January 2012
1 post
Sailboats
Taken at Port de Barcelona
Jan 14th
October 2011
2 posts
Spheres
Taken at Royal Albert Hall
Oct 19th
2 tags
Steve Jobs, 1955 - 2011
Steve Jobs has died. Clearly I didn’t know him personally, but I feel saddened. And it’s not “me” to feel that way for public figures when they pass away, but he was an amazing visionary and, in a way, an inspiration. Back in 2005, at a commencement address at Stanford University, he shared the philosophy that drove him: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living...
Oct 5th
6 notes
September 2011
2 posts
You come home with me tonight. Ingrid Bergman in...
Taken at Scarlett Gallery
Sep 25th
A certain shade of grey
Sep 18th
August 2011
4 posts
1 tag
Apple market cap evolution under Steve Jobs
 
Aug 27th
3 notes
Poetry at work
Occasionally in the course of one’s life, there arrives an overriding feeling of helpless futility as the crushing realisation dawns that all our childhood dreams were noting but naïve, unachievable reveries. The hopes, spurred by the innocent  optimism of youth, that life would play its natural, joyful course, filled with smiles and the smells of summer are at once destroyed and one...
Aug 26th
The End is Nigh
Taken at Jubilee Gardens
Aug 21st
Bright colours for a last glimpse of holidays
Aug 14th
July 2011
4 posts
3 tags
One more reason for loving Apple
Lately the home button of my iPhone 4 hasn’t worked perfectly. Sometimes it didn’t work at the first try and I had to push it again, harder, to make it work. A bit of a nuisance especially for double-click actions such as accessing iPod controls with the phone locked, or seeing which apps are running. All in all just a nuisance, nothing to lose sleep for though. However, I went to...
Jul 26th
5 notes
Classic car
Taken at Trafalgar Square
Jul 26th
1 note
Legend
Taken at the raceway
Jul 25th
Provocative Parisien Urinals
originofcool: Origin of Cool: France We recently brought you an article about thermochromic urinals where your pee changed the colour of the porcelain. On the same subject, here is a photo from the toilets in Belushi’s on Rue de Crimée, Paris. Certainly one of the most provocative restrooms we’ve ever seen! Thanks to Fabio de Bernadi for sending the photo
Jul 3rd
19 notes
May 2011
1 post
4 tags
Taking customer engagement to a new level
Last Thursday I spoke at IBB International’s Next Generation Social Media Conference in Amsterdam about social CRM and about examples of excellence in community management and customer engagement (using the cases of Orange and Accor Hotels). If you’re interested in social media monitoring, customer engagement, community management and social CRM, have a look at the presentation...
May 23rd
April 2011
1 post
4 tags
As predicted daily deals are spreading, but is...
A few months ago I debated the opportunity (whether it was a real one or not) to approach TimeOut and propose to build for them a deal aggregator for each city they cover. Since there is abundance of deals I thought it was a no brainer. But then for one reason or another I never went on with this idea. A few days ago I discovered that TimeOut just launched TimeOut Deals… now I’m...
Apr 11th
7 notes
March 2011
2 posts
2 tags
Introducing #moodtracker...
Today I feel really optimistic. Last night I saw a friend and we discussed loads of things, which sparked some ideas and most of all a lot of determination. I always pity the lack of capital to do a certain business, or the lack of knowledge to pursue another idea, or lack of skills to go after one of the many web-based projects going on in my head. But today I feel optimistic. And all the...
Mar 2nd
2 tags
What's in a name?
Coincidences can be quite ironic some times. Take today’s news about Germany’s defence minister resignation after being accused of plagiarism. His name? Karl-Thodor zu Guttenberg. The accusation (confirmed by him)? Copying his PhD thesis from other sources. The irony? Herr Guttenberg’s last name is just one more letter than the more illustrious inventor of mechanical movable type...
Mar 1st
February 2011
2 posts
2 tags
How to *not* do business development
Yesterday I received a typical spmmy email about graphic design for my ex startup’s site. It can be either that or outsourced development, it doesn’t change much. Email ignored and trashed. Among other reasons because trying to do business with someone you don’t know and writing “your current website does not have an appealing design that visually caters to your client...
