Helsinki Arena 2000: Information Society

Risto Linturi, the Initiator of Helsinki Arena 2000, Chairman of R. Linturi Plc.

Information Technology for a better world – this is a challenge. Francis Fukuyama shows statistics in his book “The Great Disruption”. He shows how in the years of information technology – crime has increased fiftyfold in United States and twentyfold in many European countries. Societal norms are breaking.

There is something in this industrialized information technology that is not good for us. Jules Verne predicted with amazing clarity and Alvin Toffler later analysed how hierarchical information structures make individuals lose much of their significance. People become anonymous and their actions are invisible to others but their boss.

Fukuyama saw statistical signs of things turning better lately. He did not offer any good explanations. But New York Times foreign columnist Thomas Friedman explained in his book about globalisation “The Lexus and the Olive Tree” many recent phenomena connecting them to the advances of the Internet and transparent society. He saw that hierarchies are breaking, mostly to a positive end result.

Finland is very egalitarian society with low hierarchies. We have stories of irritated soldiers shouting their advice to passing generals – and these stories sound true to us. Loyalty to your work in Finland does not mean that you are obedient. Many times it means that you take responsibility and act individually within your network. If your boss wants to take part in making decisions she or he has to answer your phonecalls and emails. This was sometimes disasterous in factory environment but beneficial for the new, networked era.

This is perhaps one of the major reasons why both mobile phones and Internet spread so fast in Finland. Other forms of communication were quite efficient for hierarchical organisations. We felt like someone had just set us free from hierarchies when mobile phones and Internet arrived. Everything started to move faster.

Many of the inventions in Internet like chat and Linux have originated from Finland. They all seem to view people as actors rather than objects, empowering people and drawing strength from a collaborative effort, which is part of our tradition.

Helsinki Arena 2000 –project, which I am here to describe to you, also draws its strength from high regard for individuals. It is not a project as such. It is a catalyst for many projects and many companies. Originally we compared it to Kennedy’s vision to put a man on moon. This kind of self-replicating ideas, stories that spread easily are called memes, originally described by a Dr. Dawkin in his book the Selfish Gene.

In Helsinki Arena 2000 (www.arenanet.fi) I crafted basically three sets of memes. The most important first: With a good local multimedia network anyone can start broadcasting TV-quality programs to everybody else. Second: With always-online connections to our homes and offices, we can remotely monitor and operate all our belongings. Third: With virtual reality technologies and self-positioning mobile phones we can always be aware of our surroundings and we never again get lost.

My original task was to form a strategy for Helsinki Telephone Corp. that would utilize their fixed network for commercially viable purposes. It seemed inevitable that all voice was moving to mobile networks. Creating new markets and new needs required a major change in behaviour patterns of the Telecom Company, its suppliers, and customers. I went back to study Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. What were the needs that could be satisfied with modern technology and how could I best communicate my vision to catalyse as fast a change as possible towards my goals?

Let us start from the easy issues. When I started in 1995, one of the first intentions was to create motivation for a fast acceptance of ISDN as a stepping-stone towards fixed fast DSL access. All sorts of increase in personal video communication would increase demand for higher bandwidth connections. ISDN has reached our predictions. Video telephony is spreading to households. Ten Finnish telecoms now distribute Vistacoms video telephony software as a part of their ISDN connection.

Targeting multimedia distribution schemes proved to be much more difficult. In 1995 Helsinki Telephone had successfully conducted one of Europe’s largest Video on Demand field trials. But I did not believe in video on demand.

Now it is time to use Maslow’s help. Very often when we create products we do not study enough what the really fundamental needs are. Continuously we repeat that content is the king. But if you study human behaviour you will notice that we are much more willing to pay for the possibility to express ourselves and less inclined to pay for the possibility to just view and listen to others. We will spend even more time and effort for the possibility to share experiences with our fellow beings.

I wanted to turn the TV-concept and Video on Demand concept upside down. We started building a DSL-based broadband island of Internet in Helsinki where anyone could start a TV-quality multicast transmission for others to view. Think about a member in an MG Club. He might send an email to other members saying: “Tomorrow at six pm I will change my carburettor. If you want to view and listen to my explanation, please connect to my homepage video channel.”

