This is a kick-start to the Helsinki Region Infoshare project that aims to also open up statistical information from cities Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen. Antti Poikola was so kind to translate the press release in English, from which the following quotes: “Statistical Yearbook of the City of Helsinki is a city statistics classic. It has more than hundred years of tradition, during which its content has grown beside the urban development. It gives a good overall picture of Helsinki and its operating environment. The Yearbook also provides details, such as basic information about the neighborhoods or business sectors”, says Leila Lankinen Information Service Manager Helsinki City Information Centre. Timely statistics from Helsinki
 Statistical Yearbook has comprehensive and timely statistical information about Helsinki and its inhabitants. Beside the Metropolitan area it also includes comparative data from other parts of the country, Scandinavian cities as well as Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius and St. Petersburg. Published data involves more than 300 tables from 15 different subject areas. The data reveals for example: ▪ Population of Helsinki has grown 4.6 percent since 2000. ▪ In 2008, 37 391 companies were active in Helsinki, out of which 83 percent were small (less than five employees). ▪ A Helsinki dweller took an average 334 journeys by public transport, while the same figure in Tampere and Turku was approximately 120. ▪ The year 2008 was in Helsinki so far the warmest in this decade. The highest temperature was 26.9 degrees. A new data source for ongoing Apps4Finland Contest 
Helsinki City Information Center and Forum Virium want to contribute to the new services that will be developed around the open, royalty-free government data. The opened information is freely available for developers, as long as original source is acknowledged.The meta data of the Helsinki City Statistical Yearbook will be published in the Suomi.fi portal, which has collected and listed number of other open government data sources from Finland. The statistics are available for this years Apps4Finland contest, which seeks new ways to use government data resources.