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How to support local business: choose to buy local | After Covid tips

Fiori del tempo Artigianato Firenze

Think local.

It’s the first useful thing you can do in a critical situation as the current one.

Shops have been closed for a while, now they are re-opening little by little, hence it’s on us to help them.

Let’s think about the local shops instead of the giants or luxury brands that could survive also without the ‘general’ benefits. Local artists who show their handcraft, people who have worked for a whole life because of passion and roots, people who dedicate time to truly shape their objects, fabrics, clothes and so on. Choose to buy local.

Here you are an example of what I’m personally doing: trying to support local Florentine small business, as in the picture above with a wonderful handmade ring made with chalcedony, a variety of quartz.

Fiori del tempo, Firenze – Have a look at Instagram

You can have a lots of ideas about bijoux, nice jewelry, handmade jewels created in a small lab in the streets of Florence.

2. Estetica La montagnola – Have a look

Just for fun and help for this local small beauty center and nice cosmetologists, why don’t support them instead of those giant chains?

3. Local pizzeria and great artist too – Have a look to those pics by Miralou

Support local business – by Miralou

4. Choose to buy local. It works also for your favourite flower shop and that wonderful florist that always gives you more than flowers: stories, local tips, smiles and happy thoughts.

This is what generally happens when you try to connect with your neighbourhood and you get on well with the local people and their stories that make you feel part of the same story.

Then, if you’re sporty enough, choose to buy your accessories in the local shops. For example, for runners who wants to run also in the rainy days, I can suggest to buy specific running shoes, that may look like other sneakers, but they contain specialized technology to help you run.

5. My tip: Neverland Firenze – Running, trekking, Ski, streewear – Have a look!

Hoka – Neverland Firenze_ SHOP

Those are the proof of specific accessories bought in a local shop.

In addition, talking about food and upcoming Christmas, you will surely buy enough traditional cakes or pie, Italian panettone or something similar. Well, also in this case, you can choose to help foundations as for example:

6. File foundation that through The Party Society – a charity organization – helps to fundraise for several initiatives in favour of associations protecting women, children, victims of domestic violence, illnesses and so on.

This is the tasty panettone for this year:

You only need to think local.

#SupportSmallBusiness #thinkLocal

#NoteOfTheDay: Pure Love, Dolores O’Riordan ft. Zucchero

Wattpad – new #storytelling on the move

What’s Wattpad? Try to ask it to the new generations and teenagers and you will have all the details you need. It’s about the communication that is changing its way to provide stories to the world. It’s the new social network for the people who love to tell stories and use their mobile to do it. And share them, through the biggest community of readers in the world. Storytelling.

Wattpad - the social network for writers — Wattpad – the social network for writers

Through Wattpad people can write, share stories and interact with them. It’s a sort of blogging activity but you’re free to start your unlimited stream of consciousness – as only Virginia Woolf would start…

Stream of consciousness in a sketch :) — Stream of consciousness in a sketch 🙂

Its aim? To give users the chance to spread their stories in the world and become an official author or writer, even if not respecting the ordinary rules – as for example to write at least an amount of million’s crap or publish at least 10 novels and so on..

Wattpad - social network for authors — Wattpad – social network for authors

By the way, now there’s a new way to let your story be popular and meet millions of readers who can directly comment and share opinions with you. Just to give an example, Anna Todd has literally became one of the most popular author of the last years:

FROM WATTPAD SENSATION TO BEST-SELLING BOOK SERIES is written at the beginning of her website: she has been able to find the community she wanted, ‘a home really, with these people who were writing in the hours off of work, school, parenting, life, and I loved every second of it’ she wrote. And now she has hundreds of millions of reads!

The community of Wattpad has spread faster than you can imagine thanks to a new feature that wouldn’t be underestimated: the mobility. People can write while they’re on the bus, in the gym, on the sofa or while falling asleep: you can take your story with you everywhere and add pieces to a story little by little.

#NoteOFTheDay by Usman Riaz at TEDXBeaconStreet ‘Music & storytelling‘

Weird-Wired Next Fest in Florence

Weird-Wired Next Fest 1st edition in Florence has been one of the most interesting initiative among the most recent events.

