When the LUME project was launched in 2024, Web3 raised more questions than answers. Technology was evolving faster than project plans, artificial intelligence dominated the headlines, and many professionals in the creative industries wondered whether this transformation had anything to do with them. At the same time, the rapid pace of technological change challenged us to consider how different generations and professionals with diverse digital backgrounds encounter the next generation of the internet. I later explored this perspective in my blog post Are You Ready for the Web3 World? Meeting of the Digital Generations in the Cultural Sector (Halonen, 2025a).
I admit that, as the project manager, I also felt uncertain. Although I was surrounded by an experienced project consortium and colleagues from every Finnish University of Applied Sciences offering a degree in Cultural Management, none of us could rely on established practices. Together, we were exploring a phenomenon that kept changing throughout the project.
Looking back, I now believe this uncertainty became the project’s greatest strength. While writing the final report, I realised that the most important outcome was not Web3 competence itself. Instead, it was the decision to begin embedding change already during the project planning phase rather than waiting until the results were ready for dissemination (Halonen, 2021). This approach offered a new way of engaging with a rapidly evolving phenomenon: creating a shared language around it, making it understandable, and finding ways to integrate it into education, professional practice, and the development of the creative industries.
We Did Not Just Create Content
The project produced a remarkable number of tangible outputs: more than forty blog posts, a facilitator’s handbook, webinars, podcasts, learning materials and innovation experiments. They can all be easily found online.
Yet, in retrospect, these were not the project’s greatest achievement. They were tools. The real work was making a rapidly evolving phenomenon understandable and usable in different contexts. We quickly realised that Web3 could not be taught like a finished software application or a digital tool. First, we needed to build a shared language. That required dialogue, examples, experimentation and, above all, space for questions.
Our discussions repeatedly revealed uncertainty, technology anxiety and, at times, outright resistance. As a result, the project’s most important task gradually became the pedagogical translation of emerging technologies—far more than we had anticipated during the planning stage.
Over time, we realised that uncertainty was not an obstacle to learning but its natural starting point. Similar concerns about Web3 technologies were discussed by Mayreth Wolff in her blog Web3: Concerns About Digitalisation Are Understandable, where she highlights the importance of education, concrete examples and user-friendly approaches in supporting the adoption of new technologies (Wolff, 2024).
One Solution Did Not Fit Everyone
Another important lesson was that the same approach did not work in every environment.
Students, teachers, entrepreneurs and cultural professionals approached Web3 from very different starting points. This became evident, for example, in the fact that engaging entrepreneurs proved more challenging than expected, while educational institutions quickly began integrating the discussions into curriculum development.
Rather than promoting a single predefined model, we continuously adapted our content to the needs of different target groups. This made the project itself a learning process—not only for participants but also for us as project developers.
The diversity of perspectives also became visible in the ways different audiences perceived the opportunities offered by Web3. Some were fascinated by digital communities, others by digital ownership, while others focused on new business and revenue models. For example, I explored the changing role of fan communities in the creative economy in my blog Your Fans Are the New Patrons. Here’s How Web3 Makes It Possible (Halonen, 2025b).
The Greatest Change Happened in People
European Social Fund reporting focuses heavily on participant numbers, materials and publications. For me, however, the most significant outcome was found elsewhere—in people.
Throughout the project, teachers strengthened their expertise, collaboration between universities deepened, and conversations about technology gradually shifted from technical discussions to pedagogical ones. Web3 was no longer viewed simply as another emerging technology but as a phenomenon that challenged us to rethink community building, digital ownership, cultural accessibility and new value creation models.
Countless small shifts in thinking emerged during the project. They cannot be measured by quantitative indicators alone, yet they become visible when new ideas begin influencing everyday teaching and professional practice.
Such change is difficult to capture through project metrics. It becomes evident in the ways people start thinking and acting differently. Shared understanding does not produce identical solutions; instead, everyone develops their own interpretation of a new phenomenon. One person becomes interested in digital communities, another explores NFTs or virtual worlds, while a third adopts just a single new tool that feels useful—or at least less intimidating than before. These different variations demonstrate that new knowledge has begun to take root in people’s thinking.
The Project Ends, but the Conversation Continues
One aspect of compiling the final report brought me particular satisfaction.
The project’s outputs did not remain confined to the project itself. The learning materials were published openly, collaboration networks continue to operate, and many of the ideas developed during the project are already inspiring new initiatives. I am especially pleased that the project also produced an extensive blog series. Across more than forty articles, project experts examined Web3 from multiple perspectives—culture, pedagogy, community building, digital ownership, accessibility and new business models. Together, these blog posts form a collective learning diary of how a rapidly evolving phenomenon can be understood through dialogue, experimentation and multiple perspectives.
That was the moment I felt the project had truly succeeded.
Not because Web3 is somehow “finished”, but because the work continues beyond the project’s lifetime. The LUME Blog (2024–2025), the openly available learning materials and the networks established during the project continue to provide opportunities for discussion and for developing new interpretations of our evolving digital environment.
When the project came to an end, I realised I had learned something I had not anticipated when we started. In a world of constant technological change, the most important competence may not be keeping up with every new technology. More important is creating learning environments where uncertainty is welcomed, emerging phenomena can be explored together, and diverse perspectives have room to flourish.
We do not yet know what the next technological shift will be. But perhaps we are now a little better prepared to face it. And the creative industries have exactly the strengths this requires: curiosity to experiment, the ability to imagine alternatives, and the capacity to build the future together.
Sources
Halonen, K. (2021). Projekti loppuu, mitä jää? Sosiaalisten innovaatioiden juurruttaminen. Metropolia ammattikorkeakoulu, Oiva-sarja 33, Helsinki 2021. https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-328-292-6
Halonen, K. (2025a). Are you ready for the Web3 world? Meeting of the digital generations in the cultural sector. Metropolia ammattikorkeakoulu, Lume-blogi 22.5.2025. https://blogit.metropolia.fi/lume/en/2025/05/22/are-you-ready-for-the-web3-world-meeting-of-the-digital-generations-in-the-cultural-sector/
Halonen, K. (2025b). Your fans are the new patrons. Here’s how Web3 makes it possible. Metropolia ammattikorkeakoulu, Lume-blogi 25.3.2025. https://blogit.metropolia.fi/lume/en/2025/03/25/your-fans-are-the-new-patrons-heres-how-web3-makes-it-possible/
LUME-blog (2024–2026). Explore more than 40 expert blog posts on Web3, digital culture, pedagogy, and the future of the creative industries. Metropolia ammattikorkeakoulu, Lume-blogisto. https://blogit.metropolia.fi/lume/en
Wolff, M. (2024). Web3 – huoli digitalisoitumisesta on ymmärrettävää. Miksi uusi teknologia herättää epävarmuutta ja miten oppimisen kynnystä voidaan madaltaa. Metropolia ammattikorkeakoulu, Lume-blogit 17.12.2024. https://blogit.metropolia.fi/lume/2024/12/17/web3-huoli-digitalisoitumisesta-on-ymmarrettavaa/
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