Curitiba, Brazil. Ever heard of it? Ever been there? Ever seen or read stories about the building of its railroad and its history of innovation? Ever wonder how a city can be sustainable and flourishing? How about Rafael Greca? Ever heard of him? The outgoing Mayor of Curitiba is one of the most amazing people in the intelligent community movement – and a politician who is such an authentic human being – that Pope Francis invited him to the Vatican to discuss Curitiba’s remarkable programs for addressing food insecurity. Curitiba has won so many “smart city” awards that its shelves are full. It got the big one in November 2024 in Barcelona, when it was named Intelligent Community of the Year. What’s going on there? In this episode, we speak with Dario Paixao, the city’s Secretary for Economic Development, Innovation and Artificial Intelligence, in a conversation with a city that has been climbing the smart city & intelligent community mountain for decades. Dario Paixao is the CEO of the Curitiba Agency for Economic Development and Innovation, Curitiba, Brazil. Doctor in Tourism Management (University of Malaga - Spain); Master in International Tourism (Las Palmas University, Canary Islands, Spain); Business Management and Tourism Bachelor (Parana Federal University and Positivo University, Curitiba, Brazil); St. Mary's High School (Vegreville, Alberta, Canada); Business Management Professor (Parana Federal University, Curitiba, Brazil); Business Management Doctorate and MBA Professor (Positivo University, Curitiba, Brazil); Former Director of the Public Management School of Curitiba City Hall; Former President of the Curitiba Convention & Visitors Bureau; Entrepreneur, speaker, and book author about the Future of Work and Employability.

Continuing our look at mistrust of government, doxing and the implications of digital technology on Intelligent Communities, Lou speaks with theformer Mayor of Stratford, Canada, Dan Mathieson.  Considered one of Canada’s best mayors, whose tech-savvy insights led is city to three Top7 placements, he is into a new concept, “Immersive Cities.”

Mathieson also talks about his own experience with constituents who sought menace, alienation in society, technology’s role and how Stratford native Justin Beiber once crashed the ICF website!  Mr. Mathieson is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal for his exceptional leadership in technology innovation in his community.

Dan Mathieson has dedicated his career to public service, having served 28 years in public office, 20 years-five terms as Mayor and been a member of municipal council since 1995. Throughout his extensive tenure, he has actively participated in a variety of boards and committees across multiple sectors, including the arts, healthcare, municipal affairs, law enforcement, athletics, non-profits, and educational institutions.

Currently, Dan is the Chair, of the Ontario Provincial Land Development Facilitators Agency, the Past Chair of the Ontario Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) and has previously served as the Chair of Kings University College at Western University. He is a Governor with i-Canada, the Founding Director of Darabase North America and serves on the board of a number of public and private corporations. 

Dan, is an active entrepreneur with holdings in real estate and a variety of economic sectors.

In recognition of his contributions, he received the Alumni Award of Excellence from the Master of Public Administration, Local Government program at Western University in November 2015. Furthermore, he was honored as the 2016 Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at Western University, where he lectures on governance and innovation in public institutions and he serves as an Executive in Residence at the Ivey School of Business at Western University.

In 2012, the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA) awarded Dan the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his exceptional leadership in technology innovation within the community. He was also a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002, acknowledging his dedication to public service.

Continuing our look at mistrust of government, doxing and the implications of digital technology on Intelligent Communities, Lou speaks with theformer Mayor of Stratford, Canada, Dan Mathieson.  Considered one of Canada’s best mayors, whose tech-savvy insights led is city to three Top7 placements, he is into a new concept, “Immersive Cities.”

Mathieson also talks about his own experience with constituents who sought menace, alienation in society, technology’s role and how Stratford native Justin Beiber once crashed the ICF website!  Mr. Mathieson is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal for his exceptional leadership in technology innovation in his community.

Dan Mathieson has dedicated his career to public service, having served 28 years in public office, 20 years-five terms as Mayor and been a member of municipal council since 1995. Throughout his extensive tenure, he has actively participated in a variety of boards and committees across multiple sectors, including the arts, healthcare, municipal affairs, law enforcement, athletics, non-profits, and educational institutions.

