Kimmo Ronka

Contacts

• Helka http://www.helka.net Helsinki Neighbourhood associations
• City of Vaasa net TV http://net-tv.fi/vaasa/valtuusto  where all the politics discussions are recorded

From interview

He introduced his self.

My first interesting in Arabianranta about 12 years ago was my oldest son's hobby, I started to drive car from my home to here, to take him to his piano lessons at the Pop Jazz Conservatory. This is my fist role in Arabianranta. After that I started to work here.
So I always think work, live and play. Working means career; live means house where I live and the third part [play] is free time, hobbies what I or my family is interested in. Is a living issue anyway. People are client of Arabianranta.
Here there is Future Home institute, I was interesting in living issue; I started as consultant, than researcher and after four year I become director of Future Home. Now I started with this company [Movense].
Here in Arabianranta ADC company, university, phds, researchers, companies but in the Living Lab these parts are cooperating with their own role, you have a role as researcher, today I have the role as a consultant with my company, some company has role as product or manufacture and is important to understand the roles. Citizen have roles, how live here, they have a role of family member or taking care of their children or what ever. To co-design a environment, a process of co-learning.
You have to understand the way, the aims of the project, the user needs and after that the strategy goes to operational level. What is important is think first and than you'll know what you can drown it down. Actually I must say Arabianranta they first draw this area with the masterplan. It's not modern. But at the end they have change opinion, the aims of the project. We've suggested to have a more business an creativity neighbourhood.
The project has to be open, if you know the open innovation term, it's a issue of open communications. You can have better result with open information. You can get less conflicts, you get faster schedules, contractors get better money, people gets better houses. If some one don't say something as soon as possible because the process cost a lot of money and you can't stop it because it means again money.
 

How to increase the participation?

The point is that city or the organizations must push the informations to me and it is my; I'll decide to participate. They must give me informations I'll cooperate or not. The city can't start to participate after the reaction of the people; it will be too late. They have to be really sensible and understand the weak signals from the citizen. We have to help the companies to change the process, for example planners must change their attitude. Design a city, is not they design a city, they must do it together with the companies, citizen. They must be open mind because you'll get better results. A "open planning". I mean, nobody is perfect. It's impossible to design one city, impossible that one person, a planner design a city. You need different roles, different views and good process, and you have to know where are we going, what's strategic steps, what it miss... We need visions, visionars, we need also missioners: who believe in the project.

The role of the e-moderator, it's hard, you have to manage different thinks and needs.

It's not a 1000 persons participation. They do something, the get something. You do something is better than do anything. They do something that helps people, they don't do a perfect work. They have their little work. It's a separate process. They don't have to decide but they have the role to bring the information to keep alive the communication. The decisions is made here.

It'll take time but we have to start from somewhere.

1.
It's Art and design City, I use that if I need it.
Arabianranta.fi is the channel if I need to know something about the citizen. I read what they talk what about in the area. But it's arabianranta.fi the channel.

2.
Some of those active persons for the users community. Some of the chair of the housing community of Arabiaranta for the citizen. I use them if I need. Some time they are the same of e-moderator, but is the chair of the community of citizen call Artova. They have a web page [http://www.artova.fi].

3.
Being a member of global community. Being and knowing faster in the world. Getting faster information. For example for the weather i use the web. I quite a lot useing forecast. Knowing when the clouds are coming in the area. Of corse using as scientific porpouses, getting the information. I open google maybe hundred thousand a day. So, it's a part of my work. More important than telephone today.

4.
Pc, telephone, laptop, wireless network at home, networking at office and 3G also mobile laptop. Always connect if I need it. Normally I read the e-mail by communicator [Nokia E90 Communicator] but I answer by laptop.

5.
Yes!

6.
My work is as be the leading research in communication. I'm the responsable in our company in this. "ICT thinks" are so obvious that all of as can do it this thinks. Networking is fundamental.

7.
Mybe I have a couple of students who want to have a job. I'm trying to help them and as well they are trying to help our company to have new projects for them. They want to do their final work, so we have deal without any papers, but if you get a good company, let's make a project. So it's a open business contracts with the students.
Always talking is ten time more than working, than the real thinghs. Beacause you don't know what the real thinghs are without talking. You to talk a lot and sometime you find: this is the place, this is the subject, sombody wanting to do a project and it will start.
I have some voluntary people in another city [Mikkeli]; there is a project that I'm doing with the city of Mikkely; and there is a user community with volontary people. There are growing interest in this arabianranta kind of method.
I belive that we have this official works (companies cities organisation) and there is even unofficial world consist of human being, volontary people, communities and so on. And this is growing, this unofficial world. I changed my mind about organisation as Living labs I use to belive in this official Living Labs but now I belive in real Leaving Lab, that's means it's more user driven innovation, self organised thinghs. So is always a question about to ask who passion to do somethinghs and do it volontary. The question is interst, hobbies, children, that's is the real Living Lab. The important is the unofficial, the every day live. The interface between those two world: offical and unofficial; I think tha it will be the future, the challenge.

