Developing GIS based citizen services in the City of Helsinki: Current Challenges and Examples from Pilot Projects
Jonna Kangasoja, researcher

City of Helsinki Urban Facts
P.O. Box 5500, 00099 City of Helsinki, Finland
Tel. +358-9-50 4412863, fax +358-9-1693612
E-mail: jonna.kangasoja@helsinki.fi

Abstract
The recent studies in the field of Finnish participation research have given substantial attention to the discursive practices in which the relationship between the government (usually the municipality) and the citizens is constructed (e.g. Staffans 2004, Nevalainen 2004, Häikiö 2005). The discrepancy between the statuses of expert knowledge inside the government and planning systems and the expertise and everyday knowledge of citizens has been highlighted. This paper, however, argues that in trying to understand the challenges of new forms of electronic participation and deliberation it is important in addition to the citizen-government relationship to focus analytically and empirically on another set of relationships and boundaries, namely those inside the administrations. Asking ‘what does Helsinki think’ or ‘want’ regarding the e-participation of citizens leads to a more difficult question of ‘who is Helsinki’ with respect to this particular set of issues (Kangasoja 2004).
The highest body with political authority, the City Council, took an explicit stand regarding the importance of citizen participation in 2002. The translation of this political stance into actions inside the departments is an ongoing challenge. Another source of information on the ‘will’ of the City are its strategies. The strategy that lists explicit goals regarding e-participation is the City of Helsinki’s IT strategy. The strategy for the period 2003-2006 states e.g. that GIS based services are a central tool in implementing the City’s e-Service strategy. The strategy includes also explicitly the goal of developing new web-GIS citizen services. A future vision includes a two-way web-based communication channel which could provide location specific information on all on-going municipal projects, as well as provide a feedback channel for citizens. This vision is first and foremost an organisational, not a technical challenge
The GIS development has spurred cross-departmental collaboration inside the City of Helsinki, and also regionally in the metropolitan area. A particular ‘GIS core group’ has been formed inside the City, as a horizontal topical structure of expertise for information sharing. The department with the strongest professional legitimacy, the City Survey Division in charge of the map services that has acted as the convenor of the GIS group. Currently there are over 14 projects on GIS-based service in the design or development phases in the City of Helsinki. These include the WebGIS map and geospatial information service maintained by the City Survey Division (Arponen 2005), and the ‘Planning Projects on the Net’ (Suunnitteluhankkeet verkossa) service of the City Planning Department offering real-time information on various plans under preparation (town plans, subdivision plans, traffic planning projects etc.) (Huhdanmäki 2004). Both of these services will be launched in June 2005.
To appreciate the complexities involved we can look at the history of the development of e-participation in general inside the City of Helsinki. Pilot projects, such as the ‘Home Street’ and the ‘Net Maunula’ have been instrumental in creating practical applications as well as understanding of e-participation in the City of Helsinki (Bäcklund 2003, Rantanen 2004). The challenge is to integrate the ‘line organization’ and the ‘project organization’ is at the heart of the challenge of the ‘institutional mediations’ that Anttiroiko (2003, 28-29) identifies as most critical in the development of new deliberative forms of democracy. If the link between the horizontal and the vertical organization remains weak or non-existent, the innovations of the pilot projects remain stand alone, one time accomplishments, with very limited impact on the municipal level (Kangasoja & Roeder 2005). The question is to detect the structures and flows of knowledge and understanding, influence and power through which experiences of the pilot projects turn into doable decisions and actionable solutions for the administrations.
References
Anttiroiko, A.-V. (2003) Kansalaisten osallistuminen, osallisuus ja vaikuttaminen tietoyhteiskunnassa. In Bäcklund, P. (toim.) (2003) Tietoyhteiskunnan osallistuva kansalainen. Tapaus Nettimaunula. Helsinginkaupungin tietokeskuksen tutkimuksia 2003:5
Bäcklund, P. (toim.) (2003) Tietoyhteiskunnan osallistuva kansalainen. Tapaus Nettimaunula. Helsinginkaupungin tietokeskuksen tutkimuksia 2003:5
Häikiö, L. (2005) Osallistumisen rajat. Valta-analyysi kestävän kehityksen suunnittelusta Tampereella. Tampere University Press
Kangasoja, J. (2004). 'Taloudellisin ja järkevin ratkaisu'. Tietoinfrastruktuurin politiikkaa Arabianrannan alueverkkokokeilun valossa. Yhdyskuntasuunnittelu 2004:3-4. vol. 42, 51-69.
Kangasoja, J., Roeder, S. (2005) Report on the e/m-participation software. Report D5 of the WP2B (30.4.2005) for of the European IST-programme project INTELCITIES.
Nevalainen, J. (2004) Tilapelin tiedonpolitiikat – kamppailu kaupunkikeskustan muutoksesta. Joensuun yliopiston yhteiskuntatieteellisiä julkaisuja No 67. Joensuu 
Rantanen, H. (2004) Paikallisyhteisöt internetissä. Julkaisujärjestelmät ja kolmas sektori. Sitran raportteja 44. 
Staffans, A. (2004) Vaikuttavat asukkaat - vuorovaikutus ja paikallinen tieto kaupunkisuunnittelun haasteina. Yhdyskuntasuunnittelun tutkimus- ja koulutuskeskuksen julkaisuja A 29
Tietotekniikalla tuottavuutta ja palveluja. Helsingin kaupungin tietotekniikkastrategia 2003 – 2006. Helsingin kaupunginkanslian julkaisusarja A 14/2002

Unpublished references
Arponen, M.: Helsingin yhteiset paikkatietopalvelut (The Shared GIS Services in the City of Helsinki). Presentation in the GIS seminar of the City of Helsinki, 10.3.2005
Huhdanmäki, A.: Suunnitteluhankkeet verkossa (Planning Projects on the Net). Presentation in the GIS seminar of the City of Helsinki, 10.3.2005
Jaakola, A. and Huhdanmäki, A.: Loppukäyttäjän vaatimuksia yhteiskäyttöisille paikkatietoaineistoille (End-User Requirements for Shared GIS Data). Presentation in the seminar of the GIS Core Group of the City of Helsinki, 14.4. 2005
Related Web links
Authors’ home page: 
	http://www.edu.helsinki.fi/activity/people/kangasoj/
The City of Helsinki Web pages:
The City Survey Department http://www.kv.hel.fi/kaupunkimittaus/
The Guide Map of Helsinki and the Metropolitan Area http://kartta.hel.fi/
The Urban Map http://kaupunkikartta.fi/