Monimos is a new social media service developed in Finland to promote participation and active citizenship among immigrants. It aims to enhance immigrant influence in societal decision-making through two-way communication between immigrants, locals, media, and the public sector. The Monimos development team includes representatives from immigrant associations and is developing the service using participatory design methods like workshops and online collaboration. The goal of the Monimos service is to create a positive meeting place that connects multicultural associations and individuals, encourages knowledge sharing and collective action, and combines online and offline networking opportunities.

1. www.monimos.fi EPACE case presentation June 18, 2010 Laura Ahokas, Teemu Ropponen Marko Stenroos (comments)

2. Background “ Integration is a continuous, two-way process based on mutual rights and obligations on the part of both the immigrants and the host society” Challenge: Immigrants are by no means homogenous – which makes it impossible to find solutions to integration that would fit them all

3. Monimos web service To enhance immigrant participation and influence into societal decision making using social media Two-way communication and collaboration between immigrants, locals, media and public sector

4. Aims of Monimos “ Monimos is a new social media service for everyone living in Finland. It is a virtual meeting place for internationally minded people and associations to promote participation, diversity and active citizenship from the grassroots level. It is a place for taking action and influencing decision makers.”

5. Monimos development team 1/2 Partners behind the development of Monimos service are: Development work has been done in cooperation of representatives from a selection of immigrant associations Core team of 10 persons with immigrant background living in Finland

6. Monimos development team 2/2 Moniheli Co-operation network of multicultural associations in the capital region of Helsinki 30 member organisations Somus Social media for citizens and public sector collaboration Research project funded by the Academy of Finland Immigrant media sub-project includes researchers from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Aalto University, University of Tampere EPACE Exchanging good practices for the promotion of an active citizenship in the EU Coordinated by the Ministry of Justice Finland and supported by the European Commission. Project partners are Ministry of Integration and Gender Equality (SWE) and State Chancellery (EST )

7. Monimos development process Community-driven participatory design Monimos team: 10 immigrants, 2 Moniheli employees, EPACE and Somus researchers/developers Working methods 8 monthly workshops (face to face / via Skype) Open online collaboration: discussion + voting of service ideas, features, layout, service name

9. The Monimos project Topic choice: immigrants + social media + participation Exploration: interviews, earlier research, media discussion Needs, problems, ideas Two workshops with immigrants, media, public sector Service concept Owela discussion, Moniheli workshop Service pilot Open test online, further development Focus Collaboration with Moniheli Design and development w/ Monimos team Workshops + Owela discussion process stories, use stories, case stories, visual design, website testing, name,... Public service in continuous development based on user feedback 2009 2010

10. Idea for the Monimos service Developed together with the Monimos team Positiveness and sharing ideas  Solutions arena Networking and integration face-to-face  Events calendar Solutions + Events  Monimos.fi

11. Monimos Background and demo June 10, 2010 EPACE & Somus with Moniheli

12. Background: Social media Social media Content Communities and networks Web 2.0 technologies Fun Free Easy

13. New possibilities for civic participation Social media supports interaction, self-organisation and creativity discussion, ideas, suggestions, opinions, events, taking action Immigrants as active participants instead of objects of discussion Associations as driving forces for networking, real world events and taking action

14. www.monimos.fi

15. Monimos… Is a positive meeting place for developing associational democracy through Knowledge sharing and problem solving Citizen participation and deliberation Combining fun and utility Networks the associations and people who share the same interests and helps empower them to act on important issues Combines physical and online spaces as well as bottom-up/top-down approaches  Monimos is a vehicle for encouraging collective action

16. In Monimos you can: join and meet multicultural associations and interest groups network with people - tell them about yourself and learn from others => Through Personal and organizational profiles , linking and invitation mechanisms find information about current multicultural events throughout Finland promote your association’s activities and events => Using Event calendar - for activities; including invitations and guest lists share your point of view on current societal topics and raise issues you would like to influence show yourself as an active immigrant participating in society => Using Personal and organizational blogs and polls, initiating collective action

17. Example use cases collective action and commenting on a law proposal Initiating and promoting grassroots campaigns Promoting events

18. Monimos & social media principles Open participation Anyone can join and publish essentially “anything” Top-down and bottom-up communication People will use tools in unpredictable ways! Trust gained through engagement, not rank Less formal style typically works better Content & conversation Speed vs. quality, reuse of other services “ Conversation is king” Utilizing the “wisdom of the crowds”, crowdsourcing See e.g.: A. Bruns; J.Surowiecky; C.Shirky

19. Monimos.fi development Monimos is based on existing open source software (WordPress and BuddyPress) Easy to modify, lot of technical functionality ready Can connect to other social web sites! Fast and relatively inexpensive development Of course, technical development is just a part of the whole project and development

20. Challenges & success factors ” yet another website” will it gain enough user base to fly Integration/immigration hot subject?? From talk to action?! Communities tend to end up meeting F2F!  Top-down vs. bottom-up Can gov agencies follow and utilize the service Ownership of the service & vision Co-design has created a driving force – will it last?

21. … .so, why Monimos? One place for organizations and individuals Fun and utility – focusing on immigration, integration and an international frame of mind ! Links to and utilizes other existing social media services, like Facebook, YouTube and so on, but is needed as its own, to: Have control of the site – content and use Develop it to the desired directions Let its users run the show and start collective action

22. Thank you!