City of Ashland, Oregon news

Ashland Recognized as Smart21 Community
Ashland has been designated as one of twenty-one cities worldwide as a model for economic development in the 21st century. The recognition comes from the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) a non-profit that focuses on the creation of prosperous local economies in the broadband economy. ICF conducts research, offers tours of intelligent communities, publishes newsletters and presents awards to help communities understand the opportunities and challenges of the broadband economy and to promote best practices in economic and social development.

Gaining a place among the Smart21 is considered a significant badge of honor, as well as the first step towards greater recognition as a community or region that is either positioning itself to proper, or is already prospering in the broadband economy. The Smart21 were selected from hundreds of submissions from communities. The selected cities are located in twelve nations on four continents ranging in populations from 20,000 to 7 million yet share a common vision of using broadband to ensure their community's economic development.

"Given the leadership and expertise around the world in the field of broadband and telecommunications it is quite remarkable and satisfying to be included in such a prestigious group of cities", said Mayor John Morrison. "AFN is essential to this community as we continue to diversify our economic development strategies."

Taipei is ICFs 2006 Intelligent Community of the Year and one of the newly selected Smart21 will succeed Taipei in May as the 2007 Intelligent Community of the Year.

Listed in Alphabetical order, the 2007 Smart21 are:

Ashland, Oregon USA
Bettendorf, Iowa, USA
Burlington, Ontario, Canada
Corpus Christi, Texas, USA
Dundee, Scotland UK
Gangnamþugu, Seaul, South Korea
Hong Kong, China
Ichikawa, Japan
Isle of Mann
Issy les Moulineaux, France
Jia Ding, China
Kabul, Afghanistan
Kariskrona, Sweden
Loma Linda, California, USA
Ottawa-Gatineau, Ontario, Canada]
Reykjavik, Iceland
San Francisco, California USA
Sunderland, Tyne & Wear, UK
Tallin, Estonia
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Wittlesea, Victoria, Australia