Currently, Dan is the Chair, of the Ontario Provincial Land Development Facilitators Agency, the Past Chair of the Ontario Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) and has previously served as the Chair of Kings University College at Western University. He is a Governor with i-Canada, the Founding Director of Darabase North America and serves on the board of a number of public and private corporations. 

Dan, is an active entrepreneur with holdings in real estate and a variety of economic sectors.

In recognition of his contributions, he received the Alumni Award of Excellence from the Master of Public Administration, Local Government program at Western University in November 2015. Furthermore, he was honored as the 2016 Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at Western University, where he lectures on governance and innovation in public institutions and he serves as an Executive in Residence at the Ivey School of Business at Western University.

In 2012, the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA) awarded Dan the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his exceptional leadership in technology innovation within the community. He was also a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002, acknowledging his dedication to public service.

What are the corrosive impacts of AI? Are there ways to offset some of the more negative trends in our communities and make technologies instruments of joy rather than menaces?

What causes acted-out anger against mayors, council members, school boards, jurists and journalists? What is at the root of this community fragmentation?  

In the second episode of the ICF’s series on doxxing, we continue the conversation with Jacob Ward, author of The Loop.  Mr. Ward is best-known to Americans for his stint as the on-air correspondent for NBC News, covering the intersection of technology, human behavior, and social change for the Nightly News and The TODAY Show.  Mr. Ward and Lou discuss the degree to which AI, social anxiety and the isolation of the digital world have exploited peoples’ behavior and eroded a community’s more “wholesome” activities. Is this leading to doxing – while also potentially becoming a tool for positive change? It’s an entirely new way to look at our future. 

What are the corrosive impacts of AI? Are there ways to offset some of the more negative trends in our communities and make technologies instruments of joy rather than menaces?

What causes acted-out anger against mayors, council members, school boards, jurists and journalists? What is at the root of this community fragmentation?  

In this first episode of the ICF’s series on doxxing, we begin a conversation with Jacob Ward, author of The Loop.  Mr. Ward is best-known to Americans for his stint as the on-air correspondent for NBC News, covering the intersection of technology, human behavior, and social change for the Nightly News and The TODAY Show.  Mr. Ward and Lou discuss the degree to which AI, social anxiety and the isolation of the digital world have exploited peoples’ behavior and eroded a community’s more “wholesome” activities. Is this leading to doxing – while also potentially becoming a tool for positive change? It’s an entirely new way to look at our future.  Jacob Ward is a prolific technology journalist. He was most recently an on-air correspondent for NBC News, covering the intersection of technology, human behavior, and social change for Nightly News, The TODAY Show, and MSNBC. He is the former editor-in-chief of Popular Science magazine, and was Al Jazeera’s science and technology correspondent from 2013 to 2018. Ward is a lecturer at the Stanford d.school, and was a 2018-2019 Berggruen Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, where he began writing The Loop: How AI is Creating a World without Choices and How to Fight Back, out now from Hachette Book Group. The book explores how artificial intelligence and other decision-shaping technologies will amplify good and bad human instincts. Ward has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, and many other publications. In addition to hosting documentaries for Nat Geo and Discovery, he’s the host of the landmark four-hour PBS television series, “Hacking Your Mind,” about human decision-making and manipulation.

The CEO and Founder of Bable Smart Cities in Germany is on a mission: to accelerate change for a better urban life by helping a city or a region’s stakeholders create sustainable, innovative, and inclusive places. How’s he doing?  And why is his company called “Bable??” In this episode we speak with Alexander Schmidt, whose company has been working on process of improvement for cities and which is partnering with ICF for the Barcelona Summit in early November at the Smart City Expo. Schmidt says that by “simplifying innovation” cities can save 80% of money allocated to them by the EU and other sources. He discusses this. Mr. Schmidt, whose company continues to open offices throughout the EU, also tells us why he finds the ICF method for creating better communities everywhere on Earth a compelling proposition.

