF defined five critical factors for success in the creation of intelligent communities. The five "Intelligent Community Indicators" -- namely broadband infrastructure, knowledge workers, innovation, digital democracy and marketing -- provided the first conceptual framework for understanding all of the factors that determine how competitive a community will be in the digital age.
During this year's award ceremony, the ICF is also expected to name its Intelligent Building, Intelligent Community Technology and Intelligent Community Visionary of the Year.
William Hutchison, founding chairman of both the Canadian Network for the Advancement of Research Industry and Education and Canada's National Advisory Board for Science and Technology, is also expected to be presented with an ICF Lifetime Achievement Award during the ceremony.
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