Archive for December, 2006
End of The Year Thought 2006
Posted by Albegor in Como, i-muse, Net-Tailor on December 31, 2006
Making a sum of a whole year?
365 days I lived more dangerously than ever? đŻ
Well, a lot of things happened: the turning point on the project now called i-muse thanks to the two guys I put on alert with a simple SMS on last New Yearâs Day, the hard work on the Net-Taylor innovation project for the Sartoria Orefice, the Vespatour, the summer solo-tour on my Vespa around Italy that opened my eyes on the beauties of our country, some books that made me change – not because theyâre miraculous, but because I read them while I was ready to change -, the suffering for a love affairâŚ
All of this while I was still working as a waiter in a local pub whose owner had the kindness to kick me out after an apocalyptic night, with no appeal and as I was the last one who got working there. A rudeness I did forgive but not forgot, since it has been a work which gave me much more than it may appear to whoever looks at it with the eyes of the right-minded. đ
All in all a lot of things that made me grow up. And the more I think about where I am now, the more Iâm sure that nothing could have happened if I hadnât been involved in the project of the Sartoria Orefice, where I found people so kind to confront and work with on an delicate innovation project which is now considered as a case study, a project that made me grow up both professionally and humanly.
As always, itâs a combination of positive factors producing excellence, while a negative one is enough to unleash Murphyâs law! đ
Even the last year I wrote an End of the Year Thought 2005, but I didnât published it, a sign of a not too happy period. I do it now on the new blog since I saved it in my notes. I invite you to read it because itâs still current, unfortunately.
I wish you a happy 2007, the year of the pig! đ
The Coming of i-muse
Do you know what a purple cow is?
Itâs a marketing concept invented by Seth Godin to represent a remarkable product.
Remarkable in the sense that itâs so attractive in its market sector to become a commercial success. We think we have a purple cow, and now that we registered the trademark we can reveal what itâs all about: i-muse is not only a PDA guide for museums and art exhibitions, an innovative tool for the visitor well beyond traditional audioguides, but most of all is the entrepreneurial project by three young guys from Como who believed to be able to create something important starting from scratch! đ
The logo is self-explanatory, born from a flash of genius by Luca and generated by Guidoâs hint, the people to whom at the beginning of 2006 I proposed working on what was then an idea without a true form.
I got the idea while I was using an audioguide during my visit to the Joan Miròâs exhibition in 2004 in Como. Back then I was developing software for PDAs, I knew their potentialities, and then I asked myself: why not making a guide running on PDA? đĄ
In 2005, thanks to the voucher for technology innovation issued by Regione Lombardia, I committed a due diligence study to the Centro Volta, which is actually located in Villa Olmo where Miròâs exhibition took place. From that point it took me some time to realize how I had to go on: I had to find the right people, people with the skills I was missing.
I talked to Guido, a marketing expert, an old friend I didnât see for a long time, and to Luca, a great graphics artist with an experience in the videogames industry.
Thanks to them since the beginning of 2006 things went on at the right pace. We explored different paths, analyzed all the components of the project and finalized the application design. Slow but well since we were doing something else for a living.
After the award at the Startcup 2006 there has been the acceleration: the cash prize ( itâs better starting with a little, but a minimum is absolutely necessary đ ) and most of all the office inside the incubator at the Politecnico.
We also reached the finals of the ObiettivoICT contest, whose benefits will come the next year.
2007 is the year of the pig as the Chinese friends of Ciren told me.
Does that mean it will bring abundance even for us, in every sense? 
We hope so, in the meantime in the category i-muse you can find all the posts related to the project, a category Iâll keep alive and well while the work on the project continues.
The Delicious Cioccolardini
Itâs incredible but even Google doesnât know it!
If you search for the word cioccolardini, the result, at least until now, is that it suggests searching for cioccolatini (chocolates). However, the Cioccolardini do exist!
I discovered them last summer during the Vespatour, my solo-journey around Italy riding a Vespa, while I was visiting lard shops in Colonnata, a little tuscan town at the center of the quarry caves area, renowned for its delicious lard, maturated inside tubs made of a particular variety of marble.
In one of the lard shops a kind tuscan sir let me taste some lard and while I was concerned about the fact that I couldnât take away some of it, since I couldnât properly preserve it until I got home, I noticed the chocolates. Theyâre made with fondant chocolate, honey, hazel paste and that touch of lard making them a real treat. đŽ
So delicious that I ate a whole box just before leaving Colonnata while I was seating near my Vespa in the small town square.
