From Wiki to Blog in 2 weeks with BAIA

After weeks of preparation, finally everything converged on Tuesday night, at DLA Piper in Palo Alto. It was the first BAIA (Business Association Italy America) event of 2007. Peter Thoeny, our guest, talked about Wiki Collaboration and Wiki Applications for Business (see Peter blog post on the event). Peter created a dialogue between him and the public, making the talk a truly interactive experience. He also skillfully mixed technical information with business perspective on the topic (the slides of the presentation are available here).

About 40 people attended the event. I received very positive feedback from everybody I spoke with. The event location was great also. Palo Alto is a convenient location for this type of event: it's within one hour drive of Silicon Valley and San Francisco. The conference room was kindly provided by Tom French, partner at DLA Piper, and it was perfect. People attending the event were able to access a wireless Internet connection and sip Italian coffee from the event sponsor, Caffe' del Doge. (My personal recommendation is to stop at Caffe' del Doge coffee shop at 419 University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto and ask for the "marocchino," a delicious mix of chocolate and coffee.)

In the next few days we will officially announce the next event to be be held in downtown San Francisco. The topic is very exciting: "Blogs and Marketing". We will host an incredible panel of experts:

• Mauro Lupi (Ad Maiora, blog) a popular Italian blogger and an Internet marketing expert
• Peter Thoeny (StructuredWikis, blog) a wiki guru and blogger
• Mary Trigiani (Spada Inc., blog) a marketing expert and blogger
• Marissa Levinson (Six Apart, blog) Director of Business Development and Sales at Six Apart, and blogger

If you are a blogger or you are interested in how to create a corporate blog and to promote your company and products with a blog, you can't miss this event. Come back for the latest news and check our main website for the official announcement and registration link.

Franco Folini

Comments

[Lucia Panini]

Trust, Text & Technology.

BAIA has just delivered another valuable event, worth carving out a slice of time from our busy lives for. Peter Thoeny offered attendees an informative, articulate presentation on structured Wikis. His approach was thorough, lively, supported at once by technology references and a practical sense of the business needs which drive the adoption and evolution of Wikis.

Wikis can be powerful and efficient tools for collaboration and sharing of knowledge within corporate business environments, research teams and other groups who share a common knowledge base or interests. They have the power of functioning like corporate Intranets and the advantage of letting users update content on the fly, independently of IT and web masters, leaving behind a diligent “breadcrumb”, which records the history of each intervention, along with edited content, user identity and time stamp.

Previous bloggers have already offered a comprehensive summary of the presentation. But what I personally found to be the most appealing element of Wikis is the combination of user independence, trust and simple technology (text language being the basic requirement), which make Wikis such an efficient tool to use. The result is the ability to achieve timely sharing of relevant, current information and thus improve decision making processes while furthering the ongoing development of ideas.

Trust is a key social ingredient (not just for Wikis!), necessary to make Wikis accepted by its users and management. Individual responsibility for posting accurate edits helps maintain the integrity and credibility of the sites. And while no one can control a sudden burst of insanity in posting or deleting content beyond the generally accepted guidelines, it is possible to revert to a previous version right away, without “scarring” the system for any extended period of time.

A visual representation of this concept was provided by Peter Thoeny, confirming the viability of Wikis for any community involved in project collaboration, research and multiple other activities impacting dispersed users, be it dispersion across continents or cubicle halls.

The audience included business and technical professionals, and, notably, two Italian students from the "Fulbright-BEST: Silicon Valley Immersion Program" representing a group of Italian engineering and biotech graduates enrolled in a prestigious Internship/research program in Silicon Valley. Fresh talent, ready to absorb and create new ideas and opportunities from the information being shared, with the goal of benefiting future initiatives on both sides of the ocean.

Also present was a delegation sponsored by the Mexican government, studying the local economic and business environment in support of new business ventures and incubators for Mexican companies.

Once again, a thank you to BAIA for enriching our knowledge base and soliciting new opportunities for professional growth, debate and business efficiencies, always in a comfortable, professional atmosphere. One can only look forward to the next event!

Lucia Panini

[Michelle]

hi franco,
maybe you remember me,

i want to thang you for that special day about wiki and blogs. I learned a lot from it...the eWorld has opened the door to me since that set of presentations
thanx