Francesco D'Orazio's Page

Hullo, I work on social media, collaborative marketing and immersive communication, designing social networks, collaborative platforms and social media strategy for brands and startups. My passion for immersive communication took me to the deepest meanders of virtual worlds many years ago, and I've never looked back since! I live multiple lives in multiple worlds and beacuse of this digital schizofrenic syndhrome in 2008 I founded Myrl a cross-world gaming social network bringing Virtual Worlds together on the web, and ConnectingWorlds.net, a blog about online worlds, their growing web integration and the coming 3D Internet. You can follow my virtual adventures on my Myrl profile and on Twitter.

I'm a strong believer in collaborative, grassroots creativity/design/marketing and I've been involved into the word of mouth scene for a few years. In 2007 I designed and launched Zzub, the first buzz marketing social network and moved now into what I consider the next step in collaborative marketing, co-creation, bringing consumers right at the core of the brand strategy. I'm now helping Face, a london-based agency specialized in co-creation, to bring this vision to life in the social media space.

Where does this all come from? I've been a massive sf reader, gamer, music addict and immersion tourist and I've done my Ph.D. in New Media Studies and Sociology at the University of Rome "La Sapienza" and at the University of Toronto. Speaking of what, I had a great time in Canada in 2005/06 while working on my Ph.D. and I'm still a Fellow at The McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology. My research has been mainly focusing on the immersive evolution of communication from a social, historical and marketing perspective. I usually write and lecture on social media strategy, virtual worlds, collaborative marketing and I'm currently lecturer in new media at the IULM University in Milan where I've co-founded the Social Media Lab in 2007.

I now live in London, and blog at Makers of Universes. Drop by anytime (online ;-))