Olivia Does Crowdsourcing

Bonnier Publications in Finland launches a new kind of digital concept for the Olivia brand: the Open Olivia platform launches today.

Open Olivia is based on crowdsourcing. It is a web platform where readers can build the February issue of Olivia magazine. The digital tool allows readers to participate in the editorial staff's work, provide feedback and decide on some parts of the magazine content and layout via the website omaolivia.fi. Open Olivia is hosted by the authors of Olivia magazine.
 
"Open Olivia revolutionizes the process of making the magazine," says Olivia's Editor-in-Chief Niina Leino.
"As far as we know, this is the first time a magazine will be created systematically and in such close interaction with its readers. Open Olivia deepens our reader relationships which are already very strong. Olivia's goal is to be a magazine that tells about the reader herself."
 
The project leader is Finnish researcher and journalist Tanja Aitamurto, who is preparing her doctoral thesis about crowdsourcing as a visiting researcher at Stanford University.
 
"Open Olivia follows the global co-creation trend," says Aitamurto.
 
"It will be interesting to see how the opening of the journalistic process will affect Olivia's content. Are the stories going to be different, because they are created in a new way? This crowdsourcing concept will really build a new kind of bridge between print and digital media."