Have you ever wanted to know which public services are next to your home? Have you ever wanted to discover which service point is the best? Helsinki has found a good solution for every citizen’s needs.

Helsinki Service Map is a map based web service where people can find all public, private and third-sector services only by its address. Citizens can also search their house on the map and find services nearby. For each, it will appear e-services, public traffic services and its website.

And for the first time, they can leave a testimonial or feedback about the services. So, they can speak out their mind, ask questions or correct mistakes on data. The feedback is an open-space where citizens can interact with their neighbourhood and city government. This application of social web challenges the municipal governance to develop their services through direct dialogue. This new system reduces errors of data because its quality is under constant revision and correction in cooperation with users. Moreover, as all feedbacks are in the same open system, it’s easier to use for everybody. This service will gradually diminish the burden in other channels like in the call centre and customer service.

Helsinki Service Map is operational since December 2008. The city wishes to improve the map by integrating events data and a special way to monitor the city service points from the accessibility point of view for disable people.

End of 2009, the project was a finalist of European eGovernment Awards for the category of eGovernment Empowering Citizens.

If you’re interested for further information, just take a look on http://www.hel.fi/servicemap