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…

The handshake between me and Cleto Orefice, the “Virtual Tailor in Cernobbio”, celebrates the delivery of the latest version of the Net-tailor software, right in front of the system made with the scientific coordination of the Centro Volta, in particular with the engineer Matteo Baracani.
While I was implementing a series of modifications and improvements he requested, Cleto began studying the market and setting up the marketing plan, fundamental elements to be able to place his innovative system on the real market.
From what I’ve seen so far the favorable conditions do exist and the system could be soon deployed in Italy and abroad.
A real good luck to Cleto the virtual tailor then!
For the technical side of things he already knows he can count upon me.

I was surprised when Cleto Orefice, the Virtual Tailor in Cernobbio, told me that on the Corriere Economia dated Monday March 12 we were both included in the list of the 109 italian entrepreneurs under age 50 devoting themselves to innovation in all its aspects.
I asked myself: what the hell I’m doing among people such as Catia Bastioli, Stefano Quintarelli, Paolo Barberis and others?
In the article, which you can read here: page 1, page 2 and page 3, they published a profile of the first 30s of the chart, while for the others there was a brief description of their activity. I was mentioned as “Davide Orlando, founder of Albegor (that’s only my nickname actually!), who creates interactive guides for museums“.
I really like that creates and the mention makes me very proud. Please allow me a joke, however: surely I’m not the richest one at all among the people in the list!
Money is not necessarily the purpose for me but it’s certainly a tool, sometimes the only one, to actually make things.
I say this because the difficulties I faced to come to this point, almost ready to launch a highly innovative product such as i-muse™, have been even too much to tell.
A welcome to the mention on the Corriere Economia then. I’d really like to meet the other innovative entrepreneurs mentioned. I think I could learn a lot from them!

After the mention on Business People, the brief article on L’Espresso and most of all the interview on RaiDue, even the local daily newspaper La Provincia wrote about this now famous mythological figure.
A nice article emphasizing the long tradition of the Sartoria Orefice through the words of Mr. Lino Orefice which belongs to the series of articles devoted to innovation projects completed with success since the Centro Volta’s IComo initiative was born less than one year ago.
When the articles was published, on November 30th 2006, I thought something was missing: at least the mention of my name as the author of the hardware and software system born from Cleto Orefice’s idea which now allows the tailor shop to work in a totally different way.
I would have loved to see that not only for a minimum of personal pride, but also because I’d like to repeat the experience with another local artigianal enterprise willing to start an innovation journey by using informatics tools.
Also it has been the result of a great team work and in my opinion this was a chance to highlight the Centro Volta’s role as an effective aggregator of local competences, the true mission of IComo.
Maybe it’s better getting back to work and don’t be too much concerned about that, focusing instead on the message this article gave to readers: the tailor in Cernobbio is really an example to follow!
Consider that Mr. Lino, who always had an active role in the project thanks to his experience, works since 60 years and shows his invaluable irony whenever he reads of people complaining about the increment of the retirement age.
Discussing about workers’ rights is legitimate, but this is to say that for me he really represents an example to follow!

Making a sum of a whole year?
365 days lived more dangerously than I ever did?
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 Year’s Day, the hard work on the Net-Taylor innovation project for the Sartoria Orefice, the Vespatour 2006, 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 they’re miraculous, but because I read them while I was ready to change -, the suffering for a deep love affair…
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.
All in all a lot of things which made me grow up. And the more I think about where I am now the more I’m sure that nothing could have happened if I hadn’t been involved in the project for the Sartoria Orefice and I hadn’t found there people so kind with whom to confront and work on an delicate innovation project which is now considered as a reference model, a project that made me grow up both professionally and humanly.
As always it’s a combination of positive factors producing excellence, while a negative one is enough to unleash the Murphy’s law!
Even the last year I wrote an End of the Year Thought 2005, but I didn’t published it, a sign of a not too happy period. I do it now on the new blog since I recovered it in my notes. I invite you to read it because it’s still present, unfortunately.
I wish you a happy 2007, the year of the pig!

