Albegor’s Blog

I can say it out loud after a week spent at Campo Globo as volunteer of the civil protection and member of ANA of Como.
Campo Globo was one of the 170 tent camps built for the earthquake emergency in Abruzzo and took its name from the nearby store in the Coppito zone.
Once there I worked at the camp office, the place where the Alpini managed the camp and thus where I could see both positive and negative sides of the situation.
Together with three volunteers of La Spezia’s ANA, Enrico, Attilio and camp-chief Alberto, we worked all day long from August 29th to September 5th, trying to respond to all the requests coming from the 930 residents and from Italian Navy and Army officers who excellently managed the two camp kitchens.
The human side of the experience has been the most important one: talking to people from L’Aquila and listening to their unfortunate stories and wishes to start over gave a precise meaning to the feeling of solidarity that made me leave for Abruzzo.
However, being able to see the ruins of the city center left a sense of sadness deep inside me. It wasn’t as watching them in photos or on TV at all: it will really take a lot of time for the reconstruction..
The photos of my personal gallery have been mostly shot at the camp, since you can find those with the ruins pretty anywhere and they do not really deliver the actual dimension of the destruction of the buildings.
My best wishes to all the people I met during that week: the Scuola del Genio and San Marco officers, the great Alpini, and the camp residents with a soul stronger than any earthquake!
As San Marco officers wrote on the sail in the picture: The lion wants it, L’Aquila in his heart.

500 Vespas charging on the streets of Como, the third edition of a great show, organized by the Vespa Club of Como on June 29.
It was an intense day: from the “Vespinta - throwing the Vespa” quiz game, to the parade on the streets of Como, to the aperitif in Brunate, to the lunch at the restaurant Gnocchetto in Tavernerio and to the award ceremony with prizes for the numerous Vespa clubs and the Vespazza, the hottest Vespa-girl!
For me it was the second meeting organized by the club I’m a member of, and just as two years ago, my duty was to take photos.
This year however, Chiara, a friend of mine, took care of it, while I was driving my Vespa and stopping in places where she could take the best shots.
Here there are the four most significant photos for me, the rest is in the dedicated gallery.
Long live to the Vespa Club of Como!

It’s incredible how we can build as close a relationship as with a family member with a creature so different from us human beings!
It happened with my cat Willy, and now that an obscure incurable illness has taken him away, all that’s left is the memory of the best moments spent stroking him, playing hide and seek, and why not, replying accordingly to his mewings.
Found 9 years ago in the area where they were building the Dadone complex in Como, Willy - the reddish tiger, become the family’s pet, a catalyst of our relations in times of trouble and in the course of time showed us that “divine feline detachment with which he measured himself with the things of the world”.
The quote is by Federico Roncoroni and comes from his Amici Mici published by Edizioni Ulivo, as are these lines which Willy certainly knew:

The true owner
A cat you believe you own
and he just to please you
makes you believe
he loves to be owned.
Actually
the truth lies elsewhere.
You do not own a cat,
ever:
the cat owns you.
Now that you know it,
never forget it:
you are the cat
of the cat you own.

Thanks to all my dear friends who stood by me at such a difficult time.

After almost two years spent working in the spaces the Acceleratore d’Impresa of the Politecnico di Milano assigned us, since September we moved to a new office: always in Como, pretty close to the University, roomy and with costs compatible with our startup budget.
We share the new space with other two ICT companies, Oplà and EnnovaResearch, and we’re going to maintain the great relationship we built with the staff of the Acceleratore d’Impresa.
I’m happy because not only we enjoyed playing as house-painters (the picture is self-explanatory! ;)) and interior decorators, but mostly because in this way we can knock down a barrier that was limiting the internal communication of our team.
Being able to see each other almost everyday, certainly will speed up the decisional process and we’ll be able to make more things together.
This while we’re getting ready for an October really full of important events: Innovation Circus, SMAU and Lu.Be.C..
Togunà’s adventure continues from the new office!

