I’m reading hundreds of pages, articles, news. I’m just reminding to you and myself that the picture you can see as header of my blog has been shooted in Libya in 2007. It is Acacus desert. It was my first desert experience.

I visited Tripoli as well. I’m trying to find some notes to share with you about my feelings when I was there.. I believe it’s important what I felt when I was there, just 4 years ago.

Clashes in Lybia are still hard and the situation undefined. In Egypt, political situation is not clear, but Egyptian movement is still alive, as it published an important website in the last days, with all the pictures of Egyptian revolution … http://iamjan25.com/

I mean … less than the number of events I was interested in.

But  I appreciated very much “Social Media & No Profit: not only Social Marketing” conference. I’m really involved in these two topics, but I didnt’ have any direct Italian experience.

I was surprised by discovering that most of  the people that attended the conference, didn’t know the in-depth power of a social media campaign. Barcamps are an unknown practice. In communication field, social media are often used as a showcase, a window … no more.

So, that’s why this conference has represented  a great opportunity, as  we afforded important experiences as a fund-raising project, a no-profit platform and different campaigns.

Please, spend few minutes of your time watching these videos and spread the word!

Fund-raising for Haiti

People in Djanet - December 2010

I’m really astonished and surprised by reading that an Italian woman has been  abducted in Algeria, near Djanet.

Details are not so clear and there is a lack of information, as the situation is difficult and the risk for hostage’s life very high

Just a year ago I was there, in Djanet because of my trip in a desert area called Admer-Tadrart.

I’d like to share with you my memories and feelings, so alive, about that place.

We can’t consider Djanet as a ‘town’, even if is the main settlement in South East of Algeria. Better to say it’s a big village, near oasis and palmerie. 350 km north from Niger, 300 km east from Libya. People origins are Tuareg.

Its economic growth is due to excursions to Tassili N’Ajjer and its famous rock paintings, and tourism is the only way they have to increase their economy and improve their lives, in terms of health, education, work.

Rock paintings

In December 2010, Djanet was really crowded because of tourism. Mainly, groups from Italy, France, Spain, and … Japan as well!

We spent there a couple of days, organizing our week in the desert, and durino our stay there, we attende a local festival. Hundreds of people singing, dancing, together with tourists. We all felt safe in that place, I was interviewed by a local Algerian TV, they asked me about safety and my feeling in the place as a tourist. I remember I said that I felt safe, happy and comfortable in their village.

Interview by a local TV

It is still difficult to me thinking about Djanet like an unsafe place. But I can’t say right now, that it isn’t dangerous to go there.

I can only say that many people always pay for the cruelty of just few crazy human beings.

Dances - Djanet

Suq - Djanet

Admer Tadrart

February 7 -11, 2011

Next week it will be held an important event for Social Media.  Nine cities will host simultaneously The Social Media Week : from New York to Rome, San Francisco, Paris, Hong Kong, Toronto, London, Istanbul, Sao Paulo.

Every city has its onw agenda, hundreds of people involved in  free meeting and conferences.

I think it would be useful to attend some events also if you are in a different country. In my experience, even if we rightly consider the Net as a whole, there are many differences between countries, as for culture, technology, development.

I hope there will be also the opportunity to spread the voice about  Egypt protest, and talk about how people are using the Net in this situation, censorship, freedom, and so on.

So if you are in Rome … I suggest to not miss Colosseum, but also some Social Week’s events!

My only aim is to give voice to people through the Network, as in these days all connections in Egypt are forbidden, and spread the word.

Thanks to Tamer Shaaban for this video

PS: I am really grateful to those people who are fighting for their freedom and, at the same time, are defending the Egyptian  Museum in Cairo from robbery and vandalism.

Extermination camp - photo by Emilio D'Itri - all rights reserved

On January 27, 1945, the Soviet Army entered Auschwitz and liberated more than 7.000 (seven thousand!) prisoners, deported in this death camp between 1940 and 1945.

For the first time the whole world realized what really happened, as Auschiwtz showed its horrors, beyond imagination. Auschwittz was a NETWORK of extermination camps.

