David Orban

Current

Fellow at Questar
Advisor and European Lead at Singularity University
Founder, and Architect at Order of Cosmic Engineers

Founder & Chief Evangelist at WideTag, Inc. (OpenSpime)
Founder & Director at Singularity Institute Europe
Advisory Board Member at Lifeboat Foundation
Founder at Vulcano
Consultant at davidorban.com

see less...

5 more...

Past

Founder & CEO at Questar
Co-Founder at Nova Multimedia
CEO at Syntrust

Product Manager at AISoftware

see less...

1 more...

Education

University of Milan
University of Padua

Recommended

10 people have recommended David

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Information Technology and Services

Websites

David Orban’s Summary

Alert analyst of the global high technology landscape, with broad experience in structuring virtual subsidiary deals for companies penetrating the EU, and EMEA markets. Deep understanding of the needs and mechanics of both product marketing, sales development, localization, and globalization.

Futurist, and speaker. My vision is at the crossroads of technology and society as defined by their coevolution. There are times when things change fast, and this is one of them. To be able and act from the position where the perspective on this change is accessible is a true privilege.

"What is the question that I should be asking?" is my motto. Meta-analyses, and meta-rules are the tools of the trade when going breadth first is an advantage. The new renaissance is also about cutting across the limits of deep specialization. Tolerating high levels of pressure, and frequent mistakes, accelerating cycles of invention and innovation build the new worlds ahead of us.

David Orban’s Specialties:

Business case analysis, contract negotiation, strategic market development, partner management. Startup management. Community, and metaverse design.

David Orban’s Experience

Fellow

Questar

(Information Technology and Services industry)

December 2009 — Present (1 month)

Questar is an Italian software publishing and distribution company. Questar aims to enhance channel oriented electronic software distribution services, making them available to developers worldwide.
Advisor and European Lead

Singularity University

(Think Tanks industry)

February 2009 — Present (11 months)

Singularity University, based on the NASA Ames campus in Silicon Valley, is an interdisciplinary university whose mission is to assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies (bio, nano, info, AI, etc.), and apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity’s grand challenges.
Founder, and Architect

Order of Cosmic Engineers

(Think Tanks industry)

August 2008 — Present (1 year 5 months)

The Order of Cosmic Engineers joyfully set out on a cosmic quest to permeate our universe with benign intelligence, building and spreading it from inner space to outer space and beyond.

The Order is, at the same time, a transhumanist association, a space advocacy group, a spiritual movement, a literary salon, a technology observatory, an idea factory, a virtual worlds development group, and a global community of persons willing to take an active role in building, in realizing a sunny future. As engineers, we aim to build what cannot be readily found
Founder & Chief Evangelist

WideTag, Inc. (OpenSpime)

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

February 2008 — Present (1 year 11 months)

WideTag, Inc. is the OpenSpime technology company, providing the infrastructure for an open Internet of Things. As Founder and Chief Evangelist it is my role to shape the strategic vision for the OpenSpime technologies, and develop the policies that ensure a healthy development of the important concepts supporting it.
Founder & Director

Singularity Institute Europe

(Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Civic & Social Organization industry)

October 2007 — Present (2 years 3 months)
Advisory Board Member

Lifeboat Foundation

(Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Civic & Social Organization industry)

May 2007 — Present (2 years 8 months)

The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit nongovernmental organization dedicated to encouraging scientific advancements while helping humanity survive existential risks and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards a technological singularity. I am a member of its scientific Advisory Board.
Founder

Vulcano

(Non-Profit; 201-500 employees; Internet industry)

January 2007 — Present (3 years )

Vulcano, http://vulca.no, is an online community in Second Life, whose aim is to explore the rich opportunities that the metaverse offers in new types of social organization, education, entertainment, and business.

My role is that of the main instigator of the communities activities, which however develop on their own as well, and are not a priori regulated.
Consultant

davidorban.com

(Information Technology and Services industry)

January 2004 — Present (6 years )

I have strong opinions on a fairly wide variety of subjects, and seldom refrain from expressing them. On top of providing information, analysis, and answers online, I provide strategic consulting services to best leverage ideas, services, and products in a global competitive landscape.
Founder & CEO

Questar

(Privately Held; Information Technology and Services industry)

November 1993 — December 2009 (16 years 2 months)

Questar is an Italian software publishing and distribution company. Questar aims to enhance channel oriented electronic software distribution services, making them available to developers worldwide.
Co-Founder

Nova Multimedia

(Non-Profit; 11-50 employees; Think Tanks industry)

June 2004 — September 2005 (1 year 4 months)
CEO

Syntrust

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Hardware industry)

November 1999 — September 2000 (11 months)

Syntrust's objective was the development of dependable online trust relationship tools based on highly secure hardware and software components developed by Eutron, an Italian company, of which Syntrust was the US spin-off.
Product Manager

AISoftware

(Public Company; 201-500 employees; AISW.MI; Computer Software industry)

January 1987 — December 1992 (6 years )

Managed AISoftware's Third Party product offerings, mainly the Mathematica symbolic calculation suite from Wolfram Research.

David Orban’s Education

University of Milan

Physics November 1987 — June 1990
University of Padua

Physics November 1984 — June 1987

Additional Information

David Orban’s Websites:

David Orban’s Interests:

reading, new technology, memetics (ask me about it), skiing, travel

David Orban’s Groups:

Planetary Society, Lifeboat Foundation, Singularity Institute, The Brights, ETech speakers, maniacal Twitterers

JoiIto
Business Club 2.0 Milan-IN
Link Silicon Valley, LLC
Internet of Things
Florence Festival of Creativity - Festival della Creatività, Firenze (Toscana - Tuscany)
The Singularity Summit
WikiDemocracy.org
Innov'azione
F2F Capturing Creativity
Creative Commons
La Fibra che ride
VirtualWorlds
Virtual Worlds Roadmap
Club dei Media Sociali
Mi.Ne.R.S.
Italian Startups, entrepreneurs, ventures, jobs, networking...
venice sessions
Web of Things
Singularity University
ThinkBalm Innovation Community
Kaspersky Italian Security Group
v-Business
Future of Learning
Fondazione Giannino Bassetti
SESTI - Weak Signal Scanning