In his June Doors of Perception e-mail newsletter, John Thackara comments on the move of Interaction Design Institute Ivrea to Milan:
“A brutal policy change by its main sponsor, Telecom Italia, has forced Interaction Design Institute Ivrea to move to Milan and effectively merge with Domus Academy. The two organisations describe the move stoically as “a great opportunity for growth”, but the fact remains that the Ivrea team will be broken up and funding for the combined entity drastically reduced. Telecom’s decision is short-sighted and represents a stupendous destruction of value: It is breaking up a hub, five years in the making, for a new community of practice in a subject area strategically crucial for telecoms.
[...] Alumni and staff of the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (which is now no longer based in Ivrea) have just founded an Interaction Design Association to “promote the interaction design culture, knowledge and experience” and “to create and maintain a network of contacts working in the field of interaction design”. [...]