Free credits at Bologna University...

Hundreds of University Credits, thousands of contacts, Alma Mater driven crazy: mission accomplished!

Report from a perfectly set up joke :
On Monday 14th of May 2007 Graziano Pepone starts spreading cards worth one university credit at Bologna University. Every card has a link to unibologna.eu:
Original home page
Page describing the promotion
Thanks to word of mouth, the web site has hundreds of contacts in a couple of days. Student offices promise by phone to every student that all the cards are going to be seeked and destroyed. After four days the provider receives an e-mail from Alma Mater and asks to Graziano Pepone to erase all the files. Graziano does not surrend and takes the website to a new provider. The strategy is so simple that Bologna University is shocked and stops complaining.
The 1st of June Unibo Magazine has a press release thanks to which visits to unibologna.eu have a boom:
Unibo Magazine press release
The press release accuses unibologna.eu to be a phishing website, created to steal personal data and bank accounts to the students, simulating to be the official website. It's not true, unibologna.eu is obviously a prank.
Scared by the idea that students may actually see the prank, the access to unibologna.eu is censored from university computers. But it's too late. The day after Graziano is interviewed by national radio channel Radio2.
Audio file
Blogs, forum, and websites spread the word, in Italy and abroad. After two weeks the video is seen by thousands of visitors.

Graziano Pepone is a nickname for a group of students that have decided to show the absurdity of the university credit system. If learning can be measured, if a degree is a collection of points, why not organizing a "find the treasure" game?
It takes a cut and paste to steal the voice of the institution. And a strong will to actually do that.
See you next time!

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26th June 2007: Free Credit video screened at Nabawood contest by Nuova Accademia Belle Arti of Milan

8th June 2007: Article on PuntoInformatico.it

26th June 2007: Article on LaStampa.it

La Repubblica 13th June 2007

La Repubblica 6th June 2007

Il Domani di Bologna 12th June 2007 (cover)

Il Domani di Bologna 12th June

Il Domani di Bologna 13th June 2007

Interview to prof.Renzo Davoli (12th June 2007)

Prorettore Paola Monari interviewed (14th June 2007)