OSKE Collaboration EnvironmentThe OSKE Secretariat wanted to improve how they communicate with the 23 organizations in the OSKE Community. They also wanted a solution to help the 13 OSKE clusters collaborate more effectively.

OSKE is an industry support network provided by the Finnish Ministry of Employment & the Economy.

OSKE has over 200 associated members.

OSKE wanted an alternative to email as the “main” form of communication

The needs were met by combining:

Yammer:

• improving awareness

• making help requests

• sharing information

Google Apps:

• announcements

• generating knowledge

• collaborative documents

Creating a wider network

OSKE Adminscluster managers

“community” network

OSKE.net admins only

“parent” networkOSKE Community

Network

all OSKE users

“community” network

X Clustercluster members

“community” network

X Clustercluster members

“community” network

X Clustercluster members

(“community” network)

Yammer “External Networks” were used to expand the collaboration spaces.

Members can access the OSKE Yammer External Networks using their normal work emails + private password.

6x User workshops

User review workshop

OSKE Collaboration Workshops

Client Q&A / Online survey

Yammer & Google Sites Setup

6 x Community Manager / Admin Workshops

Preparation 2nd Month 3rd Month 4th Month1st Month

Social media-based collaboration was new to many of the OSKE members, so a series of training workshops were given.

Initially the focus was on the 14 Community Managers representing TEM and the 13 Clusters, as they were crucial to the success of the collaboration networks.

hub.oske.net The “hub site” links all parts of the collaboration environment — Including

Yammer and the individual cluster Google sites.

Google Sites were used to share top-level news announcements, core documents, and member

information.

Greater information sharing and awareness building

• Cluster board meetings are far more productive and innovative as they can be prepared with online communicating in Yammer and Google documents.

• Face-to-face meetings among community members have been reduced significantly; this means savings in time, money and natural resources.

• The governance of the community is much more easier than before; OSKE Secretariat can contact over 200 people without any heavy email sending, etc.

• Clusters and project participants have been able to easily adapt the platform for their individual projects.

Intelligent Machines OSKE Cluster Programme

Yammer: preparation of activities / projects and communications between coordinators Cooperation between other Oske–clusters (Oske –community groups)

Google Apps: shared calendar, file archiving, collaborative and embedded Google Docs, IM process pages

Project(Case:(Bal/c(Sea(Coastal(and(Rural(Tourism(–(Yammer(1/2(created(by((OSKE(/(Flagship(Project(12,7(within(the(Priority(Area(Tourism(in(the(EU(Strategy(for(the(Bal/c(Sea(Region(

Background:

Based&on&the&learnings&of&using&Yammer&as&community&tool,&the&&

Centre&of&Exper:se&for&Tourism&and&Experience&Management&of&

South>West&Finland&(OSKE),&and&City&of&Turku&inspired&the&

flagship&project&to&adopt&Yammer&in&the&context&of&Bal:c&Sea&

Region&collabora:on&as&of&November&2011.

The&benefits&iden:fied&were&that&the&Yammer&External&Networks&

are&free&of&charge,&and&provide&many&opportuni:es&to&develop&

the&dialogue&between&the&members.&

One&of&the&targets&set&was&to&manage&the&informa:on&flow&and&

learning&between&the&interested&stakeholders,&affect&to&the&

higher>level&stakeholders&by&giving&a&new&type&of&visibility&to&the&

community&results.

In addition to Baltic Sea Flagship. Tourism OSKE uses Yammer to facilitate dialogue, netowrking and learning btw different parties for ”eTourism Roundtable/signals”, regional steering teams, project managers community and experience labs.

Project(Case:(Bal/c(Sea(Coastal(and(Rural(Tourism(–(Yammer(2/2(created(by(OSKE(/(Flagship(project(12,7(within(the(Priority(Area(Tourism(in(the(EU(Strategy(for(the(Bal/c(Sea(Region(

Current state and feedback198 members joined in less than 3 months. Members represent both private and public sector, researchers, developers, SMEs and bigger companies from local, regional, national and BSR level, including Russia. In addition there are decision makers, politicians, members from different funding programmes and from the Commission.

All the members have a relationship to and interest in BSR related issues and/or to tourism development — especially in the development of the rural areas.

The Network has aroused interest among the members and actors both nationally and at the EU level. The comments have been positive and encouraging. It seems that there is a demand for this kind of informal and fast communication channel.

A Nordic project consortia that applied Nordic Innovation Funding in December 2012 outlined the intent to use Yammer as a project internal communication tool (based on the experiences and lessons learned in this case)

FutureThe platform is meant to be a professional social network which means it is basically an unmoderated channel

Members&are&encouraged&to&use&Yammer&for&sharing&and&exchanging&experiences&and&discussing&the&perspec:ves&and&future&of&the&rural&and&

coastal&tourism&in&the&BSR.&The&members&are&able&to&use&the&network&as&one&of&the&channels&to&disseminate&informa:on&about&events,&tools,&

results,&etc.,&and&to&find&new&partners&among&BSR&Tourism&professionals.&

Informa:on&concerning&funding&for&BSR&Tourism&development&projects&is&also&shared.