TALLINN ONCE AGAIN AMONGST THE WORLD’S CLEVEREST CITIES

In terms of studies about the world’s most intelligent cities, Tallinn came in the top 7 for the third year running. Canada was the only country to have two representatives in the top 7, whereas Stockholm kept up its typically good performances. The intelligence is measured in terms of the city’s relationship to information technology.

 

Seven most intelligent world communities have been recently chosen among 400 cities by the independent think tank Intelligent Community Forum. The ICF is an organisation that measures the level of intelligence of a certain community on the basis of its relationship towards information technology, particularly broadband and the Internet.

The top seven intelligent communities of 2009 are Bristol, Virginia, USA; Eindhoven, Netherlands; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada; Issy-les-Moulineaux, France; Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada; Stockholm Sweden; and Tallinn, Estonia.

Most of the top scorers were typically from the richest countries in the world, such as the USA, Sweden, Canada and France. However, despite its reputation of being stuck in the gloom and doom of Eastern Europe and in the freezing Baltic, Tallinn came out as one of the winners.

Major contributions to the Estonian capital’s success were the high-tech institutions like Ülemiste City, Tallinn Technology Park and the Cyber Defence Centre. There is also the fact that, whereas younger people tend to use technological services such as hotspots and broadband in most places, Tallinn is renowned for having older users.

The research and technology status of the city is second to none in that area of Europe and mobile applications and e-services are currently on the rise. Experts have named Tallinn the centre of „smart business“ and often praise the fact that so much is developed there.

It has also been stated in many places that the Estonian capital should improve its marketing skills to ensure that the findings of the ICF are well known in Europe and other areas of the world. This could do wonders for the possibility of technology tourism in Estonia.