Apartaments, farm houses, and other solutions:

• Ersilia’s House, in Torniella, Southen Tuscany
• Forestano’s House, in Tatti, Southern Tuscany
• …other solutions (presentations to be finalized): please write info@pibinko.org

Since 2006 I have been working in a growing array of projects related to promotion, outreach, facilitation, and community engagement. For these activities, I often collaborate with other professionals or organizations.

The track record is provided below. Individual events or very short projects (e.g. a one week campaign or a presentation) are listed separate from long-term running initiatives.

A note on language diversity
Several of the initiatives listed below are currently documented in Italian. In English you will find brief descriptions, and subtitles for the majority of videos. Please write for more information (in English ou français).

[last update: Apr. 2, 2022]

Events or short projects

2000

1. Survey of GIS skills in Sardinia, with web forms and paper dissemination. 120 replies obtained.

2005

1. Procurement of a band for a wedding party (Nema Problema, an Italian-Balkan band)
2. Date for Nema Problema for an event on “wine and stars” (Calici di stelle) in Massa Marittima (Tuscany)

2006

1. The Revenge of the Killer Chihuahua and of the Zombies: Scripted and co-produced a short movie [2] with a production team involving 30 people

2007

1. Riflessioni sul tema(tismo) video “spot” for the Italian OSGEO Chapter [3]
2. Palla 21: from Tuscany to Chicago (and back): Promotion and management of a “mission” of a group of 20 players of an ancient hand ball game from Souther Tuscany (for Spanish folks: very similar to pelota Valenciana), to Chicago, Illinois in the Summer calendar of events by the Dept. of Culture of this city [4]

2008

1. participated in the organization of an OpenStreetMap mapping party in Arezzo [5]
2. M(‘)appare Milano: created a three-month participatory mapping campaign in Milano [6] (for Milano I created the title “M(‘)appare”). Various people took part in the events, including citizens which you might not expect, such as a blind lady, or people typically disconnected from ICT and mapping. Note: The M(‘)appare was then used as a “format” in Ferrara, Portofino, Antola Park.
3. organizer of a national conference on “Culture, environment, and free/open informatics: which opportunities by the integration of diverse themes” [6.1]
4. Summer campaign for GFOSS.it – Proposal and management of a stand at Festambiente (the main Summer festival on environment in Italy), for the Italian OSGEO Chapter, together with collateral activities. [7]
5. “Le palline sulle colline” (little balls on the hills): promoter and manager of two photographic exhibitions (one in Tuscany and one in California) and one photographic contest on the ancient Tuscan hand ball game [8]

2009

1. New Year’s Eve party (with participation for three days of 50 people from outside Tuscany in a village of 200 residents) [10]

2010

1. “l’altro lato dell’altro lato” – farewell event for a major radio show (l’Altro lato – creator of the event, and part of the organizing committee). The event was attended by over 250 people from all over Italy. [11]
2. photographic contest “between dusk and dawn” (with some 600 participants from 52 countries) [12]
3. organizer of the “First INSPIRE mashup” (on biodiversity), from April to the INSPIRE conference in Krakow [13]

2011

1. Presentation event of the Attivarti.org association at Terra Futura (Florence, one of the main events in Italy on awareness raising about environmental sustainability), with a session on light pollution and a concert arranged in the evening. [14]
2. Lecture at Politecnico di Milano [15] (this is included as an “event” since it was provided as a performance, rather than a “standard” lecture).
3. Proposer and manager of the second INSPIRE mashup [16], including a social event and a live radio interview with Radio 24 (the main “news and talk” radio in Italy).
4. Photo exhibition in the Toscana Foto Festival of a selection of the best shots from the “Between dusk and dawn” contest in 2010.
5. Festambiente stand for Attivarti.org

2012

1. Presentations at various events related to biodiversity, in the context of the ENVIROFI project (see below)
2. Coordination of the exhibition and a web catalogue for the Società Filarmonica Popolare Torniella [20]
3. Organization of a two-day event on Culture, environment, and open innovation (Nov. 19, Monticiano, and Nov. 20, Massa Marittima) [21]
4. Organization of presentation for the proposal of comments to the new Master plan on environment and energy by Regione Toscana
5. “Brano bag“: a series of blog posts published by 7AM CET on each working day (live, no automatic scheduling), proposing  a song, its lyrics, and some thoughts inspired by the song, or the previous day. From July to December.

2013

1. New Year’s Eve concert in Torniella (Southern Tuscany), again with Hardisco (in collaboration with the Torniella and Piloni communities)
2. See “Long-term projects”, below

2014

1. Four articles for the Opinions Post, a citizen journalism web site (January)
2. Boscoriserva: a series of articles commenting songs from the Woodstock festival.