And he tells us how Bable got its name…. Alexander Schmidt is the Founder/CEO at BABLE Smart Cities with the mission to accelerate the change for a better urban life by supporting urban stakeholders in creating sustainable, innovative, and inclusive cities and towns - providing a knowledge platform that enables collaboration, data-driven decision-making, and the acceleration of smart solutions. His competencies focus on: urban mobility, business models for new (digital) markets, system analysis and development of urban solutions and moderation of partnerships between public and private entities. He has a deep understanding of the goals, processes and background of industrial, scientific and governmental institutions. Mr. Schmidt holds several degrees, incl. a M.Sc. Transport from Imperial College London, Environmental Engineering & Business Studies, was a researcher and project lead at the Fraunhofer Research Society, Morgenstadt and MIT Sensible Cities Lab,. He was also part of the founding and management team of EIT Urban Mobility - an institution of the European Union.

 A nation of 23 million people that punches far above its weight is a subject of study and fascination around the world. Its prowess in semi-conductor technology is just the beginning.  Much of Taiwan’s success comes from the way it has designed its cities and the way its culture embraces innovation, ideas from everywhere and implements them in a process that continues to modernize its economy, while maintaining the integrity of its history and its robust democracy.  In this mini-series we try to open the door to Taiwan for you. 

We begin with a conversation with the CEO from a company that is based in an Intelligent Community, Arlington County, Virginia.  Arlington County and Taiwan have a strong relationship and in this conversation, Jim Shea, CEO of DeepSig, a software development company that improves the next generation of wireless systems, talks to Lou about doing business in a country where there are 17 Intelligent Communities! Jim Shea is the CEO of DeepSig Inc., a startup that is harnessing the power of AI to radically improve the performance and security of 5G, IoT, and other wireless systems.  He has over 30 years of commercial and defense industrial experience having been involved in two previous startups and experience managing large organizations.  Jim received a BEE from Georgia Tech and an MSEE from The University of Illinois.

In a year when democracies around the world go to the voting polls to select leaders and representatives in nations and local towns and regions, we see much has changed due to an adoption of the “Intelligent Community” idea and through the evolution of technologies like broadband and AI, which have crept into our daily lives.  The COVID Pandemic altered our rhythms and impacted our local economies, especially commercial real estate, healthcare advances and the nature of work.  

Can it be very long before we elect a robot for mayor? What is the new normal with AI in our communities?  Are the forces too overwhelming or are we managing? Picking up on ICF’s July 2024 webinar “Sharing Public Spaces with Robots” Lou went to the “bullpen” to bring in ICF’s Senior Fellow, Dr. Norman Jacknis to ask him what his research and teaching has revealed. Norm, who leads ICF’s Analysts also shares his views about this year’s Top7 Intelligent Communities, one of which will succeed Binh Duong, Vietnam as Intelligent Community of the Year! Dr. Jacknis has decades of executive and leadership experience in the public and private sectors. He has successfully led organizations to adopt innovations, creatively use technology, and embrace data-driven cultures.

Dr. Jacknis is currently Professor of Practice in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship program of the business school of Northeastern University. Prior to that, for eight years, he was on the full- time faculty of Columbia University, teaching machine learning and artificial intelligence, as well as product design, in its Executive Master’s degree program for technology leaders. He is also Senior Fellow of the global Intelligent Community Forum, where he has worked for years with regional/state and local public officials and businesses on the intelligent use of technology to improve quality of life and the built environment.

Government Technology Magazine selected him as one of the nation’s “Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers who, using technology ... broke bureaucratic inertia to better serve the public”. Under his leadership, Westchester County won numerous awards, including the Center for Digital Government’s top ten digital counties in the country, American City & County's Crown Communities Award for technology and was selected as one of the top seven Intelligent Communities in the world.

Among many activities beyond his work, he is Chairman Emeritus and former President of the regional chapter of the national association of chief information and technology officers (SIM) as well as Vice Chair of the Westchester County Community College Board Of Trustees.

Dr. Jacknis received his Doctorate, Master's and Bachelor's degrees from Princeton University. He also studied for a semester at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda and has graduated from executive courses at Harvard University.

In a year when democracies around the world go to the voting polls to select leaders and representatives in nations and local towns and regions, we see much has changed due to an adoption of the “Intelligent Community” idea and through the evolution of technologies like broadband and AI, which have crept into our daily lives.  The COVID Pandemic altered our rhythms and impacted our local economies, especially commercial real estate, healthcare advances and the nature of work.  

