Universi | International Cultural Network
Let’s give voice to the “beautiful minds”
Universi is a project for an international digital network promoting cultural exchanges, the talent and the research. Our mission is to give voice to the “beautiful minds” and spread the quality of their thinking through innovative relationships between didactics, research, publishing and the business world.
This double side digital platform unites the “genius” of the planet such as students, professors, researchers, professionals, critics, philosophers, writers, artists, journalists … and grants them a flexible infrastructure to improve their own knowledge, to promote their ideas, to seize high-value job opportunities and to contribute to the social life of the international community.
Universi works as a planetary synapse that fosters associations of ideas from different cultures. An Erasmus for everyone, always on. Online.
The network also provides support to universities, schools, foundations, companies and professionals… providing services for live streaming conferences and debates, e-learning, recruiting, communication and a marketplace for creative minds.
To learn more, see the video-pitch, the document Vision & Mission and the web site beta version.
The web page describing the whole project is here https://universi.co/project
Universi | Vision & Mission
Vision
With appropriate geographical differences, the economy of European countries is still stuck with the old economy models, that is with the industrial pipeline, the post-industrial and services pipelines, and the small and medium firms. The digital revolution (as Alessandro Baricco explains on his book The Game) doesn’t yet apply on the large-scale economy as well as on other countries. For instance, the adoption of the smart working and the massive e-commerce in Europe (20 years later than in the U.S.) is mainly due to the effects of the Covid, and not to an advanced economic vision and planning. Among the causes that slow down the development of an european smart economy, Roger Abravanel, the historical MacKinsey’s ex-director and author of the book Aristocrazia 2.0, identifies, briefly, a cultural closure (the distrust, the close relationship company-territory-community, the family capitalism limits, lack of check & balance…).
To this cultural closure, responsible for the lock of the European economy and the social mobility, it would be wise, as soon as possible, to reply with a new phase of openness. We already removed the walls from our medieval cities and built open cities, we abolished the borders between the european countries, and the aristocracy 1.0 – who built locked castles with moats and crenellated walls – has no longer existed since 1948. Our technological tools allow us to open up to the world and import new cultural and economic models ( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ) for our “brains” rather than letting the brains leave the country.
We have identified Social Networks as a strategic tool for spreading cultural models among the new generations. Our young people spend hours on “social” – though too often at satisfying vanity and frivolity – hooked on the random rewards better known as like. The model works, even if it recalls the 70s pinball-halls, frequented by disenchanted time wasters unemployed, addicted to inconsistent random rewards. The nowadays Social Networks – and even more so the announced “Metaverse” – are a huge waste of time and resources for our young people. They are tools of mass escaping, slot machines for the social approval, a gamble, a light drug transforming the new generations into live‑heterotopias.
We therefore thought about a virtuous social network model, thematic (not generalist), driving the users along constructive educational paths and rewarding them with appropriate rewards (scholarships, educational trips, visibility, prestige, jobs…). A social network focused on culture. So, we called that “Cultural Network“. In the midst of the telecommunications era, using the web for commercial, ludic and entertainment purposes only (Amazon, Facebook…) would be really wicked. It would be much better to use it to spread good ideas, because ideas are ethereal and intangible. They transmit knowledge and virtues at the light‑speed and for a chip cost, while they produce value.
Mission
Thus, the Universi’s mission is to create an international digital network that favors the cultural exchanges worldwide and that picks out and promotes the talent. A planetary synapse that encourages the associations of ideas from different cultures. An Erasmus for all of us, always on and online, whose aim is to promote the merging of the cultures. A platform that, for instance, lets us import and spread the culture of the smart economy, the meritocracy, the global market, the unicorns, the technology, the digital platforms (as architects, not just consumers) … and that at the same time lets us to export the excellence of our culture: art, design, fashion, nutrition, humanities, philosophy, literature, music… A monetizable and sustainable exchange. The European Union offers funding for this kind of cultural projects (1, 2).
Prototype
The web platform prototype has ben developed with the Universi’s own resources and concerns only 4 assets out of the many planned. The Magazine is designed for publishing articles written by the users from all over the world. Each article is automatically translated into 7 languages to serve the international readers’ base.
The Events asset has been developed with the aim of attracting visitors to the platform. Here the users can spread their own cultural events as conferences, exhibitions, theater, or suggest other events.
The Artworks and the Music represent the marketplace where the users can spread (and perhaps sell) their own artworks as books, paintings, photos, music… There aren’t yet some main assets such as the Ideas Forum, a parliament for beautiful minds where we’ll spread contests of ideas and manage the users’ proposals for solutions to the problems of the international community (energy, food, pandemics, urban and territorial redevelopment, human rights…) and as the e-Learning asset where we’ll publish online and off-line courses and tutorials and other assets.
Startup
Universi is addressed to the academic, business and institutional areas. This project couldn’t be successful without the support of these three macro-subjects.
For this platform to be successful, it must be reliable, made by authoritative writers, prestigious university professors, brilliant researchers, virtuous students, critics, intellectuals… since the pre-seed stage. I don’t think it will be hard to co-opt people from academic and entrepreneurial areas who firmly believe in meritocracy and in a culture without borders.
Furthermore, in each country of the world there is an undergrowth of startuppers, intellectuals and young talents eager to compete on fertile, positive, open, competitive, stimulating, highly technological and international court. These beautiful minds must be intercepted and co-opted before they leave the country looking for better opportunities.
In order to launch and manage this platform, more than private and/or public investments, we need for valiant captains with an international vision, masters in double side digital platforms management(different than pipelines), of global corporate governance, of web-marketing, social networks, digital copyright, technology… and with great management skills. This is the real challenge.
If you are interested, or if you want to send us your feedback, please contact us here.
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I have developed the whole project Universi all by myself. Now I’m looking for partners as universities, schools, foundations, professors, professionals, co-founders, investors…
Lorenzo Puleo