Violet commercial partners: Commercial ICT enterprises specialized in ODL and publishing sponsoring the SoReCom Thematic Network

 

“Violet” commercial partners:

Commercial ICT enterprises specialized in ODL and publishing sponsoring the SoReCom Thematic Network:

Partner Organisation
IT	Edizioni Unicopli srl	http://www.edizioniunicopli.it

Edizioni Unicopli s.r.l. is a well known Italian publishing company with strong interest in Social Sciences (see for example the collection in Applied Social Psyhcology entitled “SocialMente” directed by prof. Francesco Paolo Colucci, University of Milan Bicocca assisted by the Editorial Board members: prof. Piero Amerio (University of Turin), prof. Vittorio CIgoli and prof. Eugenia Scabini (Catholic University of Milan).

Moving from an editorial activity initially at the service of Universities of Milan later enlarged to the national production and distribution, Edizioni Unicopli s.r.l. currently intends to develop activities aimed at disseminating outputs (books and multimedia products) to an international market via specialised distribution channels.

 

  

Partner Organisation
IT	Eikon Spa	http://www.eikonspa.com/index.html

Eikon was born in 2003 from the merge of Etnolab (a communication consulting company) and ESL & Network Italia Spa, founded in 1995 by Prof. Enrico Pozzi, of the “La Sapienza” University in Rome. ESL Italia carries out analysis and research. For these activities, it has introduced in Italy original qualitative and quantitative methodologies, based on proprietary software and technologies.

Through ESL and Etnolab’s national and international networks, Eikon can apply its research tools and methods to a wide spectrum of strategic geographical areas. The people who work at Eikon have top level experience in the fields of management, consulting, and academia, in the sectors of operational and strategic business management, communication, Public Affairs and qualitative and quantitative research. Their capabilities range from high-level consulting to the interdisciplinary use of path breaking tools stemming from social sciences such as statistics, sociology, anthropology, social psychology and semiotics.

Eikon constructs, values, verifies and modifies the Strategic Identity of complex organizations, such as businesses and institutions. Strategic Identity is the specific identity profile that distinguishes one organization or business from other, similar ones, and molds both its internal culture and its external activities. An efficient Strategic Identity makes it possible to provide deep rooted coherence to the structure, action, products/services, the values and external/internal communication of a business.

Eikon acts on Strategic Identity through a scientific approach which combines rigour with operational counselling. It offers tools for analysis and monitoring of corporate and business strategies, efficiency of company and product communication, external/internal perception of both the business and management. All these tools enable the client to evaluate and direct its Strategic Identity, thus maximizing its capacity to create added value. Eikon is particularly proud of its intertwined qualitative/quantitative methodologies, which it has adapted to the needs of those who must decide: statistical treatment of textual data, neural analysis, language analysis, network analysis, participant observation, in-depth interviews and psychodynamic focus groups, which make use of sociograms, associative chains, and projective tests. These methodologies do not aim at producing endless tables, but rather at providing ideas and verifying them. Eikon intensively uses the web in its research: surveys and online focus groups, web brainstorming, newsgroup and Web 2.0 analysis.

 

 

Partner Organisation
IT	Elever srl	http://www.elever.it

ELEVER’s activities are based on design and development in the areas:

• Website
• Intranet
• Publishing
• Illustrations
• Info graphics
• Project and development
• Corporate Corporate &
• Graphics for products
• Advertising artwork
• Ad-hoc software developed

In these year Elever has developed some software, the 2 principles are:

1) 2easy: CMS for institutional site, vertical portals, intranet and other website typology.

2) xtribooTM (vers. 1.05) which is the 1st Italian visual chat, with a proprietary engine. Totally customizable:

• logo positioning,
• background,
• avatar,
• user interface,
• ad-hoc games creation

One of the main aspects of Elever’s work is dedicated to a research. They have always sustained some theories about:

• aggregative model of the on-line community,
• methodological approach and sell on-line advertising,
• learning models (learning by doing).

These theories are synthesized in the xtribooTM platform. Like an aggregative model, content support and user profiling.

