I want to start this week’s show with a big thank you to everyone that’s listened to any of the episodes so far. We are now on episode 16 of Series 1 and it’s fair to say I’ve learn a lot! Both about podcasting but more importantly about how different built environments operate across the Nordic countries. I hope you’ve enjoyed listening and I hope you’ve got something useful out of the episodes so far, and if you have I would be really grateful if you could leave a 5 star review on whichever podcasting application you use as it really helps other people find the show. 

Now onto this week’s show which was recorded late in 2019 when I was in Helsinki, Finland. I spoke with Sami Sahala, who focuses on Smart Cities and Smart Mobility at Forum Virium, the City of Helsinki’s Innovation Department. As you will hear, Helsinki has always been a leader in future mobility solutions and as such, Sami is a busy man, often presenting their work to other global cities that visit Helsinki to learn from their expertise. 

In this episode, we’ll be answering some big questions, like. 

• What are the most important considerations when launching a city open data platform? 
• Is open data of lower quality useless?  Or can it still be useful for decision-making? 
• What is Helsinki, the city that gave rise to the Mobility-as-a-service concept,  focusing on now?