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Analfabetismo funzionale in Italia - Functional illiteracy in Italy

By
Luca De Biase
on October 14, 2011 10:39 AM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
English version at the bottom of the page

Al World editors forum ha fatto sensazione tra l'altro il tema dell'analfabetismo funzionale italiano, chiaramente collegato alla scarsa circolazione dei giornali.

Un punto di partenza per questo tema è la definizione offerta dall'Ocse. "A person is functionally illiterate who cannot engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective functioning of his group and community and also for enabling him to continue to use reading, writing and calculation for his own and the community's development."

Un dato registrato nello Human Development Report, dell'Onu, segnala una situazione italiana particolarmente grave: in questo rapporto, del 2009, gli italiani che hanno problemi di analfabetismo funzionale arrivano al 47% della popolazione. Si direbbe tra l'altro che la situazione generale italiana sia peggiorata tra il 2009 e il 2010. Il tema generale è enorme e non è collegato solo a povertà o disoccupazione: Bbc, Guardian, Human poverty index. Evidentemente è un problema di sistema educativo e di alternative mediatiche: in un paese che fonda molta parte della sua comunicazione sulla televisione, la sfida a migliorare le proprie capacità di lettura e scrittura è ridotta. Da notare che l'analfabetismo funzionale non è l'analfabetismo tout court: riguarda le capacità di lettura, non il fatto di avere o non avere frequentato una scuola.


At the World editors forum, It made some sensation a figure about functional illiteracy rates in Italy, a subject that is clearly linked to the small circulation of newspapers.

You can start finding information about this subject by looking at the definition of functional illiteracy that is given by the Oecd. "A person is functionally illiterate who cannot engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective functioning of his group and community and also for enabling him to continue to use reading, writing and calculation for his own and the community's development."

Figures about the matter are published in the Human Development Report, by the Un: Italians that have problems with funtional illiteracy are the 47% of the population. The subject is huge and it is not linked only to poverty or unemployment: Bbc, Guardian, Human poverty index. It seems that the general Italian situation has worsened between 2009 and 2010. It is more likely a problem linked to the educational system and to media alternatives: in a country with a lot of television, challanges to improve one's ability to read and write are less important than elsewhere. It must be noticed that functional illiteracy is not the same thing as illiteracy tout court: it is about the actual ability to read, it is not about having or not passed some time at school.

How to explain a foreign audience why, as usual, the Italian situation is tragic but it's not serious

By
Luca De Biase
on October 14, 2011 7:18 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
In less than an hour, I will be speaking in Vienna, at the World Editors Forum. They asked me to tell a story about how newspapers should improve, particularly on paper. All right. That's the trap. How can I get out of it?

The Italian situation, as usual, is tragic but it is not serious.

It is not serious because we seem unable to have any serious debate at the political level about ourselves, the way we manage our public finances, the way we organize. And because we have a weird kind of government.

It is tragic also because the problem is not only in the political class. Italians that are considered functionally illiterate are around one third of the population. We used to sell 6 million print newspapers at the beginning of the new millennium - which is not much for a 60 million population - but now we sell less than 5 million.

Italians that want to know better what's happening are many. The main television channels are not generally covering facts like the trials that convinced the Economist to write about the prime minister that he is "unfit" to run Italy. So there was a market for a newspaper that covered that in a very detailed way. And Il Fatto is a newspaper on paper that has been a huge success because it printed a lot of those facts. Is the recipe a sort of "back to basic" recipe? Even Il Sole 24 Ore seems to be back to a batter circulation because it went back to its basic role of financial newspaper after having tryed to be more generalistic.

These are good signs. But the real strategy is not going to be a "back to basic" recipe.

Newpapers on paper are using a very rich and expensive display. They are part of the ecosystem. Any single story can be found in different formats and media. Paper's strenght is in its being limited and beautiful. But it will win only by having a fertile relationship with digital, web and tablet to say the least. It will always be a complex contest to work in. And the only way out is not "back to basic": the way out is "ahead to basic".

(Sorry I cut here these notes, but I need to rush to the venue...)

update: here is what the official wef blog has written...

The case for an Italian rebellion. Why it doesn't happen. And what could happen

By
Luca De Biase
on September 25, 2011 1:06 PM | | Comments (21) | TrackBacks (0)
The case for an Italian rebellion is not insane. I had the chance to speak with many foreign observers, recently, and I found that an Italian rebellion is considered a real option. (I will not quote their names, but if they want they can comment here).

An Italian rebellion? Other Mediterranean countries have done just so, lately. Tunisia and Egypt, for example, have chosen to rebel against their dictators and the world has appreciated. Considering the Italian political situation as a sort of authoritarian regime and thinking that it is not reformable through the normal democratic process, one is lead to think that the rebellion is the only possible solution.

