CoN, Italian Culture on the Net, is a Consortium of Italian Universities, founded in 1999, with the aim of promoting and spreading the Italian language and culture throughout the world through e-learning and new technologies. It operates in agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is present in over 80 countries around the world.

The Italian universities that join the Consortium are Bologna, Catania, Genoa, Milano Statale, Napoli l'Orientale, Padua, Parma, Pisa, Roma Tor Vergata, Roma Tre, Salerno, Turin and the two Universities for Foreigners of Siena and Perugia.

As a consortium of universities, ICoN represents a happy example of synergy within the Italian university system. Important Italian universities have joined together with the aim of carrying out research and experimentation in the field of e-learning to create excellent teaching paths that promote the Italian language and culture around the world.

Since 1999, ICoN has carried out numerous educational initiatives with constant attention to new online teaching methodologies and research in the technological field. Its relationship with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is fundamental.

The first ICoN initiative is the Degree Course in Italian Language and Culture for foreigners, delivered entirely online on behalf of the member universities. Even if the degree course still remains the core business of the Consortium, in the 20 years of history ICoN has enriched its offer with numerous other activities: 1st level Masters, online Italian courses for foreigners, training courses for Italian teachers. ICoN has built digital resources of the highest quality with the help of teachers from the associated universities, constituting a rich heritage of digital content on the Italian language and culture. In addition to purely educational initiatives, ICoN has carried out its research activity by also participating in numerous projects in the field of e-learning and the diffusion of the Italian language financed by the EU and the Italian government.

Today the ICoN Consortium certainly represents one of the most solid realities in the field of online teaching and the promotion of Italian. Its goal for the future remains to identify new paths, new languages ​​and new technologies to create excellent content and projects that contribute to the diffusion of Italian culture and language.