Role of culture in knowledge transfer and sharing - case ERP implementation

The main objective of this study was to examine how culture influences knowledge transfer and sharing within multicultural ERP project implementation in China. The main interest was to explain how national culture and knowledge are linked by understanding how culture influences knowledge transfer and sharing in a project organization. The other objective of this work was to discuss what Chinese cultural characteristic inhibit and en-hance knowledge sharing in ERP project. The perspective of this study was qualitative and the empirical material was collected from theme interviews among Stora Enso employees. Conclusion of this thesis is that Finns have a very direct style of communication and sharing knowledge whereas Chinese respect face shaving and indirect communication. Another conclusion is that knowledge sharing does not “just happen”, it is needed that project members understand national culture to get all project members commitment to project. In China most important is understand local business processes and understand role of trust and guanxi.

Carbon footprint as part of a company’s external environmental communication

The aim of this thesis was to find out how the carbon footprint calculations can be utilized in the company’s external environmental communication, what is the demand for carbon footprint from the market, and how the other actors in the forest industry have approached the issue. The aim was to recognize the best practises to communicate carbon footprints and to find possibilities to extend the UPM-Kymmene Wood Oy’s mill specific carbon footprints. This research included a literature review, an inquiry to the UPM-Kymmene Wood Oy’s sales offices, and Internet survey concerning the external environmental communication in the forest industry and three small case studies based on mill specific parameters. The inquiry to the sales offices showed that the carbon footprint is not yet a common demand from the customers in the wood product sector. In addition, the Internet survey showed that generally in the forest industry, not much has been done concerning carbon footprint communication so far. The biggest challenge in carbon footprint communication is the variation in the knowledge level of the receivers. In addition btob and btoc communication situations demand a different approach to the issue. Carbon profile brochures developed in the company can be seen as suitable for btob communication situations. Case studies have shown that the contribution of final product transport to the overall carbon footprint was significant. It was recommended to include post mill transport in the carbon footprint information supplied to the btob customers. When discussing environmental communication on a general level it can be stated that a good external environmental communication is based on facts, is open and proactive and takes into account the needs of the receiver. However, the openness and the quality of external environmental communication are essentially strategic decisions. The significance of internal communication as well as the knowhow in the communication and marketing networks play a major role in achieving success in external environmental communication. Carbon footprints are only one part of good balanced external environmental communication. One specific environmental feature like carbon footprint should not be over emphasized to the detriment of other important environmental aspects.

Finnair’s “New Silk Road” in the New Millennium: An Analysis of the Construction of Asia and of the Company

During the past century, an increasingly diverse world provided us with opportunities for intercultural communication; especially the growth of commerce at all levels from domestic to international has made the combination of the theories of intercultural communication and international business necessary. As one of the main beneficiaries in international business in recent years, companies in airline industries have developed their international market. For instance, Finnair has developed its Asian strategy which responds to the increasing market demand for flights from Europe to Asia in the new millennium. Therefore, the company manages marketing communication in a global environment and becomes a suitable case for studying the theories of intercultural communication in the context of international marketing. Finnair implemented a large number of international advertisements to promote its Asian routes, where Asia has been constructed as a number of exotic destinations. Meanwhile, the company itself as a provider of these destinations has also been constructed contrastively. Thus, this thesis aims at research how Finnair constructs Asia and the company itself in the new millennium, and how these constructions compare with the theories of intercultural communication. This research applied the theories of international marketing, intercultural communication and culture. In order to analyze the collected corpora as Finnair’s international advertisements and its annual reports in the new millennium, the methods of content analysis and discourse analysis have been used in this research. As a result, Finnair has purposefully applied the essentialist approach to intercultural communication and constructed Asia as an exotic “Other” due to the company’s market orientation. Meanwhile, Finnair has also constructed the company itself two identities based on the same approach: as an international airline provider between Europe and Asia, as well as a part of Finnish society. The combination of intercultural communication and international marketing theories, together with the combination of the methods of content analysis and discourse analysis ensure the originality of this paper.