In that mindset, if Italians rebel, they demonstrate their democratic will and maturity. If they don't rebel, they show they are anything between accomplices and weak victims of the head of their government and his power system. If Italians will rebel, they will free themselves from the shame of accepting a very doubtful sort of democratic government, the consequences of which are dangerous for themselves and the world. That's the option. But it is not happening.

Why?

Of course, assuming that Italy is not a real democracy and that it is not going to be reformed through a democratic process is a quite extreme vision of the Italian situation. Many Italians still think they are in a democracy and that next electoral opportunities will bring a new government to them. But many others think that they live in a regime, based on a non-democratic control over the media (i.e. television) by the head of the government.

The incredible series of scandals that involved the head of the government are linked to his political incapacity to manage the financial crisis, which makes Italy dangerous for the world's financial stability. There is a general understanding about the fact that a change in government should be needed to solve some real Italian problems. The government has resisted all scandals by denying any problems and by acting as if all criticism was the enemy's obscure maneuver. The majority in Parliament has been reinforced by an alliance with a dozen or more politicians that had been elected in one of the opposition's parties and that have been convinced to change side using very controversial means. Many see the Italian political stall as a consequence of a lack of democracy in Italy. If nothing is done, Italy will lose its place in the euro system, causing tragic consequences to the world's financial stability. Poverty will grow, desperation will rise, violence will diffuse.

Thus, as it has been said, a rebellion should be an option. Or isn't it?

As seen from abroad if Italians don't rebel, it may be that Italians are accepting the way their politicians work. If it was true, the international shame should be on them, too, and not only on their politicians. But listening to what Italians are thinking and doing is a bit more complicated. And maybe a learning experience.

Of course, there are different kind of Italian experiences:
1. A 35% of Italians are considered functionally illiterate: they cannot read, they only rely on television to getting the news. They sort of live in a fiction, which is created by the very power source of the present political leadership. When they vote, they vote accordingly.
2. There is a 10% who read a lot: they are connected to the rest of the world, they work with the rest of the word, they export, they travel, they read English, or French, or German. They know that Italy is not working and needs to be fixed. Some of them think that it is possible to reform, but they don't seem to find a political alternative to what there is now. Some other just care for their interests and do what they can to save themselves. Finally, some of them think that nothing can be done, they will vote at the next elections and they will hope without believing.
3. Young people are connected and desperate. They rely on their parents' help. They don't seem to be willing to risk if they don't see were to bet. If there was something to risk about, some of them would risk: some would go abroad, some would start a company, some would rebel... Some of them actually do so. The majority of them is sort of silently waiting for somebody that explains what can be done.
4. Some Italians are leaders: companies, universities, foundations, associations, city and regional managements are full of great people that innovate and keep the Italian machine going. They are busy doing the job for the rest of their fellow citizens and don't think to rebel.
5. Some Italians are criminals. They do whatever they can to get power and money. They don't pay taxes. They trade drugs. They build where it is forbidden. They devastate the environment. They engulf culture with any kind of horrible content. They don't rebel, because they like the way Italy is now.
6. Some Italians have faith. They wait.
7. Some Italians are testing the new means that the network is creating to change the way the media work, to improve their economic opportunities, to link to abroad: they haven't yet overcome the power of television, but they have had a great, historic success this year by winning the attention game, when the majority of Italians showed up to vote for a referendum that television didn't even bother to cover (the referendum was about stopping the nuclear power in Italy, stopping the privatization of water distribution and cancelling a law that helped the head of the government to escape some of his troubles with justice).

All Italians are worried and many are angry. Very angry. A rebellion cannot be considered impossible. But it is not what Italians are really interested in. And this is not because they like the system they are imprisoned in. They silently seem to say that they need something different.

Italians have lived ten and more years of terrorism. Thousands of them were killed by fascist and communist terrorists during the Seventies. Italians didn't seem to like terrorists. But some of them shared with terrorists the idea that Italy is not really a reformable country. That is the major threat to a democracy. Reformist should become popular by achieving some results: if there are never results, cynical analysis emerge. And cynism leads to terror or to helplessness. We had terror in the past. Now we are experiencing helplessness.

Is it going to change?

The Eighties started with the hope of modernization and ended in some bad scandals while the public debt was starting to grow. During the last 20 years the government has been going from the great hope inspired by the European project, which was won in the Nineties, and the great distress of the present crisis. Change all over the world, in the last decade, has been lived in Italy as some sort of a passive experience, nothing that Italians were able to do anything about.

Through these ups and downs, there has been a war on culture: Italians have seen institutions bombarded by the barbaric language of the new politicians, they have seen the schools were their children go left without money to work, they saw their universities struggling to get any financing, they watched in television dozens of self interested leaders doing whatever they wanted, they heard the voices of a couple of businessmen laughing in recorded calls because the earthquake was going to get them good money... Italians are living an "after war", a cultural war that devastated the country. Rebels have conquered the government and have destroyed peace, in Italy. Fear, urgencies, finances, are concentrating attention on the short term. Italians can rebel again. But most of all, they need perspective and peace.

