I have never participated in an international event or competition outside Italy. I was incredibly surprised and absolutely overjoyed when I received an email from Brussels saying that I have been selected as finalist for Excellent Research by the European Union for the contest E-Skills for students less than 21 years old. This means that on the 30th of March I will be in Copenhagen for the cerimony.

The project I presented is obviously my initial Extended Essay in Mathematics, tutored by my professor David Harris, that during this summer internship in Telecom Italia, tutored by Massimiliano Spaziani, became a concrete piece of software now called BrunoApp.

Yesterday I told this joke to my father: “The other finalist is a Greek (which in Italian corresponds to Greco my family name), the good thing is that at least one Greco will win the award”
Victory or not, I am happy. For the first time, I feel like swimming as a fish that migrates from the Mediterranean sea, to the Atlantic Ocean.

PS: I am absolutely excited to meet the Princess of Denmark!

The nationality does not matter, we should always be constructive; whether an idea looks promising or not, it represents a dream of someone. Especially in this case, there is more hot air in talking negatively, than in a project that is actually concrete (and done with passion and foresight, I would add).

I hope to Volunia and professor Marchiori the best, regardless the bias or prejudice, regardless its innovative value and its being or not a solution for a problem.

God bless the Internet because everyone can express his own opinion.

Update: If you speak Italian, I would strongly encourage you to read this excellent post, which in a way, describes the idea of Volunia’s “being a success even if it will not be” (cit. Silvio Gulizia)

Q: Do you filter out certain Tweets before they appear on Twitter?
A: No. Our users now send a billion Tweets every four days—filtering is neither desirable nor realistic. With this new feature, we are going to be reactive only: that is, we will withhold specific content only when required to do so in response to what we believe to be a valid and applicable legal request.

After the MegaConspiracy, this is the rhetorical question that I can only think about. Is the Internet going towards the end of anarchy?

More than that, what concerns me is the idea that IF an extremist would come to power and decide what to censor or not, that will not be the end of anarchy, but the end of freedom. Decentralisation is what we need, now.

Here is the FBI press release website (which is currently veeeery slow).

The Internet counts now hundreds and hundreds of websites offering similar services. This is the first, but not the last and therefore a clear evidence that we are going towards the end of the Internet anarchy.

By the way, I had a premium activated not long ago. Puff, vanished.

Update #1: “Now, 72 minutes of silence.” cit Antonello Moro 
Update #2: This made me think that USA is not “the land of the free and the home of the brave” cit Giovanni Iodice 

Update #3: In reply to the MegaUpload seizure, this is the answer of Anonymous

As matter of fact, the following websites are now blocked: justice.gov, universalmusic.com e riaa.com

This already happened in Italy. However, in Italy it closed only for few days without much success and much coherence.

Here are the five things that concerned me the most, listed in no particular order.

1. Not only social networks

In the last few years the attention focused on social networks. Do not base your ideas only on that, there are million of applications that the internet can have. Internet is not just communication, it is interaction between two objects that can be close or completely far away.

2. Accelerators are missing

My idea of accelerator is a community of people with different interests. The aim of an accelerator community is to “accelerate” the first life processes of a start-up. In more practical terms: when a person inside the community launches his app, all the other members suddenly use it, write about it and spread the voice.

3. Medicine is the new frontier

I have been inspired by the motto of Massive Health: “Medicine needs a design renaissance. Why is it that we live surrounded by beautiful technology, but as soon as we get sick we’re left out in the cold? We’re working to fix that.”. In addition, investors are ready to give you 10 million dollars if you develop a Star Wars’tricoder

4. Javascript is the new hero

Now with javascript you can build iPhone apps, web applications and hyper-fast and scalable back-ends. Keep an eye on PhoneGap and the active community of NodeJS.

5. Organisation is the next big thing

Organisation is where Technology is moving. We have seen Siri and Hubot. Facebook is now in the diary form (and you can also organize your past travels or awards).

Tutto è quasi pronto.