Nokia's Collapse Turned a Sleepy Town in Finland Into an Internet Wonderland (qz.com) 56
An anonymous reader shares a report: In the early days of the mobile phone, Nokia was everywhere -- ubiquitous, inescapable, supreme. It created the best-selling 1100, with a keypad like droplets of water; the gray-blue 3310; even the cutting-edge 8810, with a slip-sliding protective cover that felt like the future. Today, the firm is doing just fine, though its primary money-makers are less obvious than they once were. The Finnish giant now derives most of its income from those invisible elements of the mobile internet that allow you to access an infinite repository of information from almost anywhere in the world: routers, network processors, base station radio access units, and other whizz-bang components. In 2018, with a revenue of $25.5 billion, Nokia dropped to 466th place. The transition from handset juggernaut to invisible technological unguent was not without casualties. Over nine years of downsizing, the company lost its handset business; eliminated thousands of jobs; and saw millions down the drain.
The Finnish town of Oulu, with a present-day population of around 200,000, looked like another certain victim. Formerly a quiet lumber town, it had been buoyed by the rise of Nokia, becoming a regional tech powerhouse in the process. By 2000, the so-called "Oulu miracle" had hit its stride, with more than 15,000 IT jobs in the city. But Nokia's travails became the town's: Between 2009 and 2011, the company cut more than 1,000 Oulu jobs, many of which were related to its handset business. Five years later, another 1,000 positions followed. But contrary to the expectations of local residents and the Finnish media alike, Nokia's tumble did not take the town with it.
At its height, the company had sucked in the city's talent like a whirlpool. Now, that same talent has the opportunity to flourish elsewhere, thanks to structured support and intervention from the local government, entrepreneurs, and Nokia itself. It is still the largest employer in town -- earlier this year, the company's Oulu 5G operation was honored by the World Economic Forum as a world leader in the sector -- but there are now many more options for enterprising tech workers with a yen to stay in the north. Oulu's greatest hits have much greater name recognition than their shared point of origin: 5G. Texting, and then chatting online. Paying for things with your mobile phone. Fitness trackers. All of these inventions, and thousands more like them, were developed, thought up, tested, or launched from this sleepy Nordic spot, some 120 miles south of the Arctic Circle. To this day, the town remains home of the world's most talented engineers, still at work at other things that might someday improve your life: a smart ring that tracks your sleep and fitness, for instance, or directional speakers that push sound only where it is required.
The Finnish town of Oulu, with a present-day population of around 200,000, looked like another certain victim. Formerly a quiet lumber town, it had been buoyed by the rise of Nokia, becoming a regional tech powerhouse in the process. By 2000, the so-called "Oulu miracle" had hit its stride, with more than 15,000 IT jobs in the city. But Nokia's travails became the town's: Between 2009 and 2011, the company cut more than 1,000 Oulu jobs, many of which were related to its handset business. Five years later, another 1,000 positions followed. But contrary to the expectations of local residents and the Finnish media alike, Nokia's tumble did not take the town with it.
At its height, the company had sucked in the city's talent like a whirlpool. Now, that same talent has the opportunity to flourish elsewhere, thanks to structured support and intervention from the local government, entrepreneurs, and Nokia itself. It is still the largest employer in town -- earlier this year, the company's Oulu 5G operation was honored by the World Economic Forum as a world leader in the sector -- but there are now many more options for enterprising tech workers with a yen to stay in the north. Oulu's greatest hits have much greater name recognition than their shared point of origin: 5G. Texting, and then chatting online. Paying for things with your mobile phone. Fitness trackers. All of these inventions, and thousands more like them, were developed, thought up, tested, or launched from this sleepy Nordic spot, some 120 miles south of the Arctic Circle. To this day, the town remains home of the world's most talented engineers, still at work at other things that might someday improve your life: a smart ring that tracks your sleep and fitness, for instance, or directional speakers that push sound only where it is required.
Wow (Score:2)
Re: Wow (Score:3)
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So what is the government supposed to do with a town when the local steel mill goes belly up? Create jobs from thin air or just cut everyone checks?
Re: Wow (Score:3)
Reduce zoning laws. Allow people to farm their yards and keep livestock like chicken and goats. Allow them to be productive with what they have.
You want the serfs to be allowed to feed themselves?! Do you have any idea how long it took to cultivate this much artificial scarcity??
Re: Wow (Score:2)
Often times run down neighborhoods are poorly maintained, because half the workforce is in jail or unable to work because of a bullshit conviction, the people who can work need 3+ part time jobs 1+ hours away from home just to stay fed and pay rent, poor credit due to low income doesn't allow property owners to update, poor credit doesn't allow residents to own at all, shitty landlords don't maintain properties. Not to mention the not so distant red lining and financial crisis that impacted blacks and minor
Re: Wow (Score:2)
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Create jobs from what? Pay people to dig a hole and then fill it back in again?
Re: Wow (Score:2)
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A problem existed from the start when the town only had a single major source of income for the residents; either working for the one factory or working in a service that supports those factory workers. It's a single point of failure.