Elever is also active in some other fields:

a) strategy:

• communication plans
• concepts conceiving

b) visual communication

• creation of corporate, product and brand identity;
• digital on-line e off-line interactive design;
• sales and training support;
• artwork advertising;
• services for publishing.

c) design:

• event design
• exhibit design

d) gaming:

• game project
• game design

 

  

Partner Organisation
IT	Faraday srl	http://www.faraday.it/

Faraday is a SME, specialised in delivering Web-developing solutions and support. Among its main products, further detailed below, the company’s ability to programme web-based databases using WebObjects has proved to be fundamental for the implementation of the Scientific Virtual Community. What follows is a list of the main products that makes the company an ideal partner in this project:

1) QuickWeb – a solution to create and manage institutional web-portals and web-sites. This easy and efficient solution allows to manage the lay-out of the web-site, the pages, the content and the graphical aspects to users who have never experienced html programming. QuickWeb belongs to the kind of applications for the web, in which the logics relating to the elaboration of the site is left completely up to the server. The client, on the other hand, is made up of a simple web browser, and has the sole purpose of a remote user interface. Differently from other solutions, QuickWeb does not use any kind of script to dynamically generate the pages, but byte-code Java, and it interfaces, according to the type of adaptor, with common CGIs or APIs related to any specific server. This means a considerably faster length of elaboration and response compared to that obtainable with any other script-based solution.

2) Webstore ASP - a solution for E-commerce dedicated to ISPs that has the necessary scaleability and versatility on the Service Provider’s side, and a user-friendly approach from the client’s perspective, which makes it competitive in the spectrum of available E-commerce solutions on the market. The ASP version can contain and manage an unlimited amount of eShops, in a business-to-costumer, as well as in a business-to-business scenario, according to the provider’s profile of each of them by using WebStore pro. Webstore pro contains the following tools:

• eShop Browser – A tool that behaves like the “Network Preferences” tool in Windows or the “Chooser”

• eShop Admin – A tool that can set up a profile of the shop according to the applicable contract between the provider and the commercial activity such as:

1. Maximum number of products that the shop can contain
2. Maximum number of different manageable products
3. Choosing sizes and colors
4. Managing an administrator log-in for the owner

• eShop Contract – An instrument that can pull up an visualize all the contracts created and managed under the
  provider tool

• eShop Contract Form – a way of classifying all contracts between the provider and the owners, available in the following variations:

1. Name of the contract
2. Maximum number of products for each e-shop
3. Different base Products
4. Variable Products
5. Cost of rental
6. Duration of rental
7. Invoicing periods

 

 

Partner Organisation
IT	Futura Grafica srl	http://www.futuragrafica.it/index.html

The Futura Grafica Srl Company offers high additional value services for the management of ICT settings, such as:

• Data recovery activities on XServe apparatus already in use by certified and qualified personnel;
• Cooperation in the management, research and development activities on multimedia products and projects;
• Specific planning, development, and integration capabilities of web and networking structures able to support the online services integration phase;
• Creation of VPN in order to increase the high additional value security of access and enjoyment of services even outside the internal web, with the possibility of having mobile users access apparatus and data which are usually only accessible within the web perimeter, for reasons of strategic importance;
• Cooperation in the creation of multimedia and post-production video projects with data and multimedia content exportation through audio-video streaming, as well as publication on the corresponding Internet site;
• Cooperation by qualified and certified technical experts for the maintenance and repair of hardware;
• Technical surveillance activities of the web in order to allow for a better and quicker response to events as well as proactive management of potential problems;
• Digitalisation of text;
• At the Futura Grafica Srl service centres, back ups of the configurations of the active web apparatus (switch, router, firewall) in order to guarantee a faster restoration in the case of damage or replacement of the apparatus itself

 

Partner Organisation
IT	ImagicA srl	http://www.imagica.it

ImagicA began to comprehend the rapid expansion of new media and the knock-on effects it would have in the service provider market. The company was born in September 1998 as a creative environment for web-developers, focused on R&D and cutting edge applications on the Internet. Its core management is highly integrated with the other functions of the company, so that it is able to rationalize and optimize resources and competencies on each project to realize innovative, unique and original, but above all, functional solutions.

