Think tank Intelligent Community Forum today named Waterloo, Canada, home of Blackberry maker Research in Motion, as the 2007 Intelligent Community of the Year.

The ICF made its selection known at its annual‚ Building the Broadband Economy, conference last week.

The ICF five criteria for the Intelligent Community award are based on how advanced the communities perform in deploying broadband, building a knowledge-based workforce, combining government and private-sector‚ digital inclusion, fostering innovation, and marketing economic development.

No United States community was among the Intelligent Community finalists named in January, which included four European cities, two Canadian communities, and a high-tech region of South Korea. New York City was the last United States winner, in 2001.

Conference speakers and participants cited lack of coherent United States public policy for broadband technologies, compared with other global regions in the competition.

ICF co-founders John Jung and Louis Zacharilla pointed to Waterloo‚ 45% job growth in high-tech industries, along with the community‚ depth of broadband penetration. Seventy-five percent of the city‚ adults access the Internet, with 76% of businesses and 47% of households deploying broadband technologies.

Besides Research in Motion, Waterloo (population 115,000) is home to three Ontario colleges or universities and produces 10% of successful start-ups on the Toronto Stock Exchange. ICF feted Waterloo as a global model of cooperation between business, government and academia.

“The community has an extraordinary culture of collaboration and reinvestment. People in Waterloo make partnership a priority and are eager to give back to the entire community,” Zacharilla said.

The ICF also awarded its Visionary of the Year distinction to Wikipedia developer Wikia, together with its co-founders Angela Beesley and Jimmy Wales.