How Helsinki is hoping to save residents an hour a day

The following piece I penned for our weekly Digital Inspirational email at Blue Rubicon.

Policymakers in the UK are used to looking enviously at the way Scandinavian governments manage to deliver popular and successful public services. Lovers of drama are used to looking eagerly for news of the latest Scandi drama release. And many children of course know that it’s the home to Father Christmas and the source of annual present bonanzas. Now digital trends pundits are also increasingly turning to Scandinavia, and Helsinki in particular, with its pioneering smart cities initiative.

The district of Kalasatama used to be dominated by shipping but, after the docks moved elsewhere in 2008, it has become a testbed for using technology to build a new sort of urban development. From underground pipes to sweep people’s rubbish away efficiently through to regular hack days to stimulate digital innovation, the neighbourhood is trying out the full range of smart city ideas.

Rather smartly, if you’ll excuse the pun, this includes focusing innovation on the idea of saving people one hour a day by making their lives more efficient. For busy people an extra hour in their day is wonderfully valuable, yet it is a small enough target to encourage a wide range of digital initiatives, such as Whim. This service lets you plan and book all your travel for the day in one go, making one payment and getting one personalised timetable for the full set. The technology, rather than a human, suffers the burden of making different modes of transport match up in an effective way.

Running through this all is a strong thread of co-creation, involving residents in generating ideas for what to develop and how, so that technology is serving the needs of communities.

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