Scripting News: Italians want to know

Scripting News, the weblog started in 1997 that bootstrapped the blogging revolution.

Italians want to know

Paolo says they want to know what we think of them.

I was talking yesterday with my friend Mary Trigiani, who as you can tell by her last name, is of Italian descent. Her grandparents were born in the old country. I told her my impression, that for a country of such beauty, and a people so intelligent and friendly, and one that seems from the outsider's point of view to run so well, they sure think very little of themselves!

I didn't see any homeless people in Italy. There were some beggars, they were very aggressive, but they didn't persist if you ignored them. But even they seemed to be taking reasonably good care of themselves.

And the cities are so fantastically beautiful. When Italians visit the United States, what must they think of us. We can't even keep our streets clean. True, NY is doing much better, but we have a long way to go. And our food, it's nothing compared to theirs. Honestly I don't think I had ever really tasted fish until I had lunch with Marco and Paolo in Genova. You can ask them how I was gushing over the flavors and textures.

I go back to the advice I gave at the end of my trip. Let's have an international blogger's camp in rural Italy, off-season, a week retreat, where we talk about the world, in an expansive way. Let Italy be the first host. Then we go somewhere else, maybe South America, New Zealand, Korea. Let's find what's great about all our cultures, and learn from each other.

I think if Italians use the rest of us a mirror they might learn to appreciate what they have more than they do now. It's a beautiful place. And the people are nice. What more could you ask for!

Last update: Thursday, June 3, 2010; 4:00:55 PM

~About the Author~

Dave Winer, 55, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in New York City.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.

One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

"Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.

"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

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May Jul