How to get peace?

If they live in peace, if they have something to build, Italians are one of the best people in the world. If they are at war, they are not. They are better at resisting than at battling. But Italians, as - and more than - any other people in the western world, miss the time in which they shared a vision.

To get peace, Italians need to think and to act. Probably this means that they have to start by thinking better. And act quickly, after that.

This is the end of this long post. And I'm sorry for having written so much. Forgive a passionate Italian. Who is looking for something to do for his country, for his people, and for his children.

Italians are not alone in missing a vision. But Italians are paying a lot more for this. And maybe they will find a way out, that can become interesting for other people, too.

A rebellion is a revolution without a vision. Italians, probably, don't really need a rebellion. They need a shared vision based on facts and reality (not on ideology and reality shows): a deep cultural change, that helps them in understanding their shared project, that helps rebuild a perspective and that makes them look ahead with an empirically based hope. They know they will have to work hard. And they usually do, when they know for what they are working. Thought, art and culture are to change. A rebellion is an act. A deep cultural change is a movement that is needed to transform the eventual act of a rebellion in the process of a constructive and generous revolution.

Italian media at Mit MediaLab

By
Luca De Biase
on September 16, 2011 2:45 PM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
logoCivicMedia.pngIt was great to meet such an incredible group of researchers who are working in one of the myth of media studies, lead by a myth of cosmopolitan, civic, active media like Ethan Zuckerman.

My contribution, it seems, has helped them to open their views in a weird way: they needed, it seems, to get over the cutting edge problems that they face in their day to day life, and to go back to where part of the rest of the world is, or where at least Italy is: somewhere in the past.

Why should such a contribution be in any way interesting? History is done by leading, innovative contexts, such as the MediaLab, but it is also done by the laggards. Italy, as I have been saying, is a laboratory of how some media decisions can go very wrong. But there is hope and, most important, responsibility to be taken.

Two messages in one: where traditional television is still very important, the social and civic media space is even more strategic. In a place such as Italy, civic media is fundamental to generate a more equilibrated media landscape. And the year 2011 will be remembered because: 1. for the first time, internet users in Italy were more than 50% of the population; 2. three national and very important referenda were won by those that campaigned online, while television was almost completely silent (id.e. adverse) about the matter.

Hope should be linked to responsibility.

The MediaLab folks showed a fantastic knowledge of what Italians have been able to contribute in terms of politically innovative usages of the media, from Antonio Gramsci to the "radio libere" movement and to Beppe Grillo's blog. But I have also stressed that those wonderful examples were also "minoritarian by design". And I sort of proposed to find some more responsible ideas, in terms of possibilities to involve a more substantial part of the population or even the majority. Civic and social media are not condemned to stay minoritarian. They are made for everybody. But what do we need to get there?

I proposed a very simple - maybe naif - approach:
1. the television age has grown illiteracy, but we need to reduce funcional and digital illiteracy to make the most of civic media;
2. following Ethan, the media space is more like an ecosystem than an industry, and the positive relationship that can be developed between professional newspapers and citizens contributing to information is going to be instrumental to the success of the whole innovative process that we are facing and living;
3. the civic media space needs a sort of practical "epistemology of information", some sort of common methodology to enlarge the space of agreement about some shared and sharable knowledge; a sort of balkanization of the civic media space would make it weaker in comparison with old-traditional-powerful media (and the danger is real).

Ahref, with Timu, is trying to propose such an approach. We will see how it is received. It is a simple approach. But just telling everybody that you follow some simple methodological principles when you generate and share information, could make a difference. A more transparent behavioural code could be embedded in a platform code to create incentives that could help grow a common space of information.

But we also added, during the discussion at the MediaLab, that participation will not be motivated by that sort of common methological pattern. It is much more likely that participation comes if there is something cool, or important, or revolutionary to do.

New formats, new initiatives, new editorial presentations for civic media project are as much important as the methodology: they motivate people, they make their ideas more noticed, they make big media more interested in reporting, they are more fun. The common methodological grownd is good for a long term objective. Formats are good for taking action.

The MediaLab folks asked me what's new in Italy about this matter. They were impressed by the lack of protests and revolutionary movements in Italy at the moment. I don't know why that happens, but it is clear that what Italians see as "cultural innovation", today, is more about finding a common space for knowledge. A common sense of what is the important information that we can share and from which we can build something new would be a revolution, for Italians: any antagonist action, while damned to lose, has also become part of the distraction strategy that has been created by the powerful media of the present.

These are some examples of what's interesting in Italy now. We can share them here as well. But it is a work in progress.

