U.S. Cities Don't Make the Intelligence Cut 350
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."
Incorrect (Score:5, Interesting)
How's it goin' eh? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:How's it goin' eh? (Score:1, Interesting)
I'm not saying we Americans aren't dumb, but.. (Score:1, Interesting)
That's the reason I moved to the US from France (Score:3, Interesting)
Go Scotland and Dundee! (Score:2, Interesting)
Tallinn, Estonia (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Incorrect (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:How's it goin' eh? (Score:2, Interesting)
That is the stupidity. The other stupidity is that "you the people" allow it.
I know it gives mychildren access to research tools they never would have had. Wikipedia, HowStuffWorks, and other similar sites have taught my children a great deal. Heck, taught me a great deal. I enjoy an hour sitting down and just browsing through articles. Count the number of errors per article if you like, heck even discount the science articles altoghether - popular culture has never been documented as well in history as it is in Wikipedia.
No, internet usage is an important metric.
Re:I am somehow unsurprised.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Public Education BD and now... (Score:5, Interesting)
Public education works fine in many countries--the ones that take the future seriously enough. Mostly that means funding the public education system with a better economic model than property taxes and bond-based borrowing. Educating your citizens is a great investment and those educated citizens become great assets for any civilization above hunting and gathering. Well, actually even the hunters and gatherers can benefit from knowledge of what to hunt and what not to gather, but they're too busy trying to stay alive to worry about public schools.
My own experiences are with the American and Japanese public education systems. Just to deal with the easy topic first, the Japanese education system is quite good, and the bulk of it is public. The main distortions are in the private senior high schools and the cram schools. However, before you start crying about the relatively minor imperfections (compared to the present state of American public education), you better remember the Japanese educational system was to a great degree patterned on American models, both in Meiji times and again after the war. (And yes, I know Japan didn't have a winner this year, either, but it's the data point I have. However, that mostly disproves the OT's (Original Troll's) point blaming public education.)
For the American system, my experience is much more complicated. At the low levels I was in extremely good public schools through high school--but in a district that was one of the richest in the country at the time. I think we were No.2 for the entire nation on a per/student basis. Just an accident that the entire large area had been zoned residential, and those residential property taxes were being collected, but it was mostly vacant lots. Over the years the houses got built, the students arrived, the per/student money dropped to an average level, and the public schools dropped too. It's not the case that money always makes a difference, but it certainly is a major influence, and many of my important school experiences would not have happened except that my schools had the money at that time. That point is reinforced by my experience at one of the richest public universities, which was an awful school. My other degree was from a smaller private university that I regard as vastly superior to the enormous state school. Money isn't enough to counteract a staunchly conservative educational philosophy dedicated to forcing the students into the smallest possible mental boxes.
Re:Tallinn, Estonia (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:TV rots your brain (Score:2, Interesting)
In relative terms, a single 15 second "don't smoke crack while you're pregnant, you dumb bitch!" PSA per day is probably more significant than the educational content on YouTube.
Re:Incorrect (Score:2, Interesting)
The criteria are odd, though... Canada, Canada, UK... Estonia?
Ottawa-Gatineau a city? (Score:1, Interesting)
Bashing Ottawa and Socialism (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, because it's currently using your upper lip for toilet paper.
The moment you hear terms like "digital inclusion" - and Ottawa is listed as a "great city" by any measure (and Ottawa is my hometown and current residence, but Ottawa is a fetid shithole that most people escape from when they turn 18) - then you know the whole thing is a bullshit waste of money.
In all fairness, though, Waterloo deserves any kudos it gets, even from a source as questionable as this one. Waterloo is a great city.
Intelligence by Lottery Ticket Sales. (Score:3, Interesting)
I can think of a lot of ways to measure a cities intelligence, however measuring their broadband penetration isn't one of them.
Broadband penetration is a good thing and worthy of points in the city's favor. ANY Internet access is worthy of points. However, far more important is counting the number of lottery tickets sold in the city. If it's greater than 100, deduct all points for universities or broadband penetration. People who buy stuff advertised in spam should be cause for castration of the entire population of that city.
Now, I'm currently stuck back living in Ottawa (which I utterly detest despite being my "home town"), and there are lottery kiosks all over the place, probably more than 100 of them in the city, to say nothing of tickets sold. Therefore, these people don't know basic math. Therefore, nix all points for broadband penetration or the three universities and (seven? eight?) colleges in the city.
Blame the parents... (Score:3, Interesting)
Does going to a good/wealthy school help? Well yeah, of course, but the influence that parents can have far outshadows any other influence in a child's life (even if the parent exercises that influence by not doing a thing to educate their kids). I'd argue that the biggest difference between American and Japanese educational systems is the role that parents play in pushing their children to do well and even excell in what they do. It doesn't matter whether it's a public school or a private one, Japanese or American, rich or poor, if children's parents aren't involved and if they don't get their kids used to really working at getting a good education, everything else will go by the wayside.
Until we start making parents accountable for how their kids do in school no amount of finger pointing or creative financing is going to make a difference. That's one of the big problems I had with the whole "No Child Left Behind" system. It focuses solely on teachers/schools and how their students do on standardized tests. If a teacher can't make enough students pass they can loose their jobs, but nothing happens to a parent if they can't make their own children meet certain academic standards.
Personally, I wonder what would happen if instead of focusing on teachers, we focused on parents and made them at least partially accountable for their children. Did their child flunk an entire grade without the parent bringing the kid's problems to a tutor/teacher's attention during the course of the entire school year? Then they lose their tax deduction for that kid for that year. Is their underage kid convicted of some crime? Then they have to do some number of hours of community service in addition to whatever punishment their kid gets.
It's really sad how many people in this country make such a big deal about the importance of producing children without putting an equal emphasis on what parents do once they have the kids. Likewise, it's disturbing how much effort some parents put into indoctrinating their kids into a religion, social group, etc... without putting as much effort into educating them about basic reading/writing/arithmatic type stuff.