The Inspire Helsinki 2019 event brought together around 170 people from 29 countries to foster discussion and new ideas on how to realise the full potential of spatial data. The three-day event featured data challenges, practical hands-on workshops and future-oriented keynote presentations. The event was summed up in a panel discussion, in which perspectives on tackling remaining challenges were brought up.

1. Inspire Helsinki 2019
Keynote
Hanna Niemi-Hugaerts
Director, IoT, Forum Virium
@CitySDK_Hanna
22.-24.10.2019
#inspirehelsinki2019

2. City perspective to standardization
and digital single market:
Helsinki’s journey to becoming a
platform for third-party services
Hanna Niemi-Hugaerts
Director, IoT
@CitySDK_Hanna

4. What is Forum Virium
Helsinki and what we do?
• City of Helsinki innovation company established in 2005.
• Co-creating urban futures with companies, universities, cities and
citizens.
• Focus: Smart City, Smart Mobility and Open IoT, Data & AI.
• 90 successfull EU-funded Smart City projects.
▪ Horizon 2020
▪ European Regional Development Fund
▪ Interreg Central Baltic
• 7 M€ project portfolio in 2019 funded by EU and Helsinki.
• Very popular partner: Net Promoter Score 73.

6. Internet of Things (IoT)
Vekotinverstas
“Gadget workshop”
SELECT for Cities SynchroniCity
Biotope mySMARTLife
Climate smart
housing companies
CircVol Quasimodo UIA Hope
AI4EU CroBoDDit Urban Eco Islands
● Team of 11
● Portfolio of 11 projects
● 5 million euros for upcoming
three years
● Funding from H2020, ERDF,
CBC and City of Helsinki
● More than 100 European
partners

7. Internet of Things (IoT):
solutions for everyday
challenges
• Real-time data on urban environments and new
applications and funding for companies for scaling their
IoT solutions
• We develop the ways data is collected, managed, shared
and used
• We test software and devices and promote building of an
open, modular IoT platform and provide opportunities
for connectivity related POCs
• The biggest achievements: Vekotinverstas (Gadget
Workshop), IoT platforms with consent-management

9. Helsinki’s journey to becoming
becoming a platform for third-party
services

11. https://hri.fi/data/en_GB/collection/rajapinnat

12. Fostering the developer ecosystem

13. Around 200 open data use cases we are aware of

14. Why open data?
• Transparency and
democracy
• Government efficiency
• Business and
innovation

15. Why open data?
• Transparency and
democracy
• Government efficiency
• Business and
innovation

16. Not just apps

18. 100 business
cases

19. Getting open data used (in business)
• Open data is still new to companies. There is a clear
need to raise awareness of open data.
• Development takes time. Companies’ needs in regard
to open data vary. ICT companies are familiar with the
subject, but they can’t start drawing up business plans for
other companies. Finding the kind of data that a specif-ic
company needs can take time and effort.
• Reconciling needs and inspiring commitment takes
time. Cities may not always be able to meet the business
needs of companies. Companies, on the other hand, may
not see the broader potential of the data being opened
up. As such, cities should invest in agile experimentation,
pilot projects and inspiring commitment.
• Discovering ideas takes effort. Companies may not be
as ready to utilise open data as anticipated, and even if
they are, they may lack ideas. If companies don’t know
what kind of data is open, they can’t come up with any
wishes either.
https://www.databusiness.fi/content/uploads/2017/10/20171
106_WorkingTogetherTowards_WEB.pdf

20. City as a platform for service
development

21. CitySDK
H2020
CIP-ICT-PSP.2011.5.1
•3 Interoperable
APIS
•Dev engagement
2012
Ease into using
open data
Towards AI- and mydata ready Urban Platform, a ”System of systems”

22. CitySDK
H2020
CIP-ICT-PSP.2011.5.1
•3 Interoperable
APIS
•Dev engagement
6AIKA Open data and
APIs spearhead project
ERDF
•4 Interoperable
APIS
•Data business
•POC funding
2012
Ease into using
open data
2014
Support for
data-driven business
Towards AI- and mydata ready Urban Platform, a ”System of systems”

23. MySMARTLife
H2020
CitySDK
H2020
CIP-ICT-PSP.2011.5.1
•3 Interoperable
APIS
•Dev engagement
6AIKA Open data and
APIs spearhead project
ERDF
•4 Interoperable
APIS
•Data business
•POC funding
BIoTope
H2020
SynchroniCity
H2020
•Interoperable
APIS
•Reference
architectures
•Real-time data
•Sensor
experiments
•Connectivity
•Scale-up
funding
•Climate-
positive
actions
2012
Ease into using
open data
2014
Support for
data-driven business
2016
City as a platform for
scalable, impactful IoT solutions
Select4Cities PCP
H2020
•Pre-commercial procurement
•Open, modular, interoperable &
engaging Internet of everything
platform
•Consent and access management
Towards AI- and mydata ready Urban Platform, a ”System of systems”

