Henry Oinas-Kukkonen

Development in the Growth Base of the ‘Oulu Phenomenon’

Oulu has been a place for business and export industry in Northern Finland. In the 1970s began a difficult period of recession. Then, declining and unemployment-ridden Oulu seemed unexpectedly to start to boom. High technology products were being produced in the city and these products were sold more and more in international market. The main contribution of the paper is to provide a more thorough view of the multi-scientific expertise apparent in the gradual building of the growth base of the’ Oulu phenomenon’. The analysis shows the crucial role of system-theoretical and software-oriented expertise and complements earlier views.

From Bush to Engelbart: 'Slowly, Some Little Bells Were Ringing'

Douglas Engelbarts achievements are widely acknowledged, but Engelbarts background is not nearly so well known. This article, in exploring the connections between Vannevar Bush and Engelbart on hypertexts concept and implementation, argues that the history of hypertext and hypermedia systems (largely assumed to be correct) misreads the relationship between Bush and Engelbart.

A Classification of Methods and Contributions in the Historiography of Nordic Computing

The relevance and need of proper scientific methods in the research of computer science history was debated in the closing session of HiNC2 (Turku, August 2007). This text extracts a classification of research approaches and methods from HiNC1 and HiNC2 papers and offers a classification of computer science history to help understand the various research contributions in the field. It recognizes two basic divisions and five dominant approaches in the current research on the History of Nordic computing. The need for a clearer definition of the research methods and approaches in the contributions is evident, and there seems to be a need to broaden the conceptual apparatus.

Information Systems and Software Engineering Research and Education in Oulu until the 1990s

This paper discusses the internationalization of software business in the Oulu region. Despite its small size, the region grew rapidly and very successfully into a global information and communication technology business center. The University of Oulu, which was the northern most university in the world at the time of its establishment (1958) had a strong emphasis on engineering since its very beginning. Research on electronics was carried out since the early 1960s. Later, when the Department of Information Processing Science was founded in 1969, research on information systems and later also on software engineering was carried out. This paper discusses the role of the information systems and software engineering research for the business growth of the region. Special emphasis is put on understanding the role of system-theoretical and software development expertise for transferring research knowledge into practice.

The Impact of Computer Science on the Development of Oulu ICT during 1985–1990

The region of Oulu has been emphasizing the importance of electronics industry for its business growth since the 1960s. After a pitch-dark recession, the region developed in the 1990s into a new, well-established hub of information and communication technology (ICT) in Finland. The city with its 100,000 inhabitants occupied nearly 10,000 ICT professionals in 1995. This article will contribute to the body of research knowledge through analyzing the role of computer science, in particular information systems and software engineering, for the development of the ICT industry in Oulu in the latter half of the 1980s. This analysis is based on a variety of both primary and secondary sources. This article suggests that the system-theoretical and software-oriented research expertise played a key role for the rapid and successful ICT business development of the Oulu region.

Green IS/IT: An Overview of Historical Periods, Recent Research Initiatives and Theoretical Approaches.

In this paper, we discuss historical periods and recent research initiatives and theoretical approaches to Green Information Systems and Technologies (GIS/IT). Having observed that the GIS/IT history is an insufficiently investigated topic, we used Information Systems History (ISH) research methods, such as periodization, contextualization and generalization. With the help of exploring existing variety of theories and initiatives, we provide clarification of evolution of the GIS/IT concept and explore areas in industry and research that are currently lacking insight. Our methodological diversification of the GIS/IT research assists not only in summarizing the current state of the GIS/IT but also in encouraging ideation and cooperation of the academics from different fields to produce novel outlooks on the GIS/IT.

A Shift in Thinking about the Web

The web has become an integral part of business, work and general culture. With an amazing pace, it has transformed from being an esoteric computer application used by academics and tech-savvy youth into being an ordinary household tool and important communication vehicle for people of all ages and professions, and its role in modern society only seems to keep growing. Most importantly, the web has shown the capability to change people’s lives.

Social Web as an Innovation Ecosystem

The social web is fertile for innovation, and the power of the social web lies in its networks of users and in the larger whole that the service offerings and users jointly make. Companies and organizations can use many software technologies to help shape and influence these networks, but much more than only providing those technologies is needed. This is especially so because individuals can choose which networks to participate in and how actively to participate when they do. Thus, for users to stay in a network and to contribute, they need a software environment which satisfies their needs, interests and requests. The highest payoff for a company comes if it is vital enough to create a vigorous ecosystem through which others can deploy their services to develop applications, which provides a powerful user experience and which encourages and cultivates the spirit of innovation around a software platform they provide. If a company is able to sustain such a platform, continuously provide positive user experiences and nurture a business ecosystem on top of it, it will have a very powerful position in business.

Social Web Innovation Strategies

Search for innovative ideas is an essential activity for successful companies in any field. After all, incremental innovations by definition take place gradually and also Zero-to-One innovations almost always happen in stages. A potential misunderstanding about seeking for innovations is that one could start to think that let’s simply go look at how Google, or any other really successful company for that matter, innovates and let’s just copy that. But a search engine only copying Google could never beat its rivalries, and moreover a pharmaceutical company couldn’t take the same risks that a web company could. One might also think that innovations are always born differently without any formula or accidentally without a roadmap. Still, at tempts have be en made to define a pattern. Joseph Schumpeter argued during his American period in the 1930s that those who would produce innovations would be the big companies, because only they had the resources to do it. He drew upon early twentieth-century capitalism, and regarded large established corporations and government agencies as key entrepreneurial entities.1 History has shown that this idea of the remarkable role of large companies has been partially true, and yet this is not what is happening now. Social web innovations do not happen typically within company research laboratories, and even if they could, companies would have to keep open communication with outsiders. After all, incremental innovations by definition take place gradually and also Zero-to-One innovations almost always happen in stages. B.J. Fogg explains that “You can’t just bet on one horse.

Core Business Values

It will be impossible to superimpose innovative thinking and then integrate it successfully into organization’s business processes. To succeed in the new humanized web based economy requires a combination of core business values and competences that have to converge no matter what one’s domain is. These core business values are watchfulness for technological shifts, ability to think outside the box, intrapreneurial spirit, and having an appetite to fail fast. A key to success is to have a balance among these core business values.