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)
Re:Incorrect (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Incorrect (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
The criteria are odd, though... Canada, Canada, UK... Estonia?
Re:Incorrect (Score:5, Funny)
Estonia == Nokia (Score:5, Insightful)
Estonia == Nokia? (Score:3, Informative)
To this day, the only place where Nokia has had very deep impact on whole society has been Finland and in here the impact has been concentrated primarily to Helsinki, Tampere and Oulu.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeesh. (Score:3, Funny)
They don't pee there, anymore! They just stop peeing.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
whuh? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:whuh? (Score:5, Funny)
What? They Pre-empted the season premiere of "Ow! My Balls!" with that crap?
You one o' them fancy pantsy types? (Score:2)
Us regular folk been watching "Ow! My balls!"
Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
Instead of basing it on say, the intelligence of the community.
But, it was part of the Pacific Telecommunications Council, so I'm sure they have an agenda somewhere.
TV rots your brain (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:TV rots your brain (Score:5, Informative)
There are numerous foreign language courses on YouTube, for instance. There's a lot of foreign language content, as well, which is very valuable when trying to learn another language. In America, you'll rarely find anything other than English or Spanish being used in the vast, vast majority of TV programming.
There are also a number of instructional videos that teach one how to play various musical instruments. Again, that's something you just won't see on American TV.
If all you watch on YouTube is Family Guy clips and anime, no, you probably won't become any more intelligent. But if you use YouTube to access content that you'd never see on American TV, then you likely will become wiser, more talented, and better aware of the world around you.
Re: (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.
What there are, and what people watch (Score:4, Insightful)
As a percentage, I would not be so sure - consider broadcast channels alone, you have PBS and basically, everything else.
Now think that for every YouTube video teaching latin there are probably about 10k videos of people taking hits to the groin.
Looking at what is popular vs. what is availiable on YouTube yields a very different conclusion than the one you come to. For those that wish it, YouTube is a great educational resource. But like any tool infused by the Power Of The Internet, it is also capible of being the ultimate BoobTube. It's basically TV amplified and magnified, and I'm not sure really all that much better or worse since it's even more a product of the viewers.
Here's an idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Language? I learned English from tapes and books, and then from a teacher. I got taught French by my grandma using Pif comics. You don't need a video to learn a new language, you just need to hear and read it. Even if (for whatever psychiatric reason) you're absolutely _only_ able to do it over the Internet, you don't absolutely need broadband for that: to learn to read you only need a freakin' ASCII file, and to hear it you need an MP3. Trust me, you can squeeze those even through an analog modem if you really want to, especially since you don't need to stream them in real time: you can download them in advance just as well.
Learn to play an instrument? How about getting one of the about a million books on the topic? Again, chances are your local library carries several. I know a ton of people who've learned to play the guitar without broadband.
Etc.
Plus, as the unused libraries prove, there's a heck of a difference between something being available and people actually using it. Just because a community has broadband, it doesn't mean automatically everyone starts using it to learn stuff. Except if by "learn" you mean, "my word, I didn't know a double anal penetration was even possible."
Now I'm not against broadband or anything, but measuring a community's intelligence by the available megabits per second is at best PR trolling (seeing as the "independent think tank" is actually just a lobby group to push for more subsidized broadband), and at worst genuine techo-utopian stupidity.
Even if we're to spend tax money to improve intelligence (a good idea, by all means), I'm still waiting for any study to show that broadband is the best return on investment. How about investing half that amount in improving the schools, for example? A good teacher can help more than just upgrading someone's internet connection. How about, political correctness and feel-good education be damned, someone actually make a class out of the nerdiest kids who actually want to learn? And I mean really learn stuff, not get some watered-down bullshit and "brain gym" pseudo-education.
Are kids that much more likely to learn foreign languages well on the Internet than from a teacher, for example? Really? Because so far I've seen people even forgetting whatever proper English they knew after a couple of years on MMOs. The English I could learn on, say, City of Heroes, is of the caliber of, "soz m8, g2g, got skewl 2moz". (Translation for those who aren't fluent in l33t: "sorry mate, got to go, got school tomorrow." Yeah, I know, it made me go cross-eyed trying to decode it too.) Genuine quote off one of the UK servers. No kidding. I swear to God, someone actually typed that abhomination.
There's a whole generation by now who's learned to write badly not even in the name of typing speed, but out of some idiotic notion that writing "skewl" instead of "school" is somehow cool, hip, elite, or whatever. And it's contagious. People who _are_ capable of writing proper English and typing fast enough, end up getting that idea too. I was shocked to discover that a middle-aged mid-level manager I know had started to type like that on a MMO. That's broadband intelligence for you.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Not that I actually think that TV in Japan, or any other country, is really all that different from what we see here. TV, like everything else, is mostly crap.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
To me an intelligent community is one that deploys and manages its community with some semblence of intelligence, creating a general atmosphere of what is often called "livability."
If we use that as our measure than American cities are. . .
Oh. Wait. Nevermind.
Crumb's Short History of America [zubeworld.com]
KFG
Agreed, tag article "uselessmetric" (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
George: "There's porn. And stock quotes."
How's it goin' eh? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (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 d
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Obviously you have never been to Canberra [wikipedia.org]
Lobbyist Alert (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a political ploy by Telecoms to push governments into subsidizing broadband. It is trolling, just like "You are not intelligent if you don't use vi/java/rails/xml/etc." We've been -1trolled.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
even if it's just as bad as that political campaign crap for once it's positive.
Re: (Score:2)
Buzzwordification (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, well I bet they don't even have a Time Masheen.