In the old days the factory towns existed because the companies actually created the towns. These days I think sometimes it happens because of wishful thinking or short sighted local governments. It's really hard on a city council to turn down the promise of jobs, even if th
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This seems very much like "we can't fix everything this way, so let us not even try" argument.
Re: Wow (Score:4, Insightful)
San Francisco has a strong tech community. In fact, a lot of the original companies that helped established it have waned as much as Nokia, but because they build a good base and had built up a lot of talent in the area, there were new companies that replaced them. And San Francisco has seen its own upsurge in gentrification and is in many was about the most extreme example of problems that many U.S. cities face. But it didn't rely on a single company and it grew a large industry that's continued to be successful.
The federal government can't care about every single small town or community and put equal importance on all of them. You're asking for something that's impossible. What's likely kept San Francisco going is that when people were laid off or left their old job for other reasons they decided to stay in town and start their own company or just go work for another company in that same field. It sounds like the people in this Finnish town have decided to do much the same and having more than a single point of failure is probably good for the town as a whole.
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San Francisco is kinda low tech, sorry. Silicon Valley is down south, and during the dotcom boom S.F. was about content creation rather than any actual technology. But then, I don't consider social media to be "technology", or ride sharing, or whatnot. Having an "app" is not the same as being a tech company.
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Isn't it the people who live in a community that need to want it to be a strong community and will make sacrifices to make it that way? If you're just expecting people from outside the community to do all of that and solve all of the hard problems, do you really have a strong community or even people who act like they want one?
Oulu was example of both, strong community and support from local and national government.
The federal government can't care about every single small town or community and put equal importance on all of them. You're asking for something that's impossible.
Well, not the way they are doing right now, but it's not the only way - impossible is such a big word, and rarely used correctly in politics. The federal government of yours does all kind of things, like bail out too big companies and I can't help but wonder - we're not talking about some miracle cure for all cases, we're talking about stuff that could be done to mitigate the problems somewhat, and if you're saying tha
Not really a "collapse" [Re:Wow] (Score:5, Insightful)
I do have to point out that although the banner headline uses the word "collapse", the text of the article says that out of 15,000 tech jobs, they downsized 1000 starting in 2009, and another 1000 five years later. A 13 percent cut over five years is not really a "collapse".
(and the article says "It is still the largest employer in town... the company's Oulu 5G operation was honored by the World Economic Forum as a world leader in the sector." So, which is it? Collapse, or world leader? It can't be both.)
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It was their cellphone business which used to be the biggest part of the whole business that collapsed, not the company itself. The article tries to substitute a way more complicated story with simple and easier to understand story...
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I think this works both ways, at least in terms of advancing agendas.
It's either a global capitalism success story, where despite the company staggering near death, everybody recovered, re-trained and re-innovated and its all awesome. You just need to leave out the part about Finnish and maybe even municipal safety nets.
Or it's a democratic socialist success story, where despite the implosion caused by capitalist risk taking, the social services safety net served to buffer the populace from ruin and rebui
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It's not "democratic socialism" but "social democracy" - and yes, it's different. It's kinda sorta like liberal and libertarian being different - I would think mixing these two would anger a lot of people ;)
And what this shows is not that pure capitalism or socialism fixed this thing - it's "combinatory", I'm tired and out of focus and I just can't put it into words any better than that right now... It's clearer in my head, but I'll just have to hope you'll catch my drift.
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The thing with Finland is that if you don't care about "infrastructure" in a broad sense, the gifted people will just leave because they can (probably for Sweden) and you're never getting them back again. In the US it's different; it's unlikely that Americans would emigrate just because their local employer collapsed.
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But... but... Venezua ! (Score:1)
thanks to structured support and intervention from the local government, entrepreneurs, and Nokia itself
Yay, for Euro-style Socialism !
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thanks to structured support and intervention from the local government, entrepreneurs, and Nokia itself
Yay, for Euro-style Socialism !
The word "socialism" ("worker ownership and control of the means of production") has been re-purposed so much that I wish people would stop using it. Since "socialism" can now mean almost anything, the word no longer means anything.
Did the Finns nationalize Nokia? No? It's not socialism.
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Since "socialism" can now mean almost anything, the word no longer means anything.
Yeah, it's better to not use the word 'socialism' if you value clear communication over ideology. If someone uses the word socialism, ask them what they really mean.
In this case, maybe DrYak means "something I like that Republicans hate?" It's hard to know. He did sound like he was cheering for a sports team, the way he posted. Especially since even the word "Euro-style Socialism" is so ambiguous it's hard to understand (there are a lot of different types of government in Euro).
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"Socialism is a scareword they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years. Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security. Socialism is what they called farm price supports. Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance. Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people." - Harry S Truman
As far as I'm concerned, the republican
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Will be saving this quote in my quotes folder >:) Thanks
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"Social market economy" is what it is called.
