How does the City of Helsinki utilise open data?

The Smarter Cities Challenge programme examines and creates ideas for the use of city data.

Open city data and its visualisation are intellectual sounding concepts but they can be of great practical benefit to the residents of the city.

For example, the visualisation of public data can be used to monitor the levels of snow in the city and obtain information from residents concerning sections of the streets that require maintenance. At its best, visualisation of open data can promote discussion between citizens, because concepts can be made more clear through pictorial imagery.

Open data belongs to everyone
Helsinki is the only Nordic capital participating in IBM’s global Smarter Cities Challenge programme, which aims to examine and develop the use of open data in cities. 

A report just recently published presents the information collected by an international team of experts concerning the open data existing in a city, and the team has produced recommendations for the various possibilities to combine and visualise such data.

The report contains practical recommendations to enable the city to promote the usage of open data, as well as good examples of the visualisations produced. The aim is to implement some of these ideas during WDC Helsinki 2012.

Open data is a vital part of society
IBM’s six-strong international expert team lived and worked in Helsinki for three weeks during September/October 2011. At the commencement of their task, objectives and perspectives for handling the use of data were set during discussions with the various interest groups.

During this period, a workshop on data visualisation and city data was also organised. Some 40 participants came up with ideas concerning the various ways of utilising open data.

The visualisation of public data is not only aimed at producing images, but at creating examples of how the residents of a city could process the data they see, and act accordingly. Open public data and ways to use it are a key aspect in the new type of citizen dialogue.

”We had an excellent spirit of cooperation during the working period. Openness and availability of data are a key aspect in the operations of the city. Our desire is to take a pioneering role in this aspect of city life,” Mayor Jussi Pajunen states.

”A great deal of useful data is produced in cities, and Helsinki has been very active in making them available to the public. Together with the City of Helsinki we attempted to establish all the wisdom that could be drawn from the huge amount of data available. A community-oriented approach, involvement in the development of one’s own city, and the development of new innovative services are wonderful objectives to work towards,” IBM’s Executive Director in Finland Tuomo Haukkovaara explains.

Further details:

A report can be downloaded from the City of Helsinki website:
http://www.hel.fi/static/taske/julkaisut/2012/IBM_SCC_Helsinki__English.pdf
http://www.hel.fi/static/taske/julkaisut/2012/IBM_SCC_Helsinki_suomi.pdf
Helsinki Region Infoshare: http://www.hri.fi/fi/
IBM Smarter Cities Challenge project: https://smartercitieschallenge.org/
City Forward: www.cityforward.org