1.10.2008
The conference of T- Hrvatski Telekom attended by two exceptional guests - maestro Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and the world renowned orator, and Jimmy Wales, founder of the biggest on-line encyclopedia, Wikipedia, and the internet entrepreneur – was held in the Conference Hall of the Zagreb Fair on Wednesday, on 1 October 2008. During his interactive presentation Benjamin Zander was talking about managing and instigating one’s own potentials, transferring his vision of leadership according to which it is crucial to change the traditional way of thinking and accept different possibilities of thinking and acting. In conversation with the President of the Management Board and Chief Executive Officer of T-HT, Ivica Mudrinić, Jimmy Wales reflected on the origin, importance and today’s role of Wikipedia, development of communications technologies and future of the Internet. We live in the time of radical change in social paradigm: when we say that the mankind is networked and that the possibility of two-way communication, of receiving and creating contents on the internet by each individual created collective consciousness too – we are not talking in futuristic empty phrases anymore, but about the reality we all experience. „Nobody Is an Island“, said the famous English poet John Donne 4 centuries ago, but is a part of the whole – being globally networked today is a confirmation of this poetic metaphor“ said in the introductory speech Ivica Mudrinić. Jimmy Wales agreed with this thesis as well, pointing out that thanks to the Internet and all the greater availability of information the world started „to level off“. „What I consider to be especially exciting at this moment is the expansion of Wikipedia to all the world languages. Most people know about the English or French version of Wikipedia, but Wikipedia is developing from month to month and not only in English but in other languages too “ said Jimmy Wales talking about the future of Wikipedia, remembering thereby how Wikipedia originated only after the breakdown of dot.com companies. The conference was attended by numerous guests from business, political and intellectual life of Croatia, the best students from faculties T-HT has been successfully cooperating with for many years now, and the management of T-HT. T-HT organizes this exceptional event wishing to confirm the role and the importance of new technologies in development of the society and improvement of the quality of life, and the conference was induced by the first anniversary celebration of successful initial public offer of T-HT shares.