Towards an Integrative Information Society: Studies on Individuality in Speech and Sign

The flow of information within modern information society has increased rapidly over the last decade. The major part of this information flow relies on the individual’s abilities to handle text or speech input. For the majority of us it presents no problems, but there are some individuals who would benefit from other means of conveying information, e.g. signed information flow. During the last decades the new results from various disciplines have all suggested towards the common background and processing for sign and speech and this was one of the key issues that I wanted to investigate further in this thesis. The basis of this thesis is firmly within speech research and that is why I wanted to design analogous test batteries for widely used speech perception tests for signers – to find out whether the results for signers would be the same as in speakers’ perception tests. One of the key findings within biology – and more precisely its effects on speech and communication research – is the mirror neuron system. That finding has enabled us to form new theories about evolution of communication, and it all seems to converge on the hypothesis that all communication has a common core within humans. In this thesis speech and sign are discussed as equal and analogical counterparts of communication and all research methods used in speech are modified for sign. Both speech and sign are thus investigated using similar test batteries. Furthermore, both production and perception of speech and sign are studied separately. An additional framework for studying production is given by gesture research using cry sounds. Results of cry sound research are then compared to results from children acquiring sign language. These results show that individuality manifests itself from very early on in human development. Articulation in adults, both in speech and sign, is studied from two perspectives: normal production and re-learning production when the apparatus has been changed. Normal production is studied both in speech and sign and the effects of changed articulation are studied with regards to speech. Both these studies are done by using carrier sentences. Furthermore, sign production is studied giving the informants possibility for spontaneous speech. The production data from the signing informants is also used as the basis for input in the sign synthesis stimuli used in sign perception test battery. Speech and sign perception were studied using the informants’ answers to questions using forced choice in identification and discrimination tasks. These answers were then compared across language modalities. Three different informant groups participated in the sign perception tests: native signers, sign language interpreters and Finnish adults with no knowledge of any signed language. This gave a chance to investigate which of the characteristics found in the results were due to the language per se and which were due to the changes in modality itself. As the analogous test batteries yielded similar results over different informant groups, some common threads of results could be observed. Starting from very early on in acquiring speech and sign the results were highly individual. However, the results were the same within one individual when the same test was repeated. This individuality of results represented along same patterns across different language modalities and - in some occasions - across language groups. As both modalities yield similar answers to analogous study questions, this has lead us to providing methods for basic input for sign language applications, i.e. signing avatars. This has also given us answers to questions on precision of the animation and intelligibility for the users – what are the parameters that govern intelligibility of synthesised speech or sign and how precise must the animation or synthetic speech be in order for it to be intelligible. The results also give additional support to the well-known fact that intelligibility in fact is not the same as naturalness. In some cases, as shown within the sign perception test battery design, naturalness decreases intelligibility. This also has to be taken into consideration when designing applications. All in all, results from each of the test batteries, be they for signers or speakers, yield strikingly similar patterns, which would indicate yet further support for the common core for all human communication. Thus, we can modify and deepen the phonetic framework models for human communication based on the knowledge obtained from the results of the test batteries within this thesis.

