Virtual Finland is now thisisFINLAND
Press release 134/2009
14 May, 2009
The Internet portal giving a comprehensive overview of Finland has a new name, thisisFINLAND. The portal replaces the Virtual Finland site created by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1995.
“We made a radical change and consciously gave the site a facelift,” says Editor-in-chief Juha Parikka of the Unit for Public Diplomacy at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. “thisisFINLAND is a new-generation web-based service with web 2.0 functionalities including RSS feeds and the community services Facebook, MySpace and Flickr.”
The portal offers an international, well-educated public and young people reliable, topical, high-quality information about Finland and Finnish society.
The site also has links to Finland’s country portals in Russian, www.info-finlandia.ru and in French, www.info-finlande.fr. The sub-sites in Spanish and German are closed for the time being and will be reopened as soon as possible.
The content and appearance of the site are in line with Finland’s new country brand image, crystallised by the four Cs: credible, contrasting, creative and cool. Finland is credible, and is always positively contrasting and creative; thanks to these features Finland is fun, laid-back and at the same time a ‘cool’ country. The logo, too, is in line with the country brand image.
thisisFINLAND is published by the Finland Promotion Board. The Publications and Promotion Group of the Unit for Public Diplomacy at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs continues as the producer. The chairman on the Editorial Board now established is Managing Director Kari Väisänen of the TAT-Finnfacts Group. Alongside the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the members of the Editorial Board are the Finnish Tourist Board, the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation Tekes, the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, Finnfacts and Invest in Finland.
The new image and structure of the thisisFINLAND website are the handwork of TrainershouseSatama. The address of the new portal is finland.fi, but the old link virtual.finland.fi and the address thisisfinland.fi also lead to the new portal.
Additional information: Juha Parikka, Head of the Publications and Promotion Group, mobile tel. +358 40 832 4692, [email protected]