Published on the 29/06/2016 | Written by Clare Coulson

Whanganui District Council has missed out on the top award for broadband economies at the Intelligent Community Forum Summit, but its CIO Jason Simons is not disappointed…

“We didn’t expect to win and, in fact, one of the disadvantages of winning is that you can’t enter again. For us, it’s the process that is most important,” Simons told iStart, speaking after the winner’s announcement in Ohio earlier this month.

The ICF is a New-York based think tank which studies and analyses the broadband economy and how intelligent communities are adapting to, and seizing, the opportunities presented by technology. Each year it identifies and ranks the world’s most intelligent communities based on the six Intelligent Community Indicators: broadband, knowledge workforce, innovation, digital equality, sustainability, and advocacy.

Whanganui, which already featured on the Smart21 Communities list for the past three years in a row, was named a Top7 Intelligent Communities this year. While it may have been the only New Zealand entry it had considerable competition from far bigger communities around the world, including Hsinchu County, Taiwan; Mülheim an de Ruhr, Germany; New Taipei, Taiwan; Surrey, British Columbia, Canada; Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; and, eventual winner, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The Top7 represent models of economic and social transformation in the 21st Century. The ICF describes them, saying: “They are not the most advanced technology centres, the most wired cities or the fastest growing economies in the world. Instead, each exemplifies best practices in broadband deployment and use, workforce development, innovation, digital inclusion and advocacy that offer lessons to regions, cities, towns and villages around the world. They are charting new paths to lasting prosperity for their citizens, businesses and institutions.”

Speaking to iStart, Simons said that it is the process of completing the Intelligent Communities framework that he had found most valuable because it forces the council to take stock of its digital efforts in a holistic and detailed manner.

“It forces the council to take stock of its digital efforts in a holistic and detailed manner.”

Because it requires you to provide specific information and measurements, you can clearly see your successes, deficiencies and track improvement. If you don’t already measure certain aspects, you can implement new regimes to capture that data for next year.

“The process gives you the tools to help you work out where you should focus your energy” he said, adding that it has helped the council to resist the temptation to do something that is perceived as “cool” in favour of projects that will make a real difference.

He gave the example of the public-private partnership with InspireNet to provide a free fixed wireless broadband trial to 60 Whanganui homes. “We saw it as council’s role to facilitate UFB in the region – we thought if we just left it to the providers Whanganui would be low on the priority list. By establishing the Digital Leaders Forum and the public-private partnership we gave a clear indication to government that we wanted to offer connectivity in Whanganui.” The initial pilot project had 100 percent take up within three hours and led to a wider partnership with InsipreNet which saw Whanganui become the first region to be fully connected to the UFB.

“We saw it as council’s role to facilitate UFB in the region – we thought if we just left it to the providers Whanganui would be low on the priority list.”

“That’s just one small example of how we as a council can facilitate connectivity for our community because that’s what is important to us,” said Simons. “If you do a whole bunch of things like that in a consistent framework or a consistent fashion then you get synergies from doing a whole bunch of related projects as opposed to a bunch of knee-jerk reactions.”

While not every community will want to go through the ICF programme Simons advocated for a “top-down” approach to technology and a clear digital strategy for what they want to achieve as a community.

“One of the things that has worked really well for us is the Digital Leaders Forum which is council facilitated and has representatives from council, the health sector, sports sector, education sector etc,” he said.

Communities often don’t have access to the commercial expertise they need and that is where the council can act as a facilitator.

“Bringing that business focus is key but you are having a social impact. You are effecting 45,000 people. That’s a real buzz,” he concluded.