Communicative and Anticipatory Decision-Making Supported by Bayesian Networks

The purpose of this research is to draw up a clear construction of an anticipatory communicative decision-making process and a successful implementation of a Bayesian application that can be used as an anticipatory communicative decision-making support system. This study is a decision-oriented and constructive research project, and it includes examples of simulated situations. As a basis for further methodological discussion about different approaches to management research, in this research, a decision-oriented approach is used, which is based on mathematics and logic, and it is intended to develop problem solving methods. The approach is theoretical and characteristic of normative management science research. Also, the approach of this study is constructive. An essential part of the constructive approach is to tie the problem to its solution with theoretical knowledge. Firstly, the basic definitions and behaviours of an anticipatory management and managerial communication are provided. These descriptions include discussions of the research environment and formed management processes. These issues define and explain the background to further research. Secondly, it is processed to managerial communication and anticipatory decision-making based on preparation, problem solution, and solution search, which are also related to risk management analysis. After that, a solution to the decision-making support application is formed, using four different Bayesian methods, as follows: the Bayesian network, the influence diagram, the qualitative probabilistic network, and the time critical dynamic network. The purpose of the discussion is not to discuss different theories but to explain the theories which are being implemented. Finally, an application of Bayesian networks to the research problem is presented. The usefulness of the prepared model in examining a problem and the represented results of research is shown. The theoretical contribution includes definitions and a model of anticipatory decision-making. The main theoretical contribution of this study has been to develop a process for anticipatory decision-making that includes management with communication, problem-solving, and the improvement of knowledge. The practical contribution includes a Bayesian Decision Support Model, which is based on Bayesian influenced diagrams. The main contributions of this research are two developed processes, one for anticipatory decision-making, and the other to produce a model of a Bayesian network for anticipatory decision-making. In summary, this research contributes to decision-making support by being one of the few publicly available academic descriptions of the anticipatory decision support system, by representing a Bayesian model that is grounded on firm theoretical discussion, by publishing algorithms suitable for decision-making support, and by defining the idea of anticipatory decision-making for a parallel version. Finally, according to the results of research, an analysis of anticipatory management for planned decision-making is presented, which is based on observation of environment, analysis of weak signals, and alternatives to creative problem solving and communication.

Socially Competent Leadership - predictors, impacts and skilling in engineering

Earlier management studies have found a relationship between managerial qualities and subordinate impacts, but the effect of managers‘ social competence on leader perceptions has not been solidly established. To fill the related research gap, the present work embarks on a quantitative empirical effort to identify predictors of successful leadership. In particular, this study investigates relationships between perceived leader behavior and three selfreport instruments used to measure managerial capability: 1) the WOPI Work Personality Inventory, 2) Raven‘s general intelligence scale, and 3) the Emotive Communication Scale (ECS). This work complements previous research by resorting to both self-reports and other-reports: the results acquired from the managerial sample are compared to subordinate perceptions as measured through the ECS other-report and the WOPI360 multi-source appraisal. The quantitative research is comprised of a sample of 8o superiors and 354 subordinates operating in eight Finnish organizations. The strongest predictive value emerged from the ECS self- and other-reports and certain personality dimensions. In contrast, supervisors‘ logical intelligence did not correlate with leadership perceived as socially competent by subordinates. 16 of the superiors rated as most socially competent by their subordinates were selected for case analysis. Their qualitative narratives evidence the role of life history and post-traumatic growth in developing managerial skills. The results contribute to leadership theory in four ways. First, the ECS self-report devised for this research offers a reliable scale for predicting socially competent leader ability. Second, the work identifies dimensions of personality and emotive skills that can be considered predictors of managerial ability and benefited from in leader recruitment and career planning. Third, the Emotive Communication Model delineated on the basis of the empirical data allows for a systematic design and planning of communication and leadership education. Fourth, this workfurthers understanding of personal growth strategies and the role of life history in leader development and training. Finally, this research advances educational leadership by conceptualizing and operationalizing effective managerial communications. The Emotive Communication Model devised directs the pedagogic attention in engineering to assertion, emotional availability and inspiration skills. The proposed methodology addresses classroom management strategies drawing from problem-based learning, student empowerment, collaborative learning, and so-called socially competent teachership founded on teacher immediacy and perceived caring, all constituting strategies moving away from student compliance and teacher modelling. The ultimate educational objective embraces the development of individual engineers and organizational leaders that not only possess traditional analytical and technical expertise and substantive knowledge but are intelligent also creatively, practically, and socially.

