Communication

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Different expectations about the actors’ roles had an impact on the amount of resources and time each organization was supposed to use in the projects. This was sometimes considered a challenge. Especially the business side felt that they did not have enough time and resources to the pro bono projects whereas some organizations in the network felt that they had used too much time and resources for such a small project. It seemed that it was not clear to the actors how many resources each organization should contribute towards the project.

‘There are a lot of challenges related to these kinds of pro bono projects, at least for our organization. Getting enough resources can be difficult. We are a small country unit; we do not have resources for creative projects that need rapid implementation.’

Interviewee C

‘We used time and financial resources on this project and recorded how many hours had been spent on this project; however in other organizations they were supposed to work on the project if they had spare time from their regular tasks. This conflict was clearly visible.’ Interviewee B

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‘Once or twice a year we have a brainstorming session with our most significant partners where we discuss what has been done and plan the agenda for the next year.

We have also arranged meetings where our NGO partners gather together to discuss a single theme or an issue and how this problem could be tackled with the use of technology.’ Interviewee E

The Baltic Sea Action Summit arranged by the BSAG foundation differed significantly from the other multistakeholder meetings and seminars by its size and complexity. This summit was massive as it was able to gather together so many cross-sectoral leaders with power and influence from various countries around the Baltic Sea region. The summit gathered a lot of media attention and in this way increased the public’s awareness of the issue. The other cross-sectoral meetings had been arranged only for relatively small groups and had not been so visible to the public.

Workshops were commonly used when the project was at its early stage and required planning, scheduling, and setting up the concrete targets for the process; however they were vital also in the sense that they enabled the cross-sectoral partners to realize what kind of capabilities and resources the other actor had. Most of the interviewees considered that workshops had been beneficial and improved mutual understanding about the issue. An interesting solution in the use of workshops was to use a third-party member; an organization specialized in creating workshops and brainstorming sessions would arrange and run the workshop. This third-party member took the responsibility of the workshop and donated the work for the benefit of the NGO.

‘Many of the NGOs do not understand what you can actually do with mobile technology.

They tell us what is important for them and then we propose ideas.’ Interviewee A

‘I was involved in one of the workshops as an observer and you can immediately tell when the right professionals are taking the lead, it was so result-oriented. Their principle is that we are not going to leave the room until we have a concrete plan of actions. For us this would be difficult to implement.’ Interviewee F

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‘In the workshops we first explain the organizations what is our focus and goal, and how can they participate and innovate, and if they don’t come up with anything on their own we can help them to create new ideas.’ Interviewee J

Something that is important when improving cross-sectoral learning is the use of follow-up meetings and questionnaires. Communication should play an important role also after the project has been successfully launched. For example the Baltic Action Group Summit organized a follow-up meeting in 2011, a year after the official summit.

However it would be important that a follow-up system would be used also with the small projects, because it could help actors to understand what was successful, what could be improved and most importantly if the cooperation could still be continued with a different project.

‘The project has ended now but a follow-up system has not been created. It is difficult to demand one since this has been a pro bono project, in the case of sponsoring project it would be possible.’ Interviewee B

Another important factor for the success of the project was to hear the ideas and suggestions from the end-users of the technological innovation and involve them in the communication process. The importance of the agenda must also reach the end-users.

This means that a communicational challenge exists as the actors must spread the message forward in the network so that it reaches all the different levels. All case organizations mentioned that this was essential. For example end-users can be easily forgotten in the creation process as actors are busy working with the other cross-sectoral actors. However all of the case organizations understood that the significance of the end users and their role was taken into consideration in the development and creation process.

‘A private company is involved in the project simply because they are testing this system.

We have received information such as do not make it any more complicated than this;

otherwise it will not be used. It is really important that we have someone who honestly says whether it is good or bad.’ Interviewee F

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‘When the application is designed in a way that it is smart and easy to use it serves its purpose. If we start designing very complicated functions citizens cannot act as sensors and the application loses its purpose.’ Interviewee G