Obama Time is perhaps the first Web Story in literature. Pietro/Peter, the book’s main character/protagonist, is a Joycean Internet voyager, a Bloom with sax who not only indulges in intellectual odysseys, but also brings aboard reader-passengers on his voyage throughout American society, enabling them to hear their own sirens, if they wish, or enter Polyphemus’ cave, if they prefer. For Pietro/Peter is the symbol of the biggest revolution underway: the Internet. An army of Internet Girls and Internet Boys, in fact, supplies readers with digressions that only the biggest and perhaps the greatest revolution underway could encompass – the knowledge revolution. Promoted and fomented by the Internet, it is the revolution that is knocking down all the walls built over millennia, erected not only out of ignorance, but out of a desire to maintain a consolidated monopoly that guarantees to only a few Wealth, Power, and, above all, Social Status/Privileges; for those with knowledge are richer than those with money, and those without knowledge are forever condemned to being enslaved/slavery. Thanks to the Internet, today all of this is headed for destruction. The knowledge revolution, of American matrix, of which Obama is the perfect exponent, is completely in line with the great principles of liberty and democracy on which that nation was built. Furthermore, the knowledge revolution connects perfectly with other democratic revolutions promoted by the US: blue jeans, the washing machine, rock music and motion pictures. But of all these revolutions – and perhaps of all revolutions in general – it is infinitely bigger and more marvelous. And, of course, as with every respectable revolution, it rouses, from within it, the fiercest anti-revolutionaries, whose days, in the author’s opinion and unfortunately for them, are numbered. Obama, the first president elected thanks to the Internet, is the visible sign of this revolution of knowledge that will soon spread like wildfire over the earth. Moreover, the president’s battle for a better world asserts itself daily thanks to the Web. And Obama Time is the first Web Story because all readers can add, integrate and enrich the text with their own personal web contributions, transforming the book into a living organism in time, open to input from all net voyagers.

Umberto Sulpasso ha insegnato in diverse università europee asiatiche e americane. Ha scritto per Il Sole 24 Ore e la Repubblica e ha fondato la prima università multimediale europea. Attualmente è impegnato a realizzare per l’India il primo calcolo del Prodotto nazionale sapere, che verrà ufficialmente presentato alle Nazioni Unite come metodo innovativo per misurare la ricchezza delle nazioni. Sempre sulla rivoluzione del sapere ha pubblicato Know Global, Baldini e Castoldi, su cui il governo del presidente brasiliano Lula ha organizzato due convegni internazionali, e Darwinomics, il Saggiatore. Il dibattito internazionale su Darwinomics è disponibile su www.youtube.com/darwinomics Umberto Surpass has taught at various European, Asian and American universities. He wrote for the Italian newspapers Il Sole 24 Ore and la Repubblica and founded the first European Multimedia University. He is currently busy computing/preparing/performing for India the first calculation of the National Knowledge Product, which will be officially presented to the United Nations as an innovative method of measuring a nation’s wealth. Additional publications of his on the subject of the knowledge revolution are Know Global, Baldini e Castold, on which the government of Brazilian President Lula organized two international conferences, and Darwinomics, il Saggiatore. The international debate on Darwinomics is available at: www.youtube.com/darwinomics