You might not know it, but Northeast Ohio's use of broadband technology has put the region in the running as the world leader in the technology, competing with areas like Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Westchester County, New York, Tallinn, Estonia and Dundee, Scotland.
So what's Northeast Ohio doing? Robert Bell is the executive director of the Intelligent Community Forum. He says our region is building a new kind of infrastructure that's not based on location, but knowledge.
Robert Bell: It came down to some exceptional work done to bring broadband into the major institutions of the community. And then also, some incredibly impressive building of collaborative relationships among institutions and government agencies. So those broadband resources wound up being leveraged to create growth.
Bell cites the work of One Community, a non-profit that has, among other things, helped the City of Cleveland establish wireless reporting for building inspectors, allowing them to report from the field. The group has also worked with NorTech to help healthcare groups set up electronic medical records systems.
But beyond being techno-capable, the region also gets credit for it's brainpower. Bell says ICF chose communities not just based on broadband usage, but the strength of its knowledge-based workforce, innovation, and marketing technologies.
The forum will announce their top community pick in May.
Tasha Flournoy, 90.3.