What is CRS4?
CRS4 is a centre of international research in the field of advanced calculation, i.e. in the use of computers for numerical simulation and in the new technology such as scientific visuallization, multimedia and the telecommunications network. At the moment there are about 70 researchers involved in various lines of research in which the common denominator is the advanced use of computers and associated techniques. CRS4 is also a sort of bridge between the research of the academic world and the needs of industry and modern business.

Why in Sardinia?
At the end of 1989 I was at CERN, the research centre in Geneva directed by the Nobel Prize winner Carlo Rubbia, when the director of the computing division, Paolo Zanella, told me about the project of Regione Sardegna to set up a research centre. The idea, which originated with the political authorities of the time (Antonello Cabras in particular) was to create a research centre on advanced calculation, around which to create a scientific and technological park. So one day we had a visit from a delegation of Sardinian politicians and businessmen at CERN and I was delighted to be able to demonstrate some advanced achievements in the field of information. I remember that my colleagues were quite taken aback that Sardinian politicians were so far-sighted in understanding that the only way to improve the economy and the development of the island was to invest in intelligence. But I must say that the gamble taken by these Sardinians, and by those who participated in the birth and growth of CRS4, has certainly paid off. So, to answer your question, CRS4 is in Sardinia because Sardinia wanted it there.

How is the world of communications and information evolving?
The information that was analogue in the past (a vinyl disc, for example) has become digital (a CD-ROM, for example). This has made it possible to have different forms of expression in the same container: text, images, sound, and digital film can all be put on one CD-ROM. This is the multimedia concept. Then the different entries can be cross-referenced (as in an encyclopaedia): and thus we have so-called hypermediality. Finally we connect the documents on the computer into the world network and we have an extremely advanced system characterised by the expressive wealth of its contents (multimedia), interactivity (on-line with other people) and bi-directionality (you can read but also write, recieve but also transmit information).

Won't this widen the gap between rich and poor countries?
On the contrary. Intelligence is uniformly distributed all over the world. To become part of this new digital world requires a smaller investment than that needed to construct roads. Roads carrying bits; information rather than people. You could say that any country which connects itself to other countries can only benefit: in receiving and sending whatever lends itself to transmitting on the network, for example ideas, culture, literature, science, entertainment, information. Information, broadly speaking, can now be digitalised and transmitted anywhere almost instantaneously. This revolution is even broader than the industrial one.

Will different media really become integrated?
By now we're used to digital information. For example a disc for a PC containing an article, photos taken with a new CD Photo camera, a CD-ROM of a favourite group or a film on LaserDisc. Only a few years ago none of these forms of information reached the general public in digital format. Texts were printed on paper, pictures on film, music on vinyl or audiocassette, films on 8mm film or video cassette. Back then, almost all information was in analogue format and integration of different media was meaningless. Every kind of message or of information usually came from a specific medium. Now that everything is in fact convertible into digital format, to be precise into bits, there's no longer any need to use lots of different media: a computer will suffice, the digital object par excellence and to connect it with other computers to exchange data.

But what is internet, in reality?
By now there are almost as many definitions of Internet as there are for love. Books and magazines that talk about Internet have given up trying to define it. Internet isn't only this sea of hypermedial information which is often referred to: Internet is above all the possibility of communication and collaboration between human beings all over the world, where conventional barriers of distance, age or race are destroyed. It is the possibility to take an active part in this great living organism that is earth, humanity itself. And, just like cells in an organism, none are indispensable but at the same time all contribute to the life of the organism. Internet isn't only to be studied, but above all to be experienced.

Some maintain that Internet is near to collapse. Is it true?
They used to say the same thing about telephones. .. . Internet doesn't transport coal or oil, which are finite resources on our planet, but bits, electric signals. Some years ago this bit was transmitted on copper cables, and now on optical fibres which have much greater capacity than copper, as well as being cheaper and easier to work. Each of the international telecommunications companies which connect Europe with the United States has laid a group of caples at the bottom of the Atlantic each of which contains thousands of optical fibres, of which maybe less than 1% is actually being used. Having said that, it's obvious nevertheless that the boom which has happened in the last year has saturated the places connected to relatively slow lines.

How can Internet help tourism?
Internet is ideal for promoting Sardinia at a world level. Two years ago, as an experiment, we at CRS4 put some ESIT pictures from the series "Sardegna, un mare di..." on-line on World Wide Web, along with a version in English and the address and telephone number of ESIT. We know that they were seen by thousands and thousands of people connected to Internet all over the world. We did the same with the National Archaelogical Museum of Cagliari which was the first on-line museum in Italy (there are now several). And then there is In Sardegna Virtual, which has been praised around the world for the quality of the textual content and pictures, and for the professionalism with which it has been converted into digital format.

By now it's possible to make yourself a proper personnalised holiday itinerary from your own home with connection to Internet. Other countries have already inserted hotel information, making pre-booking possible on-line. It would be enough for Sardinia to dedicate only a tiny percentage of the money spent on conventional advertising and brochures on paper on advertising on Internet . . .

Where is Sardinia as far as research in this new area and the diffusion of applications connected to it concerned? When will they be accessible to everyone?
On one hand there are the experiments that we have been doing at CRS4 for two years, followed now by others, for example by some students and the Liceo Scientifico Alberti in Cagliari and by other schools in Sardinia or research in the island's universities, who are contributing enthusiastically to put didactic and cultural material on Sardinia on the network. On the other hand there is a business initiative lead by the editor Nicola Grauso, Video On Line, which guarantees the diffusion of Internet to Sardinians and others. In addition there are public bodies charged with promoting tourism in Sardinia. There are, therefore, three stages: research and experimentation, entrepreneurship, and political institutions. While the first two have already proven their capacity and innovation, we need to see how quickly the political institutions will learn to ride this digital revolution. On this subject, I remember a symbolic phrase of Nicholas Negroponte's, founder of MediaLab at MIT in Boston, one of the main exponents of the digital era: "When new technology rolls over you, if you're not the steamroller, you'll become part of the road." And Internet is much more than new technology.