Here is the video of the interview recorded for the Non Solo Soldi (Not only money) TG2’s feature which sees as protagonist The Virtual Taylor in Cernobbio, this almost mythological hero lost inside the fog of the Lake of Como…
Even I, who took care of the project, am used to name him as the press did until now, although at the taylor shop they would prefer the exact reference to Sartoria Orefice for a matter of marketing.
Maybe it’s better this way, people easily remember the fable of the virtual taylor taking measurements using a camera over the Internet.
The TV interview made everyone in the taylor shop really excited and in the video, other than the staff at work while Cleto Orefice is describing how the system works, even I am visible in the recording running on the left monitor. We recorded that while I was trying the suit they made (sculpted is the most elegant metaphor ) to measure for me.
Really a marketing hit for the taylor shop and the people involved in the project.
The video is available both in high resolution (12Mb, 640×480) and low resolution (6,4Mb, 320×240), the last one optimized for PDAs.
Enjoy!

Note: If you’re using Windows Media Player you can switch English subtitles on and off with the keyboard shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+C.

Such a title chosen for the interview to Raffaello Vignali, president of the Compagnia delle Opere, published in the November issue of the magazine Business People is emblematic to say the least and it means only one thing: the innovation project related to the taylor shop Sartoria Orefice in Cernobbio I took care of from the beginning to the end with the coordination of the Centro Volta has become a success case!
An example to follow for Italian small businesses which are hearing a lot of talk about innovation, would like to start these kind of projects but they don’t know which way to turn.
I can’t spare hard criticism for the sentence: “Here couldn’t have existed neither Hewlett and Packard nor Bill Gates, since in Italy if someone starts a company inside a garage the Asl (the local sanitary inspection service) comes and forces them to close“… a pathetic cliché often used to hide the real problems of the new ICT startups.
Vignali’s interview is actually centered on the issues the Italian business class has to face to try following the difficult way of innovation in order to be able to maintain the competitivity of the Made in Italy product in a globalized market, and also on the benefits generated when an innovation project comes to a good conclusion, using as a clear example the “Taylor in Cernobbio“, although in the interview the project is described generically with some mistakes about the system’s working.
A working which has been well explained on Thursday morning by Cleto Orefice when a Rai troupe headed by journalist Sandra Cecchi went to the taylor shop to record an interview for the Non Solo Soldi (Not only money) TG2’s feature, a feature broadcast from Monday to Friday at 10:30 on Rai Due.
The TV interview will last only a few minutes but it will be the first time the system will be officially shown. Really a must see to understand how the hell a taylor working in the same manner for 5 generations learnt to use a PC and Internet not only to simplify his work but also to make his business grow with perspectives which are probably still beyond estimation.
Although I’m more at ease with textures rather than fabrics , by now I could almost say I’m a taylor too if you consider the analogy of the artigianal work I already wrote about on the blog, so it will be a real pleasure following at close the evolution of the project.

Yesterday evening I attended a conference organized by Innovacomo, the initiative of Confartigianato Imprese Como aimed to promote innovation among the the local small and medium artisan enterprises.
There were much more participants than expected, a clear sign of the interest for the argument. Mr. Cleto Orefice recommended me to attend since he had been invited to speak about the project I made for his Sartoria Orefice with the coordination of the Centro Volta.
Dressed in an impeccable suit, as only a taylor could do, he held a presentation so clear and effective in just a few minutes of speech that positively surprised me.
After him some other artisans-entrepreneurs presented their success cases.
It was my first time at their meetings and I felt comfortable to be among them, maybe because I do feel like an artisan after all. The type of tools might be very different, since I work with bytes and lines of code while an artisan like Mr. Orefice uses needle and thread to create high quality custom dresses. Well, to say the truth now he’s using a PC and an Internet connection also.
Bruno Panieri, Confartigianato’s responsible for the market and rules sector, was connected from Rome thanks to the Skype videoconferencing feature. He had very good words for the Innovacomo initiative considering it a example to follow at a national level, a sort of polar star, he said.
Innovacomo’s staff aims to build a network made of two fundamental elements: a community of artisans-entrepreneurs and a database of ideas, connect them and promote innovation. I think they are going to succeed only if they’ll join forces with other local initiative such as IComo. It’s nonsense in my opinion trying to make important steps by themselves in the minefield of innovation in a globalized market. Synergy is the key here to help turn a simple idea into a solid success case, such as the Orefice’s project.

