1. Forum Virium Helsinki:
growing an open, smart city
Beirut, 20th October 2014
Roope Ritvos, Development Director, Innovation Communities

2. New digital service innovations in co-operation
between companies, public sector and the citizens.
Forum Virium Helsinki is part of City of Helsinki Group.

3. Focus areas
Smart City
Innovation Communities
New forms of Media
Growth services for SMEs

4. Private
member
companies
Public
sector
member
organisations
Network
members
K A S VUVAL M EN N U S • FOR UM V IRIUM H E LS IN K I •

5. In figures
• Public-private innovation platform
• Turnover 3,4 M€
• Growth approximately 15% / year
• Project portfolio: 13 M€ (Fin), 51 M
€ (total)
• Basic funding from the City of
Helsinki, 25%
• External collaboration project
funding 50%
• Direct commissions 20%
• Membership fees 5%

6. KASVUVALMENNUS • FOR UM VIRIUM HELSIN KI •
2005 ”Industy-driven
cluster project”
2009 Smart City, Users to
2014 Growing an Open Smart City
the Center

7. Smart City"
"
Services and
Technologies"
Living Lab"
"
Piloting areas
for and with
the Citizens"
+
=
Better
Services &
Products"
Solutions to
Grand
Challenges"
Better
Living"
Value proposition

8. Helsinki:
Mobile
Games
Startup
Capital
of
World
(2014
Develop)
1
of
Startup
Hotspots
of
the
World
(Wired
et
al.)

10. Growing an
Open
Smart City

11. City as a platform
Mobile Apps in
large use
Interactive Public
Displays
Travel Card (0,5M users)
Open Data, Open APIs, Sensor
Networks, Service SDKs

12. • Developer portal dev.hel.fi , open APIs, open data
• Developer meetups and workshops
• Innovation Challenges
• Open walk-in office times to the city’s developers
• European collaboration

13. CitySDK
• Open source toolkit/API for
developing digital city services:
opening and harmonizing city
interfaces, processes
& standards
• Mobility, Tourism, Participation
• Eight European cities,
15 companies and
research partners involved
EU Digital Agenda Inspiring Initiatives (EC 2013)
”Truly smart cities such as Helsinki are using
technology that is already out on the streets and on
the web, enabling residents to input and update via
smartphones, while apps help them to navigate the
city more efficiently” (Guardian 2013)
Helsingin kaupungin aineistopankki:Esko Lämsä

14. Helsinki
Region
Infoshare
• Public data pools from the Helsinki
Region as open regional data
• The opened data is ready to be
used by anyone freely at no cost
European Prize for Innovation
in Public Administration 2013
(European Commission)
Datakuvat: Informaatiomuotoilu.fi

15. Kalasatama -
Smart City Living
Lab
• A model district of smart urban
development
• Developed through experimenting,
new technologies and the use of
open data
• Collaboration between the city,
companies, and the residents
• Objective: 1 hour more time to life
in every day
“Just when you thought Scandinavia couldn’t get any
more eco-friendly, Helsinki ups the ante … Heck, the
design of Kalasatama is even set up to save residents
a whole hour each day on conventional
chores.” (Inhabitat.com 2014)

16. 24
hour
local
services
and
crowd-­‐sourced
logisGcs
in
energy
self-­‐sufficient
Smart
Containers
in
Kalasatama,
Helsinki,
by
start-­‐up
Piggy
Baggy.

18. Smart City"
"
The City government has a remarkable
role in delivering new innovations to
everyday lives of the people."
"
It is the key gatekeeper in innovations
related to living, energy use, transport,
education, public space, healthcare and
services for the elderly and children."

19. Formal City Policy is important
Helsinki City Strategy 2013-2016:
”Helsinki is an internationally recognized
development and piloting environment for new
products and services.
New residential and commercial areas are
exploited as development-, trial- and up-take
environments for new products and services.”

