This page contains a brief overview of my skills, my current and past work experiences, along with the study and life-long learning opportunities I dedicated myself to.
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Curriculum Vitae and Skills
Skills
Scraping and data collection
Comfortable in: assessing best structure for a datasets based on goals, working with IMPORTXML, IMPORTHTML and IMPORTDATA to get data into Google Sheets, geocoding, using Python for XPath-based scraping (libraries: lxml, requests).
Data cleaning and processing
Comfortable in: assessing what data cleaning operations are needed, using Google Sheets advanced functions for wrangling and analysing data, Open Refine and GREL, processing geodata with QGIS, RegEx and Python for data cleaning and analysis (preferred library: Pandas).
Data visualization and communication
Comfortable in: using most online tools for data visualization (preferred: Datawrapper, RAW GRAPHS, Flourish, CARTO. Would love to try Data Illustrator), crafting custom static graphics with Inkscape, building network graphs with Gephi, getting creative with Python's Jupyter Notebooks (preferred libraries: Matplotlib and Seaborn, Bokeh, geopandas), learning Javascript for dataviz (Chart.js and Leaflet.js), composing maps with QGIS.
Soft Skills
I hate the term "soft skills" but I'll use it to sum up a series of unquantifiable skills which I believe are at the core of my work style. I feel greatly in debt towards my Humanities Studies background (Latin, Ancient Greek, Philosophy and History), which equipped me with the skills I am most proud of: I can research, analyze and synthetize complex topics, dissect and build strong arguments, organize my work, establish a collaborative settings in team environments and manage small team projects with care and listening.
Current Work Experience
Founder and Project Leader
Mar. 2018 - Present · Venice, Italy
Batjo · Project at the intersection of data, journalism and digital fabrication with open source software
- Awarded with Google’s DNI Innovation Fund, in December 2017.
- Developed cookbook with three reproducible open source data physicalization projects + files available on GitHub:
The Data Walk, The 3D Data Map, The Light Data Bars.
(Data) Activist
Jan. 2019 - Present · Venice, Italy
- Web development, research, data scraping, data analysis and viz, articles. See here for examples.
Jan. 2018 - Present · Remote from Venice, Italy
- Publishing data viz, research and analysis on the impact of Airbnb, with a special focus on my city Venice (see the Venice Monthly Bulletin). Advocating on the regulation of Airbnb and short-term rentals, to preserve the right to affordable housing for residents.
Data Literacy Instructor
May 2018 - Present · Remote
- Instructor/tutor for both in-person and online courses, all of which received very high ratings from the students.
Bologna Business School at the University of Bologna
May 2018; May 2019 · Bologna (Italy)
- Professor for the Module 'Data Storytelling' in the Data Science MA for the year 2017-2018 and 2018-2019.
Dataninja & University of Milan
September 2018 - October 2018 · Remote
- Instructor for the Module 'Data Visualization Skills'.
Past Work Experience
A Career Gap for the Family
Aug. 2016 - Jan. 2018 · Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Took time off to start a family, care for my newborn daughter, move to another country, and practice Python & Yoga.
Lead Data Journalist & Trainer
Jan. 2014 - Aug. 2016 · Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Silk ·Startup for data publishing and interactive storytelling. Acquired by Palantir in Aug. 2016
- Projects featured in The Guardian, Information is Beautiful, Vox, CNN, The Atlantic and others.
- Trainer at international and local events.
Research Assistant
Sept. 2013 - Jan. 2014 · Tilburg, The Netherlands
DataJLab · Virtual lab at Tilburg University on data journalism trends and techniques
- Member of the 'Climate Finance Lab' team, investigating financial data stories behind climate policies.
- Co-authored paper with Dr. Stefania Milan on journalism and algorithms. Selected for a panel at 'Rethinking Journalism'
Journalist
May. 2013 - Jan. 2014 · remote
Freelance
- Published data journalism pieces on Datajournalism.it and Wired Italy.
Journalist Trainee
May. 2013 - June 2013 · Amsterdam, The Netherlands
NRC Next · Major Dutch newspaper
- Authored a data-driven investigation into Interpol..
Study Experience
Lifelong Learning
- Infografica e Infoestetica by ISIA Firenze · Florence, Italy · 2018
- Winter University: Using European data for better storytelling by EPP Group · Brussels, Belgium · 2016
- Shift, Shape, Mobilize Workshop by Sourcefabric and n-ost · Odessa, Ukraine · 2016
- Summer School for Journalists & Media Practitioners by European University Institute · Fiesole, Italy · 2016
- Data4Change by SmallMedia and VisualizingImpact · Beirut, Lebanon · 2015
- Young European Journalist WKSP 'Data Journalism: big stories & dirty surveillance' by M100 Sanssouci Colloquium · Potsdam, Germany · 2014
- School of Data Journalism by School of Data · Perugia, Italy · 2013
Communication and Information Sciences (MA)
Aug. 2012 - Aug. 2013
University of Tilburg (The Netherlands)
- Graduated with distinction
- Data Journalism Specialization
- Thesis 'Social meets civic: Civics ocial media and open government data: An inquiry on collaborative fact-checking for citizens’ empowerment'
History, Tradition and Innovation (BA)
Sept. 2008 - July 2012
University of Siena (Italy)
- Graduated cum laude
- Thesis analysing media discourse in Italian newspapers during the 2011 war in Libya and NATO’s intervention
- Specialized in the period from the 1789 French Revolution to current days. Elective courses in Philosophy, Human Rights, Economic History and Globalization