I know this feeling well. I’ve experienced it dozens of times. The moments before a new beginning. Usually, for me, a newspaper, but not only. I’ve made a lot of things. You arrive at a certain point in life that you wonder if certain repeating patterns are not your destiny. Or whatever you chose to be your destiny. Launch new things. When on March 5th I was given the task of directing a newspaper that wasn’t there I thought how lucky I was: to be able to start from scratch once again. Today we are, let’s go. We are not perfect, we know, but we never really are: we will try to improve ourselves every day.
We call It, not like the protagonist of a Stephen King novel obviously, but like Italy on the web and as the acronym for Information Technology. And then It, like Italian Tech, to tell the eternal Italian digital transformation that should finally take place in the next five years; and to try to interpret the changing world with an Italian point of view.
Ma I’m not here to tell you what we’re going to do, I’ve already done this in other posts; in this I would rather tell you what we will not do.
We will not make click-catching titles, we will not try to be read by promising more than what we have written; I’m titles such as “watch this video, it’s viral” are banned or “the whale does an amazing thing”. Prohibited. We will try to explain things as they are: often it is hard enough that way.
We will not pretend to be infallible. We will make mistakes, everyone does them and above all writing about technology can happen: but if you have the patience to report them to us we will correct them leaving a trace of the error and correction because making mistakes is not a shame, not admitting it is unforgivable.
We will not do it all We will not try to cover it all. First because we are not an infinite editorial office. But mostly because it doesn’t make sense. There are already excellent things around, it is useless to rewrite them if we have nothing to add. We will finally apply one of the most cited and least followed maxims of digital journalism: “Do your best and link the rest” (Jeff Jarvis). Do what you can do best and link the rest. Links to other sites are not lost web traffic, they are great advice. They are a gift. You will find links chosen next to the opening of the site always updated.
We will not use unnecessarily complex language to give us a tone: some English expressions are inevitable if even the premier now calls the Green Pass the certificate for going on vacation this summer; but the avoidable ones we will translate; is we will explain the acronyms. We will try to be understandable for everyone.
We will not tire of explain seemingly trivial things if you ask us: do you have problems with email or wifi? We have activated a whatsapp number where you can ask us your technology questions, to learn how to use it better. We will try to answer everyone.
We do not have a political line: between internal journalists and collaborators we are a large, plural, diverse team, of technology enthusiasts aware of the fact that the digital revolution involves risks and opportunities and that knowledge is the best tool to live it. Each of us is the bearer of his own vision that we consider a wealth. We believe in confrontation and debate. We believe in ideas. We are united by the desire to do good journalism and the hope of being useful for the growth of our country.
With this spirit we set out on a journey. I personally am filled with gratitude to the life that it gives me yet another ticket to the future. One last thing: many of you don’t know me, I guess, indeed, I hope so, because it means that these lines will have come out of my close circle of usual contacts (it’s called filter bubble, if you want to give a tone, but you can also say in Italian). But others do not: with many others in recent years I have shared dreams, hopes, battles, defeats. Those people are my secret weapon, my reserve of energy in hard times. They are the ones who kept me company when the trips ended and I came home for a while. They are the ones who have always been there and will always be there. When I think about them now I am reminded of a moment of the Blues Brothers, when one of the two, very happy, says to the other: we have rebuilt the band. We are on a mission again. Wanting to stay with our feet on the ground, as is right and necessary, not “on behalf of God”, but on behalf of IO, the public administration app.
As absurd as it sounds to say it right now, after a year and passes of a pandemic and mourning, I think we will have fun.
You can find me at [email protected]
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