Re:Buzzwordification (Score:5, Funny)
In other words, if your city is on the list, panic.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Nothing to see here. move along. (Score:5, Informative)
It has little to do with the actual overall quality of a community in anyway except the dollar amount of the IT salaries they pay out of tax money. Though, I suppose, slashdot would be the place for this sort of thing.
Re: (Score:2)
Let me translate from the Market-Speak (Score:5, Insightful)
"The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) is a nonprofit think tank that focuses on job creation and economic development in the broadband economy." [intelligentcommunity.org]
This is not an objective measure of how "intelligent" a community is, it's an objective measure of what broadband policies will make the global technocratic elite supporters of the institute the most money. And the "Digital Inclusiveness" blurb means "How can we get more money from taxpayers to line our pockets?"
But I'm sure they appreciate the free advertising. In fact, I would say that was worth $25,000 of free advertizing for them, which means that now Slashdot will have to register as a paid lobbyist. Oh wait, that bill was defeated.
Re:Let me translate from the Market-Speak (Score:5, Insightful)
Question: (Score:4, Insightful)
So IOW, if you don't fit their ideology and/or political agendae, you're not among the intelligent cities on Earth?
Not a very intelligent way to measure intelligence, is it?
Very human! (Score:4, Insightful)
When it happens at a conference, it's just back-slapping. Scale it up and its racism and then genocide.
Whatever, guys. As long as you stop short of the genocide I really don't care what you think.
that's it (Score:2)
(squints eyes)... With all that smart talk, I bet you're that guy in the funny pajamas that broke my house. I bet you don't even have your tattoo either.
I have a feeling I'll be seeing you on the next Monday Night Rehabilitation.
That's the reason I moved to the US from France (Score:3, Interesting)
Go Scotland and Dundee! (Score:2, Interesting)
Public education doesn't work (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Tallinn, Estonia (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Tallinn, Estonia (Score:5, Insightful)
Estonia's land area is smaller than 41 of the 50 US states. It has a lower population tha 40 of the 50 US states. Maybe it would be wise to consider the challenges in deploying a cellular service to a massive country vs. to a tiny country.
Finally you ought to consider what it really means to improve your life.
If you want talk "beating pants off technologically" you might want to take a look see about which countries make high performance micro processors.
Something else no one seems to consider (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah, like Dresden,Germany (AMD plant), Taiwan (AMD Plant), Bangalore, India (AMD Engineering center). Or Intel's plant in Ireland.
Regarding cellphones though. The US really is behind other "developed" countries.
Re:Tallinn, Estonia (Score:5, Interesting)
How far down? (Score:5, Funny)
Looking in the wrong place (Score:2)
Of course! (Score:2, Insightful)
I'd like to see a study that shows which cities have the most number of universities and the number of successful startups and successful large companies in it.
How about which cities have the highest number of employed people with degrees...
I can think of a lot of ways to measure a cities intelligence, however
Re: (Score:2)
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
Re: (Score:2)
That's an absurd remark. Did it ever occur to you that some people play the lottery for fun? I've certainly been to casinos a handful of times, and while I expect to lose money each time I go, I still do put some down and enjoy my time the
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I'd like to see a study that shows which cities have the most number of universities and the number of successful startups and successful large companies in it.
How about which cities have the highest number of employed people with degrees...
I agree, that would be much more intersting, so I Googled for it. Didn't find one for cities, but I did find it for countries. Go wild [nationmaster.com].
It's sad (Score:5, Funny)
So the entire world is dumb (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Uh huh (Score:2)
Obviously... (Score:2, Funny)
Thats because.. (Score:2, Troll)
Global Think Tank Eh? (Score:2)
Oblig Mrs Doubtfire quote (Score:2)
"We've come to this planet looking for intelligent life. Oops, we made a mistake."
Cleveland? (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
I assume you're referring to Waterloo. Waterloo is home to one fine technology university
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.
Blame the parents... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Should this be "Advanced"? (Score:2, Insightful)
I smell an off{s|w}horing lobby here. (Score:2)
The PTC conference, which had 4,000 attendees, features information and communications technologies, public policy initiatives, business development strategies and industry forecasts from an Asia Pacific point of view.
Well, at least they're clearly stating that they wish to act in the interests of offshoring, specifically to places that are friendly to worker abuse or areas that intend to treat businesses as godly entities.
The glut of fiber capacity led to plummeting prices . just at the time when d
Misleading headline (Score:2)
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.
Could have chosen a better name, couldn't they?
Oh well, I guess we'll need to put away our 'Americans r dumb' jokes for now.
Dumbest cities? (Score:5, Funny)
Where's the list of the world's dumbest cities? I'd like to move to one of them and use my moderate intelligence to take over.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Your moderate intelligence is no match for our puney weapons.
Follow the money (Score:2)
Well, what do you expect.... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Dont they mean somewhere in Connecticut, since they're missing one (as well) with exactly the same description?
A new definition of intelligence (Score:5, Funny)
Pass!
Re:Seems like companies doing as little as possibl (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
First of all, measuring broadband penetration does make a statement with regards to the effectiveness of the organizations that actually implemented the amount of penetration accomplished. Since there tends to be a correlation between intelligent business decisions and effective business operation, an argument for intelligence can be made based on how successfully a community could implement something like broadband penetration (and bear in mind that this is without regard to how widely adopted broadband
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
PS my country is better than yours.
Re: (Score:2)
Yours might have had much of its design done in Dresden (AMD Sempron, Opteron).
not to split hairs or anything...
The education system here is pretty borked... gotta admit it's really down the tubes because of the beurocratic micromanagement from every level.
but yeah anyway.... stupid stupid article. Stupid comment too.
aren't we all feeling smarter now?
Stew
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.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)