Danco Singer

Interview

• "Electronic publishing and multimedia" (Rome, 21-10-1996)

Biography

Danco Singer was born in Rome, the 27 October 1947. He graduated in literature in 1970 from the University of Rome 'La Sapienza', discussing his thesis with Profs. Franco Ferrarotti and Lucio Colletti and continued his studies with a post-graduated course in Sociology and Social Research.

He has always been interested in the themes of communication and education, in particular adult education, and began his working life as a high school teacher. The course of his career changed, however, in 1986, when he joined the Olivetti group, where he worked on various projects, from European educational marketing to the teaching applications of artificial intelligence, from distance learning to multimedia. During this period he also worked with CNR (the Italian National Research Centre) and the psychological institute of Rome for ALTED (Advanced Learning Technology for Educating the Deaf), where the first multimedia prototype for deaf children was produced. In 1991-2 he was vice-president of SATURN (European Open Learning Network), a European organisation created to encourage collaboration between industries and distance-learning institutions. At the University of Siena he developed the first multimedia laboratory in Italy for the planning and production of multimedia applications, in collaboration with Olivetti and Monte dei Paschi of Siena.

In 1993 he founded, within the Olivetti group, OPERA MULTIMEDIA, a now independent company, with which he created several CD-Roms of considerable artistic and cultural importance, such as Encyclomedia, the first multimedia guide to the history of European civilisation, from the discovery of America to the First World War, edited by Umberto Eco. With Eco and Gianni Riotta he also created Golem, the first Italian webzineª, which boasts such illustrious contributors as Renato Mannheimer, Furio Colombo, Aldo Grasso, Altan, Carlo Bertelli and Stefano Bartezzaghi.

He is currently Direttore General of OPERA MULTIMEDIA as well as a member of its board of administration.

Bibliography

His publications include:

• Diploma e dopo?, 1989, Franco Angeli Editore, Milan Editore, with Massimo Piattelli Palmarini, in Cognitive Science in Europe, 1990
• He has published articles and essays in the following reviews: I Quaderni, published by the European Education Centre; Scuola Democratica, Marsilio Editori; Riforma della Scuola, Editori Riuniti; RES, Elemond Scuola
• He has also contributed to Il Secolo XIX, Il Manifesto, La Stampa, RAI-Radiotelevisione Italiana and the section dedicated to CD-ROMs and the Internet of Espresso, and RAI2 and RAI International.