2015

1. Experimental campaign in Torniella and Sesto Fiorentino (Tuscany), with a combined meeting of the Loss of the Night network.
2. Facilitator for the participation of a team from the Farma Valley to the INVOLEN location-based game contest
3. Mentor and jury member for the Connected Automobiles 2015 Hackathon

2016

1. Farma Valley Winter Fest

2017

1. pibinko.org + Attivarti.org + associates Winter campaign (with fifteen events and activities in eight Italian regions)
2. Events for the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the “Palla 21 to Chicago” Mission
3. Promotion of the Farma Valley Community map
4. Second Farma Valley Winter Fest

2018

• Participation to Fa’ la Cosa Giusta (Milano)
• Promotion and organization of the first international symposium on protection and promotion of the night sky in Capraia Island, Italy. In collaboration with CNR IBIMET and University of Florence
• Third Farma Valley Winter Fest

2019

• Development of the Metalliferous Hills Jug Band, with over 30 performances between Tuscany, Milan, and Germany since November 2018. Please see this page for an updated listing of our performances.

2020

• Launch of the Participatory Lithology project as a resilience initiative (the project kicked off on March 21, during the COVID lockdown, after a fast-track design phase of one week)
• Hired Mauro Tirannosauro (Mauro the T-Rex) to support pibinko.org activities.

2021

• From May to September , re-launch of the Jug Band Colline Metallifere project, with various events in Tuscany (http://www.pibinko.org/jugbandcollinemetallifere/auftritte/)
• Between October and December, design and management of the Jug Band Colline Metallifere “geotour” from Southern Tuscany to Milano, and back (including the publication of daily updates on the project since November 8) – please see http://www.pibinko.org/jugbandcollinemetallifere/news/

2022

• From February 12 to March 5: production of four episode of the Jugcast dalle Colline Metallifere, with guests, on the topics of culture, environment, open innovation, and musica (see link).
• Jury member for Silbersalz 2022, International science media festival
• through the end of June: preparation of the European tour by a delegation of the Jug Band Colline Metallifere, centered on the participation to the ninth Living Knowledge conference in Groningen, The Netherlands (see link).

2023

• Support to the promotion of “Tre Cani Rossi” (Tuscan wine).
• Organization of a palla a 21 course for children of Summer Camps in Sassofortino
• Brezel Tour with the Jug Band Colline Metallifere (with 21 events from June to September, between Italy and Germany)
• Fourth pibinko.org network winter fest
• First national survey of hand-made crochet hook Christmas trees

Long-term projects

1. 2003-2006: I had the role of staff manager in the Italian branch of a large environmental engineering company (multinational). In addition to recruitment etc, among my tasks in this role I had the responsibility of creating and managing entertainment/social activities for the staff and for guests/clients (mostly from the USA).
2. 2008-ongoing: BuioMetria Partecipativa project (participatory light pollution monitoring) [21], then leading also to CORDILIT [22], Toscana Stellata [23], and the Loss of the Night EU COST Action
3. 2007-2010: GFOSS.it (the Italian OSGEO Chapter) – Founding member. Board member (2007-2008), and vice president (2008-2010). Mainly active in communication/marketing, and relatioships with other entities. [24]
4. 2010-2012: Facilitator of the INSPIRE European Directive on spatial data infrastructures. Name I have bee working for the Thematic Working Group of the “Production and Industrial Facilities data specification”.
5. 2012 -2013: Citizen science coordinator for the biodiversity work package of the ENVIROFI project [19]
6. a concise history of participatory night sky monitoring from Italy (work in progress)

I have been using computers since the early Eighties, first as a hobby, then for my studies, and since 1994 for my professional activities.

Having worked often as a liaison between IT specialists and people who do other jobs, I frequently provide advice and guidance on how to make these two communities interact.

The aim of information technology awareness is to help businesses to use IT using less time and energy, thus leaving more time and energy for your core activity.

For more information: info@pibinko.org

Lighting is an essential component of modern life. On the other hand, darkness is perceived often as a negative element: we forget that it is a natural part of the life cycle of many species, and that natural dark skies are not as somber as some say. The misperception of these elements leads to irrational patterns in the use of artificial lighting, with actual impacts on ecology, environment, energy, safety, and health. Interestingly, also the reaction to “too much light” -and the response to light pollution issues- without an interdisciplinary approach may oftenr lead to additional distortions in our appreciation of the issue.

With the BuioMetria Partecipativa project, as an environmental engineer since 2008 I have been organizing outreach events on these topics. The events are aimed at (1) increasing awareness on the use of light, (2) suggesting sustainable practice compared to many cases we can observe daily, and (3) promoting dark sky places.

With a track record of over 130 presentations over the past ten years, at various latitudes and directed to extremely varied audiences (up to 200 participants), I can propose contents tailored to different situations, in Italian, English, and French. The presentations take shape by composing different media, including text, photography, videos, music and installations, often collaborating with other professionals.

The presentations on these topics often have a promotional component for the hosting venues, and may be connected to other animation activities. Last but not least, all the events we organize are advertised via the pibinko.org network, with an extended mailing list, media contacts, and social networks.

Working on this as an environmental engineer and PhD with 25 years of experience in environmental monitoring, I can also interact with other experts on light pollution-related projects.

For more information on this topic, or to arrange a presentation on lighting and darkness write to bmp@pibinko.org

We produce olive oil in our family property in Scansano and Collacchia, in Southern Tuscany.

I also have consolidated contacts with producers of many other delicacies: wine, cheese, fresh and preserved fruit and vegetables, ham, salami, honey, saffron, chestnut flour, and more. These are all from small -typically family-run- farms with high quality production.

For more details: info@pibinko.org