It can be considered as the Italian version of TEDx, the worldwide independent event whose acronym stands for technology, entertainment and design… Well, maybe Wired is trying to do the same, but dealing with the territory, rooted in the local network.

Projections and Pacman at Wired Next Fest, Florence

By the way, here we are with some weird-wired moments and protagonists of the weekend:

Pian de Giullari, opening event of Wired Next Fest

Vintage videogames at Wired Next Fest, Florence

Pacman return and Geek lovers stuff:

Pic by James Ball aka Docubyte — Original picture by James Ball aka Docubyte

…this is the HDR 75, analog hybrid computer that was developed in DDR in Dresda.

Hybrid computer: digital + analogie by Meda42TA — Meda 42 TA Hybrid computer: digital + analog

And now let’s go to the main topic of Wired Next Fest: the new beauty, how the digital world is changing our perception of beauty…

War, beauty and erotism of the art of Milo Manero, one of the most ccontroversi al contemporary weird artist in critics.

…and then The Bumbys, the American unidentified duo who is trying to keep and compare our personalities by their perception and their sensitive skills trasformed into an app:

The Bumbys, revelation app of Wired Next Fest

Some more speeches and event slots focused on new movies coming soon – as ‘Login’ which is about the Internet rise in Italy – and on the augmented reality games like the one sponsored by Enel:

Interactive area in the augmented reality sponsored by Enel

#NoteOfTheDay by Devendra: What we will be

Go Pokémon Go, the latest about the augmented reality game

Have you heard the latest? Pokémon are coming back! Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Greninjam and them all are still alive and they’re coming back to influence our life, as they already did some years ago.

But this time is different, they are more than a cartoon on TV, they are around you and you can enjoy the ordinary life by looking at them and interacting with them, in a totally immersive environment. Yes, Pokémon hit the augmented reality game thanks to a new and totally captivating and fascinating app named Pokémon Go.

It is the only app that in a few days is already in the top chart of the App Store (it’s not on the top chart of Google Play, just because it will be available in the next days): it’s completely beating the porno market contents, Twitter, Candy Crush, Ingress and is now becoming a giant if compared to Snapchat.

Ingress - Augmented reality — Ingress – Augmented reality

Augmented reality (or AR) is used to describe the mix of reality and Internet elements, that is to say when virtual elements start to be part of the reality. AR has not to be confused with ARG, or alternate reality game, which is used to describe an interactive narrative game on multimedia platforms (have a look at Stories in between to find out more!).

Those are examples of augmented reality, the place in which you go thorugh your mobile device and you can discover more about what you see, discovering the details about the surrounding:

Thus, Pokémon Go is an AR game and it allows you to discover more about the place where you are and live in, augmenting the information about possible museums, streets, institutions, buildings, shops and parks in which you can go during your walks, together with your app:

Pokémon in your reality — Pokémon in your kitchen

…among the latest augmented reality games, it seem to be the winner, and still many countries do not yet have access. GO and catch them all 🙂

#NoteOfTheDay Pokémon ‘Gotta Catch Em All’ Theme Song

To facebook or not to facebook: how the gov’t fears social network growth

It’s the first signal we got during last days, while we heard that Facebook’s Latin America vice-president, Diego Dzodan, was arrested and now it’s free again.

The reason seems to be related to the unwillingness to give information in order to help security, he was accused of not helping in drug crime investigation, due to some WhatsApp conversation that would have been helpful if provided (as you may know WhatsApp is part of Facebook propriety). But there are 2 sides of the same coins:

Facebook did it to preserve its business based on privacy of accounts?
Facebook did it to preserve its business (and that’s all)?

Obviously, it’s hard to think that if it had collaborated with government, it also would have had a lot of controversial positions in terms of privacy laws, and maybe people would have started to think twice before creating new accounts and socializing.

Anyway, why do you think the government and Institutions in general fear so much the ‘social platforms increase’? Maybe because they can’t control them?

Do you think it’s possible to let people decide in which way they can communicate with the world? Try to be in Diego Dzodan shoes and find a correct reason to provide the government with the information they requested. People should rely on the channels they use to communicate with their friends, families, lovers and all the kind of persons, hence also criminals are included in those kind of ‘recipients’.

