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The theme of WDC Helsinki 2012 is Open City, and in similar vain the workshops on May 22nd are voluntary, free-for-all events. Their aim is to join the organizers to brainstorm, discuss and plan what the year 2012 as World Design Capital can mean and be for everybody. For us at Nordkapp this notion of openness and transparency hits close to home—we believe the initial ideas are merely the starting point for innovation, and they should be shared for everyone willing to interpret them their way. Also by sharing our ideas them we enable richer and more meaningful dialogue for everyone around us, including the local design community and of course the city itself.

This is why we were excited to have an opportunity to organize a workshop as part of the official open ideas -day, on none the less than our recent favorite subject: urban screens and information design for urban context. The city is becoming filled with touchscreens, navigation aids and sensors of all kind, and we’d like to have a think on what this really could means for the city of Helsinki. The possibilities are endless, and we think this has a huge potential of being awesome in many ways. Here’s the synopsis our friend, collaborator and workshop participant Adam Greenfield wrote for us;

“In the last few years, we’ve become surrounded by screens as we move through the city: personal devices, shared interactive surfaces, and now even building-sized displays. Thinking about how to design for each of these things individually was hard enough, and virtually nobody has given much thought to how they function together, as a coherent informational ecosystem.

Until now. Join us for a day of activity dedicated to understanding these challenges and the new urban information design. We’ll move back and forth between conceptual thinking and practical doing, developing solid ideas about making the most meaningful use of the emerging resources culturally, commercially, personally and socially.”

In the workshop we are hoping to have thinkers, doers and deciders interested in the topic. The event will be loosely organized and will include a few talks/presentations such as Adam on urbanism and networked mobility, our research on urban screens in Helsinki, possibly open data and then some. Welcome to join in, but since our space is limited please let us know about your participation, either by emailing sami at nordkapp dot fi or by posting a comment below.

So where does the magic happen?

The place is our new office at Köydenpunojankatu 2, Helsinki and the time Saturday May 22nd, 11am – 3 pm (-ish). Welcome!

Update: The Facebook event page is now live as well.