CA’ FOSCARI 2.12: GIVING VOICE TO THE UNIVERSITY OF VENICE
THROUGH NEW TECHNOLOGIES, SOCIAL NETWORKING AND SUSTAINABILITY

New technologies, social networking and sustainability intermesh with each other, dialoguing and blending to give voice to the "Ca' Foscari" University of Venice. It is called Ca’ Foscari 2.12 - the integrated and sustainable communications project that brings the educational, didactic, research and cultural events of Ca' Foscari to the largest public possible. It does all of this with a minimal use of paper, toner and photocopies.
Content production is designed to cut down on waste by using digital tools, from the on-line schedule of events to web-based press reports to news distribution via email, websites, in-house blogs, newsletters, university radio, social networking and video channels.

The project uses tools that are found all over the internet, combining them into a unique form of dialogue through a system that allows each user to decide how they can be reached and how to reach out to the university. The innovation lies in the process through which the communications network was created and through which the different internal departments contribute to putting the contents into practice. The process as a whole witnesses the sum of many different pieces being organized and interconnected in a way that adds up to a new communications product for the university context.
The effectiveness of each different tool is supervised through an internal monitoring and evaluation mechanism codified in the university's strategic and performance plans, two documents created by Ca' Foscari to oversee its activities.

Ca’ Foscari 2.12 was constructed through the integration of an articulated package of "house media." This was bolstered by producing traditional press releases, audio materials, pictures and videos in order to grow the audiences who access information on Ca' Foscari.
The project's main platform is the university website: modern, accessible and fully integrated with the most widely-used digital tools.
It started out with the creation of a communications "system" that covers content production as well as distribution, which involves identifying the best channel for each item based on its audience of reference. This is a huge production by the university itself, as different actors "report" news items to the Communication Service for filtering and channeling into different types of media.

Instruments and audiences
The www.unive.it website is addressed to the entire audience that has any form of contact with the University - students, professors, employees, families, businesses, partners.
The INFOSCARI.IT (www.unive.it/infoscari) magazine provides the student audience with a fresher, more immediate perspective. It reports on the cultural life and main activities of the university and provides content for the university portal.
A network of thematic sites used for communications: from www.unive.it/sostenibilita, which is dedicated to sustainability initiative, to the sites dedicated to specific branches of Ca' Foscari - Cafoscari Cinema, Cafoscari Theater, Cafoscari literature, Cafoscari Exhibits, Cafoscari international lectures and Conversations on our future - customized channels for specific, targeted communications.
The INFOSCARINEWS newsletter - a compendium of weekly news items and upcoming events - is distributed to over 30 thousand people each week.
The CAFOSCARICERCA, FCFNEWS, CAFOSCARINFORMA, CAFOSCARICINEMA and CAFOSCARITEATRO newsletters are periodicals with specific audiences that speak, respectively, of the research activities of the university, its Foundation and its own employees (with updates on regulations and procedures).
The "instant" communication on WIDE-SCREEN TELEVISIONS that reaches students directly at a variety of locations: the system draws on website contents to broadcast useful news and information, upcoming events, class times and locations.
The PRESS ROOM gathers press releases as they are produced. Its main target audience is the traditional media. Press releases are distributed via email and can be viewed on line. Photographs and videos are uploaded and put at the media's disposal.
The EVENTS CALENDAR is implemented automatically by the Departments and Schools: appointments, meetings, seminars and university initiatives make up the flow of information into Events Services, which approves their publication on a continuously updated on-line "billboard." It is for everyone's use.
The SOCIAL NETWORKS draw news items from all of the other university's communications instruments and shares activities while targeting the largest audience possible. News items concerning services, events and didactics are published
- on the university's Facebook page (www.facebook.com/cafoscari), which also serves as the first front desk for student services,
- on 12 "specific" Facebook pages for Ca' Foscari libraries, departments and sectors, which pick the contents of interest to them and make them available to specific audiences
- through the university Twitter
- on the Youtube channel (youcafoscari)
The RECTOR'S BLOG is an open door between Rector Carlo Carraro and the Ca' Foscari community, which can debate and comment on suggested themes. This is an office of sorts that is integrated with the other university media and open to anyone for discussion and debate, integrated with the other university media.
RADIO CAFOSCARI selects and uses the content produced for other media to construct the radio programs it broadcasts over the internet. A student production follows Ca' Foscari events and reports on them with stories and dedicated programs on a radio channel that can be listened to by streaming or by podcast. It maintains an ongoing dialogue with the other university radio stations.
CA’FOSCARI MAGAZINE & CO. brings hard-copy publications on-line, using the Isuuu platform to make them available without any printing required. These publications include Cafoscari, a quarterly magazine for the families of students: relevant contents are drawn from the other media.
EDIZIONI CAFOSCARI, a digital publishing house that offers on-demand printing services (for small runs) for the content produced by professors, making it available (through an open source platform) to students and the general public.
The WIKIs are discussion settings that remain internal to Ca' Foscari, with invitation-only access for sharing themes and topics and delve deeper in search of better solutions to various issues and problems faced by the Ca' Foscari community. Any Cafoscarian can open a blog or a wiki.

The numbers
More than 560 articles published on Infoscari,
110 films produced and uploaded to youcafoscari
140 thousand views of the videos on youcafoscari,
over 100 interviews broadcast on Radio Ca' Foscari
7 thousand Facebook fans of Radio Ca' Foscari
17 programs produced by Radio Ca' Foscari
24 thousand Infoscari pages visited weekly
2 issues of the Ca' Foscari magazine distributed to 20 thousand contacts
30 thousand recipients of the newsletter every Thursday
2,500 followers on Twitter
1,500 tweets
10,840 fans of the Facebook page
over 300 press releases
3,300 articles published on Ca' Foscari in the media
80 television services on Ca' Foscari
149 posts by the Rector on his blog