Bruno Giussani can name the exact date of his Internet
epiphany: April 26th, 1994. On that day -- coincidentally his
30th birthday -- Giussani toured Nicholas Negroponte's new
media playpen, the MIT Media Lab, an experience that
convinced him to switch careers.
The timing was significant. The Swiss journalist, ten years
into his career as a political writer, had found himself
posted in New York City just as the Internet was about to
change the world. The technologies Giussani saw in
development at the Media Lab convinced him the Net would have
an enormous impact on society and business, and he brought
that message back to his readers in Europe.
Returning home in early 1995, Giussani found a receptive
audience. At the time, few in Switzerland had any direct
experience with the Internet. Those who did, mainly
programmers, were not necessarily articulate. Giussani was
soon in demand as a speaker at local events and started a
column on Internet trends in the Swiss weekly 'L'Hebdo'.
When Giussani and his colleagues at 'L'Hebdo' pressed their
publisher to launch an online edition, they encountered
resistance. So, they went ahead and did it anyway -- in secret.
With the tacit permission of their editor-in-chief, Giussani
and his team bought a server, coded the pages and even sold advertising.
Within six months, the number of unique users to the site,
dubbed 'Webdo', surpassed the magazine's print readership.
That convinced the publisher there might be something to this
Internet thing after all.
Giussani admits he was lucky to have the resources at
'L'Hebdo' to experiment. Web logs are now all the rage, but
Giussani was doing this stuff back in 1995. And in 1996,
'Webdo' was possibly the only online publication in Europe to
offer live results of the US presidential election.
Another stroke of luck came in 1996. Speaking at an
international publishing conference, Guissani particularly
impressed one member of the audience, Elizabeth Osder, then
producer of 'The New York Times' web site. Osder invited
Guissani to write a regular column about the European
Internet for 'The New York Times'.
If Bruno Giussani has any regrets, it's that he never took
the gamble of joining a start-up company. "I was trained as
an observer, and it's not my nature to take an active role in
the industry," he says.
Nevertheless, Giussani played a part in founding Tinet, an
ISP serving Switzerland's Italian population, and while he
never worked full time for the company, he still serves on
the board.
Giussani's role as guru has brought him other rewards. From
1998-99, he worked at the prestigious Davos World Economic
Forum as head of Internet strategy, a role created especially
for Giussani. In early 2000, he joined the 'Industry
Standard', as European editor.
It looks like Bruno's epiphany paid off.
(copyright Noweurope 2000)
