First, Emerald City is tied for the #1 spot as geek capitol of the U.S. (75,000-124,999 population category) according to this morning's fascinating Scott Schwebke story:
OGDEN — For the second time in as many years, Ogden has taken top honors as one of the nation’s most technologically advanced mid-sized cities.According to information on the Center for Digital Government site, the most wired big city (250,000 or more population category) Corpus Christi, Texas. Tied for first place in the 125,000-249,999 population category were Alexandria, Virginia and Madison Wisconsin.
Ogden tied with Roanoke, VA, for first place in the 2006 Digital Cities Survey for municipalities with populations ranging from 75,000 to 124,999. Orem placed third in the category, and Salt Lake City finished fourth for cities with populations ranging from 125,000 to 249,999. The survey was sponsored by the Center for Digital Government.
Top vote-getter in the 30,000-74,999 population category was Delray Beach, Florida.
For the convenience of those gentle readers with geek curiosity (and a little extra time on their hands,) we've linked the websites of each of the first-place winners above, along with a couple of the other Utah cities mentioned in this morning's Scott Schwebke article.
We invite our readers to make their own comparisons. Frankly we think Emerald City's website is by far the very best. A trifle cartonish in style, granted. In that connection however, we must keep in mind that we're also the only top-ranked city with an actual bona-fide child-mayor.
We'll also add that we believe Emerald City would have been the hands-down winner in all categories, except for one glaring fault. Yes, we still find this language seemingly etched in granite on the Emerald City website, within Boss Godfrey's gondola information FAQ:
6. Do the plans include the gondola connecting to Snowbasin?Perhaps Boss Godfrey's IP people will fix this problem prior to the next Center for Digital Government survey.
The plans do involve a leg of the gondola that would go to the top of the mountain, which would allow skiers with a Snowbasin lift ticket to enter Snowbasin. That leg will require an environmental study by the Forest Service to approve, while the rest of the project can be built on private property without Forest Service approval.
And a few paragraphs earlier we suggested that our gentle readers were all computer geeks (a term of endearment, of course.) Last week's news is proof of that. Time Magazine issued its "Person of the Year" issue last Wednesday; and you'd never have guessed whom that person is: Our Gentle Readers; that's Who. From Time Magazine's December 13 article:
Who are these people? Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I'm not going to watch Lost tonight. I'm going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana? I'm going to mash up 50 Cent's vocals with Queen's instrumentals? I'm going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion?
The answer is, you do. And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you.
We thank the editors of Time Magazine for the truly delicious segue. And as we quickly lurch toward our 200,000th Weber County Forum page-load, we offer a hearty tip 'o the hat to all our gentle readers who have so eagerly embraced "the new digital democracy."
Consider the above ramblings a kickstart to a new open thread.
What topics are on our gentle readers' minds today?
Update 12/22/06 5:15 a.m. MT: America's numero uno print medium narcissist bitterly complains here about other people's purported narcissism.
