All About Me competition challenges students to design a digital Finland

The competition is aimed at university students, and is being run by the Population Register Centre, the Ministry of Finance, and Aalto University Media Factory. All proposals that make it to the final will receive a prize of €7 000, and the competition winner will receive an additional €8 000.

The competition is part of the National Architecture for Digital Services programme's Service Views project, in which joint combined service views are being implemented for citizens, businesses, and government authorities. The competition is limited to the individual citizen's service view and their register data contained within this. The focus is on the visual display of this data.

As source material, participants receive data for an imaginary citizen, including information on place of residence, property, vehicles owned, and family.  The goal is to design the visual display of this information: how figures, labels, and names are to be presented as clearly as possible and in a visually impressive way. The final result is an innovative internet service or webpage.

– The digitalisation of public services is progressing rapidly. The goal is that the coming service view will gather digital services together into a comprehensive whole that is easy for citizens to use, and which offers a personalised service to signed-in users. The competition aims to bring forth a fresh approach to presenting individuals' register data, says Development Manager Marjukka Ala-Harja from the Ministry of Finance.

– The provision of digital content for citizens, as well as accessibility of information are the basis of an open society. These are also the starting points for the ‘All About Me’ competition, to which Aalto University is happy to make a strong commitment, says Director of Aalto University Media Factory, Professor Philip Dean.

Two-stage competition

The competition is comprised of two stages. In the first stage the jury will choose a maximum of three proposals, which are then carried out. The competition winner is then chosen based on a public vote at the beginning of 2016.

Creative and bold ideas are desired, so proposals do not have to conform to any set visual form. – In the final stage, the chosen finalists will get to develop their proposals together with a nimble development team. We won't be startled even by the wildest ideas!, says Service Views Projects Manager Jani Ruuskanen from the Population Register Centre.

We won't be startled even by the wildest ideas!

The All About Me competition winner's proposal will be made use of in marketing the renewed citizen's service view in the Suomi.fi service, for example by taking the winner's work and trying it out in public places. The beta.suomi.fi trail version of the citizen's service view will be launched at the end of 2015.

The competition begins at 12 noon on 1 April 2015. Competition entries must be submitted by 4pm on 31 August 2015 at the latest.

More information:

Leena Närekangas
Producer, Aalto University Media Factory
[email protected]
tel. +358 50 342 7114

Jani Ruuskanen
Project Manager, Service Views, Population Register Centre
[email protected]
tel. +358 46 920 6231

Marjukka Ala-Harja
Development Manager, Service Views, Ministry of Finance
[email protected]
tel. +358 2955 30489

The All About Me competition is part of the National Architecture for Digital Services programme (KaPA) and its Service Views project.  The programme involved the implementation of joint combined service views for citizens, businesses, and government authorities. Every citizen can find in their service view the public administration services on offer for their particular life situation, and they can also contact these services and handle their affairs. Citizens can also make communicate with the authorities in different ways and, if desired, add particular services to their service display. Furthermore, it's also possible to get an overview of one's data as recorded in the public administration registers. KaPA is directed and funded by the Ministry of Finance, with the Population Register Centre being responsible for the implementation of KaPA projects. The programme's communication channel is http://esuomi.fi.

Aalto University Media Factory is responsible for the practical running of the competition up until the selection of the finalists.

The members of the competition jury will be published in September 2015.