Now, how are Italians developing on that opportunity? I asked friends online to share some of the best examples they knew about civic media in Italy (thanks to all of them!!!). Here are some examples:

- shoot4change
photography as social change tool
- critical city 

creative ideas about getting together in town for learning and having fun
- suedstern
german speaking community in the North developing its culture and social impact

- kapipal
crowdfunding

- percorsi emotivi
tell stories about emotions that you link to places in Bologna
- blog sarzano (e altri quartieri genova)

bottom up social service design
- openpolis

adopting a politician to record all her/his decisions and movements
- 
procivibus (kublai)
civil protection withe the help of citizens

- Continuum innovation


a platform to organize discussions while drinking something together

- Rollsquare
where places are better accessible to everybody
- Decoro urbano
citizens share information about the quality of urban services
- Progetto e21
information and quality discussion about local administrative decisions
- Km01
linking green economy and digital agenda (slides)
- Raeeporter
informing to help the environment
- Milano abbandonata
where are wasted spaces in Milan
- Cleanap
clean the city

Ethan Zuckerman, head of the Mit Center for Civic Media, invited me to share some experiences about civic media and professional media in Italy. Here I took some notes before the speech. Here is a sort of live wiki taken during the meeting.

Here is Matt Stempeck's report (thanks!).

ethan and luca.jpg


Experience Cambridge. A day from Harvard to Mit

By
Luca De Biase
on September 15, 2011 9:02 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Well, thanks to a lucky day, I spent the day between Harvard and the MediaLab. I will report about what happened. But I must say one thing right now: it is an experience of quality. The general idea that I had the feeling is that there is a network full of ideas in which every single person works on her meaning as an individual contributor to the ecosystem.

The cure to living the present times is made by a set of practices:
1. telling stories and showing their meaning by linking them to the rest of the world (cosmopolitan identity, as in Ethan Zuckerman's next book)
2. thinking projects and make them become something that is alive (to make sense of the individual vision by contributing to the ecosystem)
3. experiment with a real scientific mindset (to actively cope with complexity by a conscious knowledge of the relationship between theories and empirical testing)

Cosmopolitan identity is going to be again and again a challenge, which we need to win. Because our major opportunity is to link to the global network and contribute with a special, unique set of ideas).

The meaning of media, too, is changing. It is growing to objects that used not to be thought as media. Tools with an embedded methodology to tell stories that can be understood and shared.

(Oh, how hard it is to write in English... sorry... I hope it is understandable...)

Mit-MediaLab: Citizen and professional media in Italy

By
Luca De Biase
on September 15, 2011 1:46 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Ethan Zuckerman, head of the Mit Center for Civic Media, invited me to share some experiences about civic media and professional media in Italy. Here are some notes. Just notes.

I must confess that I was really flattered but I was also quite worried, because I didn't think that Italy could be such an interesting subject at the MediaLab...

How did I sort out of that? With a set of questions in two steps:

First step - I sort of forced myself to think what I could say after a title like the following:

Why the Italian civic media landscape matters to you? I mean: why the Italian civic media should be a subject of interest for you, people, who don't leave in Italy?

Second step - I thought about some questions that I would really like to ask someone who is so lucky to be doing a research at the Mit Center for Civic Media.

At the end I came out with a compromise.

Yes, I know: I could entertain some people by talking about our bizarre media system, with a strange tycoon acting as political leader. But I must admit that it is such a sad subject... A much happier subject is the possible interpretation of the civic media space as a possible reaction to the same situation that made that kind of political leader possible. So maybe I should be asking both global and local questions.

I thought that some questions are global (and quite complicated): is it possible to think an epistemology of the news that emerge in the civic media context? What kind of incentives are leading the use of social media platforms? What does it mean to change that "social media" into a "civic media"? Is it true that civic media initiatives can grow their importance only by growing their ability to be both creative in format and reliable in content? Is there any kind of common methodology that can be developed to improve the efficiency of civic media initiatives?

Those are questions that are useful in Italy, too. But, to apply to Italy, they should be sort of simplified. Italy has an important percentage of functional illiterates and digital illiterates, while it is investing less and less in public education. But education in digital media is always some sort of learnig by doing. Thus, civic media initiatives in Italy could be both important to achieve their results and to spread a sort of general incentive to media literacy.

That said, here are some short ideas.

Italy matters for the media studies because it is a laboratory for testing lots of hypothesis about the consequences of some crucial decisions that shape media structures.

In particular, the Italian media landscape is a lab for testing many ideas that we share about the emergence of a new media landscape, while being an historical example of a rich set of mistakes that other countries still can avoid. On the other hand, Italy needs more than others a new media landscape, thus it may be getting some interesting thoughts about the "civic" in "civic media".

Italy is not well known for innovation. But it has invented the first law that allows one man to personally own three national television chains out of seven; and has forgot to include a norm stating at least that he should not try and become prime minister. That was a mistake, because now as premier he is owning his three channels and three more through the state controlled public broadcaster. Thus, political action in Italy is more about his agenda than the country's agenda.

