USTATION (http://www.ustation.it/), Italy's first project dedicated wholly to University multimedia production, was announced today at the third Festival of University Radio Stations (FRU 2009), which is being held at the University of Salerno. The project is being run by Umedia, with support from Telecom Italia, and in partnership with RadUni, the Association of University radio station operators.
The main goal of the project is to make the most of communications product created at Italy’s universities by supporting content produced in multimedia labs, on individual courses, at incubators and at creative clubs.
Ustation serves as a Web 2.0 one-stop shop for all University-produced media. The platform's live section offers access to live University broadcasts from around thirty radio stations, TV stations and magazines that have already signed up to the portal. After creating a profile, site users can also share audio, video, photos and video CVs, start a blog, run surveys and competitions, ask questions, forge friendships, and interact with the rest of the community.
The best content on Ustation will feature in “Universication”, a new show on LA7 that will first air in September. The show will present the latest developments in television and showcase the cutting-edge interface between the internet, new media and young content creators. It will also broadcast the winning reportage from the Festival of University Radio Stations "Tell the Story of Your FRU" competition, for which applications are being accepted until July 31 at http://www.ustation.it/.
Gianluca Reale, sole administrator of Umedia, explains: " Umedia’s raison d’être is to act as a University media network that showcases the incredible range of student-made University Creative Content (UCC) out there among Italy’s University broadcasters. The Portal serves as the hub of this project. Right from start-up, the portal will aggregate content from broadcasters and individual producers. In phase two, the portal will offer opportunities to create new communications products through innovative, user-participation formats. As the operating arm of RadUni, the Umedia web company has been conceived from the start as an interface between bottom-up University creativity and the communications industry. Our goal is to bring together two worlds which currently only have limited points of contact, when in actual fact they need one another."
“With this collaboration, Telecom Italia confirms its commitment to the creation and development of a new communications ecosystem able to promote innovation and offer new opportunities to young people and to the country as a whole" said Carlo Fornaro, Head of External Relations at Telecom Italia. “We are proud to be able to make available all our skills and technological infrastructure for this project, and as part of the idea for integration between the different lines of communication, to offer another important occasion for visibility and recognition thanks to the showcase provided by the new LA7 Universication programme”.
“Ustation is an extremely important project for University media and for the people who make it," says Gioia Lovison, who is Chairperson of RadUni. "As an association, we have supported the project from day one. We firmly believe that this initiative can raise the profile of University radio and TV stations, give students a chance to make a name for themselves thanks to their talent, and, ultimately, make it easier for them to get into the media industry."
Promotional initiatives and a roadshow will begin in June to help kick-start this new creative community for university students and young people.