The Medium is the Community (?). A pilot laboratorial activity at University of Bologna to tell and promote the city

McLuhan said that 'medium is the message,' focusing on the medium rather than its content. Today we can consider his words as a useful provocative methaphor to explore contemporary changes in the practices of communication technologies. 2.0 media, such as social networks, the blogosphere, online communities, and so on, have determined a shift such that the communities active in the medium might be, in turn, influenced by it. The paper explores the nature of this shift in two phases of study: a theoretical one reviewing experts' views on various traditional media and their social impact, and a practical one consisting of an analysis of a laboratorial acivity - Tagolab - in which Master's students applied the workings and ramifications of 2.0 media focusing on the City of Bologna. In this paper we observe participants' acquisition of new skills and expertise, as well as the practices that emerged in the participant community.