Dear Colleagues, we are in the process of organising an Academic Barcamp in Italy entitled: Self observing social networks and the future of society The un-conference will be held at Faculty of Sociology in Urbino on the 11th of October 2008. *As soon as he was able to settle in and overcome the physical effects of Mexico City's altitude, Norbert Wiener began to work at the INC with Arturo Rosenblueth on the type of muscle tremor known as clonus. In the evening he would eat dinner with the interns at the hospital dining room, where the usual diners would address him as maestro. Aided by a Spanish grammar that he took with him everywhere, Wiener discovered that the term was utilized indiscriminately to refer to a professor, a carpenter, or bricklayer. He felt proud to be called maestro, since he scorned the pomposity of academia and the rivalry of vanities it contained *(Quintanilla 2002, p. 311). If you don't know what a BarCamp <http://barcamp.org/BarCamp> is you should probably read this page <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp> first. If you already know the meaning of BarCamp <http://barcamp.org/BarCamp> you are probably asking yourself if an Academic BarCamp<http://barcamp.org/BarCamp>is not an oxymora in itself. Adding the "academic" adjective to a BarCamp <http://barcamp.org/BarCamp>may seem quite strange at first but we have always been fascinated by paradoxes and intrinsic contradictions. We also love both informality and science. And we deeply believe this is not an oxymora neither a contradiction. That's why we decided to promote within "Festival dei Blog '08" <http://conversazionidalbasso.pbwiki.com/blogfest08> something never attempted before. A self-organized meeting of people from the academia and bloggers to talk about the impact of the Internet on society in the informal self-organized setting typical of a BarCamp <http://barcamp.org/BarCamp>. No call for papers, no abstracts committee, no review (blind or not), no selections at all. Wait, wait… I can hear your toughs… "No selection? How do you think to assure the quality of scheduled speeches without any selection?" We have a simple answer. We believe that BarCamp <http://barcamp.org/BarCamp> is not really attended by everyone. Just folks who really loves to share use to attend this kind of events. And since "love for sharing" is one of the most important attitude for a researcher... That's why we plan to gather the best Italian Internet researchers as well as some friends from all around the world. If you are interested in the impact of social media on society and you are a bright mind (we know you are :) ) this is the event for you! To register an interest in attending this conference, please visit: http://barcamp.org/AcaBarCamp If you are coming to Europe to attend IR 9.0 this is the perfect event companion as well as a good opportunity to visit Italy. Also, please feel free to circulate this notice to any of your colleagues who may be interested to attend. Best wishes, Fabio Giglietto Fabio Giglietto, PhD. Associate researcher LaRiCA - Department of Communication Studies Università degli Studi di Urbino "Carlo Bo" References Quintanilla S. (2002), Arturo Rosenblueth and Norbert Wiener: Two Scientists in the Historiography of Contemporary Education, «Mexican Journal of Educational Research», 7-15, pp. 303-329.