Online Map Assists People in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area

In early June, a Helsinki Service Map that has been online for two years was expanded to encompass the municipal services of the cities of Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen.

The map is designed to provide easy access to information from all the government bodies and municipalities in the area. Searches can be made by free text, service type or address. For the City of Helsinki, the map also provides information on the population structure.

The information offered is plentiful. For example, an address search brings up all the services that are located close to the given address. The map gives each service provider’s contact details, services, location and public transport connections, as well as links to their own websites.

The councils in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area submit information on their public services and offices into a database maintained by the City of Helsinki, from where it is retrieved by the service map. The information is classified and in comparable format.

Open Information Access Improves Services

Thanks to the open interface based on REST architecture, anyone can search the service map and convert its data into applications. REST, i.e. Representational State Transfer, simply means that data that are connected to each other are displayed with their interactions, providing added value for the user. The interface will be on the Helsinki Region Infoshare project’s website.

The open data can be used for example to build new online applications for use by citizens.