Summary presentation of a collaboration environment project Zipipop helped rollout for the Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy (TEM). The final two pages concerns an extension of the project (not supported by Zipipop) that was rollout by OSKE members with knowledge gained from the initial project.

1. OSKE Collaboration Environment
The 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.

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

3. The needs were met by combining:
Yammer: Google Apps:
• improving awareness • announcements
• making help requests • generating knowledge
• sharing information • collaborative documents

4. Creating a wider network
X Cluster
OSKE Admins cluster members
Yammer “External Networks” cluster managers
were used to expand the “community”
“community” network
collaboration spaces.
network
OSKE.net
admins only
“parent”
OSKE Community X Cluster
network
Network cluster members
Members can access the “community”
OSKE Yammer External all OSKE users
Networks using their normal network
work emails + private “community” network X Cluster
password. cluster members
(“community”
network)

5. OSKE Collaboration Workshops
Preparation 1st Month 2nd Month 3rd Month 4th Month
Client Q&A / Online
survey
Yammer & Google
Sites Setup
6 x Community
Manager / Admin
Workshops
Social media-based collaboration was new to many of 6x User workshops
the OSKE members, so a series of training workshops
were given.
Initially the focus was on the 14 Community Managers User review workshop
representing TEM and the 13 Clusters, as they were
crucial to the success of the collaboration networks.

6. hub.oske.net
Google Sites were used to share top-level news The “hub site” links all parts of the
announcements, core documents, and member collaboration environment — Including
information. Yammer and the individual cluster Google
sites.

7. 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.

8. 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

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

10. 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 feedback
198 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)
Future
The 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.