Good morning everyone, my name is Federico Morello
I am 18 years old and I deal with broadband...
I take internet to places where it doesn't exist.
Today's event is about courage... here is someone who is very brave
his name is Bear Grylls, he is totally crazy, he parachutes over isolates places
and tries to live off the land... and what has this got to do with me?
Well not much, I must say, it's enough if I can survive in my hotel room...
but our adventures, although very different, have two elements in common
the first is going off the track, the search for a different path
the second is a special relation with snails
but Bear actually eats live snails, while I just try to fight them...
I am talking about digital snails. In fact I used to live in a small village
in the western Friuli region of Italy where no kind of fast internet existed
no broad band at all, not even 3G pen-drives worked
so you can imagine the reaction of those who needed to check their mails or something.
One day, when I was 13, I decided I had to try and do something about this
so, as if it were a school exercise, I wrote to the mayor... "Dear Mayor, I want broadband... please tell me why I don't have it
while the rest of the world does... why can't I watch a video on YouTube?
Why can't the mechanic send data to the department of motor vehicles?
why are we so disconnected?" The mayor first answered ironically
thanking young Federico happily for his commitment as a good citizen,
but they didn't want to know anything about actually doing something
because they were waiting for the regional project...
Then I got in touch with the regional council member
and he gave me the green light to look for another way to bring broadband to my village
So the mayor changed attitude and answered with a new letter thanking me again
but saying that they didn't want to hear about it and that they wouldn't answer again.
In that moment I felt like giving up, but then I put on a brave face
and took a leap into the unknown...
I enlisted to the national association "Anti digital divide"
I studied telecommunications and then found myself in the unknown...
before I knew it, and still 14, I was regional responsible of the association
without even knowing what it meant.
But thanks to this experience I could see everything from a different perspective and believe me, courage also means to feel capable and focus on an objective
to look for a practical solution to a real need
to throw oneself into something without thinking we are not ready.
So, regarding that problem, I realized I was actually facing two sides of a canyon
on one side stood the government, on the other providers and the digitalization process.
It is a case in which the government doesn't have the necessary know-how
even just to understand the problem and finds itself supporting temporary projects
that do not solve the problem but are a waste of money.
On the other side, there are providers, especially the average sized businesses
which could give a solution with their technology
but don't have the data regarding the territory
they don't know the real facts about a territory, which industrial area is really uncovered
which areas are free from competitors, which are the most suitable locations for antennas
to reduce costs and cover the widest possible area.
What I did was create a coverage plan, I resubmitted it to the Town Hall
and leaded a kind of joint venture between public and private sectors
providing technical assistance to local administration and territorial advice to providers.
Thanks to this work and this antenna, after a few months
all the Piedmontese area of Friuli was covered by a very competitive service.
I asked myself why I shouldn't continue, so I founded "Friuli ADD"
an independent movement through which I continued to promote
broadband in other small villages... and still today, as a consultant,
I just try and make local governments dialogue with other players which use different languages
functioning as a sort of redesigning of the internal processes of local administrations
within the digitalization perspective.
So I received the award 'Alfiere della Repubblica' because I started touring Italy
and explaining to people that internet is not a difficult thing, it's not only for experts
internet is easy, it's like making coffee
anyone can make a good coffee without knowing anything about thermodynamics
or how a mocha really works. Another thing I tried to do...
was to talk to my peers, to those who went to school with me
and tried to encourage them and explain that there are no exceptions
I am exactly like them, real solutions are at everybody's stake
it is just necessary to focus and find a good realistic solution to an actual problem
in the end, it only takes some courage.
Not long ago it took me another leap in the dark...
I took my computer and wrote to the Vice President of the European Commission
also Digital Agenda Commissioner, Neelie Kroes...
I was somehow familiar with writing letters having started with Father Xmas...
I wrote: "Dear Kroes, considering the European Digital Agenda
I think this and that should be done, this is my story..."
Ms Kroes, who is not only Vice President of the Commission,
ut is also a woman who goes to formal meetings with a giant pink angry bird at her side
soon answered my letter, she was touched by my story
and created a group of under 35 consultants, the Young Advisors,
who now coordinate her work when studying European policies
regarding all the problems of the European Digital Agenda.
So this is my new adventure and I don't know where it's going to take me
it is very different from my former one, and far from Gryll's adventures
but I have understood one thing during these years...
the real courage we are all looking for to change things and to change this country
is actually just the courage to do things...
If we think about it, it's actually the teaching of someone we all know...
"Do or do not, there is no try."
Thank you very much.