In October of 2009 Windsor and Essex County were named one of the Smart 21 Communities for 2010. This is part of the Intelligent Community Forum's Intelligent Community Awards, which chose twenty-one areas throughout the world that will then be narrowed down to seven before naming the top smart community of the year. This award deals with broadband technology and the city's ability to incorporate things like airport WiFi and use this technology in times of need and crisis. Here is some more about why Windsor has made its way onto this prestigious list.
The theme of Smart 21 is "Global Reach, Local Gain," meaning that broadband can both create international companies like Google and hugely affect the growth of local firms. If you're working for a company in Windsor, you have access to all of the information throughout Canada and the rest of the world that might affect current rates. This will better prepare you to give the best advice possible to your customers in the Windsor Essex area.
But, being one of the Smart 21 communities does not mean that you only take advantage of the technology that is already in place throughout the world. Intelligent Communities are committed to creating new opportunities in the Internet sector and using this amazing asset to get them through economic crises or rise to an even higher status in the business world. A program like Democracy Now can tell you that those that are not ahead of the curve when it comes to technology will soon be left behind.
Each year the ICF chooses a theme for city applications and this year it was "Educational Last Mile." This examines how various communities are preparing their young people to enter modern careers that involve this new technology. Windsor's proposal was mainly focused in the Odette School of Business and their new MBA program. If you are planning to work in Information Technology or are starting your own business, their new suite of software might be useful to you.
Windsor did not make it into the top seven communities for 2010, but another city in Ontario did - Ottawa. The other cities represent communities in the United States, the Netherlands, South Korea, Estonia, and the United Kingdom. If you are interested in this kind of broadband advancement, you can see that this is a global phenomenon.
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