[Apr. 25, 2020, revision with additional soundtrack: Just Dropped In]

…i..e. how to tell the right story in the wrong way..

At that time I was operating as the communications manager for the M(‘)appare Milano campaign, during my period with GFOSS.it, the Italian OSGEO Chapter. So I had to contact the author of this article to highlight a major omission, and a somewhat imbalanced presentation of the project actors. With all this said: forever kudos to EdoM. Namely:

• The article did not mention the existence of a media partner (Mente Locale, a radio show on Radio Popolare Milano). With Cristiano Valli, Alessandro Diegoli, and Disma Pestalozza the show was promoting the campaign at least once a week since March 17.
• The article did not mention a m(‘)appare Milano as the project name
• After the main article, there was an interview to a “teacher”, supposedly to provide some sort of theoretical legitimation of the project. I might have been interesting to consider that the “gli esperti di GFOSS.it” (GFOSS.it experts), mentioned without boldface, possibly also had some theories behind their activity on the streets. And maybe also some original idea, not just citations. I remember I consideration I made reading the closing sentence of the second article: “l’atto artistico-filosofico diventa atto pratico” (“an artistic-philosophical action becomes a practical action“). “Maybe there are contexts where a practical action can lead to art or philosphy” I said to some of the participants.
• The mapper photos were by myself (Andrea Giacomelli aka pibinko), but were included without attribution.

Since all the information about the rationale and the development of the project were published through the GFOSS.it institutional site, it would not have been difficult to obtain additional information.

The author of the article was contacted about these issues. At the time she refused to consider the possibility of providing some sort of follow-up to give a more balanced picture. As a somewhat partial compensation to this partial representation, we ended up having the final campaign event hosted by Politecnico di Milano (July 2, 2008). Still, the story of mis-aligned perceptions related to m(‘)appare was far from being resolved. Several other months of interesting interactions followed (and, to som extent, are still ongoing).

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