Who could have ever said that I would had to install a remote station of the Net-tailor system no less than in Moscow?
And yet we did it, everything went ok fortunately. On last Saturday, together with Cleto Orefice, I flew to the Russian capital and in the following two days I installed and configured the IP camera that will allow Cleto to remotely take measurements and do the suits fitting for Styleguide.ru’s customers, a company taking care of the image and style of important people.
There were a lot of uncertainties before leaving, both from the technical and human point of view, mixed together with the appeal and mystery of a big city such as Moscow.
It wasn’t easy, but everything went well also thanks to Styleguide.ru staff, in particular their young manager and founder Ivan and his brilliant assistants Nadia and Viktoria.
Thanks to them we had the opportunity to appreciate some of the Moscow wonders, as you can see in the gallery of 69 photos I shot.
Really a great experience!
I’m very happy for Cleto, since his investment to make the Net-tailor system is beginning to generate profits.
Who knows where we’ll go to install the next station…

It’s dream becoming reality: a new technological company is born, gathering five friends and professionals and offering i-muse™ as its first product!
In this entrepreneurial adventure I involved Guido, Luca, Paolo and Samantha together with me.
Five young guys from Como with complementary skills who try because they believe they can succeed.
What does Togunà mean?
Suggested by Guido, who also gave birth to the name i-muse™ ;), it’s an African word indicating the “house of wisdom“, a sort of covered place such as the one in the picture where the village’s wise men get together to have a talk.
A simple name, easy to explain and with a proper meaning if we recall the weekly evening meetings we regularly have since we started working on i-muse™.
The company is just a starting point, although with a solid basis, since we built a lot until now thanks to the work we did creating a product such as i-muse™.
Now we’re on the market, ready to take care of our first customer, and I, as President of our Management Board, feel at the same time the burden and the honor to give my best in order to continue in this adventure together with my partners!
Finger crossed and thanks to our supporters!

The guys who launched the portal Comoe20.it decided to interview us for their WebTV.
They came to the Educational Silk Museum of Como to see our videoguide at work and ask us if we made the system with our sole forces or someone did help us out.
Although the number of people involved in the project who supported us is relevant, from the Politecnico to the Chamber of Commerce of Como, to the Educational Silk Museum’s staff, the investment in terms of time and money has been almost entirely ours.
It’s something pretty surprising actually. Five youngers from Como who try to play as entrepreneurs starting with a product dedicated to a difficult market, especially in Italy: we’re actually inventing our work!
This is the message of the nice video edited by Comoe20.it’s staff and we hope the people will get it.
Enjoy the video!

In a few days all the five of us will leave for Canada to demonstrate i-muse™ at the ICHIM 07, the international conference about informatics applied to cultural heritage that will take place in Toronto from the 24th to the 26th of October.
For us it’s an incredible chance to show the results of our work to the 300 invited people coming from all over the world, including researchers, sector experts and professionals.
Even the local daily newspaper La Provincia wished us good luck with a great article by Sara della Torre.
It’s a big investment for us, although actually facilitated, since we are among the beneficiaries of the Bando Ingenio, a regional announcement of competition which guarantees us that the expenses sustained for the educational mobility will be refunded.
Meanwhile we got some interest thanks to the paper about i-muse™ we wrote for the conference.
We’ll try to leave a positive impression and to enjoy the adventure.
We’re getting ready with the last things and then let’s go!

After the interview on last February on ZeroTreUno during which me, Luca and Paolo explained what we would have done to make i-muse™, I went back to Espansione TV to tell what we actually did at the Educational Silk Museum.
Elda De Mattei, the presenter, was curious to know if we managed to keep our good promises to create a really innovative tool to visit museums and art events.
With the PDA in my hand, I showed her how much easy is using i-muse™ and I believe I got the attention of the public by showing some of the best pieces of our video guide.
Elda wished us good luck for the incoming travel to Toronto where we’ll present i-muse™ at the ICHIM 07 and I appreciated when she gave me the opportunity to tell about my passion for the Vespa and my wish to be able to see i-muse™ guiding visitors at the Museo Piaggio someday.
Elda called Alice our virtual guide Chiara, a little mistake, certainly lesser than the mention of the atomic bomb during the interview in February!
Here is the video of the 12 minutes interview in DivX format.

After the presentation on Saturday 29 September for the event A Night at the Museum 2007 which attracted important guests like Paolo De Santis, President of the Como’s Chamber of Commerce, and Pierluigi della Vigna, professor at the Politecnico di Milano, together with numerous friends and curious people, yesterday I went to Venice to get an award for our i-muse™ project: a special nomination in the e-culture category of the eContentAward 2007 contest.
The journey has been the opportunity for me to visit for the first time a fascinating town such as Venice.
Dario, a PhD student at Ca’ Foscari university who kindly guided me through the town’s Calle, told me with a bit of irony: “First time in Venice? It shouldn’t have been easy missing it!”.
Once filled the laguna gap, for i-muse™ there are other surprises coming by!