The headline may confuse you.  When you think "smart cities," you probably think the cities that have the highest average IQ's.  In the case of the Intelligent Community Forum, "smart" means:

Cities that use digital technologies to improve the quality of public and private services while reducing costs and resource comsumption.

 

"Smart" doesn't necessarily mean intelligence or knowledge, according to  ICF, a New York based think tank, they define a Smart City as:

A city or region that uses technology not just to save money or make things work better, but also to create high-quality employment, increase citizen particiapation and become great places to live and work.

Every year for the past 16 years, the ICF has been crowing one city in the world the "Smart City."  This year's seven finalists are:

  1. Arlington County, Virginia
  2. Columbus, OH
  3. Mitchell, SD
  4. Ipswich, Queensland, Australia
  5. Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
  6. New Taipei City, Taiwan
  7. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Yes, among the likes of Rio de Janeiro and New Taipei City, you'll find Mitchell, South Dakota.  Why is Mitchell on the list?  Here's what the ICF had to say:

In the past mainly a rural city, that the most brilliant and ambitious left behind in search of a brighter future elsewhere, in recent years Mitchell has been able to create another economy on top of the agricultural one. The Mitchell Technical Institute (MTI) has invested $40 million in a new technology-based campus, where it trains hundreds of communications and data technicians, and a local angel investors network has sprung up and begun incubating new communications startups. Engineering, consulting and software companies have made Mitchell into a regional hub for expertise and services, transforming the city in a magnet for ICT talent.

The overall winner will be announced at the ICF’s annual summit in Toronto in June.  Last year's winner was Toronto.  Just remember Mitchell, if you don't win this year, it was an honor to be nominated.

Source:  Forbes.com

More From KXRB