Can it be very long before we elect a robot for mayor? What is the new normal with AI in our communities?  Are the forces too overwhelming or are we managing? Picking up on ICF’s July 2024 webinar “Sharing Public Spaces with Robots” Lou went to the “bullpen” to bring in ICF’s Senior Fellow, Dr. Norman Jacknis to ask him what his research and teaching has revealed. Norm, who leads ICF’s Analysts also shares his views about this year’s Top7 Intelligent Communities, one of which will succeed Binh Duong, Vietnam as Intelligent Community of the Year! Dr. Jacknis has decades of executive and leadership experience in the public and private sectors. He has successfully led organizations to adopt innovations, creatively use technology, and embrace data-driven cultures.

Dr. Jacknis is currently Professor of Practice in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship program of the business school of Northeastern University. Prior to that, for eight years, he was on the full- time faculty of Columbia University, teaching machine learning and artificial intelligence, as well as product design, in its Executive Master’s degree program for technology leaders. He is also Senior Fellow of the global Intelligent Community Forum, where he has worked for years with regional/state and local public officials and businesses on the intelligent use of technology to improve quality of life and the built environment.

Government Technology Magazine selected him as one of the nation’s “Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers who, using technology ... broke bureaucratic inertia to better serve the public”. Under his leadership, Westchester County won numerous awards, including the Center for Digital Government’s top ten digital counties in the country, American City & County's Crown Communities Award for technology and was selected as one of the top seven Intelligent Communities in the world.

Among many activities beyond his work, he is Chairman Emeritus and former President of the regional chapter of the national association of chief information and technology officers (SIM) as well as Vice Chair of the Westchester County Community College Board Of Trustees.

Dr. Jacknis received his Doctorate, Master's and Bachelor's degrees from Princeton University. He also studied for a semester at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda and has graduated from executive courses at Harvard University.

The ”Heartland” of the United States is a geographical expanse that is breathtaking in its size and scope.  Covering 20 states, from North Dakota to Texas, it is among the most diverse places on the globe. Yet for the past decades it has underperformed the ”Services” economies of America’s coastal states and cities. 

But that is changing dramatically thanks to the efforts of groups like Heartland Forward.  With entrepreneurial programs and toolkits, this ”Think and DO” tank as they call themselves has been unlocking the intelligence, culture, and capital in places as diverse as Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Oxford, Mississippi, and attempting to drive investment to the heartland of USA. How’s it going?

As the American economy continues to generate prosperity and opportunities, Heartland Forward’s Senior Economist and Chief Research Officer talk to Lou about place-based economic development, the workforce of these 20 states and the linkages between their work and ICF’s.

This one changes the narrative about the ” flyover country” within the United States and gives examples of how every community can seize its destiny (Sound familiar?) https://www.intelligentcommunity.org/seizing_our_destiny

You will enjoy their insights into this continuous rebirth of the American spirit. Julie Trivitt joined Heartland Forward from the University of Arkansas where she was a faculty member in both the Economics and Education Reform departments for eight years and has lived in the heartland her entire life. She leads the research initiatives on labor markets and talent pipelines as they are now and how we need them to adapt so the people of the heartland have opportunities to realize their full potential and employers have the best qualified talent.

She has a PhD and MS in Economics from the University of Arkansas. Her bachelor’s degree is also in Economics and was earned at Missouri State University. She aspires to be an herb gardener, a cruise director, and a librarian.

David Shideler serves as the chief research officer for Heartland Forward’s research team which includes visiting senior fellows Richard Florida and Maryann Feldman. With a mission to help improve the economic performance in the heartland and change the narrative of the middle of the country, the original research efforts focus on four key pillars: innovation and entrepreneurship, human capital, health and wellness and regional competitiveness.

Shideler joined Heartland Forward after more than a decade at Oklahoma State University, serving as a professor and Community and Economic Development Specialist in the Department of Agricultural Economics. In these roles, he oversaw projects in community and rural development and small business development, and published peer-reviewed research articles on the economic impacts of internet access, incentive programs, and local food production.

Shideler holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics and an M.A. in Economics from the Ohio State University, an M.S. in Agricultural Economics from the Pennsylvania State University, and a B.S. in Community and Rural Development from Clemson University.