Last week Dakota County was recognized by the Intelligent Community Forum as one of the world’s 21 Smartest Communities of the Year. This annual recognition program is designed to honor communities “for their use of information and communications technology to build prosperous economies and meet social and economic challenges”. The Smart 21 Communities of 2010
Only 6 communities based in the United States were recognized. Here’s what the ICF had to say about Dakota County -
Stretching from the Minneapolis-St. Paul border on the north to rural areas in the south, Dakota County built a diversified economy in manufacturing, information technology and food/energy/chemical companies and a robust housing market. When the financial crisis slammed the economy, the county responded by accelerating collaboration among its community colleges, businesses and government to significantly boost its share of knowledge-based businesses – particularly the entrepreneurial companies that power sustainable job growth – and to expand the skilled labor pool through education and retraining.
Most of the county has been well served by commercial carriers and enjoys 74% residential broadband penetration and 95-100% penetration of business and education. The data centers of multinational companies also form the core of a growing ICT cluster, and medical devices and logistics are emerging areas. The public-private effort has already helped generate new ICT-dependent jobs equal to 8% of the total population, and a task force of citizens, businesses, institutions and government led by nonprofit Dakota Future is charting a path to faster, sustainable growth.
How it happened?
The bid was spearheaded by a group called Dakota Future (Dakota Future’s Website). Their goal is to lead initiatives in Dakota County that spur economic development in the county around the usage of broadband technology, knowledge workers, innovation, digital inclusion and marketing.
The group set a goal to be recognized in the Smart 21 Communities program by the year 2012 so it was a great surprise when they achieved the goal 2 years early.
More on the Story -
Since the announcement there has been a lot of positive news for the County -
- The Blandin on Broadband blog covers broadband issues, mostly in rural Minnesota and had a nice story about the Dakota County win – Dakota County at Smart21
- Government Technologies had a press release about this years announcement and the processes used in selecting the communities – Gov Tech’s – Digital Communities Blog
