What is HRI?
Cities continuously collect and produce large quantities of data which are utilised in the planning, production and decision-making processes. It is also utilised in the evaluation of municipal activities. Traditionally, this data has only been in the city’s internal use but since 2011 Helsinki metropolitan cities have been opening this data.
Open data increases citizens’ knowledge and understanding of their living area, its history and future development. This increases the overall activity, participation and interaction of citizens. Open data can be seen as a facilitator for creating new services and business opportunities, as well as supporting research and development. The value of public data increases the more it is used.
The Helsinki Region Infoshare (HRI) service aims to make regional information quickly and easily accessible to all. Essentially, HRI is a web service for fast and easy access to open data sources between the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen. The data published includes e.g. statistics, geospatial data and real-time APIs. The data gives a comprehensive and diverse outlook on different urban phenomena, such as living conditions, economics and well-being, employment and transport.
The data may be used by citizens, businesses, universities, academies, research facilities or municipal administration. The data on offer is ready to be used freely at no cost. There are no limitations on users; anyone interested in open data can participate.
For example, existing open data has already been utilized in different ways. Take a look at the HRI showcase gallery for an overview of apps and services created with the use of open data.
There are four operational areas in which the HRI service mainly operates in:
- producing data
- opening data
- sharing data
- utilising data
The main operational activity is to support the producers of information in opening their data and to increase its utilization by multi-channel communication. More information about the operational areas can be found here.
Financing & realization
The HRI service is funded by the cities of Espoo, Helsinki, Vantaa and Kauniainen. The Finnish Ministry of Finance and the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra have also supported the service in the project planning phase.
The operative execution of the service is managed by a directive board formed by the funding and executive parties of the service, as well as City of Helsinki Executive Office and Forum Virium Helsinki.
Forum Virium Helsinki was particularly responsible for the project planning phase during 2010-2013, as well as implementing sub-projects and coordination. In 2014, operational coordination is the responsibility of City of Helsinki Executive Office under close cooperation with Forum Virium Helsinki.
Brief history of HRI service
The concept for the Helsinki Region Infoshare service started in early 2010 and planning commenced in June 2010. The first version of the web service was brought online in March 2011. Following the release, the project advanced according to user-based testing and learning. By 2012, the web service offered a wide range of data on the Helsinki regional area and its localities. During 2013, the target was to open more data and to establish the HRI web service as a part of the municipalities’ normal operations. This goal has been achieved by the start of 2014; the HRI-service has become a part of normal municipal operations.