Whatever could a tailor and a software developer have in common?
I would have been unable to answer myself up to a few months ago when I started working on a technology innovation project commissioned by the most prestigious tailor shop in Cernobbio, Sartoria Orefice, under the scientific coordination of the Centro Volta research center. I wrote a bit about this project in the past updates and now that we’re nearing the end, I have been allowed to write in even greater detail.
Sartoria Orefice is one of the few small enterprises in this high quality market sector renowned for excellence not only in Italy but also in many countries of the world so much so that a lot of customers come to Cernobbio from abroad to ask Mr. Lino and his son Cleto, who now runs the business, to create the perfect suit for them.
So, back to the initial riddle, I am convinced the most appropriate answer consists in one simple word: Elegance!
Consider the hard work the tailor, guided only by his year-long experience, engages in every day with such simple tools as needle and thread. Compare it now with the work I have done over the course of the last months with tools only apparently more complicated such as bits and bytes to create a hardware and software system which will make Orefice’s work much more efficient and profitable.
Especially the software part was made to measure, as they say, and the end result is as elegant as a finely handcrafted suit.
No doubt they’ll be able to expand their business with this system. As a matter of fact the reason they invested in it in the first place is they strongly believe in its potential.
I was truly happy to find such great people to work with: Cleto, Lino, their kind staff and Matteo from the Centro Volta. By working side to side with them I had the pleasure to learn some (only a few actually) of the secrets of a craftsmanship as old as the hills and fine-tuned by 5 generations of tailors. This year they’re celebrating 150 years since the first Orefice started the business in 1856.
This project gave me the chance to gain experience in a number of fields, from the development of custom software to familiarization with the latest videosurvelliance and videoconferencing IP-based hardware, Sony’s products in particular, but, above all, gave me the opportunity to learn to deal with people in the best way, understanding their needs and changing a problem into an efficient working solution.
I’d really love to apply this kind of approach to another small local enterprise. The staff at the Centro Volta is ready to enroll me again should someone else request their direct assistance in a technology innovation project, maybe along the lines of the IComo initiative.
You could call me directly if you prefer, while if you need a high quality Italian-made (Cernobbio-made actually) suit now you know who to call.
With their new system Cleto and his father will be able to assist you all the way, from the choice of the fabric to the finest details of your suit even if you live on the other side of the globe.
Recently I came across a pretty significant quote by Albert Einstein which inspired me the initial riddle:

If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.

Patents and intellectual property rights were the subject matter of the seminar organized by the research center Centro Volta related to the IComo: la fabbrica delle idee initiative, a project aimed to promote technology innovation among the local small and medium enterprises. The meeting took place in Villa Olmo, the place chosen for the current exhibition devoted to Magritte, and consisted of a series of presentations by some company representatives and professional consultants involved in the delicate matter of tutelating intellectual property rights and exploiting the benefits and the added value of patents.
The current tendency is to consider a patent not only as a good tool of legal protection for a company’s idea or processing method, but also as an internal asset to make business with, a way of thinking Americans already well know and use pretty effectively. Testimonials of this were the representatives of big companies such as ABB and Fiat with its CRF (Fiat Research Center).
From the conference clearly emerged that evaluating the convenience and opportunity of registering a patent is a very delicate matter and requires the support of experts needed to perform a series of studies and researches in order to be able to produce a strong patent, which may serve as an effective protection tool especially for the local small enterprises constantly facing the counterfeiting phenomenon of a now globalized market.
The innovation technology project I’m currently involved with under the direct coordination of the Centro Volta is evaluating these issues and after this seminar I’m even more convinced in the way of registering a patent to tutelate the work we’re doing and then make business with, if possible.
Registering a patent instead of maintaining an industrial secret inside a company has both advantages and disadvantages. With a patent your idea is made public but you tutelate yourself for the number of years you’re going to do business with. On the opposite think about the Coca-Cola formula for example. They say they didn’t patent it so it still remains an industrial secret.
Software is an even more delicate matter if inserted in the patent issue, but that was not discussed in the meeting. The EU Commission is still debating about software patents and since they’re considered a big obstacle to innovation, especially by small developers, I suggest you to read about the NoSoftwarePatents campaign.
The conference ended with a funny and smart presentation by a lawyer who gave the audience some significant examples of the way of working in our country compared to the US. They seem to be different planets in this particular matter, not only by the numbers involved.