Danville has been placed on the Intelligent Community Forum’s 2010 Smart21 list that includes 21 communities in 13 countries recognized for broadband growth.
The city is one of three Virginia communities that made the list. The others are Arlington County and Bristol.
The Intelligent Community Forum’s Web site notes Danville’s response to its decline in textiles and tobacco, including its open-access fiber network, nDanville, which brings “world-class connectivity to business and government.” The site also mentions the network’s 125-mile length and its government and school facilities and 150 businesses hooked up to nDanville.
The site also pointed to the city’s partnership with Pittsylvania County to form a business incubator and joined with Virginia Tech to construct the Institute for Advanced Learning & Research.
“These projects have begun building an entrepreneurial base of new employers, while business attraction efforts have brought into Danville IKEA’s first North American manufacturing plant and a new data center housed in an old mill building,” the site states.
The Intelligent Communities Forum is a think tank that studies the economic and social development of communities in the 21st century, according to its Web site. The forum “seeks to share the best practices of the world’s intelligent communities in adapting to the demands of the broadband economy, in order to help communities everywhere find sustainable renewal and growth,” the Web site states.
