Road Map 3. They will need to assess all the ways to achieve these goals. Once that is complete, they will have to decide their own sets of measures to test whether they are reaching their goals. We must have agreement on what smart means before we can measure it. Definitions will differ from one community to another.
Different communities face different needs and opportunities.
For example, the creation of 20 jobs in a small community in Saskatchewan will have a huge impact on that region but would be hardly be noticeable if it occurred in Toronto. There is some common ground in the literature on what makes a community smart. But there are also varying scales and measures. In an article published by the Globe and Mail, Report on Business Magazine, August 1995 titled Smart Cities, the following indicators were proposed as defining a city with Brain Power, in other words, a smart city. Even if we agree that they appear to be important, and they likely are, we have to ask whether or not they HAVE made a difference, or if they only increase potential.