Since 1994, across different Italian regions and internationally, we have developed a combination of technical, management and creative skills and have worked with an extremely diverse client base, as demonstrated by our project portfolio. In parallel, we have created a list of qualified suppliers and contractors, while personally providing quality control and project management: “pibinko” is in fact an adaptation from the Sardinian word pipinco. This was Andrea Giacomelli’s nickname on his first job, in Sardinia. It means “extremely meticulous”. This care for detail and precision has blended with extremely variable settings, so that for each project the priority is to find together with our clients the best balance between quality, available resources, schedule, context, and expectations. Summing it all up, we can propose…

Events and experiences

I have been creating, planning and managing events since 2007, with over 150 of these. Attendance ranging from 3 to 250 people and duration from teatime meetings to multiple-day festivals, from one-day excursions to multiple-month campaigns and residencies. Various of these initiatives have obtained international visibility and awards. See http://www.pibinko.org/promotion-communication-facilitation/

Music

Musician and scientific director for the Jug Band Colline Metallifere (Metalliferous Hills Jug Band), an arts+science collective combining music and education (including educational credits) on environmental issues.

Interesting Locations

Farm houses, vacation homes, resorts, “farm campings”, castles), offering options from vacation, to venues for workshops, and studies, including research sites for many disciplines. We start from family properties in hamlets in Southern Tuscany (Tatti, Torniella, Roccatederighi, Scansano), and collaborations with facilities both in lesser known parts of Tuscany and Sardinia, and in more renown areas, such as Milan, Alghero, or Florence.

Itineraries

I have an in-depth knowledge of the Grosseto province and its bordering areas (most of South-Western Tuscany). I also work in other parts of this region, and have contacts in most other Italian territories, especially Lombardy and Sardinia. In these regions I can propose itineraries with various means of transportation, typically combining famous sites and attractions with situations and characters known to very few people. Furthermore, since 2016 we have helped to re-design trail systems on approximately 30% of Tuscany.

“Mouthwatering stuff”

In addition to producing olive oil from our family properties in the areas of Scansano and Gavorrano in Tuscany, we have contacts with small but high-quality producers in Tuscany. These typically family-run businesses provide wine, olive oil, honey, fruit and vegetables, cheese, game, jam, in-oil vegetables, saffron, chestnuts, and mushrooms. We also have connections to producers from other regions of Italy and abroad.

Maps, websites and databases

Support in all phases of the life cycle of information systems, especially for mapping applications, with tens of projects followed since 1994 in various fields (environment, tourism, utilitiy surveys, water resources). See http://www.pibinko.org/maps-2/

Environmental engineering and land planning

Support in planning and execution of environmental projects, from old small family asbestos tanks, to being part of the design team for the largest phytoremediation plant in Europe (100 hectares), managing utility surveys in petrochemical plants, or helping to design the remediation of landfills with tens of millions of cubic metres of contaminated soil.

Translations and language-related services

Thanks to three years of primary school in the UK and working daily in English since 1993 I have a very good command of this language, and can provide translations (especially for geoscience and information technology topics), transcriptions, and proofreading services. Since 2016 I have also been working as a reviewer and quality controller.

Production of photo sets and videos (including providing ideas and scripting).

Promotion, communication, facilitation

This happens via a mailing list of about 10000 addresses, most of which acquired via personal contacts, numerous media contacts which covered our past projects, and various social networks and digital communities.

Consulting, training, and mentoring

Consulting services for all aspects of the above listed activities, or for other third-party activities, with a peculiar care for organizational, logistic, time management and staff training and motivation aspects.

We can offer training (in Italian, English, and French) on the topics related to our core professional skills.

Andrea Giacomelli, aka pibinko or Jack O’Malley, was selected as one of the jury members for the Silbersalz International Science and Media Festival, which will take place in Halle (Germany) in June 2022, with its fifth edition. In the past the, the multi-faceted citizen of the world based in Southern Tuscany has already been part of juries and voting panels. We can recall the Bovisa Connaction Festival in Milano in 2010, the Carnival Party in Torniella in 2008, the selection of research interns for CRS4 in 2000, or the interviews to numerous junior engineers and geologists in the Milan branch of an environmental engineering corporation between 2003 and 2007. Speaking of contests, pibinko has also been the creator to date of two initiatives: in 2008 he proposed the “Chi la vede è bravo” photo contest, on the ancient game of palla 21/palla eh!. In 2010 he then created and promoted the contest “From Dusk till Dawn“, connected to the BuioMetria Partecipativa project (on interdisciplinary night sky promotion and protection).

About the SILBERSALZ Festival:

SILBERSALZ is the first international Science&Media festival of its kind, taking place in 2022 for the fifth time in Halle (Saale), Germany.

What are the questions facing science? What answers could help us to live together more peacefully and waste fewer resources? What will the earth look like in the future? SILBERSALZ brings science and media topics to life for all senses with gripping films, exciting discussions, and walk-in installations – as an international festival for the public and as a conference for those who work in research, film, or the media industry.
With this unique combination of festival and conference programmes, current issues become easy to understand. For researchers, film, and media professionals, SILBERSALZ offers a platform for mutual inspiration (see https://www.silbersalz-festival.com/en/about for more information).

The festival will be from June 15 to 19. The jurors will be at work during the coming Spring to select the best works, divided in eight categories, including documentaries, series and social media productions.

If you are interested to submit your work, for some categories the February 20 deadline has been extended for a few days. Please check this on https://www.silbersalz-festival.com/en/node/882

For more information: micalosapevo@pibinko.org .

…with a little soundtrack:

In the framework of the activity that with the pibinko.org network we are conducting as stakeholders in the EU project “ROSiE” concerning ethics in Open Science research (see this presentation article from last December), we have been invited to send to the projects interesting cases of ethics issues. This is the invitation:

Our colleagues from the University of Tartu are looking for cases exemplifying ethical challenges and dilemmas related to Open Science. To that end, the team led by Kadri Simm has created an online platform where case descriptions can be shared with the ROSiE project. The call for cases is open to anyone who has experienced, heard or read about particular challenges in Open Science practice.

ROSiE is specifically interested in examples of ethical dilemmas, conflicts of value, disagreements or problems in the context of Open Science for which it seemed difficult to find a solution. The collected cases will be used to develop training materials on Open Science for researchers, students and citizen scientists, as well as to create an open-access online resource.

With the pibinko.org network we have a fair compilation of such cases. I would say an average of one every 2.5 years since 1994. In relation to our “playlist” we will do a little selection for our ROSiE friends. In any case, we are not jealous, and we are glad to invite others to propose their stories. The link to submit a case is: https://survey.ut.ee/index.php/185749?lang=en

If you have learned of this opportunity via the pibinko.org network, should you decide to send a story, of should you need support to do it, you can write to micalosapevo@pibinko.org. In addition, if you are interested to these topics, we would in any case like to get in touch with you via the same address.

In the header picture: paw prints on the side of a creek on planet Earth, Feb. 12, 2022, after lunch.