Well, I also think that if a social platform can help laws against criminals and drug crime investigation, maybe it’s worth to consider to create a specific ‘law’ for it? But that’s another kettle of fish.

The most important thing to notice is that both in this case and in the Cupertino similar case happened some weeks ago – when Apple did not provide any further info to the authorities because it was supposed to unblock the iPhone and give some private info – the Right to freedom of speech and expression had the best, but it also means that illicit trafficking – of organs, children, women, drug, weapons, and also words that help them are not ruled, limited and totally free.

#NoteOfTheDay ‘Free To Decide‘ ,1996 by Cranberries,

Interactive Storytelling – Popular Apps to understand how it works

It’s a new trend that is spreading in the marketing and communication worlds. Storytelling or tell the stories is what commercials and newspapers do everyday, but now they’re doing it in a new different way. Interactive, because obviously you have to play with a story, live it and have an active role. Transmedia is the new word that we can add to the previous ones, and it’s worth to say that they go on very well: transmedia interactive storytelling, tell a story through images, pictures, videos, maps, people that you can experience and share.

We’re already in a cross-communication stage, because now the need is to reach people through several channels and make them feel into a total experience.

What I want to say is that it’s nothing so complex, you just need your story, your mobile – iPhone, iPad or whatever – and try to use the apps I’m going to list right now. That’s it!

Here you are some examples of what Interactive Storytelling is:

See New York Times – journalistic storytelling

A story about passwords in everyday life

We can’t see him but we can listen to his story through his voice, watch a series of pictures appearing into his image and showing us his story: we can feel his lost numbers story about the 700 people he lost in his company on September 11th. Just try to imagine…

Eleanor, who found a special protection in his husband shield number when he used to work in a police dept.

Her password is like a new story in her life, with her children, after her mother’s death: passwords, secrets, tears you can hear while she speaks.

Here you are some tips and apps you can explore that can help you to tell your stories: Medium, Adobe Slate, Pixotale for visual storytelling. Storehouse and Steller for basic tools to storytell.

New storytelling is the way we can interact with our readers, find your own way. Everybody has a story to tell, just choose to do it with all you can use: videos, pictures, labels, screenshots, signals, movies, cuts, interviews, songs, sounds, voices.

Animation Storytelling in 5 sketches

I built my story,
now check it and understand if it does make sense to you…or maybe not?!
Anyway, you can also build your own story 🙂

Video about an Italian Radio: Radio Kiss Kiss

Just some words about this post: in the video, they talk about this new phenomenon of Cloud.
Actually it’s one of the most important Italian radio, Radio Kiss Kiss, based in South of Italy, Naples.
Actually, also the more ‘traditional’ channel of communication (that is not traditional anymore), has to compare with the new kind of infrastructure, the Cloud. In fact, radio speakers and managers talk about this moment of transition: how the radio is evolving and decides to base its business on cloud.

The language of the video is Italian, enjoy the video!

E-commerce: first things to do

How to create an e-commerce?

Nowadays having an online shop is like have a new activity, a business by yourself. You can do it anytime you prefer, at any hours, by day, by night, you can have your activity everywhere in the world, but it doesn’t mean you don’t have to spend hours by working on it.

Actually, you need to focus on this task more than you can think. It could seem so simple, but it’s not.

You should have a clear idea of what are you going to create, about the products you want to sell, about the variations of these products, localization of the markets, methods of shipping and payments and, obviously, you have to explore the different software solutions you can find on the internet.

Here you the first steps you have to follow, before starting your online activity and before building your e-shop:

– create a map of your products

– catalogue your products (by dividing them into different categories, by colors, size, or depending on different criteria you can have)

– choose the right name for your online shop: by considering SEO criteria on search engines, choose an easy name that people (and customers) can remember easily, choose a name related to the field and market of your kind of products

– choose the right template, fonts (for your contents and descriptions) that could be consistent to your style and products

– take good photos (or if you have some good images you can use them) of your products, from different point of views, with different lights: the most important thing is that they have to be uniform and look in a quite similar style

Then, in general, try to be logical and well-organized: your e-commerce has to be easily understood by your customers, they have to reach easily what they’re looking for. This is the first step to sell.