Amitié

Amitié was created in 1991 as a part of a University-Enterprise Training Partnership in the framework of COMETT Programme, sponsored by the European Commission. As a training research centre, Amitié aims to promote training activities in software and information technology in the European Community, mainly addressing the Less Favoured Regions of Europe. Its main objectives are:

• to identify training and technology needs;
• to launch actions to increase awareness of the strategic importance for industry and commerce;
• to set up an infrastructure for university-enterprise exchanges and to promote the training of trainers;
• to create working groups in specific industrial sectors to study the possible applications of software and information technology.

Amitié organise a high number of research and dissemination activities, concerning the awareness of enterprises about the introduction of new technologies in the cultural field. Seminars, courses and information days are continuously organised in order to promote the developed projects and products. Amitié intends to strengthen the exploiting of new multimedia technologies, by offering practical demonstrations of the extant multimedia products and providing the users with information services. Amitié activities are addressed to target groups active in the economic field, in particular SMEs, but also to young people in-training, either providing methodological supports, teaching materials and training courses, or orientating towards the best resources to satisfy their information needs. The Amitié training activity is based on the open and distance learning, which has the purpose to overcome the traditional role of the classroom in the training process, helping to individualise every course. Relying on the student's motivations, each course creates an open and flexible system, where a particular relief is assigned to the tutor, who has the function to follow the students during the phases of the training activity.

Amitié has been co-ordinating the Italian node of the MIDAS-NET network, promoted by the INFO2000 Programme of the European Commission, focusing on the cultural sector. Starting from 1995, it launched a series of awareness, training and dissemination activities together with the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage, focusing on the use of new technologies in the book sector. Some references on projects carried out by Amitié are:

• ASCESI - analysis and anticipation of training needs and new professions in the book sector.
• COMPACT - development of a Manual of Best Practice to market training actions in the field of electronic information.
• CREMISI - developing of training courses addressed to librarians and providing libraries with multimedia services.
• MIDAS-NET - information services in order to create new markets by stimulating multimedia demand at European level.
• MUSIC - development of multimedia training materials on software, information and communications technology.
• NEW BOOK ECONOMY - development and test of multimedia training materials and analysis of new professions in the book sector.