Feb 23rd
5 tags
HTML5 to rescue publishers subscription revenues?
Recently there has been quite some talking around subscription revenues for publishers, especially after Apple introduced its subscription service (which is now under scrutiny by both US and European antitrust authorities) in conjunction with the launch of News Corp’s The Daily - the first newspaper specifically thought for the iPad. In a nutshell, publishers can only sell subscriptions...
Feb 21st
10 notes
January 2011
6 posts
“In short, I don’t think publishers will figure all this out in time, which is...”
– Why Online Retailers Will Squeeze Out Publishers In The Book Business | paidContent (via grankabeza)
Jan 19th
1 note
1 tag
Heading towards a social commerce bubble? But...
Today I read yet another post by Paul Marsden over at Social Commerce Today, but for the first time I didn’t agree with him… the horror, the horror! :) The original post, about a possible ‘bubble 2.0’ around social commerce, is here: Bubblicious? $1.5bn investment pours into social commerce startups. My comment was as follows: Paul, leaving aside the possibility of a...
Jan 18th
Quote of the day
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity” - Martin Luther King Jr.
Jan 17th
2 tags
What if Foursquare could link into POS data?
I checked in today at lunch in my favourite falafel place in London and realised that it would be very cool if Foursquare (or Facebook Places, or any other similar service for what it matters) could use the data coming from retailers POS systems. So if you went to Starbucks and pay with your card you could have an automatic check in there. Cool uh? In a way it would be Foursquare meeting Blippy...
Jan 11th
1 tag
Is Quora surging?
In the last 3 days I received loads of new followers notifications from Quora, to the point that I’m wondering if anything happened. Are they growing strong? Have they made a good ad campaign? Most new followers are friends/twitter followers, so that’s clearly how they found me, but then a good 20 ish people are complete strangers. However, good for Quora, which is surely a good...
Jan 9th
1 tag
Beijing here we come
Checking out from YueQing after a great fun wedding weekend with a mix of Chinese, Italian, English, Swedish and German folks. Now going to Beijing via Wenzhou. Shanghai and its ultra modern, shopping based style didn’t appeal me too much, but I have great expectations for the capital.
Jan 2nd
December 2010
3 posts
3 tags
Who's to blame?
My experience with Groupon is getting really weird. On one side I keep buying interesting deals from them (one just now) and on the other I recently ranted about a grey area of their business model and now I feel like I bought a silly deal just yesterday. But I wonder who’s to blame in this last case? Let me explain what happened. Groupon had a deal on Saturday for the Heathrow Express:...
Dec 20th
3 tags
The evil rules of the music industry
Yesterday the UK version of X Factor came to an end, with the victory of Matt Cardle. Well, big deal. This morning my attention was brought to the fact that he will release a single for Christmas, which is destined to reach the top of the UK single’s chart, like in the past years. Even bigger deal. Well no, I’m joking. The *problem* is that this single is a cover, Many of Horror,...
Dec 13th
The dubious way of doing business of Groupon...
I believe the following thought to be timely since rumours are roaring about Google acquiring Groupon for such a ridiculous amount of money that I should refrain from writing it here (although it’s $5.3 billions + $700 millions earn out). Anyway, I’m probably writing more because I found myself buying half a dozen Groupon deals lately. All very good deals I’d say. Now,...
Dec 2nd
November 2010
8 posts
1 tag
ListenHelp please. Who sings this song?
Nov 24th
3 tags
A hard blow to user generated social shopping →
ThisNext hired a high profile editor-in-chief and - quoting from the post - it seems that they don’t believe anymore in user generated content for social shopping: The new home page and content efforts are a continuation of an effort, started by Edelman, to shift ThisNext away from a purely user-generated social shopping site to one with more of a curated, content-and-editorial heavy...
Nov 18th
1 tag
On clickthroughs and conversions
I just read an interesting post on how clickthrough rates for display ads seem to have stop falling and have levelled out to 0.09% Now, besides the fact that 0.09% is high or low or whatever you may think it is, there is one passage which I’m not sure I understand. Just 20.4% of conversions came after clicking on a banner ad. Instead, the vast majority happened among web users who had...
