Splinder and the University of Venice Ca' Foscari, working together for a new model of University Research in Italy
Splinder, the first community blog in Italy and the University of Venice Ca’ Foscari: a convention and a book to examine Ibrid@menti, a collective blog in collaboration with the University and the world of bloggers
Milan, May 15 2007 – Splinder, the first community blog in Italy, in collaboration with the University of Venice Ca’ Foscari and the Center for Inter-University Didactic Research and Advanced Education, will present the first results of the Ibrid@menti project in Venice on May 17th. The project is an experimental and virtual laboratory where University bloggers can share ideas thanks to a blog hosted by Splinder (http://ibridamenti.splinder.com) and coordinated by the Doctorate School of Language, Cognitive and Educational Studies at the University Ca’ Foscari.
The blog Ibrid@menti, founded just six months ago, now has over 164 subscribers, 221 posts published,131,000 contacts and 14,042 comments. With these figures Ibrid@menti has become, in just a short time, one of the most important collective blogs in Italy, something totally unique for Italian Universities.
The first results of the Ibrid@menti project will be presented Saturday May 17, 2008 at the “THINK ONLINE: Blogs and university research” convention held in the conference hall at Palazzo Malcanton Marcorà in Venice. The meeting will give bloggers and university researchers a chance to meet face-to-face after months of “virtual” debates and discussions.
The book “New Models of University Research: COLLECTIVE PRACTICES ONLINE” (Mimesis Editions, 2008) will be presented at the conference with its 25 co-authors including writers, psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, educators, semiologists and bloggers, who all ventured together into the complexity of the blogosphere.
The event’s lineup includes: Umberto Margiotta, Provost of the University of Venice Ca’ Foscari and Pedagogy professor, Paolo Barberis, chairman and founder of Dada (the parent company of Splinder), Luciano Benadusi, dean of Sociology at La Sapienza University in Rome, Daniele La Barbera, head of the Neuroscience clinic at the University of Palermo and Psychiatry professor, Tiziano Scarpa, writer and essayist, Mario Galzigna, History professor at University of Venice, Gianluca Ligi, Social Anthropology professor at the University of Venice, and Pietro Barbetta, Psychology professor at the University of Bergamo.
Tiziano Scarpa writes in the book: “Online discussions, like conversational masses, crash into each other fully charged with their own energy, and not with the energy of the authors. Like thunderclouds, differences in potential collide producing thunder, illumination, and knowledge.”
Giacomo Festi, from the International Laboratory of Semiotics in Venice (LISaV), writes: “While on other communication platforms anonymous formats prevail (who invented Big Brother?), the web, often a symbol of collective or distributed intelligence, reaffirms the author’s individual identity in the blogosphere, even in games of conversational fiction.”
Mario Galzigna: "Cyberspace, blogs and new media, today, are increasingly structured like a world. They are world-media: they therefore become a place of autonomy in which society is reflected, a land of experience and expression for many different kinds of manifestations of subjectivity”.
Umberto Margiotta, in the introduction writes: " Ibrid@menti is the example of how we can restore broad communities of knowledgeable and experienced producers”.
Paolo Barberis, in the introduction writes: “University and bloggers, two worlds so close together and yet so far away. So close because University students are often bloggers themselves; so far away because the organization of the web is very different from the traditional organization of universities. …Splinder side-by-side with the University is a forerunner for innovation”.
The convention held Saturday May 17, 2008 is organized by:
* The Doctorate School of Language, Cognitive and Educational Studies at the University Ca’ Foscari
* The Center for Inter-University Didactic Research and Advanced Education
* The Department of History at the University of Venice Ca’ Foscari.
* Splinder, the Dada Group
In collaboration with:
* The International Laboratory of Semiotics in Venice (LISaV)
* The Neuroscience Clinic, Psychiatry Department at the University of Palermo
* The Sociology Department at the University of Rome La Sapienza
Further details on the event are available at the following link:
http://ibridamenti.splinder.com/post/16903824/17+maggio+2008...+pensiamoci+i