Re: But... but... Venezua ! (Score:2)
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The ones without an extensive social safety net don't have social market economy by the very definition.
It's not that I don't understand, it's that you are less educated than you think.
Re: But... but... Venezua ! (Score:2)
one thing is clear... (Score:1)
... when we try to get programs like these in the US, they're called "socialist", from social security to medicare, etc etc... so... that's what the word means now.
And yet many conservatives are now saying, "that's not socialism!!! that's capitalism with a safety net"... right, whatever.
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However, the health care system in the U.S. isn't really socialist
70 years of making socialism anything good for all (Score:4, Interesting)
Truman almost 70 years ago... "Socialism is a scareword they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years. Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security. Socialism is what they called farm price supports. Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance. Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people." HARRY S. TRUMAN, speech, Oct. 10, 1952
So I think that's what it means now, b/c that's what everyone thinks. It worked. Current US rep-cons (republican conservatives) think things like minimum wage are socialism. So, fine, let them have it their way.
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Socialism is a scareword they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years. Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security. Socialism is what they called farm price supports. Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance. Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people. - Harry S Truman
The problem is Republicans saying you can
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Well maybe it proves you don't know what the hell you're talking about, but that's besides the point.
wtf are you even talking about? (Score:2)
Quoting a US president showing this bullshit of redefining the word "socialism" to use as a scare word against common sense programs has been going on for 70 years is what now?
You did see it's a Truman quote, and then spent 10 seconds confirming it's a real quote, right? Wait, was Truman a "fake president" like the "fake emoluments clause" in the us constitution.
PS: sorry I triggered you in your safe space.
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that's like just your opinion, man (Score:1)
except the part about Ike... god if only we could have republicans like that again instead of these shit stains since Nixon.
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I'm sure you're wrong. (Score:2)
JFK would be a 1970 republican like Bob Dole, at most.
Ike would no way be rand paul... have you ever looked at the 1956 Republican Platform after 4 years of Ike?!?! He liked refugees, wanted to expand social security (or was it medicare... probably both), raise the minimum wage, strengthen unions.
Further, he warned against the Military Industrial Complex. The Republican Party betrayed Ike when it embraced being a criminal like Nixon, Reagan, Bush and Trump.
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Ike (Score:2)
have you ever looked at the 1956 Republican Platform ... raising the minimum wage, open to refugees, expanding social security...
I think Rand Paul is a big fake, what he says he's for and what he's really for are two different things, like his dad, he just has a particular rhetorical sound they like. He may be one of the best Republicans, but that's not saying much.
The problem is centralized government... you need a distributed architecture. Other than that, government is nothing different from any other
by the way (Score:1)
(1) so you don't like Truman... but that doesn't mean he wasn't correct about the way american conservatives use the word socialism.
(2) what's your problem with FDR..? Americans of his time were fond of him and he's still among the most liked presidents in current times.
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(1) Yes, he was wrong. Name a single socialist economy nation that succeeds. You can't. They don't exist. Socialist economic models fail every single time. They should be avoided like the plague - because they ARE the plague
(2) FDR set up the perpetual deficit system we have now (which has been the case since Ike), thanks to FDR's championing of the welfare state. That brought about the explosion in deficits (thanks to welfare payments/wealth transfers) and the explosion of the size and scope of the F
you seem to have missed the whole context... (Score:2)
you see, I posted a quote by Truman about Republic Party members calling all social programs "socialism". And by THAT definition... Sweden, Denmark, Norway... and arguably much of Europe has had such programs. If at this point you say, no, those are capitalist countries with social programs... by golly that's not socialism... I KNOW, but that's what they've been called for 90 years.
So conservatives won... whenever we want a program like Sweden it's called socialist. Not only raising minimum wage, but eve
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There is no "Finnish Socialism", there's Social Democracy in Finland - a very different thing, as this is in the end a capitalist country. Stop using the word socialism for everything "left wing" or even "not right wing".
They make ... (Score:3)
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Both are separate companies from the Nokia that manufactures network equipment (Nokian Tyres and Nokian Footwear; cannot link them as that makes Slashdot think I'm not a human...). They do share some common history, from rubber manufacturing. Telecommunication cables was the starting point of the high tech company that became later the Nokia that most people know. But the tires and rubber boots are indeed good quality (they do make summer tires, too).
Also in kitchener (canada) and blackberry (Score:2)
"Sleepy lumber town" (Score:1)
Oulu is literally the biggest city in the northern half of Finland, and has been the economic and cultural hub of that area for centuries. It's a major port city with an international airport, and host to a great university (I may have a bias: I studied there in the 90s). The Oulu metropolitan area is the Finnish analogue to what Seattle is to the US.
Fun Fact (Score:2)
Do you know what Nokia's first product was? Rubber boots.
Just thought I'd throw that out there to illustrate how times change.
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Yes, and when I was a kid in the 80's it was widely known through Finland; I mean literally everyone who was born here knew them for their excellent rubber boots and tires. Rubber boots and tires were pretty much synonymous with Nokia back then in Finland :)