Corporate Bloggers in Finland

This is my first attempt to analyze Finnish corporate bloggers. I'll send a link to Juha Matti Arola, Kone Oy, Finland. I've been reading Juha's blog before; a few times. Google Search decided for me that he is the first one on my list.

Juha Matti Arola: "This blog reveals thoughts around eLearning, collaboration & information sharing. Please come to share your thoughts, so we’ll together achieve more…."

Helge Keitel: I decided to take a look into Finnish corporate bloggers and see how many there are and what the bloggers are writing about. Juha's blog appeared high on the Google search list. I decided to take a closer look.

Juha: Within the networked world I found absolutely necessary to start to blog in order to keep in touch within the ever-changing world and its patterns. I am currently deeply involved within eLearning because of my work duties in my employer, KONE, in which I am holding a position of eLearning manager.

Helge: I can find similarities in my own decision making. "To keep in touch with the ever-changing world and its patterns," writes Juha. I agree. I was writing long monologues for myself for a long time and didn't have a clue about the readers, but things started to change a year ago. I was writing several blogs and I still am, but there was a clear tendency towards dialogue. My blogs started as notebooks and diaries, but some of them have become places for the exchange of information. The most effective platform today is Kauppalehti where I blog as visualradio [Helge V. Keitel] frequently, on a daily basis. I started with a nickname but decided to post with my name while to be transparent towards my readers.

Juha: As you know, the eLearning field is constantly changing, so unofficial networks between persons are very important. We should not hide thoughts, but we should share them. When you share, you will get more.

Helge: This is a learning process. The connecting people pattern has become very international. My reach is global with the help of blogs, wikies, googletalk, Skype and other interactive tools.

Juha: The world is changing; earlier the knowledge was going down within the hierarchy, now it should go up. So the end users will rather produce the knowledge, not the experts. Earlier we produced expensive self-study eLearning packages, now we put all the people into virtual classroom and meeting rooms. Earlier our employees were flying into courses here in Finland, now they are often at their offices or at their homes while they are trained. Earlier we wrote written instructions, but nowadays we produce simulations or show the live systems.

Helge: People to people, citizen’s journalism, and the democratization of speech (write). The traditional meeting room (with coffee and sandwiches) has been transformed to a global classroom where continuous learning is the end result. New tools make distance learning and knowledge transfer easier and cheaper.

Juha: A couple of years ago I was travelling 2-3 days a week, but during the previous year I made only one international business trip, so the world is changing…

Helge: I agree. The same has happened. My ecological footprint is much smaller today. I travel less; have more time to family, but meeting with friends over networks. The "relatives and friends" pattern has changed. The people I work and talk with is now much more mobile and in a continuous transformation. The stability of people relations isn't the same anymore. Life is more like a project.