Since 30 years, Italy has entered the Thatcher-Reagan age. By watching Dallas in tv. It was a shock for a catholic country to see a bad guy loaded with money and power to become a popular hero. People called their children Jayar and Sue Ellen. Tons of tabus were demolished. Since then, television became a central part of Italian life. And influenced policy making maybe even more than in other countries.

There are some consequences:
1. growing percentage of functional illiterate
2. diminishing social activities
3. paranoid political agenda
4. diminishing investment in public shools
5. growing importance of social media as a balancing force to a weird media situation.

Referendums in 2011 demonstrated that the social media world can influence an important political decision more than television.

Now, how are Italians developing on that opportunity? I asked friends online to share some of the best examples they knew about civic media in Italy. Here are some examples:

- shoot4change
photography as social change tool
- critical city 

creative ideas about getting together in town for learning and having fun
- suedstern
german speaking community in the North developing its culture and social impact

- kapipal
crowdfunding

- percorsi emotivi
tell stories about emotions that you link to places in Bologna
- blog sarzano (e altri quartieri genova)

bottom up social service design
- openpolis

adopting a politician to record all her/his decisions and movements
- 
procivibus (kublai)
civil protection withe the help of citizens

- Continuum innovation


a platform to organize discussions while drinking something together

- Rollsquare
where places are better accessible to everybody
- Decoro urbano
citizens share information about the quality of urban services

The new media landscape is a set of hypothesis:
1. the top-down, television based, industrial age, mediasphere is to be balanced by a new bottom-up, internet based, knowledge age, social media ecosystem: sharing and creating ideas and information is as important as learning in the knowledge age; it is the foundation for the energy and the freedom needed to innovate.
2. globalization is the competition between territories which can only win if they find their own special meaning in the global arena; this special meaning starts from their cultural history and is developed by investing in education and media, to end up issuing products, services and ideas that have a perceived value in the world.
3. the new social media ecosystem is very new and has not developed its own conscious epistemology; which means that the social network can risk a possible balkanization in the sense that everybody can be tempted to stick with the people that shares not only information but also values and political ideas, thus weakening the differences that make a cultural context less generative.

The social media context is innovative for its capability to energize the media system with the views and the values of people other than those that are professionally dedicated to the industry of content and those that have a top-down political agenda. But how can this contribution to knowledge and freedom become more important in terms of credibility, ability to influence the political agenda, quality of information that it generates? Incentives are different and competitive rules, personal roles are not the same. Is there anything that we can do to improve the system and the life of people at the same time?

Timu, by Fondazione Ahref, is a sort of platform that should help citizens who want to contribute with quality information. It does so by proposing social information games and learning opportunities, while asking to disclose the sort of methodology that citizens use to research and publish their information.

These where just some notes, for those that want to find the links at what was quoted during my short presentation at the Mit Center for Civic Media.

AGCOM anti-piracy enforcement measures: worries prevail while Italians debate about free internet

By
Luca De Biase
on July 3, 2011 9:36 AM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Italy is again at a crossroads about freedom and quality of its media. On July 6, Italy's telecommunication regulator, AGCOM, will decide how long will let the public debate about the new enforcement tools to fight copyright infringement the Agency is introducing. The law, introduced by the present government, generally requires AGCOM to adopt anti-piracy tools, but the AGCOM proposal gives the Authority itself the power to remove content from Italian websites or to block access to foreign websites accused by copyright holders to break their rights. There will be no need to go through a regular trial, no judge will be involved in the decision making. Accused sites will have only 5 days to explain their position and their right to defend themselves will be quite limited.

The issue has generated very polarized reactions. 

Strong approvers have been some publishers associations such as TV producers (APT), film (ANICA), music (FIMI). But they limit their support to new rules that are able to suppress only those sites that do business selling intellectual property that they don't own, while explicitly excluding from the desired effects of the new regulations all private blogs, sites, platforms, search engines and other operators whose business is not piracy. 

Critics include groups like Agora Digitale and Altroconsumo, personalities such as Stefano Rodotà - former European data protection commissioner and very respected jurist - and scholars such as Juan Carlos De Martin - one of Nexa founders and fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center - and many others. They think that the AGCOM proposal is worded in a way that enables the Authority to shut down any site, including those that are not in the piracy business and are focused on gathering and analysing the news, without granting a real right to defense. 

In many past cases, copyright trials have shown different controversial interpretations about, for example, the freedom of the press and the fair use of some copyrighted content. For sure, copyright is not always a matter that can be decided through simple administrative solutions. Without recourse to the courts in these matters, unilateral decisions are likely.

In a country that has allowed some of the weirdest irregularities in the media system for a western democracy, with a Prime Minister personally owning three of the seven major national television networks and controlling the three public networks through his political power, the regulation of the internet seems to be a fundamental subject for any local democratic development. The Economist has covered some of the consequences, while showing how television was used by the government to silence the issues at stake in the recent referendums. As a matter of fact, the government has lost those referendums and many experts considered this setback as a victory for new social media and the internet.