In 2000 the Italian Parliament designated January 27 as ‘Memory Day’ an annual commemoration to remind all the people what happened in a recent past, and teach new generation about war’s horrors (for people that may concerned … the Italian law n. 211 dated July 20^th, 2000).

In 2005, also United Nations adopted a resolution designating this day as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, with the important aim to develop educational programs to help prevention against acts of genocide.

It’s important to remember that the aim is not only to commemorate the victims (that is important too!), but to create and enforce a mass awareness about this tragedy, without forgetting the human’s responsibility.

Memory and awareness are the main way we have to not allow future acts of genocide.

Aung San Suu Kyi (Time)

“My very top priority is for people to understand that they have the power to change things themselves”

One of the best events of 2010:  Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest.

Such a long time I haven’t posted something here … I needed a pause, as I wanted to understand if this blog is still important to me, and to you … of course.

I read hundreds of discussions about social media, writing a blog, useful contents and, after that, I was more confused.

So I decided to follow my istinct, my feelings.

The world is changing, in a worse way … this year has began with crisis in Mediterranean area, as well.

That’s why I believe that every word is important, we need to share information, opinions, values. We need many different point of views, as much as we can.

That’s why I decided to write again … I have some old and new topics, and trips and …

Let’s start again. Wish you all the best!

Syria - photo by Cristina Fontana

Unexpectedly, the day before the premiere, the presence of Bruce Springsteen was announced.

A great chance for all the fans and music lovers to talk about music, to see how much work there is behind an album and the differences between nowdays sound technology.

However, these are not the most important things compared to the spirit of the team, the words of the lyrics, the common feelings …

The post-show discussion was a ‘plus’: Thom Zimny explained how he chose and built all the materials, Bruce told us about his identity as man and musician.

Three hours deep inside an album which is part of the history of rock music, not only a special event for a festival …

it’s a honour for me attending for the third time the Blog Action Day.

This year topic is WATER.

Why water?

Because over large part of the world, people don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. Moreover, pollution and global changes are causing a water quality degradation.

One of the Millenium Development Goals by United Nation says “Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking-water and basic sanitation” (MDG 7, Target 7c).

There so many different issues related to this topic, as we can’t consider it solely a human beings issue.

Fortunately, the number of initiatives, programmes, projects is fastly growing up, but it is fundamental to constantly hold the attention on this issue, as water is a global issue and affects all of us.

In my opinion, ‘to hold the attention’  means to do something every day, as little changes in many people can make a big difference.

For this reason, I decided to use this post to inform you about few projects, in which everyone can be easily involved.

Join the pipe:  Have you ever thought about the power of a social network?
I was really impressed when I read about a social community of tap water drinkers. As Geraldo Vallen and Lorenzo De Vita say in their web site “At the beginning of 2009, two friends living in The Netherlands, a country constantly threatened by floods and too much water, had the dream to redistribute water in a fairer way”.

The idea was to design a original set of reusable bottles, produce it and sell it to the community,  in order to raise funds to finance water projects in Asia and Africa.

Now the community is composed by 1732 members and they sold more than 1200 bottles. And this is just the beginning of the dream …

Walk for water: In many rural areas (especially in Africa), people needs to walk more then 6 km to reach the wells. As children are often involved in this task, it becomes  impossible for them going to school.

“Walk for water” is an event created 4 years ago by a group of volunteers to raise awareness, reminding that million of people have to walk such a long way to reach this primary source of life.

Fresh water in Italy: In my country, there is a low awareness about the waste of water. People think that water is an unlimited resource. There are many pipes are in bad conditions, taps in our house are often useless opened.

Furthermore, we use to drink mineral water, even though the quality of water from waterworks is very high. It means an increasing pollution due to transportation of thousands of bottles of water (mainly plastic bottles).

In these days one of most important Italian supermarket chain (Coop) is involving its customers in a large scale campaign.

These are just few projects in which everyone can be involved in every day life.

What do you think to join at least one of them?