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.

Giving an effective presentation is pretty difficult task and Guido actually did it by presenting i-muse™ at
Touristech 2008!
On November 28, in the Sala Affreschi of Palazzo Isimbardi in Milan, we attended the third edition of the conference organized by Wireless and dedicated to innovative technologies for tourism.
The presentations were (almost) all interesting, each one focused on a different information technology tool: from web 2.0 style mobile service platforms to community portals for specific sectors such as sailing, from theatrical podcasts for historical town tours to i-muse™, our videoguide platform which aims to make its technology so transparent that the user can see only one thing: quality contents!
An objective not so easy to demonstrate we achieved, as discussed at the conference: the only method is using it and Guido explained this by talking about the i-muse™ installation project at Villa Bernasconi in Cernobbio and its possible evolution.
The date with Chiara, the virtual guide, is set to April 2009!

Apple hit my soft spot!
A few days ago I flew to Berlin to attend the conference dedicated to iPhone developers which took place on November 10 at Freie Universität.
iPhone is the first target of the extention of our videoguide platform, so I couldn’t miss the event that also gave me the chance to visit the german capital for the first time.
As a player of WWII videogames, I attacked or defended Berlin a lot of times on virtual battlefields. Maybe the sort of reverential fear I initially had about Berlin was due to that, other than to my complete ignorance about the german language.
However, walking around the city, alone or with Laura and Fawzi, two friends researchers I met in Toronto during ICHIM 07, my feelings did change: it’s a pleasant metropolis, with bike lanes, an efficient transportation system, little pollution and a lot of stories to tell: from the remains of the Wall to the chocolate sculptures by Fassbender&Rausch (in the picture you can see their unsinkable chocolate Titanic!).
Laura and Fawzi not only did offer their hospitality for my first stop in Berlin, but also helped me appreciating the city, including german and syrian cuisine: heartful thanks!
The contents of the iPhone Tech Talk were interesting, although necessarily not too much in-depth. Two of the speakers were italians, so it was pretty easy getting in touch with them and talk about i-muse™.
And now let’s bite the SDK of the Apple’s phone, since it looks like the ideal device on which i-muse™ will run!

On October 23 and 24 I’ve been in the magic Lucca together with the whole Togunà’s team to attend Lu.Be.C. 2008, one of the most important events in Italy about technology applied to the cultural heritage sector.
We were both among the 40 exhibitors with our stand and among the speakers in the afternoon conference dedicated to partnership case studies between public administration and private companies: the ideal opportunity to announce the i-muse™ installation project for Villa Bernasconi, a wonderful Liberty-style villa in Cernobbio, just recently restored.
Together with the Major of Cernobbio, Simona Saladini, Guido showed a demo of i-muse™ with the first contents made for the villa, impeccably speakered in Italian (thanks Melania!).
At the end of the two days in Lucca my team was really galvanized, a satisfaction that repays us of the hard work done until now to weave the web holding our startup in search of clients a bit at a time.
Big thanks to the staff of PromoPA, organizer the event, in particular to the patient Francesca Velani, Diana Lomas e Silvia Doberti!
Nice were the eco-compatible exhibition desks and panels made entirely by cardboard and great was the concert at the Auditorium San Romano with spectacular lights effects by Son et Lumière.

Interviews, articles, friends, curious people, potential partners and investors: anything and anyone visited our stand inside the Innovation Itineraries area during the four days of Smau 2008!
Tired and satisfied, thanks also to Emil Abirascid, who took care of the forth edition of the Itineraries and led to our stand journalists and reporters, with these results: Paolo interviewed by TG2 and Blogosfere, Guido interviewed by Markom.tv and Lombardia1TV, my interview for Radio24, an article on il Giornale, another one on the Lombardia feature of Il Sole 24 ORE and a mention on Nova24.
I’m happy since there was great attention towards startups created by young adults willing to innovate and change things!
And now the Lu.Be.C. event in Lucca is waiting for us, where we’ll present an important new project for our startup during the afternoon session.
Even at Lu.Be.C. we’ll have a stand where our “Chiara - the virtual guide”, will uncover herself for the joy of heritage valorization specialists!

The center of Milan has been overwhelmed by the events of Innovation Circus for a whole week: talk shows, presentations, exhibitions and interactive labs about innovation for everyone.
With such a theme i-muse™ had to be there! We had the chance to talk about our videoguide two times: during the talk show about innovation in turism that took place at Ottagono, in the center of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, and during Milano in Progress at Palazzo Giureconsulti, a marathon of presentations by creative and innovative local companies.
There was all Togunà team at Ottagono and Guido, during his brilliant speech, showed the audience the best videos and animations of i-muse™.
Paolo then repeated the presentation at Palazzo Giureconsulti in just 5 minutes marked by a virtual gong.
Now we’re ready for the next event: we’re exhibitors at Smau 2008, inside the Percorsi dell’Innovazione area, stand P18. Come and see us there!

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!

Windows Mobile Italy published an interview about our entrepreneurial adventure.
The editor-in-chief Diego Magnani opens the interviews section of the site by posting a series of questions and answers about Togunà and i-muse™.
I know Diego since he was editor of the italian printed magazine Il mio palmare, so he introduced me in the interview by recalling Euro Coins Pocket Collector, the first software I made for the Pocket PC platform.
Since then, mobile devices with the Microsoft operative system conquered a good market share, especially the convergent devices with phone capabilities, and the name of the platform changed to Windows Mobile.
There’s no lack of news at all in this world and Diego has the experience to report them to his readers in an pretty appealing way. Good luck then to Diego for his new editorial adventure.
Enjoy the interview!

i-muse™ now runs even on the Zypad made by Eurotech!
It’s a mobile device with WindowsCE 6.0 operative system, belonging to the category of the so-called “wearable computers” made by the multinational Eurotech.
One of the most stimulating aspects of my role as technical director in Togunà Interactive is playing with the latest devices, and thanks to Eurotech we had the chance to port i-muse™ on their Zypad with the perspective to start some projects together.
The conversion was a hard challenge, especially due to the redesign of the user interface, since the Zypad has a 320×240 pixels low-resolution display.
It’s a pretty compact and multipurpose device, deployable in numerous application environments thanks to the integration of the Rfid, Bluetooth, Zigbee and Gps technologies according to the models.
Now that our videoguide platform supports mobile devices with Windows Mobile and Windows CE operative systems, we can devote our resources to the devices made by other major market players, such as Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch!

Thanks again to the support of the Startup Accelerator and its renewed staff, we had the chance to show i-muse™ to the public for the second time since the birth of Togunà Interactive.
The exhibition area of the Wireless for Business Forum was smaller than the R2B one and the event was pretty much focused on the conferences. However, our little desk at the Startup Accelerator’s stand, which also hosted our friends at Urbano Creativo and Fluidmesh, got the attention both of curious people and potential partners and clients.
Compared to other providers of innovative technologies, we have can directly show a working videoguide, and this easily get the attention of the people passing by.
By the way, how could you resist to the banner with “Chiara - the virtual guide“, as you can see in the photo?
See you at the next exhibition!