Automation concept for an electrically excited synchronous motor: Setup and requirements specification

This bachelor’s thesis is a part of the research project realized in the summer 2011 in Lappeenranta University of Technology. The goal of the project was to create an automation concept for controlling an electrically excited synchronous motor. This thesis concentrates on the setup and requirements specification part of the concept. The setup consists of ABB AC500 as the PLC master device, DCS800 as an exciter and ACS800 as a frequency converter. The ACS800 frequency converter uses permanent magnet synchronous machine software to control the stator’s magnetic field, the DC drive handles the excitation and the AC500 PLC master controls the communication and functionality of the system. The requirements specification briefly explains the general over-view of the concept, the use and functionality of the PLC program and the requirements needed for the whole concept and the PLC program to work as intended.

The Finnish it industries in transition. Defining and Measuring the Finnish Software Product and IT Services Industries by Applying Theoretical Frameworks

The starting point of this study is that the prevailing way to consider the Finnish IT industries and industry information often results in a limited and even skewed picture of the sector. The purpose of the study is to contribute and increase knowledge and understanding of the status, structure and evolution of the Finnish IT industries as well as the Finnish IT vendor field and competition. The focus is on software product and IT services industries which form a crucial part of all ICT industries. This study examines the Finnish IT sector from production (supply) as well as market (demand) perspective. The study is based on empirical information from multiple sources. Three research questions were formulated for the study. The first concerns the status of the Finnish IT industries considered by applying theoretical frameworks. The second research question targets at the basis for the future evolution of the Finnish IT industries and, finally, the third at the ability of the available definitions and indicators to describe the Finnish IT industries and IT markets. Major structural changes like technological changes and related innovations, globalization and new business models are drivers of the evolution of the IT industries. The findings of this study emphasize the significant role of IT services in the Finnish IT sector and in connection to that the ability to combine IT service skills, competences and practices with high level software skills also in the future. According to the study the Finnish IT enterprises and their customers have become increasingly dependent on global ecosystems and platforms, applications and IT services provided by global vendors. As a result, more IT decisions are made outside Finland. In addition, IT companies are facing new competition from other than IT industries bringing into market new substitutes. To respond to the new competition, IT firms seek growth by expanding beyond their traditional markets.. The changing global division of labor accentuates the need for accurate information of the IT sector but, at the same time, also makes it increasingly challenging to acquire the information needed. One of the main contributions of this study is to provide frameworks for describing the Finnish IT sector and its evolution. These frameworks help combine empirical information from various sources and make it easier to concretize the structures, volumes, relationships and interaction of both, the production and market side of the Finnish IT industry. Some frameworks provide tools to analyze the vendor field, competition and the basis for the future evolution of the IT industries. The observations of the study support the argument that static industry definitions and related classifications do not serve the information needs in dynamic industries, such as the IT industries. One of the main messages of this study is to emphasize the importance of understanding the definitions and starting points of different information sources. Simultaneously, in the structure and evolution of Finnish IT industries the number of employees has become a more valid and reliable measure than the revenue based indicators.

Communication as a trust builder in change management

Organizations are today characterized by uncertainty, fast changes and inability to predict the future. Both trust and communication are vital when changes are implemented in an organization. The purpose of this study was to examine how a change process can be enhanced by the means of communication and trust. This study was cheated by using the existing literature related to the subject.

Integration of Electronic Commerce and Enterprise Systems

The necessity of EC (Electronic Commerce) and enterprise systems integration is perceived from the integrated nature of enterprise systems. The proven benefits of EC to provide competitive advantages to the organizations force enterprises to adopt and integrate EC with their enterprise systems. Integration is a complex task to facilitate seamless flow of information and data between different systems within and across enterprises. Different systems have different platforms, thus to integrate systems with different platforms and infrastructures, integration technologies, such as middleware, SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture), ESB (Enterprise Service Bus), JCA (J2EE Connector Architecture), and B2B (Business-to-Business) integration standards are required. Huge software vendors, such as Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, and SAP suggest various solutions to address EC and enterprise systems integration problems. There are limited numbers of literature about the integration of EC and enterprise systems in detail. Most of the studies in this area have focused on the factors which influence the adoption of EC by enterprise or other studies provide limited information about a specific platform or integration methodology in general. Therefore, this thesis is conducted to cover the technical details of EC and enterprise systems integration and covers both the adoption factors and integration solutions. In this study, many literature was reviewed and different solutions were investigated. Different enterprise integration approaches as well as most popular integration technologies were investigated. Moreover, various methodologies of integrating EC and enterprise systems were studied in detail and different solutions were examined. In this study, the influential factors to adopt EC in enterprises were studied based on previous literature and categorized to technical, social, managerial, financial, and human resource factors. Moreover, integration technologies were categorized based on three levels of integration, which are data, application, and process. In addition, different integration approaches were identified and categorized based on their communication and platform. Also, different EC integration solutions were investigated and categorized based on the identified integration approaches. By considering different aspects of integration, this study is a great asset to the architectures, developers, and system integrators in order to integrate and adopt EC with enterprise systems.