I bet there is many who would much rather view each other’s aquariums trough Internet than what comes from the TV. And certainly distant relatives would enjoy the possibility to tune in for a video transmission from birthday parties and certainly every day there would be several dog shows available for just your breed. I know that we do not need one hundred lousy TV channels instead of five good ones. But I feel that this is not the question. We need to get in contact with others. We need to belong. We need to contribute and earn respect. With a network where anyone can transmit, the web changes from a radio into a nonhierarchical group video telephony concept. This has already happened with homepages, emails, news- and chatrooms.

Naturally we have had difficulties. The network manufacturers like Cisco and others were not ready for open multicast and billing schemes that were needed to guarantee good quality video throughput and usage control. These communication patterns are also difficult to set up because of the hen and egg problem. But it seems that the project is on the right track and the business model seems as sound as ever.

Let us get into the second issue: There is a rumour that I can answer my doorbell and open my front door with my mobile phone. I am also supposed to view the insides of my fridge from my mobile phone and receive fire and burglary alarms. These are examples of the memes that I used to spread the ideas. We need fixed always-on Internet connections to homes. These memes spread even to the international media and finally this year all major Finnish construction companies announced plans to wire up new homes and start supplying the homes with building automation related Internet services. Many of the construction companies’ concepts have been assisted by our project and later developed together with Lonix (www.lonix.fi), a Finnish automation manufacturer connecting light bulbs to mobile phones and the Internet.

When Bluetooth phones become available, it will become practical to use mobile phones as general purpose remote controllers for all building related functions whether really remote or just few meters away. I can ask my phone to automatically switch on a certain radio station, put on the lights and open locks wherever I move and turn them off when I leave. But I also want to remotely ask my VCR to tape some program for me if I am unexpectedly late. This is easy to engineer if everything is always connected to Internet. Essential to the initial goal was that there would be as many useful ways to utilize always-on home connections, that there was something for everyone. And we wanted as many companies as possible developing various value added applications on top of the communications networks.

But let us return to Maslow, our basic needs, and our third issue at hand. I have trouble remembering names and numbers and I occasionally get lost even in Helsinki. And it is always difficult to use a map. We needed a flagship user interface for the Helsinki Arena 2000 –project. It needed to be such that people could feel they belong there. Let me now show you what we ended up with.

What you will now see is Helsinki or rather a virtual replica of Helsinki. By the end of this year we will have 50 square kilometres ready modelled by Arcus Software in Finland. Since 1996 Arcus (www.arcussoft.com) has been developing the tools for fast and light modelling of a lively virtual city to be used in computer networks and mobile phones to assist navigation and collaboration in physical and virtual cities.

I really remember less that 50 telephone numbers and I find maps very difficult. But most people recognise something between 100.000 and one million places because that is how we are built. Pattern recognition used to be a survival skill.

In this model you can go to any door, push the doorbell and get a regular telephone call to that physical location. If I wanted a taxi, I would just jump higher, look for the closest free taxi and click it with my mouse. Then I would see how it starts turning to my direction. Just when it is about to reach my door I would step out to the rain.

Kainuu is another part of Finland being modelled right now. They have bears and some of them have GPS-radio collars. We plan to show their positions in the virtual model. Then it is easier to avoid accidentally meeting a bear and naturally wolves should also carry tracers. Many reindeers in Lapland already have mobile phones.

With mobile phones showing 3D-visualizations and locations - it will be easier than ever to move around in the physical realm. One more of Maslow’s needs fulfilled.

Virtual reality will enable us to see what we wish whether based on physical reality or not. We may get rid of road and traffic signs as they can all be viewed virtually from mobile phones and electronic windshields. A technician can see in his augmented reality glasses where he is supposed to put his hands next. And in the future – think about the sparsely populated Finland where everybody has mobile phones. The streetlights can be turned off when there are no mobile phones near by.

All these things save resources and empower the individual people. As information technology decreases transaction cost, decreases cost of distribution and copying there is a major shift in organisational productivity. Well-informed, creative individuals with empathy towards other people become more valulable in this new, networked economy compared to people who obediently follow their bosses’ instructions. These empowered citizens and employees are also more satisfied with their lives. But naturally this is a risk for those in power. And there are other risks as well which we had to think about as we tried to give powerful new tools to ordinary users outside existing corporate and governmental power structures.

