When in Rome, Do as the Romans Do (As in, No Twittering or Much iPhoning)
by Kara Swisher
Posted on March 12, 2009 at 5:45 AM PT
BoomTown’s visit to Italy has been eye-opening in a lot of ways, not the least of which is to be reminded that not everyone in the world is jacked into the matrix 24/7.
In other words, Julius Caesar conquered Rome, but Twitter definitely has not.
In fact, the conference being held here is aptly called “Tutto Cambio, Cambiamo Tutto?” (I came here to interview Huffington Post editrix Arianna Huffington and LinkedIn founder and CEO Reid Hoffman onstage about innovation and online trends.)
That roughly translates into “Everything changes, let’s change everything?”
This is not a question that is much asked in Silicon Valley, which changes just like the weather, embracing change for change’s sake.
But here, whether or not to change is much more of a debate–one in which change does not always come out on top.
Internet penetration is much lower here than elsewhere in Europe, as is everything from per capita computer ownership to online advertising spending. Television still dominates most media.
“We’re 2,000 years old” is something you hear a lot from people as an explanation for approaching everything, from social networking to iPhones to anything interactive, with some wariness.
While most people here note that they like Facebook, prounounced “FAY-sa BOO-ka,” hardly anyone sees the point of Web 2.0’s trend du jour, Twitter (“TWEE-tur”).
In fact, few have heard of it, and those who have don’t use it.
And while several people have iPhones, no one seems over the moon about the Apple (AAPL) phenom or captivated by its potential to herald Web 3.0 as the mobile revolution.
In any case, here is a video I did, speaking to both Huffington (here is her blog on the event) and Hoffman, as well as to several Italians at the conference:
Comments
It will ever be that some people (certainly many in the US, maybe not in Italy) gravitate to the newest tool to be cool, without considering whether it’s a tool that they can productively use or whether the tool will use them.
A key consideration is the “speed” of the tool; if it detracts rather than adds to your decision making process (or your life) by being out of sync with the pace that’s optimal for you, it’s best to get rid of it or use it in ways that differ from the norm.
I write (the research puzzle)
Posted by tom brakke at March 12th, 2009 at 6:35 amand consult in the investment world, and you see the mismatch all of the time. Some of the results are currently on display.
http://blog.webnews.it/13/03/2.....non-lo-sa/
Posted by Giacomo Dotta at March 13th, 2009 at 3:14 amDear Kara,
reading your article makes me think how much people can be ignorant about Italy.
As an italian deeply involved in technology, who spends a lot of time in the US too, I’d like to point out that:
- Italy is one of the most important countries when it comes to 3G and mobile phones… many of the mobile phones I can find in the US (I usually stay in California) when I visit BestBuy or something, were available in Italy 3-4 years ago (italian people would laugh at them… )
- in Italy, there was the first Internet Service Provider in Europe
- in the US people dream of the high speed internet I can get in my house
- most brilliant US geniuses have italian roots
- many US people looked at my Nokia N95 as if it came from Mars (”hey, when did you get that phone? wonderful!”)
- Facebook has been translated into italian (and very badly) just a few months ago… this helped to make it widely known by italians
- again, Twitter. Not many people want to deal with english-only services. As soon as an italian version will be available, I bet it will go mainstream in Italy, too
- italians use SMS. Do you know what a SMS is?
I saw with my eyes americans who couldn’t send an SMS from their mobile phone…
All that said, I think you should come to italy more often in order to get a better understanding of the relationship between italians and technology/internet. Send me an SMS when you do that
Ciao
Luca Filigheddu
http://www.lucafiligheddu.com
p.s. the right phrase is “Tutto Cambia, Cambiamo Tutto?”
Posted by Luca Filigheddu at March 13th, 2009 at 3:16 amp.s. I apologize in advance for my bad english, I’m italian
There’s been a bit of talking in italian blogs about this post. Kara has many readers in Italy, and they were surprised about some of her findings and accused her of ignorance and inaccuracy about our country. I will try to defend her, since I met her in Rome and I’ve seen the places and the people she took her views from.
Posted by Luca Sofri at March 13th, 2009 at 7:28 amKara was a guest at a big meeting of italian ad agencies. It’s people worried about the crisis who wanted to undestrand what’s happening and what the future will bring, especially on the web. In Italy they’re not the kind of people who can give you hints about the use of internet and new technologies. The guests stayed in wonderful and expensive hotels where usually rich tourists come when they’re looking for italian clichés and traces of Dolce Vita. There is a huge gap between Italy as it is perceived in the US – sunny countryside, Fellini, good restaurant, and Berlusconi – and today’s real country: that is a mix of many things, obviously, and among these things there is a lot of people very aware of modern times and technology, very active on the web and doing wonderful things with technologies our country should be proud of. And there is also a big mainstream of ignorance. But as I told on Kara’s video (I’m the one who looks stupid, with the scarf), Twitter here is been huge more than one year ago, and know we think FriendFeed is more useful and interesting, as an example.
So, what I wanted to say is that Kara met the wrong people in the wrong places to understand well Italy. She now knows what ad sellers and mainstream journalist think, in Italy: that’s an interesting pointo of view, like many others. But there are many more, and more informed. You have to know that at the same meeting Arianna Huffington was a speaker, and nobody in the hall knew who she were until some minutes before.
So I think that Kara, and american journalist, have to keep in mind that the people they meet in foreign countries are just a small bit of the view from here: but I also think that the ones who know better about these matters – like me, like the comment before me – have to keep in mind that those guys are Italy, too, and maybe Kara now knows them better than I am.
Pardon my english, Luca Sofri.
“than I do”, sorry
Posted by Luca Sofri at March 13th, 2009 at 7:42 am“So, what I wanted to say is that Kara met the wrong people in the wrong places to understand well Italy”. **Exactly** what i want to say.
Posted by Giacomo Dotta at March 13th, 2009 at 8:34 amAll:
Thanks for all these great insights. Obviously, I have to come back and do more reporting in Italy. I know that sounds hard, but someone has to do it!
By the way, it might be translation issues, but I was–in fact–complimenting Italians for their wariness about running blindly at trends.
Posted by Kara Swisher at March 22nd, 2009 at 12:07 amAs a foreigner who has been living in Italy for 15 years now i have to take a stand somewhere in the middle.
Kara Swisher is right in many ways; sadly Internet and even computers is still an enigma to many people. I find Italians to be ignorant about many things, firstly about language; yes, they will wait for Twitter and Facebook to be translated before they will use it. They learn pretty bad english in school, and all movies are dubbed; small wonder. Luca Sofri is right about Italy being perceived as something it is not, foreigners tend to have a fairy-tale-idea about Italians and italian lifestyle, but there is no “wrong people to meet in the wrong places” Luca, a country is made of people. All the people all the time. There are a lot of very well-informed people in Italy as well, yes, but the gap between the tech-savvy people and the ones that know nothing of internet, is huge.
Yes, people have advanced phones. But often they don’t know how to use them.
The highspeed internet Luca (Sofri) ? Come on, it’s no faster than anywhere else in the world. And I divide my time between Italy, Denmark and Sweden. Twitter ? In Italy ? I don’t remember the huge-ness; I think you might be wrong.
I will defend Italy a long way; I have chosen to live here, and I love it.
Posted by kyllyan k at March 25th, 2009 at 6:09 amBut I don’t look to Italy or Italians to find technological progress and innovation.