I have been given a mission; one that I’m still not fully aware of what its objectives are, but it appears to be very serious and important. About 3 months ago, I was asked by a group called, INCAVI, who are in the middle of a project called DEBATDEVI, and who have created VINTERNET, to join them in hopes of defining how the web can be of use to the wine world. INCAVI literally translates to “Catalan Institute of Vines and Wine”, and covers all things viticulturally important in the Catalan Government. Debatdevi states in it’s first blog post: the world changes, wine has to adapt to these changes. Together these two groups have created a project to develop a series of “handbooks/manuels” for Catalan wineries to run their businesses more effectively.
I was asked to join one of Debatdevi’s working groups entitled: Vinternet. Now, regardless if you speak Catalan, you can discern that the name Vinternet suggests that the group is attempting to solve issues between wine and the internet. A noble, if not ambitious goal, Vinternet has already had 2 meetings, both of which I was not able to attend. But from my understanding, by the end of the second meeting, they had outlined what their “think tank” structure would look like.
According to their wiki, they have defined some of the basics:
Vision: The internet as a useful channel of communication for the wine world
Mission: Discover and promote the use of the Internet as a channel of communicaiton for the creation of value in the wine world
There are 7 “experts” in the wine world, the internet, and marketing who can help create a guidebook that we can use to show wineries how to better utilize the internet. This group outlined 6 major topics, each of which will be built within the wiki to act as a guidebook for wineries. The topics are:
- Basics of the Internet
- eMarketing and eCommunication
- The web and blogs
- eCommerce
- eCultura
- eWineTourism
Personally, this seems like a huge task for a group of volunteers. Essentially, they want to create the “handbook of handbooks” for the Catalan wine industry on how to use the internet. But despite the enormity of the project, it is also an opportunity to rethink not only how winery’s can use the internet, but how we at Catavino teach them to use the internet effectively.
So here’s what I decided. I’m going to report on the progress of Vinternet here, and request feedback and input from you. If I’m going to take the time to think of these ideas, I want to ensure that your feedback and experience is considered. I value your ideas, and the more I open to the community, the more likely we can succeed. Plus, if we are going to answer the question “how should wineries use the internet?”, we better use the tool we’re studying.
So first question, back to the title of my post: Teaching Wineries to use the web; where do you start?
The answer may not be as obvious as you think. To illustrate my point, watch this short short video and leave a comment on where you would start.
Till soon,
Ryan Opaz
Lesson in where to begin a lesson from ryan opaz on Vimeo.