[WikiToLearn] A day to mark on the calendar for WikiToLearn

[Riccardo Iaconelli]

Hi all,

first of all, thanks to everybody who attended the sprint. It has been an 
amazing experience, fun, inspiring, and the most productive sprint I have ever 
attended. For those who were not there, we managed to fix *all* the stories 
and tasks we set at the beginning! (And we had many!! I was hoping to get 
1/3rd of them at best!)

While still catching up from the sprint, i encountered yesterday the Rettore 
Vicario (for the non italians, basically the head of the University for all 
the didactical matters) of the University of Milano Bicocca, which ranks as 
the first Italian university in the ministerial rankings. I was asked to 
present the project to him, in order to evaluate the idea behind it and see 
what we could do together. I was honestly not expecting much besides opening a 
communication channel, and maybe expand he ideas in a later time. I was 
totally unprepared for what his reaction was going to be.

He was absolutely enthusiast of the idea and stepped right in the middle of 
it!

After pondering for about ten minutes and asking me all kind of questions 
(licensing, development model, writing conventions...), he registered to the 
website and started making some test edits to inspect things with his own 
eyes. He then turned to me and announced that he loved the idea his University 
will be on the front line to use the platform and populate it with content, in 
order to increase courses' visibility and didactical power. He has already set 
up a meeting with the directors of the various departments (PQA) in order to 
present them with the idea and start to get them on track with experimenting.

Attending the presentation was also the head of the IT department, who also 
liked our project very much and assured his support in order to integrate 
seamlessly the content of WikiToLearn with other tools the university is using 
(e.g. Moodle), providing help and all the needed manpower to maintain them. 
The Rettore Vicario also asked me to put the logo wherever we feel necessary, 
in order to list Bicocca within the participating institutions in the 
appropriate way.

In any case, this is really important: it is the first University we speak to, 
and, right at the start, we have realized had our first success, at full 
scale. I am proud of you.

This is really important for us and for the next relations, as this makes us 
switch (in the eyes of who is listening to us) from being simply "a nice toy 
project" to something that well established institutions want to use, and 
already put their weight behind. It is the best business card for all kind of 
future contacts we are going to have.

This is an essential turning point in WikiToLearn's history. From now on, 
there is no going back: we're on the stage and we have to play our game as 
good as we can. I want to point out that this is a fully communitary result: 
you should be proud of what you all individually achieved, as the depth of the 
checking of the content and the available features really made EVERY 
contribution crucial to this success.

Please make sure to take a moment to enjoy the credit and satisfaction for all 
of what you have done, you guys rock. I am really enthusiast to work in such a 
thriving community with all of you. =) Open a good wine bottle tonight and 
mark the day on the calendar... today is a wonderful day.

Tomorrow... what about India...? ;-)

Bye,
-Riccardo