8.
Yes! I'm consultant and that's my work to change my talk based on the odiens. So, of course.

9.
I must say that is still difficoult is with this e-partecipation, because is more easyer to have this without ICT. Because only who has the courage to write in web do it, but the other follow and read. So it's different. We have Mikkely discussion in city web page but we didn't got the real discussion there, because only some of the citizen wrote somethink. But is good start.
The point is: we need both: ICT technology and face to face. We need vitual and tangible thinghs. The both hand is fine.
eg. I had sms interview about if I was satisfied with my car and they had the resault. Is quite normal that companies will ask using sms if I am satisfied with their service. Mostly I answered. It's a good solution to analize customers satisfaction. 1 to 6 scale, I answerd. It could be used in the city as well. As tram, library...
Actually —you know— car industry, they has really to rise the quality of the service, because it's their work, otherwise they won't have work.

10.
One example is pop&jazz conservatorium, about the band they have created last years, using e-mail. They have tryed to have the best band for the children with the teacher.
They should use more of that. Hobbies are quite a lot important. Again about music lessons; I think that we have to put more attention to parents if they are satisfied. And also I should have a connection to pop&jazz conservatorioum as a parent. To have a e-mail connection with the teacher.
I'm also a member of school board, in different schools and they use this internet and there we have all the material. Is a good solution. We have "Wilma" meaning: participating my children teacher by web. Is a channel to the school. Is quite good. We have a channel with our children teachers throut web. You can sand or check... If your children is sik and you sent the justification to teacher or you can check if he or she is at lesson.
My wife is a teacher and we know that 80% of the parent use that.

11.
If I can say somethink about Mikkeli case. There we have Mikkeli forum. eg. two weeks ago we have one seminar at 5 o'clock in the evening in the central square of the city of Mikkely. Where the people are! Then we have a seminar about panel discussion about crutial and important issues. And also we have this web page for material about the seminar. And also we have this news paper about news about the event. So, I think, most people of Mikkely know news about the event. Print and internet, and this real things. So it's a combination. Internet, newspaper, flyer, e-mail, mouth asking. And than at the seminar we have reporters; they make stories in the news paper and to the web. So, many media and good result.
I have even to say that we had done it here in Arabianranta. We had use and develop this method here and spread and sell this idea to other cities. This area [Arabianranta] have a good reputation and good results in casting, develop this things. Is a open reseach. I export the process. The issues is how to do it not what you are doing. Beacause all the citiesa are different. Mikkely is different: hobbies, people, livestyles. You have to have the Mikkely results. So the point is the process: how to do it, not what to do. You shuolden't decide the result before the process. The process is more important than the result. If you want do that till the end you won't get it, and this take time. But if you have a some kind of direction and you focus on the process you'll get much more better results.

12.
Using people that I know. Using friendshipsness. Using social network.
Finland and Helsinki is a small place and you quite fast learn and know the real people there and you know who know quite soon. I maybe used more  ufficial roads before, but today I use mostly unufficial roads. That's social network.

13.
Maybe combination between tangible and virtual and also combination between official and unofficial. Meaning new multimedia method and mixture.
Being practical we have industrial designer in our company, so we do quite a lot work based on documenting things. My work is about social network, create documentatione about the situations. So it's both pratictical things and social networking: new kind of combinations. More focus in process, than in project. I'm a couch. I'm helping the client. Couching than consuting. Again, more important is how to do, than what to do.

14.
Two years ago I belive in wireless things that they will grow. But since I have this 3G phone is much more easier to use and install. I still belive we should have this as streets, wather; same kind of infrastructure.

15.
No, no, we didn't.

16.
I think that in Arabianranta is enought. Internet and ICT is still growing and developing. The more you have, the more you will use and want it.

17.
Iran today, internet helps democracy. And there is this 100$ laptop. Sure I belive, I still belive! There will be a better world.

18.
There is a square over there and I belive that kind of squares could be places for urban events. So, is tangible meeting there. I think that in the future this kind of square will be stages. It was and it will be.
For example music businnes, musicians will less and less be payed by  royalties, but in the future they will more and more odience like jam. So we need spaces for multifunction places combined for productions made by student, events made by citizen, festivals or conferencies made some companies and live and web-net. A new kind combination between virtual and tangible. This future building will be a black boxes and based on functions, they will be easy to make them. You will have facilities there, based on the fuction and on the event. All will be more generic - dinamic.
Muli-porpuse mixture spaces and campus with citizen, workers, students, companies in global using web. The important is to reach all those people, like antian, handicap, people that can talk. The democracy of the city.