What is project ReCon?

In brief: we’re a research project and a collaboration that looks into implications and applications of (primarily) non-currency blockchain technologies, and raises awareness of the possibilities of blockchain technology, particularly in Finland.

We started in September 2016, signing on a two-year mission to explore strange new technologies, to seek out new ideas and applications, and to boldly go where few have gone before. What we seek to do is at least the following:

• Demystify the blockchain: Produce actionable, understandable knowledge about blockchain technologies and their applications for entrepreneurs, decision-makers and the public.
• Show how blockchain could be usable: Develop user-centered concepts, prototypes and pilot projects to demonstrate how blockchain technologies could be fruitfully used both for business applications and for the betterment of society.
• Spark discussion: Keep up a stream of information and even provocations that help raise public awareness and allow us, as a society, to discuss the impacts of new technologies preferably while we can influence their development.
• Build up Finnish and Nordic blockchain ecosystem: Educate, train and connect interested people and parties in Finland and beyond.
• Conduct academic research: Produce quality research exploring the implications of blockchain from organizational, management, business, and societal perspectives.

Our team consists of four researchers, four companies and one Ministry of Finance. We have a diverse background in business, technology and organization studies and consulting, including a professor of innovation management Liisa Välikangas from Aalto University & Hanken School of Economics, an experienced Silicon Valley-based Ph.D. technology researcher and consultant Sari Stenfors, a philosopher and crowd finance pioneer Tere Vaden from University of Tampere, and yours truly, an almost-Ph.D. in technology studies from Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland.

Four excellent companies add their expertise to ours: Fondia develops innovative law practices, Tieto handles large-scale software and services development, Nordkapp does world-class digital design, and Kauffmann is the leader in healthcare design.

These companies provide part of the funding while Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation, provides the rest. We believe one of the great strengths of our project is the flat society we operate in: we have good access to almost everywhere in Finland, and can explore issues that might be hard to push through in larger countries.

In the future, we’re going to use this Medium publication as an outlet for our English-language musings about blockchain and related issues. You can also follow us at our website (recon.site), or at Twitter via ReCon Research. If you’d like to get in touch, you can use any of these channels or e-mail me directly at blockchain.janne@gmail.com. Stay tuned, and stay in touch!