Team
Francesco D’Orazio (Co-Director)
I work on social media, collaborative marketing and immersive communication. My fascination with immersive media took me to the deepest meanders of virtual worlds years ago, and I’ve never looked back since!
I live multiple lives in multiple worlds and because of this digital schizophrenic syndrome I created Myrl a cross-world gaming social network bringing Virtual Worlds together on the web.
I’m also a strong believer in collaborative marketing and I’ve been involved into the word of mouth scene for a few years. In 2007 I designed and launched Zzub, the first buzz marketing social network and moved now into what I consider the next step in collaborative marketing, co-creation, bringing consumers right at the core of the brand strategy. I’m now working with Face, a London-based agency specialized in brand-consumer co-creation, to bring this vision to life in the social media space.
I’ve been a massive sf reader, gamer, music addict and immersion tourist and I’ve done my Ph.D. in New Media Studies and Sociology at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and at the University of Toronto at The McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology. My research has been mainly focusing on the immersive and participative evolution of communication from a social, historical and marketing perspective. I usually write and lecture on this stuff and I’m currently lecturer in new media at the IULM University in Milan where I’m also co-director of the Social Media Lab. I now live in London, and blog at Makers of Universes.
Specialties: Social Media, Co-creation, Crowdsourcing, Social Networks, Virtual Worlds, Augmented Reality, Alternate Reality Games, Social Media Marketing, Word of Mouth, Immersive Marketing
Stefano Mizzella (Co-Director)
My name is Stefano Mizzella and I am a Ph.D. student in Information Society at Bicocca University in Milan. I’m a Researcher at nuMedia BiOs. My research activity is focused on the evolution of web 2.0 and social media, using quantitative (survey) and qualitative (digital ethnographic research, focus groups, in-depth interviews) tools. The first research we performed, called “Snack Culture?”, was carried out during the course of 2008 and was focused on styles of media consumption and usage among university students. “Snack Culture?” is published on CC license. I published some books and essays about social impacts of new media communication. For my Ph.D. Course I wrote two papers about Web 2.0 and Wikinomics. At the IULM University in Milan I’ve co-founded the Social Media Lab in 2007.
Outside of academia, I’m working as Social Media Strategist and Web 2.0 Researcher & Consultant for some companies. My work is to create and design innovative communication strategies using blogs, social networks and a lot of web 2.0 tools. Now I live between Rome and Milan and blog at neXres. On neXres you can find my research projects and many quotes to understand the evolution of Network Society. My favorite quote? “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” (Leonardo Da Vinci).
Stefano Besana (Tutor)
Hi! I’m Stefano Besana.
I’m currently a student of training processes, psychology of learning and human resources at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan, I focus my studies on the role of Social Network Sites into Education and into professional networks: the aim is to investigate the possibilities of a new way of learning. I’ve co-directed courses on: cooperative learning, methods of study, cognitive styles co-working with SPAEE and co-projecting multimedia tools for learning.
I’m also a professional web-journalist and blogger for HTML.it, an Italian site of ICT information, my areas of interest are: Social Web, Web Marketing & Web 2.0.
Recently I’ve started to work with NuMediaBiOs, the new-media observatory of the Bicocca University of Milan.
I’m working into Social Media Lab project as a tutor.
For further information you can view my personal web-site here.
Giulia Baldi (Tutor and Teacher)
I am a passionate Communication, Marketing and Research professional active in the Creative Industries.
With a University background in Social and Economic History, Communicaton, Marketing and the Arts, the first hectic years of my career have been spent managing Communication projects for Art and Music labels, events, institutions (like BMG, Dissonanze, EMI/Virgin, Link Project, RedBull Music Academy, RomaEuropa Festival, Palazzo delle Esposizioni).
As an independent with a mission in mind, that of promoting neglected contemporary art and culture (especially electronic and digital), I soon started exploring and exploiting every media possible to spread the word and make things happen. Thus, of course, I suddenly found myself connected to the World Wide Web. It was still the very beginning and I was sending and receiving data via a 56K dial-up connection (now, that’s a nightmare!) but still, the freedom and power of the web hooked me immediately, and deeply.
Along the way, I was also enthusiastically researching, writing and talking about society, media, the arts, and underground subcultures, both as an academic and as a reporter (for offline and online media, like digicult). And yes, I was travelling a lot… I ended up collaborating with the US research company Label Networks, conducting and managing their 5 years research project on European youths’ culture. The focus was on youths’ media choices, consumption habits and lifestyle expectations, and the methodology based on a mix of quantitative and qualitative analysis, local ethnography and global netnography. The outcomes reached clients like Adidas, Airwalk, Apple, AT&T, Condé Nast, Helly Hansen, Motorola, Nokia, Red Bull, Reebok, Timberland, Toyota, Vans.
Then I found myself immersed in Web 2.0 projects. It all started whit the development, launch and management of ZZUB.it (a word of mouth / online research community) and went further with the management of Myrl.com (a virtual worlds users’ community).
Lately, I have been researching for Guided By Voices (a collaborative platform for advertisement creatives) and Music 4.5 (a research/event on web music business models), both projects to be launched soon…
But I swear, I am not a geek!
Antonio Bonanno (Technology Partner) ha cominciato la sua avventura su Internet intorno al 1996. Dopo un periodo da webdesigner per piccole imprese, nel 1999 realizza con l’aiuto di un programmatore finlandese la prima versione di Estesia, un sito di pubblicazione di testi collegato al canale IRC #poesia. Dopo aver vissuto per un anno negli Stati Uniti in piena bolla dot-com, torna pieno di buoni propositi e nel 2001 incontra Giorgio, con il quale collabora nell’attività professionale di realizzazione siti e fonda il club culturale Débris, raccogliendo un gruppo di coetanei che tra le diverse iniziative apre la community Etz.it, oggi vicina al suo quarto anno di vita. Ha studiato giurisprudenza all’Università di Pavia, negli ultimi tempi ha unito i due campi di interesse cominciando a specializzarsi in diritto dell’informazione e diritto d’autore, con una particolare attenzione per il mondo delle licenze Creative Commons. Nel 2007 ha fondato con Giorgio Montersino Digital Natives , una rete di giovani professionisti che si occupa di strategia di comunicazione su internet, progettando e sviluppando ambienti on-line usabili, divertenti e sociali per internet, intranet e Second Life. Negli ultimi tempi si sta dedicando anche alla formazione in alcuni dei corsi di Ateneo Multimediale.