Franco Morganti
Master in Engineering at the Politecnic of Milan, where he was also Visiting Professor, he founded various businesses such as Metrel, Reseau, Databank Consulting. He was in Olivetti, SGS (now ST Microelectronics), in the Board of Stet, in Logica, independent director in Enel and Wind until 2005. He was advisor to the main ICT companies and authorities in Italy and Europe on strategies and policies for ICT. He was vice president of the IIC (International Institute of Communications with headquarter in London). He founded Nedcommunity, the Italian Association of non-executive and independent directors, where he is member of the Board. Writer and columnist, he edited seven books.
Modern telecommunication networks for cities development
Metropolitan areas are where more than 50% of world population lives and the trend is for a growth of that proportion, up to 60% in 2030. Cities are consequently the place where all the parameters of modern society are the most visible: economic growth in term of GDP, high resources consumption, new towns full of roof-gardens surrounded by shantytowns, complex social relationships, low integration and cohesion. Modern telecom networks are showing a growing capacity of facing many of those problems.
First of all they foster the wealth of cities through a relevant economic multiplier, in the range of 3 to 4 of the investments in broadband, as a recent OCSE study shows. They are one of the major factors of the so-called “global network connectivity”, which is an important vehicle for inter-city competition. The intensive use of telecommunications reduces the need for physical movements, and consequently the waste of energy, through teleworking and telematic public and private services. Internet and the social networks reduce the information asymmetry, which is a cause of poor efficiency of trading (financial speculation) on the one hand and weak reaction to political tricks on the other hand.
The diffusion of broadband networks reduces the gap between digital rich and poor (digital divide) which is a cause of discrimination. And last but not least, as per Manuel Castells, Internet can be the basis of a cultural revolution for the creation of a new democratic leading class in the society.
Lorenzo Canova
Sociologist, consultant on sustainable local development. Expert for the European Commission on tourism, environment, culture and sustainable local development issues and he took part in the scientific committee that wrote the Lanzarote Charter.
Professor at the Università degli Studi of Bergamo at the chair of Sociology of tourism and of local development.
Member of Aiest and founding member of Ecotrans (1992), international network on sustainable tourism; he is founding member of ACTA (1992) a no profit association skilled on sustainability issues in local development, planning, tourism, participatory and creative process.
From the 2003 he collaborates with Studiare Sviluppo srl, an in house company of the Development and Cohesion Policies Department (belonging to the Italian Economy and Development Ministry) where he is responsible in complex processes as those related to the integrated territorial design (PIT), to the innovation on institutional and administrative processes related to relevant investments between State and
Regions (APQ), to new methodologies for promoting creativity as a tool for local development (Qualità Italia, APQ Cinema), to pilot actions in hot spots as islands.
Visioni Urbane, a public policies process for the creation of independent culture centres
The case presented deals with an experimental cultural policies process – entitled Urban Vision, that is currently taking place in the Basilicata Region, South Italy. In this Region social cohesion is low and still organised in rural forms of relationship that are disrupted by the week economy – mainly linked to the public sector – and by the migration of the young people, due to the scarse possibilities of work. The recent discovery of oil produced income but no real opportunities due to social inabilities to understand and valorise the changes.
The project confronted the creation of an environment that could promote innovation in the professional sector as well as the renewal of the dynamics on which local community’s interaction traditionally is based.
The question was: how can public policies promote and sustain the autonomy of cultural processes and which are the tools to do so?
From the platform of the “Youth Pact” – a regional programme for the valorisation of the creativity of young people – starts the collaboration between three levels: the Department of the Development and Cohesion Policies of the Ministry of the Economy, the Basilicata Regional and local authorities and and the cultural associations and professionals interested in the issue.
The process created a “common public creative sphere” as an extra-political space. The public spher served to keep dialogue transparent, collaborative and focused on the creation of cultural centers able to sustain themself, the cultural life of the community and the development of creative work.
