This article summarises the project study report on the project Openness Accelerating Learning Networks (AVO2). The project study focused on how AVO2 progressed towards its goals, the smoothness of project work and the effectiveness of the project, applying the perspectives of project members as well as those of target groups. The project study report sheds light on the opportunities and challenges met when the working culture is open and networking; the report also compiles the lessons learned during the project and makes visible tacit information that might not otherwise appear in any project report. The results confirm and supplement those from the project study carried out for the project Open Networks for Learning (AVO) (Kalalahti 2012).

1. Project work assessment
The first part of the report offers a look
into the project’s goals, describing the
participants’ views of a networking mode
of operation, the project’s coherence and
the realisation of equality in the project
network. In addition, this part describes
the project’s communication tools and
practices as well as its way of sharing
good practices and failures. The follow-
ing observations were made during the
project work assessment:
Goals specification
From the very beginning, the project’s
goals were clear to the people who were
involved in the preparatory phase. Un-
derstandably, it was more challenging for
those to visualise the goals who joined
the project once it already was under-
way. In some cases, the connection to the
original plan was lost due staff changes
when people who had been involved in
the preparation phase were transferred.
According to some project members, the
concrete measures to achieve the project
goals became clear little by little as the
project progressed. Project members felt
that goals should be specified at an ap-
propriate level of abstraction during the
specification phase and project prepara-
tion should involve closer cooperation
from the very beginning.
Project coherence
A certain attitude was common to the
project members, but some were clearly
more ardent than others. The sense of
togetherness with other project mem-
bers varied among participants. Accord-
ing to project members, the subprojects
and even AVO2 itself did not necessarily
offer easy environments to identify with.
At the level of practical work, the project
consisted mainly of four separate sub-
projects. Concrete joint projects were a
AVO – A voyage to the open seas to study openness and a
networking mode of operation
Yrjö Lappalainen | University of Tampere
This article summarises the project study report on the project Openness
Accelerating Learning Networks (AVO2). The project study focused on
how AVO2 progressed towards its goals, the smoothness of project work
and the effectiveness of the project, applying the perspectives of project
members as well as those of target groups. The project study report
sheds light on the opportunities and challenges met when the work-
ing culture is open and networking; the report also compiles the les-
sons learned during the project and makes visible tacit information that
might not otherwise appear in any project report. The results confirm
and supplement those from the project study carried out for the project
Open Networks for Learning (AVO) (Kalalahti 2012). In short, the AVO2
project study produced the following observations:

2. few only, and project members usually
knew no details of what others were do-
ing. According to project members, work
is not shared spontaneously; it would be
necessary to plan cooperation in more
detail during the preparatory phase.
Communication and tools
The internal communication of the AVO2
subprojects was determined largely ac-
cording to who happened to be involved,
and this led to significant differences
among the subprojects in terms of prac-
tices and tools. Communication was peri-
odicandbasedonimmediateneed,which
means there were long periods of scanty
communication. The project members
thought the Monday hangout, Monday
letter and Yammer to be a good combina-
tion. Project members expressed that a
closer cooperation requires dialogue, not
reporting. The members wished to com-
municate more with one another but did
not find a suitable mechanism during the
project. Neither did the project have joint
messages to communicate externally –
such communication largely depended
on individual participants. The proposal
was made that these communication
problems could be solved if subproject
coordinators and other parties respon-
sible for coordination met regularly and
worked on texts to publish them in e.g.
blogs. However, a shared blog was not in-
troduced during the project.
Good practices and failures
According to project members, good
practices were shared and discussed dur-
ing the project, but the project had no
shared documentation and storage pro-
cedures for good practices. Some project
members were critical about the concept
of “good practice”: can good practices be
parcelled up and carried forward as such?
According to these project members, it is
more important to be able to commu-
nicate what has been done and under
what conditions. Project members were
encouraged to share their failures as
well, but in practice, there was not much
enthusiasm for this. Project members
stated that it is a personal trait whether
an individual is able to admit to failures
– or even more, to share them publicly. A
project member commented that failures
may be difficult to identify and reflect on.
Effectiveness assessment
The second part of the project study
report discusses the project’s effective-
ness, applying the perspectives of project
members as well as those of target
groups. According to project members,
AVO2 displayed methodologies, tools
and environments and was successful
in promoting openness and networking.
The project awakened a great deal of dis-
cussion, brought about cooperation and
created and fortified many different net-
works. The many publications, reports,
learning and teaching materials and oth-
er contents form a valuable reserve avail-
able to all and ready for further devel-
opment after the project. The project’s
self-assessment of effectiveness, which
was conducted using a four dimensional
model, forms the basis for our statement
that the AVO2 project was successful in
all the dimensions measured by the mod-
el: instrumental, conceptual, consultative
and belief-creating.
The views of the project’s target groups
concerning the effectiveness of AVO2
were studied during certain training
sessions and events organised by the

3. project. However, it is important to no-
tice that the respondents to these inquir-
ies represented only a fraction of AVO2
participants, and for some events and
training sessions, the test sample was
small. Therefore, this feedback does not
justify generalisations about the project’s
effectiveness. We can still state the fol-
lowing about the training and events:
• The feedback was mainly very posi-
tive.
• The training sessions offered useful
examples and made the audiences
more aware of the possibilities, chal-
lenges and concepts relating to the
subject areas.
• In general, the respondents felt the
subject areas to be useful.
• The respondents learned many new
things.
• The respondents felt the training ses-
sions encouraged them to try out the
subject areas or to make more versa-
tile use of them than previously.
• Almost all respondents intended to
make use of the subject areas “pos-
sibly” or “absolutely”.
• The most common challenges to as-
suming new ways of working and
new tools in the respondents’ work-
ing environment include a lack of
knowledge, resources and technical
skills as well as a lack of understand-
ing of the benefits.
• Not many networks were created
through the short-term training
courses.
• The respondents hoped to have more
in-depth continuation courses.
AVO2 in a nutshell
Instrumental
AVO2 functioned as a tool to make con-
crete changes e.g. by producing materi-
als, arranging training events and other
events, establishing new networks and
supporting the growth of current net-
works.
Conseptual
Through training, events and publica-
tions, AVO2 promoted the conceptual
understanding of the subject areas of
the project as well as openness and
networking modes of operation. AVO2
awakened dialogue while it also clarified,
established and confirmed new concepts
relating to the subject areas the project
dealt with.
Consultative
Through training, events and individual
consultation, AVO2 supported its target
groups in introducing new ways of work-
ing. AVO2 produced instructions, guide
books and case descriptions about new
tools and practices.
Belief-creating
AVO2 promoted trust in new practices
and tools by sharing good practices and
success stories. The project itself was a
sample case that showed us the possi-
bilities of new ways of working and tools.

4. Openness Accelerating Learning Networks
www.eoppimiskeskus.fi/en/avo
In conclusion
At the end of project interviews, the members were asked what
was, in their opinion, the most important lesson learned during the
project. After a moment of thought, a participant gave me the fol-
lowing answer. I think this advice crystallises what AVO2 was basi-
cally about:
”Be open yourself about your ideas and what you do. Tell others
about it and turn an open ear to the ideas and doings of others.
In that way, you will be able to connect people and resources,
empowering them so that something new, unforeseen or even
great can be born. Instead of presenting well-founded criticisms,
present well-founded suggestions and solutions. Ask if we could
not do something in a certain new way because the current way
is not very good and the new way would be better.”