There are not many news about this subject in English. Who reads Italian can take a look at Juan Carlos De Martin piece published by la Stampa. AGCOM's head Calabrò's answer. And many other links at the end of previous posts. Vocal opposition to the AGCOM decision is growing on the Italian network: LatoSinistro, EsserePrimisuGoogle, IsolaCassintegrati, ValigiaBlu, DoppioCieco, MatteoPlatone, Ciwati, LucaNicotra, YesPolitica, Semioblog, Gilioli, Nichilista, DamianoZito, Avaaz, MinimaAcademica, PiccoloSocrate, Ilmiopaesealtrove, Pozzallo, Pasteris, Perdukistan, GuidoVetere. And many more...

FIMI (association of music publishers) has circulated a mail about Obama's administration support to AGCOM, quoting this Us document: "The United States encourages Italy to ensure that the AGCOM regulations are swiftly promulgated and implemented, that these regulations create an effective mechanism against copyright piracy over the Internet, and that they address all types of piracy that takes place online."

Embarrassing questions about Italy

By
Luca De Biase
on January 23, 2011 11:17 PM | | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)
Sometimes you have to answer such a simple question like "where are you from?". You can work around difficult problems, but you cannot do the same with simple ones.

"Where are you from?"

Even on my own blog, I would like to skip the question. Because, if you are an Italian, you live in a state of constant embarrassment.

That is, of course, linked to articles that flood the international press (everybody knows some of them here at DLD, Munich): Surreal..., New York Times, The Mussolini..., GQ, The Caligulan court..., Telegraph, La fiesta..., El Pais, Les filles invidées..., Le Monde, Woman tells..., Sydney Morning Herald, Italy sees macho self..., The Times of India, Rubygate..., RomandieNews. There are so many pieces all over the world about the Italian prime minister's allegedly damned behaviour that it really seems the international public enjoys them. But there is an unseriously tragic lesson in the Italian comedy. What the hell are Italians doing about all this? Not much. Why? You can have many answers to this last question, but none are likely able to solve the embarrassment due to the previous one.

Italians seem to react differently to this story. Of course, there are those that don't accept it at all. Confindustria's president, Emma Marcegaglia, said that there is a very different Italy, "one that goes to sleep in the evening and goes to work early in the morning". She is the head of the Italian entrepreneurial association: she is not politically far from - nor near to - any party. She is talking about ethics, work, and civic values. She speaks to the élite more than she influences the majority of Italians, though. And there are entrepreneurs that like the way this government is doing, and pragmatically tend to forget about ethics: probably because if business ethics was always to be implemented by this government they would have less reasons to like it.

But what does the majority of Italians really think? What do women think in Italy about their government?

The public opinion, in Italy, doesn't exist in the same sense as elsewhere. In his new book, "La Cultura degli italiani", Professor Tullio De Mauro has some interesting figures. Only 30% of Italians are able to understand what they read, if they read at all. Functional illiteracy is a forgotten plague in Italy. But everybody watch television. That has consequences. Ilvo Diamanti, a sociologist, shows a strange phenomenon in the set of priorities shared by the majority of Italians: for example, changes in their worries about crime are not at all related to the number of crimes that are actually perpetrated in Italy, but they are very much related to the number of stories about criminal acts that are run by the news on television. The New York Times has written that Italians sort of live in a soap opera and have a hard time when it comes to separate fiction and reality: that seems to be laterally true. There are things that no country should allow: one is letting a single person own three national TV channels out of seven.

But that is not a sufficient explanation. Italians may be dependent on TV stories. But they are even more dependent on the State (while looking at the State as a resource to use, more than a set of institutions to serve, because their major institution is still the family).

If we accept the more optimistic figures about functional illiteracy we can think that a 30% of Italians don't really know what happens in their country. We can also think that there is a 20-30% of Italians that are really connected to the world and are able to judge what's going on: they work with the international markets all the time, their exports make the most of Italian wealth, or at least they are able to read and they are informed. But there is also almost half of the population that - whatever they know and think - they need the State to make a living: and, in my opinion, they tend to accept any government while silently hating politicians. They will wait for any powerful man to fall, while serving him when he is in charge. And they will develop a sort of cynical view of the world in the meantime.

I like Italy. I'm sure that most Italians are good people. But to earn a real respect, they should find some ingenuity.

Diesel's "be stupid" campaign

By
Luca De Biase
on February 1, 2010 4:05 PM | | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)
Smart is stupid. But stupid is not necessarily smart.

Diesel's "be stupid" campaign is evolving. It was about the difference between "brains" and "balls", which was not at all new (just like the less than shocking difference between "head" and "heart"). Now it is about a much more interesting difference between the "plans" of the smart and the "stories" of the stupid. And it is going towards a more subtile: "smart may have the answers, but stupid has all the interesting questions". Racked sort of likes it.

