Hello to all. This will be a short issue because our week started in fast-track mode, but we did plan to send out something at the beginning of the month.

Starting from the end of October, with the pibinko.org network and the Jug Band Colline Metallifere we have been quite busy to animate our audience and stimulate new collaborations. To give you a measure of this fact, we can show you in the header image of this post the trend of visits to our combined web sites (in this chart starting from January 2019, through February 2022)*. This line of work, which was important in the direction of doing something constructive together after the past Winter, with the news which started arriving from the East last week becomes essential.

For readers who do not “do” Italian, or are not interested in improving their Italian language skills: we need to apologize, but in this period we have a bit of a hard time in keeping the English version of our blogs up to date…if you switch to the Italian version of the sites you will see a lot more news. If you would like to help with the translation into English of our contents, the call we issued at the end of November is open (see link).

While we are finalizing our Spring planning, we would like to remind you of:

• The live events at the Cirisò, close to Pomarance (Pisa), curated by Simone Sandrucci (link, in Italian)
• The live events at the Bike Garage & More in Massa Marittima (Southern Tuscany) curated by Dario Canal & friends (link)
• The final episode of the first series of the Jugcast dalle Colline Metallifere, with Luigi de’Scalzi and Mauro Tirannosauro, Sat. March 5, at 12.15PM CET (see link, in Italian)
• The overall list of services proposed through the pibinko.org network (see link in English) and the Jug Band Colline Metallifere (see link). To these two “ventures” from the beginning of the year we have added the MoltoBello.info project (see link).

For more information and booking: micalosapevo@pibinko.org .

* Note: if you are curious of checking what the highs and lows of our chart are related to, feel free to check the Archives section of our sites (see the right column in each page, where you can view all the blog posts grouped by month).

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 https://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 https://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.

Andrea Giacomelli (aka pibinko) was invited to be part of the stakeholder group of the ROSiE project. This project is aimed at fostering responsibile open science in Europe. If you are not in the research arena, this might sound a bit cryptic…but you may check out this introduction to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_science to have an idea on what the project wants to help.

So why does Andrea Giacomelli aka pibinko aka Jack O’Malley end up in a pool of experts on this topic? Here is a copy of the presentation you find on https://rosie-project.eu/our-forum

Freelance researcher with 27 years of experience, based in Southern Tuscany and operating internationally. With an MS in Environmental Engineering and a PhD in Hydrology, both from Politecnico di Milano, Italy, he has an extensive experience in institutional research programmes, especially within European Union Funded activities. In these projects, as well as in corporate consulting, he has worked as a Geographic Information Systems expert. He also has experience in policy support activities from local to global scales, including being the facilitator of one of the working groups for the data specifications of the INSPIRE Directive, and being part of a pool of experts involved in the definition of priorities for research in initiatives such as the Digital Earth, and other high-level stakeholder groups. Since 2006 he started developing an independent line of activity, creating a bottom-up network of citizens (the pibinko.org network) involved in projects for the promotion and protection of lesser known assets in the fields of culture, environment, and open innovation. This has led to results in the relations between research and society which, albeit on a small scale, have been disruptive for the actors involved. For example, through the BuioMetria Partecipativa project, an initiative for awareness raising and citizen science for night sky quality protection, there have been two national research institutions starting activities on the same topic, with the citizen group acting as a scientific advisor to the research bodies, or to an Erasmus student visiting a rural area in Southern Tuscany, with a direct connection of a foreign university to a local community in Italy (without an Italian research institution involved). Since 2019 he is a member of the “Empowerment, Inclusiveness, and Equality” working group of the European Citizen Science Association. With his combination of activities on one side with a “researcher hat”, and on the other side as a “citizen interacting with researchers”, he has gained a significant track record of cases where research ethics issues are in play. His current flagship project in the area of stakeholder engagement and facilitation is a rock-blues collective, the Jug Band Colline Metallifere, with which he provides events in a format combining scientific outreach and genuine musical entertainment.

Stakeholder activities within the ROSiE project will start at the beginning of next year, but in the meantime we are getting ready. For more information and booking: micalosapevo@pibinko.org oppure whatsapp 3317539228

The pibinko.org network has been active for 15 years in the protection and promotion of lesser-known assets in the fields of culture, environment, and open innovation. We are interested to receive expression of interests to collaborate as translators for our network.

Since 2010, the pibinko.org website is maintained in Italian and English. Since Spring 2019 we also have the Jug Band Colline Metallifere website (http://www.jugbandcm.it), which was designed to be in Italian, English, and German. Overall, as of November 2021 we have around 2500 blog posts and over fifty pages, which are related to some 2000 files of multimedia content (not counting external links).

We do our best to keep all the language versions in sync, but -depending on the effort required by our various projects- we cannot always ensure that the non-Italian versions of the sites are up to date.

Furthermore, in the context of our mission, we are interested to have material in as many languages as possibile. In this respect, our flagship initiative to date has been the “Revenge of the Killer Chiuhuahua and of the Zombies” movie. In this case we managed to have the translation of the title in over twenty languages, dialects, and scripts (including Egyptian hyeroglyph), without using internet (see this blog post).

This said: if you like this context and are interest to collaborate with the network, please send an email to micalosapevo@pibinko.org, indicating:

• which languages you can use. Our current priorities are Italian to English, and Italian or English to German, but feel free to indicate other language combinations.
• your motivations to collaborate
• what type of compensation you would like to have (to date we have been dealing with: mondey, goods or services, educational credits, etc.

This call will be open until further notice.