Tallinn is a finalist for 2008 Intelligent Community of the Year award

15.05.2008

Tallinn, Estonia. A suggestion by Estonia's president in 1995 that schools be connected to the Internet led to an ICT revolution that has linked 100% of Tallinn's secondary schools to the Web and established over 600 public access points. More than 100,000 adults have received ICT training, while e-government programs have produced one of the most advanced smart card systems in Europe and a middleware program that slashes the costs of e-government. It was not until 1994 that the last Russian troops left the country, yet today, Tallinn receives 77% of all foreign direct investment into Estonia and seven out of ten in its workforce are in the service sector. (Top Seven 2007).

On May 16, 2008, one of the Top Seven will be named Intelligent Community of the Year during the annual Building the Broadband Economy summit at Polytechnic University in New York City. In addition to the Intelligent Community of the Year, ICF will present awards for the Broadband Application of the Year, Intelligent Facility of the Year and honor the Intelligent Community Visionary of the Year. Building the Broadband Economy on May 14-16 is produced in association with Polytechnic University, home to three Nobel Prize recipients, and will feature speakers including Nicola Villa, Global Director, Connected Urban Development at Cisco Systems; Dianah Neff, Senior Partner at Civitium and Philadelphia's former CIO; and Lee Rainie, Founding Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, as well as community leaders from around the world.

http://www.intelligentcommunity.org

http://www.estemb.org/press/us_media/aid-1169