Nov 18th
4 tags
How Social Is Affecting Online Purchase Behaviour →
Very good examination of today’s ‘socialisation’ of the online purchase process. I contribute with my thoughts at the end of the post.
Nov 17th
3 tags
No more foursquare on facebook it seems
I meant to write this short post for a week at least, since I noticed that my foursquare check-ins were not displayed on my facebook profile anymore, despite my 2 accounts are connected. Recently Allfacebook posted a poll to see what people thought about the future on foursquare and facebook places and one of the comments was interesting (if true, which I can’t say): From what i have...
Nov 16th
7 tags
Hail to the new king
What an ending for the Formula 1 season in Abu Dhabi final showdown, wow! As an Italian I’m mildly disappointed by the outcome, but in full honesty I’m happy for Vettel and for Red Bull, for a number of reasons, not too relevant here. However, I think they (Red Bull team) have been a bit cheeky with all this thing about team orders. Let me explain… my ‘conspiracy...
Nov 15th
4 tags
Il passatempo di leggere i giornali
Qualche giorno fa in pausa pranzo guardo un po’ di news e leggo su più fonti del discorso di Berlusconi alla Direzione del Pdl. Sotto riporto 2 paragrafi, dal Corriere e da Repubblica… Corriere della Sera (link) «Cessino le polemiche - ha esortato il capo del governo - e si interrompa quella che mi auguro non sia una strategia di logoramento del governo che non può essere accettata se si hanno a...
Nov 9th
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-10-31) →
Blonde Redhead (22) Brandon Flowers (14) Muse (13) Alexisonfire (11) Mystery Jets (11) Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Nov 2nd
October 2010
12 posts
4 tags
I love FbSense
I was reading a bunch of blog posts and articles saved from the past couple of days and I found myself thinking of a potential strategy to further monetize Facebook as a platform. Let’s call it FbSense. Got it already? There’s a twist anyway, so it’s worth keep reading :) AdSense made Google the ginormous company it is today. Facebook is the new kid on the block in the online...
Oct 28th
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-10-24) →
Arcade Fire (109) Blonde Redhead (81) The Courteeners (24) Feeder (15) Anberlin (12) Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Oct 25th
5 tags
“Fixed-gear road bikes were always popular with cycle couriers because they were...”
– Sounds like *everything* east of Liverpool Street Station…
Oct 25th
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-10-17) →
The Courteeners (55) Funeral for a Friend (36) Blonde Redhead (24) Caesars (16) Anberlin (15) Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Oct 19th
4 tags
Oct 13th
Oct 13th
7,186 notes
4 tags
Oct 13th
4 tags
“Warning: If you are a large group of lads coming to Berlin to drink yourselves...”
– Possibly best warning ever on a hotel booking page! :)  Can’t wait to try out this quirky hotel
Oct 13th
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-10-10) →
Anberlin (53) Arcade Fire (49) Blonde Redhead (38) Muse (35) Incubus (17) Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Oct 12th
5 tags
The Social Network sets to be a winner for me, on...
For some unknown reason (unknown to myself too) I didn’t pay any attention to the rumours about a film on Facebook in previous months. The subconscious idea of it being a cheesy and over hyped thing with no connection to reality probably put me off it. However, after being invited to the private screening in London (details here) I checked the actual trailer of the film and I started to get...
Oct 11th
Stefano Bernardi: My thoughts on Facebook Groups →
stefanobernardi: So yesterday Facebook overhauled its groups. Today I gave them a try creating my first group, trying to bring together the Italian startup scene. I think it’s a really awesome product, but it has some really major flaws that are making it highly unusable. As pointed out by Jason…
Oct 8th
2 notes
6 tags
Oct 6th
September 2010
1 post
3 tags
Facebook sees social shopping reaching tipping...
“Social commerce will be big and disruptive,” Ethan Beard (Director of Platform Marketing at Facebook) said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, referring to the use of social media tools and content–such as user profiles, customer ratings and reviews, user recommendations and wish lists–to make online shopping a more social experience. At Wishpot we’re well prepared to embrace...
Sep 30th
July 2010
1 post
5 tags
“I don’t like work - no man does - but I like what is in the work - the...”
– Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Jul 12th