Buon giorno, bella Italia! 100 dates goes to Italy

Yesterday I woke to find I had gained a bunch of Italian Twitter followers overnight, and a few Facebook invitations. One guy had sent me a message saying “Good luck and if you’re ever in Rome I’ll buy you a drink.”

So I used Google Translate to create a tweet which said “Buon giorno, bella Italia! Come avete sentito la mia piccola storia?” (Hello Italy, how did you hear my little story?”)

Via Twitter I soon had a link to this story in La Repubblica.

I ran the story through Google Translate just for fun.My favourite line is: “But useless to search for elbowing to get into the good graces of the blonde Australian: this is not a mega blind date but a serious experiment that combines web and social development.” The story asks whether the 100 dates experiment might be as successful as Wikipedia. Sounds exhausting, but here’s hoping.

Hundred appointments via web

Sarah searches for the perfect man

Australian, 36 years, has launched an appeal online using the mechanism of crowdsourcing: “If all goes well to find a good restaurant, why not use the same road for the boyfriend?” of BENEDETTA PERILLI

hundred appointments via web
Sarah seeks the perfect man

Sarah Stokely

Sarah Stokely is 36 years old, excellent position in public relations, a house in Melbourne, good earnings, a dog, a divorce, and no man available to warm your heart. Single for too many years now and after trying every strategy for finding a soul mate, Sarah has decided to seek help from the web. 100 Dates With the project has launched an online appeal: “Going out with a hundred men in a hundred different events with the hope of finding the right one.” But useless to search for elbowing to get into the good graces of the blonde Australian: this is not a mega blind date but a serious experiment that combines web and social development. In particular it is an unusual form of crowdsourcing, the successful collaborative marketing strategy that has allowed companies such as Wikipedia to penetrate the market.

The concept is simple: people from all over the world join for free, or paid on call and provide their input in the realization of a project. Through the Web today are talking about crowdsourcing, neologism is a combination of two English words crowd (people) and outsourcing (contract), for all sorts of activities, from testing new products to search services, promotion of objects to the review films, books or records output. In short, if one can recourse to the contribution of the community to find the best mechanic in town why not try to do so to find the perfect boyfriend?

To help Sarah, there are at least 1692 people, precisely the number of users who follow his updates on Twitter. They will recommend to the girl the alleged suitors, but not without having first completed the questionnaire for joining the project. A hope is left to those who wants to present itself without having friends who recommended: you fill in the questionnaire and the findings on the suitability of the suitor is left to the reader.

But let’s get to the questions: to obtain an appointment must state the name, age, any public profiles on sites dating, personality, profession and interests of the “recommended”. We must also ensure that the person who is proposed to be aware of the project and specify which of these favorite activities as a first appointment: a drink in a bar, walk on the beach, a coffee center, a lunch, a visit to the zoo or a ‘ excursion between the penguins.

The responses will be evaluated by the users of blogs and Twitter for Sarah and if at least one of the readers will judge the likely suitor the concerned will be contacted and get an appointment with him. The project has already achieved some success at home and major newspapers have dealt with the story. Not only that the TV channel ABC Australia has offered a page of its website to Sarah to tell, appointment after appointment, as the research proceeds.

For the moment the proposals delivered to the mailbox and hundreds of girls are coming from all over the world: not only Melbourne, Sydney and Newcastle, but also San Francisco, Tasmania and New Zealand. Of these only three have already turned into appointments: all in Melbourne. In the former Sarah met for a drink a staunch supporter of the left in the second one is entertained in a relaxing picnic lunch in a botanical garden in the city and the third was canceled because the claimant had returned with his ex-girlfriend.

To know how it will end the romance of technology bloggers just continue to follow his stories online. And to whom the criticism, calling it even desperate, for making public his private life, Sarah responds in an interview with Australian newspaper Sydney Mornig Herald: “We constantly the opinion of our friends and when we feel a good restaurant we hasten to recommend on Facebook, why not do it on more intimate? “. Sarah sets a sort of crowdsourcing experience of pleasure. I wonder if will have the same success of Wikipedia.