BAIAblog

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

"Wikis and Business" with Peter Thoeny

BAIA is proud to announce a new event for January 23 with Peter Thoeny.

According to Wikipedia, the concept of wiki was invented in 1994 by Ward Cunningham. After running silently on early adopters' computers for several years, wikis are now entering the business world. Thanks to the popular Wikipedia, most of us already are aware of wikis. While Wikipedia is an exceptional source of information, it's just one application of the wiki concept. Editing a Wikipedia's page is the simplest way to experience the incredible power of this idea. It was after my first editing on Wikipedia, that I realized the power of the wiki and started to think what this technology could do in a business environment.

Several new software companies are exploring the power of wikis with plenty of new great ideas. Those companies are becoming visible to the media (e.g., New York Times) and attracting investors. Here are some of the recent news from the wiki world:

• JotSpot has been recently acquired by Google
• CentralDesktop is working with SalesForce.com
• WetPaint just raised a second round of financing (9.5M)
• Wikia offers free Wiki hosting

I believe that simplicity is what makes wiki such a powerful concept. We are not talking about technologies with huge costs of acquisition and deployment. Wiki is a simple yet powerful idea, based on inexpensive or free software.

Wikies are gradually having an impact on more and more companies. Companies like eBay, Amazon and Microsoft are using wikis on their public web sites, many others on their intranets.

To better understand this trend, I asked  Peter Thoeny, a wki guru, to introduce the concept of wiki to all of us from the business perspective. Peter is one of the pioneers who explored the introduction and integration of wikies in the corporate world. Now he is involved in two wiki companies: tWiki (founder) and StructuredWikis (co-founder).

BAIA invites you (January 23 6:00pm - DLA Piper, Palo Alto, CA) for Peter's talk on wikis. You will learn how your business can benefit from those new technologies. You can register on our website, here.

Franco Folini