Our solution is a digital platform and its beta-version has been released (hoods.fi) in July 2019. Know Your Hoods has been built with open source tools on the Angular web framework and with Node.js based Express backend. It has user interface for both desktop and mobile. The service has been designed and built so that it is relatively easy to develop a progressive web application later on, if requested by users.

 

Know Your Hoods is both the search engine for neighborhoods and a neighborhood portal to help in an integration process (1) by helping migrants to select the most suitable neighborhood to live in and (2) by guiding people to meet locals by introducing different services, activities, events and communities.

 

We have described the development process and stage of the development in detail in the earlier chapter. Currently the beta version includes various open data sets (for example from Statistics Finland and Regional Council of Southwest Finland) about the services, inhabitants, price level etc. combined with visual and written storytelling and real stories from the locals. The next phases of the service development are described in the chapter ‘How would € 100,000 prize be used?’.