Virulence properties of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans biofilm and characterisation of its putative cytokine exploitation

Biofilms are surface-attached multispecies microbial communities that are embedded by their self-produced extracellular polymeric substances. This lifestyle enhances the survival of the bacteria and plays a major role in many chronic bacterial infections. For instance, periodontitis is initiated by multispecies biofilms. The phases of active periodontal tissue destruction and notably increased levels of proinflammatory mediators, such as the key inflammatory mediator interleukin (IL)-1beta, are typical of the disease. The opportunistic periodontal pathogen Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans is usually abundant at sites of aggressive periodontitis. Despite potent host immune system responses to subgingival invaders, A. actinomycetemcomitans is able to resist clearance attempts. Moreover, some strains of A. actinomycetemcomitans can generate genetic diversity through natural transformation, which may improve the species’ adjustment tothe subgingival environment in the long term. Some biofilm forming species are known to bind and sense human cytokines. As a response to cytokines, bacteria may increase biofilm formation and alter their expression of virulence genes. Specific outer membrane receptors for interferon-γ or IL-1β have been characterised in two Gram-negative pathogens. Because little is known about periodontal pathogens’ ability to sense cytokines, we used A. actinomycetemcomitans as a model organism to investigate how the species responds to IL-1beta. The main aims of this thesis were to explore cytokine binding on single-species A. actinomycetemcomitans biofilms and to determine the effects of cytokines on the biofilm formation and metabolic activity of the species. Additionally, the cytokine’s putative internalisation and interaction with A. actinomycetemcomitans proteins were studied. The possible impact of biofilm IL-1beta sequestering on the proliferation and apoptosis of gingival keratinocyte cells was evaluated in an organotypic mucosa co-culture model. Finally, the role of the extramembranous domain of the outer membrane protein HofQ (emHofQ) in DNA binding linked to DNA uptake in A. actinomycetemcomitans was examined. Our main finding revealed that viable A. actinomycetemcomitans biofilms can bind and take up the IL-1β produced by gingival cells. At the sites of pathogen-host interaction, the proliferation and apoptosis of gingival keratinocytes decreased slightly. Notably, the exposure of biofilms to IL-1beta caused their metabolic activity to drop, which may be linked to the observed interaction of IL-1beta with the conserved intracellular proteins DNA binding protein HU and the trimeric form of ATP synthase subunit beta. A Pasteurellaceaespecific lipoprotein, which had no previously determined function, was characterized as an IL-1beta interacting membrane protein that was expressed in the biofilm cultures of all tested A. actinomycetemcomitans strains. The use of a subcellular localisation tool combined with experimental analyses suggested that the identified lipoprotein, bacterial interleukin receptor I (BilRI), may be associated with the outer membrane with a portion of the protein oriented towards the external milieu. The results of the emHofQ study indicated that emHofQ has both the structural and functional capability to bind DNA. This result implies that emHofQ plays a role in DNA assimilation. The results from the current study also demonstrate that the Gram-negative oral species appears to sense the central proinflammatory mediator IL-1beta.