ImagicA’s main competencies that make the company an ideal partner for this project are the following:

• Html – an interactive and efficient architeture that respects client needs is the main characteristic that distinguishes each ImagicA project. Each solution is a unique and original episode and tailor-made for the client, developed with the most cutting edge technology, intelligently mixing HTML and scripting with new multimedia solutions, such as integrating XML and Flash, that guarantee the website with the maximum degree of interactivity. To establish which technology is more appropriate for the project, ImagicA performs an analysis of the following elements:

1. Client needs
2. Target
3. Services and technological applications to be integrated on the site
4. Expectations of the final user of the final performance of the website

• Flash – a powerful instrument to guarantee a high quality browsing experience, in emotional as well as in functional terms. Such an instrument, a part from allowing the realization of animated interfaces, allows for a better management of navigation in terms of performance as well as in terms of user-friendliness.

• streaming - thanks to a definite development of web-applications, it is possible to produce and distribute multimediatic information to complete the contents of a website. The concept that lies at the core of streaming technology consists incompressing and dividing multimedia files in many packages, so as to allow the visualize and listen to the content as it is received by the browser, without having to wait for download to be completed and without needing much space on the hard disk. The user can thus visit the website to listen to an online transmission. In response to a growing need for such services, ImagicA has a highly professional and reliable permanent technical structure in place to provide streaming services. The team can manage each phase of production and development of films: the recording of events with on-site operators and real-time transmission on the web via streaming video.

• Connectivity – ImagicA offers clients the maximum support in terms of Hosting thanks to its networking structure, the hardware architechture and to the available telecommunication channels. The investment in this field, the professionality of its resources, the services and the constant technological updates are at the fore-front of ImagicA’s success. The company offers a wide range of solutions, shared and/or specific, scaleable and appropriately supported, so as to serve the needs of the client. The traffic monitoring service is a fundamental pretext for any web-based operation, so ImagicA offers a service that continuosly controls the flow of visitors to elaborate statistics. Such a technology allows to trace user preferences, to trace the itinerary and timing of user visits in order to maximize userfriendliness. With a username and password, clients can directly access reports on such statistics through a common browser.

• development ImagicA – Since the birth of the company, it has specialized in personalized web-based applications. The first choice is always a solid technological development platform that is dependable and versatile, as well as the integration and scaleability of systems. The competencies of this new partner are in constant evolution and the strong point is the acquired know how and the available technical resources, making it a fully fledged Costum Internet Solutions Provider. It provides specialized project design and the administration of complex applications.

• lan/wan - ImagicA has been developing and installing local and geographical networks since the beginning of the company and has continued to accrue its specialization and form its top-level know how in many key areas of networking, such as:

1. Security
2. Certification of data networks
3. Integration and optimization of existing networks
4. Indoor and Outdoor wireless networks

• intranet/extranet - ImagicA’s competencies at a technological and applicational level allow the client to obtain the best performance in Internet based environments for private companies and institutions.

 

Partner Organisation
SE	CEFAB Conny Ericsson Försäljning AB

CEFAB have been working with sales and support for Marratech AB since 2001. One of their main activities are education and lectures regardind e-learning, pedagogy and the process of education doing distance e-learning. Their technical skills to support networking and web-based videoconference are very high.

 

Partner Organisation
SE	Marratech	WebAuditorium	http://www.marratech.se

Marratech AB is a Sweden-based communication tool company that develops and markets solutions for e-meetings, i.e. software that enables web based meetings and conferences. The company's business idea is "to help people meet and work together regardless of geographical location", primarily to increase efficiency in daily work and also to save valuable travel time and costs as well as work time. Marratech launched its first products for e-meetings in 1998.

Marratech solutions are based on research that started in 1995 at CDT (the Centre for Distance-Spanning Technology) at Luleå university of Technology, Sweden.

Marratech holds the "2001 European IST Prize" for Marratech Pro, awarded by the European Council of Applied Sciences and Engineering (Euro-CASE) with support from the EU's Information Society Technologies Programme. Marratech is owned by Swedish mutual funds as well as the employees and founders of the company.

The Marratech Work Environment helps groups of people to communicate, collaborate and manage information from their computers. It gives users a secure e-meeting environment where members can talk with high quality audio, share information, pictures, MS Office documents and see each other.