20. Connecting people
5 February 1984
Teknologiakylä, Oulu
While an old dairy would seem an unsuitable location for a numer of high-tech startups it really wasn't if one thought of predecessors. One hundred and fifty years ago it had been tar, one hundred years ago sailing ships, seventy years ago dairy products, thirty years ago lumber, ten years ago machinery and now the present generation had to thought about something completely different. It was always a question of exports. Only with exports the inhabitants of this small backwater could hope for a higher standard of living. The wooden mansions in the city center once built by succesfull tar traders of 19th Century were decaying. One could not rely on past successes.
Nokia was a typical Finnish industrial conglomerate with product ranging from rubber boots to telecommunications cables to computers. In Oulu the firm had a plant for producing cable as well as design staff and a radio telephone plant.
Veikko, a MSc Engineer who had graduated couple of years ago from University of Oulu was heading a Nokia-led task force for development of production in this new industrial reality. Now it was not a question trying to create something to export for Soviet Union as the main export client had evaporated.
New products would have to be made. One of those was SANLA, the Finnish Defence Forces digital text-based communications device the Defence Forces had ordered far in excess of amounts Nokia could even produce. One wonders, if one could put a device like that in everyman's pocket, would it be popular? Nah, just for businessmen or important officials decades away. One would not have to aim himself to achieve Maxwell Smart standards. The first and most important task would be to equip Finnish Army expeditionary forces with robust and secure communications.
After insertion of forces there would be a need of setting up communications network in areas of responsibility which would be large with much of the pre-war communications network either damaged or
destroyed. There would be need for providing wireless communications as they would be easier to build than landlines. They could also avoid too hot areas easily.
Long term adminstration would require something more refined than SANLA terminals suitable for short messages. The entirely new product would be a data terminal made for French standard, Minitel. Initially there would be no time to construct data networks robust enough for large scale voice communications. Moreover, most of the traffic would be of adminstrative nature. Data transfer devices would suit post-nuclear present far better than telephones.
Most importantly the designer would not have to be concerned with intellectual property rights. The whole problem with IPO had just been washed away. The challenge was just to make the best product they could and the engineers of Nokia would do just that. They would also design something which would enable an Apple or IBM/PC computer to connect with Minitel network, thus using the already existing computers, some of which surely could be acquired even from Europe suffering from untold destruction.
5 February 1984
Teknologiakylä, Oulu
While an old dairy would seem an unsuitable location for a numer of high-tech startups it really wasn't if one thought of predecessors. One hundred and fifty years ago it had been tar, one hundred years ago sailing ships, seventy years ago dairy products, thirty years ago lumber, ten years ago machinery and now the present generation had to thought about something completely different. It was always a question of exports. Only with exports the inhabitants of this small backwater could hope for a higher standard of living. The wooden mansions in the city center once built by succesfull tar traders of 19th Century were decaying. One could not rely on past successes.
Nokia was a typical Finnish industrial conglomerate with product ranging from rubber boots to telecommunications cables to computers. In Oulu the firm had a plant for producing cable as well as design staff and a radio telephone plant.
Veikko, a MSc Engineer who had graduated couple of years ago from University of Oulu was heading a Nokia-led task force for development of production in this new industrial reality. Now it was not a question trying to create something to export for Soviet Union as the main export client had evaporated.
New products would have to be made. One of those was SANLA, the Finnish Defence Forces digital text-based communications device the Defence Forces had ordered far in excess of amounts Nokia could even produce. One wonders, if one could put a device like that in everyman's pocket, would it be popular? Nah, just for businessmen or important officials decades away. One would not have to aim himself to achieve Maxwell Smart standards. The first and most important task would be to equip Finnish Army expeditionary forces with robust and secure communications.
After insertion of forces there would be a need of setting up communications network in areas of responsibility which would be large with much of the pre-war communications network either damaged or
destroyed. There would be need for providing wireless communications as they would be easier to build than landlines. They could also avoid too hot areas easily.
Long term adminstration would require something more refined than SANLA terminals suitable for short messages. The entirely new product would be a data terminal made for French standard, Minitel. Initially there would be no time to construct data networks robust enough for large scale voice communications. Moreover, most of the traffic would be of adminstrative nature. Data transfer devices would suit post-nuclear present far better than telephones.
Most importantly the designer would not have to be concerned with intellectual property rights. The whole problem with IPO had just been washed away. The challenge was just to make the best product they could and the engineers of Nokia would do just that. They would also design something which would enable an Apple or IBM/PC computer to connect with Minitel network, thus using the already existing computers, some of which surely could be acquired even from Europe suffering from untold destruction.