Reframing the relationship between service design and operations: a service engineering approach

The significance of services as business and human activities has increased dramatically throughout the world in the last three decades. Becoming a more and more competitive and efficient service provider while still being able to provide unique value opportunities for customers requires new knowledge and ideas. Part of this knowledge is created and utilized in daily activities in every service organization, but not all of it, and therefore an emerging phenomenon in the service context is information awareness. Terms like big data and Internet of things are not only modern buzz-words but they are also describing urgent requirements for a new type of competences and solutions. When the amount of information increases and the systems processing information become more efficient and intelligent, it is the human understanding and objectives that may get separated from the automated processes and technological innovations. This is an important challenge and the core driver for this dissertation: What kind of information is created, possessed and utilized in the service context, and even more importantly, what information exists but is not acknowledged or used? In this dissertation the focus is on the relationship between service design and service operations. Reframing this relationship refers to viewing the service system from the architectural perspective. The selected perspective allows analysing the relationship between design activities and operational activities as an information system while maintaining the tight connection to existing service research contributions and approaches. This type of an innovative approach is supported by research methodology that relies on design science theory. The methodological process supports the construction of a new design artifact based on existing theoretical knowledge, creation of new innovations and testing the design artifact components in real service contexts. The relationship between design and operations is analysed in the health care and social care service systems. The existing contributions in service research tend to abstract services and service systems as value creation, working or interactive systems. This dissertation adds an important information processing system perspective to the research. The main contribution focuses on the following argument: Only part of the service information system is automated and computerized, whereas a significant part of information processing is embedded in human activities, communication and ad-hoc reactions. The results indicate that the relationship between service design and service operations is more complex and dynamic than the existing scientific and managerial models tend to view it. Both activities create, utilize, mix and share information, making service information management a necessary but relatively unknown managerial task. On the architectural level, service system -specific elements seem to disappear, but access to more general information elements and processes can be found. While this dissertation focuses on conceptual-level design artifact construction, the results provide also very practical implications for service providers. Personal, visual and hidden activities of service, and more importantly all changes that take place in any service system have also an information dimension. Making this information dimension visual and prioritizing the processed information based on service dimensions is likely to provide new opportunities to increase activities and provide a new type of service potential for customers.

Culture in business interaction: an individual perspective : empirical studies in Finnish-Russian business relationships

The main objective of this doctoral dissertation is to reach a holistic and indepth understanding of the intercultural interaction within dyadic business relationships through the perspective of individual managers. The empirical setting is dyadic business relationships between Russian and Finnish firms in construction and engineering industries. The motivation for the study mainly arose from: 1) the lack of business marketing literature considering cultural and individual perspectives; 2) the need to find ways to study intercultural issues in business relationships, other than through the application of models derived from the work of Hofstede (1980). The study consists of two parts, an introductory essay containing the research objectives, theoretical foundations, methodological choices, limitations and contributions, and original research articles. The four articles each address a sub-objective: 1) to develop an understanding of intercultural business relationships development, cultural adaptation, and its role in the development of trust (Article 1); 2) to develop an appropriate methodological framework for studying business interaction from a cultural and individual perspective (Article 2); 3) to develop an understanding of the role of culture in individual manager’s sensemaking of interaction events in business relationships (Article 3); and 4) to develop an appropriate theoretical framework for studying interactive intercultural business relationships in international industrial markets (Article 4). The ontological and epistemological foundations are built on the interpretivist/ social constructivist view of reality. Interaction, in this study, is seen as being conducted between individuals, who are the key representative actors of their firms. In turn, culture is regarded both as an independent context existing prior to the individuals’ participation in it, and as knowledge incorporated by the individuals, who use it in sensemaking and interaction across cultures. The methods applied in the articles are: an interpretive qualitative study (Article 1), a literature review and conceptual analysis (Article 2), a structural analysis of the narratives and a metaphor analysis (Article 3), and a literature review and conceptual analysis (Article 4). The main contributions are the following. First, it contributes to business marketing literature by developing the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological underpinning of IMP theories in relation to culture. Second, the thesis contributes to the growing literature on managerial sensemaking in industrial markets by looking at it from a cultural perspective, as well as emphasizing the importance of figurative language in cultural sensemaking.

