Topic

Technology

Commentary

7 findings you can’t ignore on digitalization and new business ecosystems

Digitalisation is no longer about computers; people and physical things are becoming hyperconnected with cheap, abundant sensors resulting in the merging of digital and physical realities. To meet these challenges, Nordic societies look for new ways to prosper in the era of hyperconnectivity while upholding the traditional Nordic values of…

Smart Talk: Alexander Ståhle, on the connection between Nordic urbanism and ‘smartification’

Rapid urbanisation and the aging of our building stock place serious strains on the quality of life in cities, and on management of big infrastructure systems. The smart city paradigm promises to combat these challenges, but it is often leaving out a fundamental fact: our cities are old. The Smart Retro approach is a…

Inside Finland’s Basic Income Hackathon

Finland has plans for a basic income scheme that would dispense with the complexities of the social security system. A group led by Kela, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, and consisting of representatives of various research institutes, is developing a model for a basic income trial in 2017. To…

Smart talk with Mehmet Kaplan

Hyperconnected Neighborhoods, Transparent Cities, Smart Meetings and Transportation-on-Demand. These are some topics we’ll present and talk about on April 11 together with Mehmet Kaplan, Sweden’s Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Information Technology. The discussion is based on Demos Helsinki’s new report on the great potential that the massive initiatives in…

How emergence of smart urban services will change the way we work, move, and live in cities?

For the past half-century, the central functions of our cities – housing, mobility, work and commerce – have remained more or less unchanged. Technical improvements have been incremental, business models have not diversified. Market structures are in many cases still very similar to how they were fifty years ago. It…

Why involve users in IoT?

The Internet of Things (IoT) is shimmering now, but if its users – the people – are forgotten during the development, it will fail. When we are talking about the IoT, where different devices and spaces communicate by themselves, it’s easy to forget the people around them. However, there’s no…

Publications

Policy Brief: Towards a regenerative digital economy

The policy brief provides a roadmap for the EU to reform its economic policies and leverage digitalisation for a regenerative digital economy, ensuring the just allocation of digital goods and the equitable distribution of their benefits.

To change system settings, click here.

On the one hand, we are more connected than ever. On the other hand, what many see as efficient services and the blossoming of creativity in their lives, is shadowed by news of data misuse, abuse of power, precarious work and extractive mining of natural resources. Do we accept these terms and conditions? If we don’t, we need to change the settings: we do this through interventions.

Recommendations for DLT-powered public services

Where and how could – and should – blockchain be used in public services? How can these uses be commissioned, developed and deployed in a fair and transparent manner? What needs special attention when using DLT in public services? In this publication, Demos Helsinki collects and shares learnings from experts who assessed four desirable, undesirable, likely and unlikely scenarios of potential DLT-based public services in the EU.

Projects

Impact of algorithmic management on workers

In this digital era, the prevalent use of algorithmic management in the workplace has created a new set of challenges for workers and labour unions. This project studies the profound effects of algorithmic management on workers and labour organising in the Nordic context.

ARISE – Human-centric, agile, and ethical human-robot interaction (HRI)

Demos Helsinki and nine other front-running organisations in technology across Europe join forces in this project towards making industrial human-robot interaction (HRI) more accessible, cheaper, and easier to adopt. The particular focus of the project is on HRI in healthcare, intralogistics and manufacturing. 

Navigating impactful R&I policy and technology neutrality

As technological breakthroughs can play a critical role in addressing societal challenges, research & innovation (R&I) policy needs to shift the focus from merely appreciating the inherent value of technology development to exploring how they can be harnessed for achieving key societal goals. This project aims to produce a knowledge base to ensure Finland’s R&I policy is strategically impactful while remaining supportive of emerging technologies.

People

Themes

Sorry, we couldn't find any themes.