24. Climate neutral
housing companies
ERDF
AI4EU
H2020
MySMARTLife
H2020
CitySDK
H2020
CIP-ICT-PSP.2011.5.1
•3 Interoperable
APIS
•Dev engagement
6AIKA Open data and
APIs spearhead project
ERDF
•4 Interoperable
APIS
•Data business
•POC funding
BIoTope
H2020
SynchroniCity
H2020
•Interoperable
APIS
•Reference
architectures
•Real-time data
•Sensor
experiments
•Connectivity
•Scale-up
funding
•Climate-
positive
actions
UIA Hope
UIA
2012
Ease into using
open data
2014
Support for
data-driven business
2016
City as a platform for
scalable, impactful IoT solutions
2018
Connectivity & consent
for climate-neutral,
data-enabled smart cities
UrbanSense
City innovation fund
Select4Cities PCP
H2020
•Pre-commercial procurement
•Open, modular, interoperable &
engaging Internet of everything
platform
•Consent and access management
•5G & LoRa
•Smart
Buildings
•Data-enabled
decision
making &
behavior
change
•Crowdsourcing
•Mydata
•Energy effiency
•Air quality
Towards AI- and mydata ready Urban Platform, a ”System of systems”

25. Climate neutral
housing companies
ERDF
AI4EU
H2020
MySMARTLife
H2020
CitySDK
H2020
CIP-ICT-PSP.2011.5.1
•3 Interoperable
APIS
•Dev engagement
6AIKA Open data and
APIs spearhead project
ERDF
•4 Interoperable
APIS
•Data business
•POC funding
BIoTope
H2020
SynchroniCity
H2020
•Interoperable
APIS
•Reference
architectures
•Real-time data
•Sensor
experiments
•Connectivity
•Scale-up
funding
•Climate-
positive
actions
UIA Hope
UIA
2012
Ease into using
open data
2014
Support for
data-driven business
2016
City as a platform for
scalable, impactful IoT solutions
2018
Connectivity & consent
for climate-neutral,
data-enabled smart cities
UrbanSense
City innovation fund
Select4Cities PCP
H2020
•Pre-commercial procurement
•Open, modular, interoperable &
engaging Internet of everything
platform
•Consent and access management
•5G & LoRa
•Smart
Buildings
•Data-enabled
decision
making &
behavior
change
•Crowdsourcing
•Mydata
•Energy effiency
•Air quality
2019->
AI & MyData ready interoperable
system-of-systems supporting
carbon-neutral life
Urban Eco Islands
Interreg
AI4Cities PCP
H2020
•Platform capabilities
•Twin-city platform
•AI readiness
•Support for AI-based
solutions
•Enabling carbon-
neutral cities
FINEST Twins
H2020
Towards AI- and mydata ready Urban Platform, a ”System of systems”

26. How to make this scale?

27. Problem: lack of interoperability
27
Formats and APIs vary between cities
• ‘Open’ interfaces to existing systems are not uniform
even within cities
• Documentation is lacking as well
Scaling an app from one
city to another =
2012

28. Solution: CityAPIs
28
CityAPIs
Open uniform interfaces
Scaling an app from one
city to another =
2012

29. CitySDK
2012-2014
3 APIs
Six city
strategy
2014-2017
4 APIs
Synchronicity
2017-2019
FIWARE:
Northbound
and
Southbound
APIs
BIoTope
2017-2019
Open Group
MySmartLife
2017-2022
SensorThings
API, WFS 3.0
Consent
management
Mydata
Consent
Shared profiles
Helsinki interoperability timeline

30. 50 pilots in 20 cities Helsinki used as a platform for 4 scale-up IoT
solutions (H2020)

31. CitySDK
2012-2014
3 APIs
Six city
strategy
2014-2017
4 APIs
Synchronicity
2017-2019
FIWARE:
Northbound
and
Southbound
APIs
BIoTope
2017-2019
Open Group
MySmartLife
2017-2022
SensorThings
API, WFS 3.0
Consent
management
Mydata
Consent
Shared profiles
Helsinki interoperability timeline
Open and Agile Smart Cities
(OASC)

32. How could INSPIRE community to
this development?

33. Opportunities for collaboration

34. Technology Directory
https://forumvirium.fi/en/techdir/
● Openly licensed assets created in our pilot projects
-Data
-Harmonized APIs
● Open source software
components
● Connectivity & networks
(5G (NB-IoT), LoRaWAN)
● Support services
-Gadget workshop

35. Vekotinverstas
vekotinverstas.fi
• is a low threshold environment for IoT experimentation.
• Businesses can either introduce
their tech solutions to others
or build things themselves
• Workshops on sensors,
microcontrollers, connectivity

36. Upcoming open calls
• https://forumvirium.fi/en/open-calls-pilots-experiments/
• Coming up in 2020
▪ AI4EU Open Calls
▪ UIA Hope Innovation competition
▪ UrbanSense Edge computing challenge
▪ AI4Cities market consultation
▪ And more…

37. How can we help you utilize Helsinki as a
platform for future urban services?
Hanna.niemi-hugaerts@forumvirium.fi
@CitySDK_Hanna