Development Process

The development and implementation of the Omaidea digital participation platform is a sequential process consisting of the following steps along the project periods:

Period 1: Analysis of relevant technologies available for citizen participation and engagement.

Period 2: Local stakeholder interviews (12) and contextual analysis to understand the needs, priorities and contextual conditions in the city of Mikkeli and the region of South Savo.

Period 3:

• Shortlisting of the potential technologies and comparing between the most promising ones (Consul vs. Decidim) considering the views of the stakeholders’ together with other contextual factors.
• Development, installation and testing of the first Decidim-based prototype of the service by NUIG.

Period 4:

• Refinement of the service prototype, design of the user interface and installation of platform software on the permanent domain address corresponding with the service name Omaidea, available at https://omaidea.fi
• Pilot testing of the first public version of Omaidea platform with local stakeholders and Ruralia Institute’s test audiences.

Period 5:
Designing and implementing three sustainability related participation themes with activating events and supporting content on the Omaidea’s social media channels. The themes of the digitally supported participation processes were
bio-waste, food waste and small-scale climate action as follows:

• 1. “Bio-waste challenge” at https://omaidea.fi/processes/Biojatteestahyodykkeeksi including 3 minisurveys, thematic communication and discussion activities (NovemberDecember 2020). The participatory activities involved from 30 to 62
  participants on the platform.
• 2. “Food waste challenge”, part one, at https://omaidea.fi/processes/ruokahavikki including a “wake-up” survey, thematic communication and information sharing on food waste (January-early February 2021). The participatory activities involved 45 participants on the platform.
• 3. “Small-scale climate action” idea competition at https://omaidea.fi/processes/ilmastotekoideat including idea generation,
  voting for favorite ideas, and thematic communication (February 2021-April 2021). The idea competition resulted in 21 climate action ideas and altogether 103 votes on the platform.

Period 6:

• Food waste challenge, part two, April-June 2021, concentrating on idea generation against food waste (ongoing). The ideas will be voted for later on (like in the climate action process). https://omaidea.fi/processes/ruokahavikki/f/73/
• Yet to come: Collection of feedback from registered users with actual participation experience in one or more above mentioned participatory events.

Technical Requirements

The platform requires a server to be hosted on.

Technology Used

Since 2008, the Energy Department has logged data from various heat pump installations around the country. These provide a picture of the energy demand over a longer time interval and show how the weather conditions affect consumption.

Key findings

1. What value does the service offer to the public (end users)?

The service from the Info Portal has been launched for a limited group of users and the feed back has been positive. We are trying to get more stories from homeowners and our goal is to cover most of the Faroe Islands.

1. How is your organisation delivering this new service? What organisational resources are being allocated to it?
2. How is the new service benefiting or impacting the organization, including your sustainable goals?

Lessons Learnt and Recommendations

So far, the general feedback from users of the Heat Pump Portal has been positive. The interest in Heat Pump is growing specially now when the cost of heating oil is skyrocketing. A survey among companies and suppliers of heating solutions shows, that 90% of new built houses are equipped with a heat pump and that oil-fired boilers are only sold to replace old worn-out boilers.