This year the Internet Festival is going to explore how the use of the Net and new technologies can transform the physical landscape into a place where ideas, inventions, opportunities, products, services and start-ups can germinate and grow to help find a way out of the crisis, signalling the way towards shared development and a sustainable vision of the future. The objective of 2012 was to explore future scenarios, trends and developments with regards to the web; this year is focusing on the term “Incubator”, a keyword that will be explored in different ways across the four subject areas making up the Festival.

The Internet for Citizens area will discuss social innovation and consider the internet as the key for improving the quality of everyday life. Discussions will be based on the following subjects: green marketing, peer to peer and peer production with Arduino Lab. Precedence will be given to the topic of Smart Cities, real incubators for a new citizenry that is aware, competent and responsible for the use of new media, technological platforms and various commonly used applications. The topic will be considered from the perspective of citizens, who in order to play an active role in the process of change, must act responsibly and put the new values of collaboration, sharing and networking ethics into practice.

The Makers area is putting forward the idea of the web as a vehicle for updating old, traditionally offline business practices, such as publishing. Can Big Data improve new and old business practices? Can the Net create efficient and productive connections and relationships? The general objective of this area is to explore the web as an incubator for ideas and opportunities relating to both work, such as co-working, and the economy, for example the sharing economy, fundamental for updating our society.

Smartup is this year’s newest feature. “Especially for businesses”, it is designed not only to serve as a platform for networking, but to be a real incubator for new business opportunities and a fertile landscape for the germination of ideas.

Events at the Internet for Tellers area will discuss the ways in which the information world is constantly changing its appearance and how the web, understood as an incubator for new information flow, is constantly growing. This year a section of this area will be entirely devoted to women’s relationship with the Net. How does it represent women? How do women represent themselves? Can we talk about a digital gender divide? Which projects have women been able to carry out thanks to the web? Has the web increased or changed women’s spaces?

Given the extraordinary success of last year (this part of the festival was almost always overbooked), this year sees the return of T-tours, an area that embarks on an educational and formative discovery of the web. There are two principal subsections: T-Tours 4 Experts and T-Tours Educational & 4 All, for different age-groups, competencies and interests.

4 subject areas, 1 keyword – incubator –, 20 venues, 4 days.

These numbers encapsulate the Internet Festival, an event that will see Pisa city centre dispersed with various events, headed by national and international giants.

The Internet Festival can therefore be defined as an incubator shaping the future; this year new visions and potential research and technology borders will be discovered.

There will also be spaces devoted to cinema, web series, games, online publishing, installations and exhibitions.

Our website and social media pages are available for continuous in-depth analysis and updates…

The future does not stop… and neither does the IF!