If they improve the message that's fine, of course. But let's face it: in a stupid context, stupid is an easy bet to be a trend setter, while the value of flexible and open brains could be a much more likely innovation.

Diesel's competition should not worry, then. And let them be stupid.

Italian bloggers' strike

By
Luca De Biase
on July 13, 2009 11:55 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)
Tomorrow, July 14th, some Italian bloggers will not write. They will protest against the Italian government that is issuing a series of new laws that could limit the freedom of expression online in Italy. There is a ning dedicated to the people that will protest: Diritto alla Rete.

Freedom of expression has never been strong in Italy. Our political culture and our political system are hardly those that you should find in a mature democracy. Catholic and communist parties have dominated most of the republican history, in Italy, while fascist parties have never really disappeared. Political violence and obscure maneuvering have been endemic in our strange country. Informal economy and criminal organizations have always been important and tolerated by governments.

But in the last 15 years, a new reinterpretation of the same old nondemocratic system has come out, based on the peculiar concentration of media power in the hands of one political leader. This has has not been felt fair in terms of political competition and has led to a very angry kind of debate.

In this context, the internet has been seen as the one tool to generate free and independent media that could give a fresh view to the Italian situation.

Some projects of laws have been proposed by the present government that could harm this internet freedom. And bloggers want to protest against them. Those possible laws are not clearly meant to block freedom of expression, but could end up limiting that freedom by generating uncertainty and fear in those that should be writing about what they see and think. Of course, bloggers could improve their ability to write and contribute to democracy, but what they do is important.

In a better world, they should protest by writing more and better, of course. But this time, some of them has thought that they will keep silent. Silence is not the best form of protest for people that want to talk. And new laws are still unclear. But many people feel that they should do something to help Italy maintain what it has conquered in terms of freedom of expression.

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  • The case for an Italian rebellion

    The case for an Italian rebellion is not insane. I had the chance to speak with many foreign observers, recently, and I found that an Italian rebellion is considered a real option.

    An Italian rebellion? Other Mediterranean countries have done just so, lately. Tunisia and Egypt, for example, have chosen to rebel against their dictators and the world has appreciated. Considering the Italian political situation as a sort of authoritarian regime and thinking that it is not reformable through the normal democratic process, one is lead to think that the rebellion is the only possible solution. In that mindset, if Italians rebel, they demonstrate their democratic will and maturity. If they don't rebel, they show they are anything between accomplices and weak victims of the head of their government and his power system. If Italians will rebel, they will free themselves from the shame of accepting a very doubtful sort of democratic government, the consequences of which are dangerous for themselves and the world. That's the option. But it is not happening.

    Why?

    continua... (21 commenti al 9 ottobre)

    Il seguito in italiano: con molti commenti


  • Sul prossimo futuro di Nòva

    Ogni cambiamento suscita timori e ravviva speranze. Vale anche per Nòva. I timori sono comprensibili. Ma le speranze non devono essere tradite.

    Le notizie diffuse oggi dal Post sul cambiamento alla guida di Nòva, riprese da tantissime persone su Twitter e Facebook, sono state interpretate più dal lato dei timori. continua... (46 commenti al 18 giugno)


  • Editori, tecnologia e pirati

    E dunque sappiamo che l'effetto economico complessivo della pirateria non si riesce a misurare. Esistono migliaia di studi in proposito, ma gli studi davvero indipendenti dalle major e dagli editori non sono molti. Come si diceva il GAO dice che è impossibile sapere qual è la somma algebrica tra i pro e i contro per l'economia. Quello che sappiamo è che la tecnologia ha spiazzato gli editori tradizionali.. continua... (4 commenti al 5 luglio)



  • Strategie della disattenzione

    Televisione, radio, giornali. Posta elettronica, social network, blog. Messaggi sonori nelle stazioni, cartelloni pubblicitari nelle vie della città, telecamere per la sicurezza degli uffici. La presenza capillare dell'informazione nella vita quotidiana delle persone nei paesi occidentali è un'esperienza generalizzata. Ciascuno ne fruisce e ne genera in continuazione. La quantità di messaggi cresce inesorabilmente, senza un ordine apparente. Cresce e basta. Il crollo del costo delle comunicazioni è anche l'inflazione dei messaggi. Mai come in questa epoca il concetto di "information overload", il sovraccarico di informazioni che si contendono l'attenzione della gente, è una condizione con la quale ogni ricerca sulla vita sociale deve fare i conti. C'è evidentemente una ricchezza straordinaria nell'abbondanza di informazioni. Ma c'è anche il rischio di una paralisi delle idee, di fronte all'eventuale ingestibilità dell'inflazione di informazioni.
    E' un problema che ne contiene molti. E che si rivela strategico per tutta l'industria editoriale, per le piattaforme mediatiche, per gli autori e, naturalmente, soprattutto per il pubblico. Richiede una ridefinizione dei ruoli per tutti gli attori coinvolti, nel complesso passaggio storico che attraversano le società post-industriali. E si comprende solo nella consapevolezza del fatto che l'information overload non è solo l'effetto della moltiplicazione dei messaggi, ma anche la conseguenza del fallimento dei sistemi che dovrebbero filtrare l'informazione, come per esempio suggerisce l'internettologo Clay Shirky. Nel caos creativo cui assistiamo in questa fase di passaggio, si sperimentano strategie più o meno sostenibili. Quali sono i percorsi che ci possono condurre a costruire un ecosistema dell'informazione più sano e vivibile? continua...


