1

www.monimos.fiEPACE case presentation

June 18, 2010Laura Ahokas, Teemu Ropponen

Marko Stenroos (comments)

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

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

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)

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 projectTopic choice:immigrants + social media + participation

Exploration:interviews,earlier research,media discussion

Needs, problems, ideasTwo workshops with immigrants, media, public sector

Service conceptOwela discussion,Moniheli workshop

Service pilotOpen test online, further development

FocusCollaboration with Moniheli

2009 2010

Design and developmentw/ Monimos teamWorkshops + Owela discussion

process stories, use stories, case stories, visual design, website testing, name,...

Public servicein continuous development based on user feedback

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

Socialmedia

Content

Communitiesand networks

Web 2.0technologies

Fun FreeEasy

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

www.monimos.fi

14

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

15

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

16

Example use cases

• collective action and commenting on a law proposal

• Initiating and promoting grassroots campaigns• Promoting events

17

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

18 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

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?

20

….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

21

Thank you!