Cape Town Listed as Smart 21 Community

Cape Town has been listed as one of the Smart 21 Communities of 2008. Last week the Intelligent Communities Forum (ICF), a US-based non-profit organisation, announced the first selection in the race for the "Intelligent Community of the Year", a highly-publicized global competition which was created several years ago. The ICF, a think-tank which works at developing information societies, announced the list during the Intelligent Communities and Broadband Conference organised by the City of Waterloo in the UK last week.

The Smart 21 list comprises competitors from 12 countries across four continents, and includes Australia’s Gold Coast City, Vancouver, Malta and the Isle of Man. The Smart 21 list recognises cities for their innovative use of technology and deployment of broadband connectivity and communication technologies by government, business and citizens. This is the first year that a South African city has made the list. Mark Neville, an IT consultant at Radian, says that this is in fact the first time an African city has applied to the competition, let alone made it onto the list.