  • Ecologia dell'informazione

    I quotidiani cartacei tradizionali sono una tra le numerose specie che vivono nell'ecosistema dell'informazione. Il loro ambiente si è radicalmente trasformato nell'ultima dozzina d'anni. Molte delle risorse sulle quali avevano a lungo prosperato scarseggiano, assorbite dall'espansione di altri media: l'onnivora, insaziabile televisione commerciale, l'innovativa televisione digitale a pagamento, la rivoluzionaria internet a banda larga, gli infinitamente attraenti telefoni cellulari. Milioni di persone, miliardi di euro, trilioni di minuti si sono spostati verso nuove abitudini mediatiche. E nel corso di un terremoto nei mezzi di comunicazione di tale portata è già sorprendente che molti castelli dei giornali di carta stiano ancora in piedi. E se lo sono è perché evidentemente hanno un valore e una resistenza importanti. Ma è tempo di restauri.
    I sintomi della difficoltà economiche dei giornali di carta sono evidenziati dalla crisi generale del 2007-2009: la pubblicità diminuisce drasticamente, il numero di lettori paganti si erode, i collaterali non danno più le soddisfazioni di una volta e le entrate provenienti dalle versioni online non sono sufficienti a riparare alle perdite. L'urgenza congiunturale può essere cattiva consigliera, ma impone delle scelte. Che in ogni caso erano dovute da tempo. E' evidente, infatti, che il taglio dei costi pur necessario non sarà sufficiente a rigenerare un equilibrio sostenibile. Meglio dunque cogliere l'occasione per un ripensamento profondo.
    E a questo ripensamento, gli editori e i giornalisti hanno cominciato a dedicarsi, ciascuno dal suo punto di vista. Mentre il pubblico si trasforma, partecipa, pone problemi, offre risposte: tutte da interpretare. Le domande si moltiplicano. Quanto dureranno i giornali di carta? Si possono far pagare i giornali online? Come evolve la pubblicità? Qual è il ruolo del giornalismo professionale in un contesto nel quale i cittadini possono produrre informazione in modo sempre più facile ed efficace? Come si informano i giovani? C'è una crisi di credibilità nei giornali? Quali sono le visioni innovative emergenti? L'enorme complessità del compito di rispondere a queste questioni intimidisce. Ma può essere affrontata solo con un'umiltà appassionata, generata dalla consapevolezza che di informazione c'è e ci sarà sempre più bisogno, nell'economia della conoscenza. Per i giornalisti, questa consapevolezza è necessaria per affrontare il grande adattamento che la professione è destinata ad affrontare. continua...

  • Innovage

    Ed ecco dunque l'ennesima nuova parola: "innovage", innovazione e vintage. Non per nulla nascono tante parole nuove, in questo periodo storico che da molti punti di vista - ambientali, sociali, economici, culturali - appare come una grande trasformazione epocale: forse abbiamo l'impressione che, in mezzo a tanta innovazione, stiano effettivamente nascendo angoli di realtà che hanno bisogno di essere nominati; in qualche caso, peraltro, tentiamo di forzare questa impressione, producendo nuove parole prima che esistano le realtà che dovrebbero designare. E dunque, che cos'è l'"innovage": una nuova realtà o semplicemente una nuova parola? E' già un fatto economico o ancora una visione? Avrà successo?
    Il tema non è di poco conto: il racconto dell'innovazione è parte integrante dell'innovazione stessa. Nell'economia della conoscenza, una locuzione che usiamo in mancanza di meglio per definire quest'epoca post-industriale, il valore si concentra sulle idee. Il prodotto vale se contiene gusto, informazione, senso. Dunque, anche, se contiene memoria. E se quel contenuto viene compreso dal pubblico che dovrebbe farlo proprio. Perché la dinamica delle idee è, soprattutto, nella relazione tra le persone che le esprimono e le connettono a quelle degli altri, i quali a loro volta le riconoscono come affini o confrontabili alle proprie. Per questo, esiste un rapporto estetizzante, e di grande valore, tra gli oggetti che vengono declinati al futuro e quelli che ricordano le esperienze passate di gruppi di persone che vi si riconoscono. continua...

  • Attenti al loop

    La conversazione può essere orientata alla collaborazione, può alimentare la convivenza civile e pacifica, ma può anche diventare una sorta di competizione? continua...









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