I promised myself to order some of them for relatives and friends, so what could be the best time than Christmas to share a bit of sweetness in a season that seems to have lost its magic, that of the present given for the pleasure to give and not for convenience, habit or profit?
I ordered so many boxes to be able to make happy my dearest friends, using for some of them a Christmas card of Il Sole on which I wrote an aphorism accurately chosen for the receiver. The result has been great! đ
I think the people at La Marmifera, the lard shop where I discovered the Cioccolardini, will be glad for the free promotion, they earned it.
Hurrah for the Cioccolardini even Google didnât know! đ
Weâve Been Incubated!
Ok, itâs a bad expression which can give cause for never ending witty remarks, but for the three of us, me, Luca and Guido, recently awarded at the Startcup 2006, the regional contest for startup creation, the meaning is pretty clear: other than the cash prize by the Chamber of Commerce of Como, our real target was the incubation! đ
Weâre now hosted (incubated!) in the startup accelerator of the Polo Regionale di Como of the Politecnico di Milano.
We finally have an office, at the third floor of the building in Piazzale Gerbetto, where we can continue working on the project we started powered only by enthusiasm and hard work, aiming since the beginning to a result of excellence.
The office is fully operative by now from a technical point of view, while we still have a lot to do for what concerns furnishings, especially after weâve seen how the girls of Ciren and Urbano Creativo, neo-incubated at the second floor, set up their office.
We really need a female touch for that!
Professor Negrini, who gave us the award at the Startcup, told us this was his office before he moved to the Politecnicoâs building in Via Anzani. Really a privilege considering how much I think highly of him.
During the introductory meeting of the new startups he used a very motivating expression: âNow youâre entrepreneurs!â he told us.
Personally I do rely a lot on the network of competences that can be established among the ten startups now incubated in Como and itâs actually a pleasure being able to discuss and relate with other companies operating in the same sector. From these relations new interesting opportunities can be generated.
After the pizza-dinner with Luca and Guido to celebrate our first meeting in the office, as you can see in the pic, and the usual tea break at 17 ò clock with MetalCâs staff at the third floor, we can say that being incubated is not a bad thing at all! đ
What the Hell is This?
If you got here on the blog for the first time thanks to the flier I gave out during these days it means it worked! đĄ
It made curious whoever noticed it to get him on the Internet and have a look at what it was really about.
The graphics of the flier is the result of the suggestions by some friends and it ties up the three elements composing my logo with the arguments of the blog: a stylized hand inspired by the painting of the Creation by Michelangelo visible on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel represents my passion for creativity in all its forms, the arrow has the shape of the Lake of Como since I like writing about arguments related to my town, and the disc has a series of abbreviations the informatics technology is full of and which often make the usersâ life a mess instead of simplifying it. For this reason the names of the Donald Duckâs nephews, Qui, Quo and Qua, put some irony about the technology paradox. đ
Finally I can leave the obsolete structure of the old blog and start using the new one thanks to the WordPress platform, powerful and flexible at the same time.
Thanks to the Gengo plug-in for example, I can write posts both in italian and english and the the user automatically view them according to his browserâs language setting. You can read the posts in the other language by clicking on the link on the right panel listing the most recent posts.
Not to mention the organization of the numerous post in categories, six for now: Como, Euro coins, Mobile, Net-Taylor, Personal, Software and Vespatour 2006, or even the possibility to browse the whole archive containing 240 posts, month by month, up to the first one I wrote on july 16, 2003, or searching for a specific word inside the whole blog.
Last but not least is the chance to leave comments. Finally you can keep in check my bad tongue whenever I really go over the line! đł
Or simply you can have your say about an argument of interest to you. Discussion is the salt of communication, even if weâre all a bit stunned by too much TV, mobile phones or even the Internet itself. đ
Thereâs still some work to be done to complete the graphics of the theme and new pages to add, but itâs a bit like moving into a new home after all: a thing at a time itâs even funnier.
Thanks for your visit! I hope youâll get back because you like the blog contents and not only the container, WordPress, which is really useful and makes the blog user friendly.
To do that you could keep in mind the address – but itâs proven, it doesnât work well -, or you can subscribe to the updates notification service. You can also use the RSS feed and Iâll wrote more about this soon.
Iâve already got about ten sparkling post drafts to publish in the next days⌠BrrrâŚletâs shudder together!*
*A quote from Marina Massironi, an italian comedian. đ