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The Helsinki Times Project
Already long before February 2003, when http://www.helsinkitimes.net was registered, the idea of a daily English Language newspaper for the Metropolitan area in the south of Finland was born.
There were many good reasons for this. There were practical reasons to begin with. One staff member was looking for a job at the time, another seeked full creative control over an online project, where to freely expirement with new technologies without the constraints of a corporate firewall protected research environment on the internet.
Companies were not blogging yet back in 2003, and Helsinki Times was arguably the first external blog of a Nokia employee. Today there are literally hundreds.
Perhaps the most important one was foreseeing an emergence of an increasingly important role of the internet in our daily lives, and the effects it would have on society as a whole.
Becasue of this, newspapers, journalists and bloggers see themselves confronted with some the most divine of dilemma's in the western world today: What will the future of media consumption look like, what is or should the role of technology be taking in our daily lives, and what are the effects of citizen journalism on traditional media outlets?
If you visit Helsinki Times, what you will see is less than what you will get. The entire collection of content consists of over 1000 individual webpages with varying content. You will also get side tracked and taken to other internet hosts of Web 2.0 application providers.
However, Oobio does not seem to be in too much of a hurry, as he always says:
'The future is ours to capture. Time is on our side'
Web 2.0
With the impact of internet on society in general in mind, we set out to research, evaluate, test and implement the latest and greatest applications we could find from the some of the most innovative internet companies in the world.
The Editorial Team
At Helsinki Times, YOU are the journalist, the editor, the owner of your own content. Helsinki Times aims to be a platform for those who need it, or for those who like enjoy having a platform for the sake of information sharing with an international audience. This way we bring Finland closer to the rest of the world, and the rest of the world closer to Finland, and Helsinki in particular.
The editor-in-chief of Helsinki Times is 'Oobio'. Oobio in fact is a virtual character, identity, or avatar representing the role of Chief Editor. Credit must be given to the respective and ever changing composition of the Helsinki Times Editorial Team.
The Virtual Chief Editor: Oobio
Oobio is probably a cityperson with a healthy appetite for the solitary, reflective countryside of Finland, but we're not sure.
In fact, Oobio might be one of Finlands biggest fans.
However, not much is known about Oobio's (virtual) personality as it is shaped over time as it changes by the actions of his creators, contributors, and Helsinki Times readers' behaviour and feedback.
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