Esimiestyön haasteet liikelaitoksen yhtiöittämisessä

Tämän työn tarkoituksena on tutkia esimiestoiminnan haasteita, joita syntyy liikelaitoksen yhtiöittämisessä. Yhtiöittämisen perusteet kumpuavat juridisesta toimintakentästä, joka muodostaa pakon muutokselle. Työn teoriaosassa käydään läpi lyhyesti liikkeen luovutuksen merkitys työsuhteen sääntelyn kannalta ja perehdytään johtamiseen, esimiestyöhön sekä muutoksen aiheuttamien tunteiden huomioimiseen. Tätä teoriaviitekehystä tutkitaan konkreettisen case-yrityksen avulla. Case-yrityksenä on Helsingin Satama, jonka esimiehiä on haastateltu empiirisen aineiston saamiseksi. Tutkimuskysymyksenä tässä työssä on, miten suurta muutosta tulisi johtaa yksilön tunteet huomioiden. Työssä havaittiin, että vaikka viestintävälineet ovat kunnossa ja vaikka niiden käyttö on vähintäänkin kohtalaisella tasolla, ei viestin omaksuminen silti ole niin helppoa. Syitä tähän löydettiin mm. viestimiskulttuurin epämääräisyydestä ja työntekijätason haluttomuudesta käsitellä muutosta. Muutosvastarinta on yrityksessä erittäin vahvaa, mikä kielii epäonnistumisesta edellisen muutoksen johtamisessa. Onnistuneen muutoksen johtaminen tapahtuu vuorovaikutuksessa henkilöstön kanssa. Yhtiöittämismuutos on pyritty viestimään paremmin kuin edellinen suuri muutos. Yhtiöittämisen koettiin tuovan pääasiassa positiivisia asioita, kuten byrokratian vähenemistä. Positiivisiin asioihin keskittyminen parantaa muutoksen onnistumista.

Making the impact on research and society : a case study: crowdsourcing solutions developed for the linguistic research and citizen science

Can crowdsourcing solutions serve many masters? Can they be beneficial for both, for the layman or native speakers of minority languages on the one hand and serious linguistic research on the other? How did an infrastructure that was designed to support linguistics turn out to be a solution for raising awareness of native languages? Since 2012 the National Library of Finland has been developing the Digitisation Project for Kindred Languages, in which the key objective is to support a culture of openness and interaction in linguistic research, but also to promote crowdsourcing as a tool for participation of the language community in research. In the course of the project, over 1,200 monographs and nearly 111,000 pages of newspapers in Finno-Ugric languages will be digitised and made available in the Fenno-Ugrica digital collection. This material was published in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s, and users have had only sporadic access to the material. The publication of open-access and searchable materials from this period is a goldmine for researchers. Historians, social scientists and laymen with an interest in specific local publications can now find text materials pertinent to their studies. The linguistically-oriented population can also find writings to delight them: (1) lexical items specific to a given publication, and (2) orthographically-documented specifics of phonetics. In addition to the open access collection, we developed an open source code OCR editor that enables the editing of machine-encoded text for the benefit of linguistic research. This tool was necessary since these rare and peripheral prints often include already archaic characters, which are neglected by modern OCR software developers but belong to the historical context of kindred languages, and are thus an essential part of the linguistic heritage. When modelling the OCR editor, it was essential to consider both the needs of researchers and the capabilities of lay citizens, and to have them participate in the planning and execution of the project from the very beginning. By implementing the feedback iteratively from both groups, it was possible to transform the requested changes as tools for research that not only supported the work of linguistics but also encouraged the citizen scientists to face the challenge and work with the crowdsourcing tools for the benefit of research. This presentation will not only deal with the technical aspects, developments and achievements of the infrastructure but will highlight the way in which user groups, researchers and lay citizens were engaged in a process as an active and communicative group of users and how their contributions were made to mutual benefit.