IT-savvy Ipswich has impressed the New York-based Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), which has short-listed Ipswich for its smart city award, along with 20 other cities including Birmingham (UK), Shanghai and Quebec City:

Smart city list whittled down soon

A contributor to Ipswich’s listing was the high-tech, high-security Polaris Data Centre at Springfield, which appears to have been designed to withstand an intrusion from Ethan Hunt or Jason Bourne.  Security features include:

Biometric man-traps on each floor, video surveillance, bullet proof glass

Despite the Polaris Data Centre and Ipswich’s early participation in the National Broadband Network, the city will face stiff competition.  Birmingham, one of the centres of the Industrial Revolution, and Shanghai, China’s financial capital, would have to be the favourites.  But all the cities on the list have impressive credentials.

Chattanooga, Tennessee, for example, has implemented a smart electricity grid. According to the ICF website:

The city-owned electric utility built a fiber network that will collect billions of data points and provide real-time management that will significantly boost the grid’s reliability and performance.

Also deserving special mention is Riverside, California, which provides second-hand computers, refurbished by former gang members, to the poorest residents of the community – a clever combination of innovation and social policies.

So good luck to Ipswich, but the Council shouldn’t be too disappointed if it doesn’t win the top prize.  Making the top 21 list among such impressive competitors is a great achievement, and a testament to a well-designed and executed economic development strategy.