Cagliari Current / Background
Cagliari Current / Second Wave
Why a second wave?
Cagliari’s early internet ventures showed that research and ambitious technology businesses could take root here. Today’s companies and researchers give us a base to build on. Software and AI could expand what teams working here can do, with the world as their market and Cagliari as the place they choose to live.
That is the idea behind a second wave.
Research and companies, early on
1990: a research foundation. CRS4 was established on 30 November 1990, with Carlo Rubbia as its first chairman. Advanced computing became part of Sardinia’s development ambitions. CRS4’s account of its foundation.
1993–94: experiments on the web. CRS4 dates its pioneering website to 1993 and its contribution to putting L’Unione Sarda online to 1994. Research and a local publisher were working with a medium that was still new. CRS4’s anniversary account.
1994–95: Video On Line. Nicola Grauso’s internet venture took that experimentation into commercial services. Carlo Figari, who covered the launch for L’Unione Sarda, records its December 1994 presentation; CRS4’s retrospective includes the provider among the developments of 1995. Figari’s account.
1998–99: Tiscali. Founded in Cagliari in January 1998, Tiscali launched its free internet-access service in 1999. A company starting here could address a market far beyond Sardinia. The company’s history.
A global playing field. A life in Cagliari.
AI could let a small team in Cagliari take on work that once needed a much larger organisation. Its customers, competitors and ambitions can be anywhere. The size of the city does not have to set the size of the game.
That makes the choice of a base more interesting. For someone who prefers Cagliari’s sea, climate and everyday life to Turin, Rome or Milan, there is a strong reason to build here. Ambitious work and a life in Cagliari could become the same choice.
From individual companies to a technology hub
The next step is to make starting and growing companies a more frequent part of life here: researchers finding customers, founders finding capital, experienced employees starting new ventures, and people choosing Cagliari for work they want to do.
Research in the city and at UniCa is central. Pula adds another research and technology node. Engineering teams, industry, workspaces and investors across the metropolitan area all have a part to play.
A global market does not arrange the local conditions for us. Hiring, investment, research partnerships and connections to customers still take work. Those are the practical questions behind the proposed Current programmes.
We would judge progress through companies that grow, skilled work that stays here, people who arrive or return, and products that find customers beyond Sardinia.
What can we build on?
The business landscape brings companies, research sites, workspaces and supporting organisations into view. It is a place to explore the capabilities already here and the connections a second wave could build between them.
“First wave” and “second wave” are the framing used by Cagliari Current. The milestones above come from the linked historical accounts; the future direction is the proposal we want to explore.