22. Engaging the
Developers

23. Growth Coaching
• Facilitation of pro and peer coaching for
existing, growth-oriented SME/start-ups
• 200 start-ups; global success stories
• Open calls. Startups pay part of the costs.
• Has been developed in co-operation with
businesses, low bureaucracy
• No domain focus requirement. Also specific
projects on e.g. eHealth (joint EU activity).
Produced by Forum Virium Helsinki for City of Helsinki Economic
Development Kuva: Helsingin kaupumgim aineistopankki

24. • Encourages SMEs, Civic Hackers and
citizens to develop new ways to utilize
open data / APIs
• Organized since 2009
• Over 600 entries
• Winners e.g.: BlindSquare, Stormwind
Simulator, ParkkiNappi
• www.apps4finland.fi
• European collaboration with
Apps4Europe
Kuva: Olli-ekka Orpo
Apps4Finland
Competition

25. • Encourages SMEs to exploit
open APIs/technologies in their
businesses
• Focus on SMEs in Creative
Industries (E.g. 3D; digital media;
games; audio)
• Fully funded concept and
prototype creation, plus few
selected more
• Open calls
Produced by Forum Virium Helsinki & partners for
the European Commission
Kuva: Olli-ekka Orpo
CreatiFI

26. • Developer meetups
• Hackathons
• Hack-at-Homes
• DevCamps
• CityJams
• Apps Competitions
• Innovation Challenges
• Open walk-in office times to the city’s developers
• European collaboration
THE DEVELOPER ENGAGEMENT IS A CONTINOUS PROCESS
THAT NEEDS TIME AND PEOPLE (AND MAYBE MONEY).

27. Citizens as
drivers of
innovation

28. Cities are organisms, not machines.
Pic: BBC

29. Pic:
Aho
&
Soldan
Cities consist of people

30. don’t dare
to call me
user, young
man

31. How to combine top-down with
grassroots-up?
WDC
2012
Interna9onal
Design
Founda9on

34. CLiovminmg Luanbist i2e.s0 are creative.

36. Restaurant
day
Budapest
One-­‐day
restaurants
have
so
far
popped
up
in
64
different
countries
including
ArgenEna,
Armenia,
Aruba,
Australia,
Austria,
Bangladesh,
Belgium,
Brazil,
Bulgaria,
Canada,
Chile,
China,
Colombia,
Czech
Republic,
Denmark,
England,
Ecuador,
Estonia,
Finland,
France,
French
Polynesia,
Germany,
Greece,
Guyana,
Hungary,
Iceland,
India,
Israel,
Italy,
Japan,
Jordan,
Kazakhstan,
Latvia,
Lithuania,
Malta,
Mexico,
Mozambique,
Nepal,
Netherlands,
New
Zealand,
Nicaragua,
Norway,
Poland,
Portugal,
Puerto
Rico,
Romania,
Russia,
Rwanda,
Singapore,
Slovakia,
Slovenia,
Spain,
South
Africa,
South
Korea,
Sweden,
Switzerland,
Taiwan,
Tanzania,
Thailand,
Turkey,
Ukraine,
Venezuela,
USA
and
Uzbekistan.
Zurich

37. AhjoExplorer – All political/civic
decision documents on mobile

38. -­‐ Mobile
App
that
helps
the
visually
impaired
in
daily
navigaEon.
“The
idea
to
develop
Blindsquare
was
born
in
Forum
Virium’s
‘Mobile
Augmented
Reality
Smart
City
Devcamp’.
These
kind
of
devcamps
are
important
for
us
innovators.”,
said
Ilkka
Pir]maa,
CEO
of
Blindsquare.
Pics: Blindsquare

39. FVH
success
factor:
the
Network

41. Open And Agile Cities
Six largest cities of Finland
Joint Sustainable Strategy; 7 years, 80+ M€ (EU ITI)

42. Strategy
support
for
City,
Companies
Open,
Smart
City
vision
PlaMorm
• Data,
API
• Physical
Sites
Engage
Developers
PiloGng
of
•
Tech
• Methods
Joint
sense-­‐
making
with
peers

43. For more information
roope.ritvos@forumvirium.fi
+358 40 4662161
skype: rritvos
www.forumvirium.fi