Giuseppina Carai

SIowTelling travel is a web platform and an app which promote the development of small cities and local communities through a digital and smart storytelling process, according to the internet principles of crowdsourcing and real time information. It aims to have an impact on people’s lives and the promotion of tourism through digital collaboration, localisation and gamification. The app and website, together with the contents published and the on-line community, can be used by local government, private individuals, cooperatives and cultural institutions with a strong interest, as a means to promote tourism destinations and social development of local communities. The same storytelling format is driven to become an entertainment service for commercial partners willing to offer an extra service for their users and the local communities they work in and for, i.e. crowdsourced, customised and innovative with high interactive and cultural value. The benefits can be summarized as follows:
1. Community: website subscribers publish and share their multimedia digital diaries;
2. Content game: periodically the editorial office launches contests on specific storytelling subjects. The best contents are edited and become enhanced ebooks which are accessible on multiple devices. Users enter a competition in which content creation gives points which can win a tourism experience offered by partners.
3. Travel community: each user has a personal profile which tracks trips and wish-lists, including pin updates and stories published in the platform. It will encourage interaction among members and help search likeminded travel buddies, etc.
4. App mobile: the app allows users to access and locate slowtelling stories which update in real time the platform with their own stories, multimedia and info;
5. Smart cities: public spaces become storytellers when users share location-based stories. Users’ interaction and behaviour become data for decision makers.
6. Affiliation program: public and private partners can subscribe for an annual fee to promote stories, products and their region/ city, etc.

The Team

The key figures of the team involved in this project are:
Giusi Carai: Project Manager, responsible for community management and networks with local government, fund raising;
Alessio Neri: Marketing and Communication Manager, responsible for building a commercial network;
Maurizio Moriconi: Mobile developer;

Elena Cupisti: Visual identity, town planning sector consultant;
Walter Cavalcante: Responsible for technological supply, mobile communication expert;
Editorial staff:
Sara Sbaffi: Head of content management and digital content curation;

Francesca Fiore: Content author.