You know that there is a serial number in each bank note. Also the cars and guns have identification numbers. Power over others and accountability must go hand in hand. There is however a complex issue with privacy. Many people are afraid of big corporations and their own government who might misuse their personal information.

In Finland organizations are not allowed to collect private information – very much opposite to what has been the case in USA. Perhaps due to this, people in Finland are not commonly afraid and do not wish for a complete anonymity. They understand that anonymity for everybody would include criminals. I have been promoting a solution where the net would save tracing information in such a way that it could only be used if several organizations co-operate. And simultaneously corporations and the government were to be restricted so that they could not abuse the information. This would help to catch whoever broadcast copyrighted material illegally or sent nasty viruses or a blackmail letter to me. There would be balance and trust without a need for web spy agencies who work in secrecy, only for themselves and those in power.

Trust seems to require opennes and efficient methods for people to communicate with each other across hierarchies. With transparency we gain more from honorable conduct. Many disruptions of the society and abuse of power hopefully disappear.

Trust is a fundamental element of a productive society and security the first of Maslow’s needs. Currently there are severe problems attached to it in Internet. We did not expect that these security issues could be handled quickly enough internationally. But within a local broadband island attached to Internet we could enforce fair rules and guarantee a quality of service for all users. Naturally through this Helsinki wide intranet everyone could get to the global wilderness of Internet, but they are well aware that the level of trust decreases when leaving the home turf.

I hope you remember how I boldly compared this project to Kennedy’s plan to put a man on the moon. Corporations, cities and countries need high profile missions to give their people a sense of identity and self esteem. A sense of belonging to a group that one can be proud of. Still in 1995 Finnish people had a very low self-esteem. Helsinki Arena 2000 was among the first information technology projects to change this attitude. It opened many doors, created alignment of vision and a co-operative attitude. It has even affected our legislation. My first task in the project was to gather a consortium to support the project. We got all local art and science universities, largest bank, largest media house, largest edp-houses including IBM and Fujitsu, Nokia, the National Technology Agency, and the City of Helsinki to participate.

What has been accomplished so far? The project has successfully transferred its own goals to several divisions of the telco and other companies and organizations as part of their actual businesses. It still takes time until the original vision is a reality for everyone, but many concepts have been taken into commercial usage in accelerated schedules. And the whole thinking has changed towards significant futuristic ways of using the new communications technologies to everybody benefit.

Now during the past five years technology has advanced again. Perhaps in the future fixed wires are not necessary. I read last year about the project Helios and its connections to Taiwanese telecom companies. Perhaps the first implementation will take place here. Helios is a huge light aircraft (www.aerovironment.com). It is designed to fly in 20 kilometers altitude above a city, powered with solar panels and liquid accumulators. There each plane supplies 20 Gigabits local capacity. This will make it easier and cheaper than ever to set up local broadband islands.

We will see information technology assisting businesses to produce us cheaper things and delivering them to us with faster and cheaper, more automated methods. We will also see technology running astray getting us addicted, robbing us of our independence or spoiling our environment. We will also see technology assisting us to talk with each other silently. One of my latest memes was actually that I have invented telepathy. Just connect sensors and a speech analyser to your vocal chords and a speech synthesisor to your mobile phone. Then shut your mouth but continue to subvocalise. You will have telepathy and it will be embedded to our childrens skulls. This is not certain, but certainly we use our mobile phones to pay instead of cash or credit cards. And certainly our phones in the future will remember everything and allow us to have perfect recollection of what we see and hear. We will become empowered as individuals; our world will become transparent – allowing those in powers very little room for misconduct. Allowing for a better world. This will spread to many currently underdeveloped countries also. After the first pioneering efforts, new information technology is cheaper than the old technologies. Besides, distances and boarders will finally become meaningless in the virtual realm. Those are also forms of hierarchies separating people and restricting their possibilities.

I do not have the same clarity as Jules Verne had, but I sincerely wish that my vision would hold as true as his did because my vision leads to a better society.

Helsinki Arena 2000: Information Society#

Helsinki Arena 2000: Information Society