September 1987 - May 1992: hired as software engineer by a medium-size Italian software company. Assigned to a Company Division dealing with management and administration procedures, with the task of implementing software for the PC-Mainframe connectivity, and in the office automation area. In this period he also worked as technical trainer, and he wrote software in different languages for PCs and IBM mainframes.
Later he became project manager of an administrative procedure, developed for VM/CMS and SQL/DS platforms, for systems IBM 9370 and AS/400. This position involved different tasks: entity-relationship analysis, system configuration of the mainframes and of the mini computers, administration of the databases, installation of the local networks, customer care, training activities, and the writing of user manuals.

Professional experience concerning the Internet

In 1992 he was assigned to a Division dedicated to studying and promoting the Internet, and since then has been a Gophermaster, a Webmaster, and the owner of different Mailing Lists, including a successful international one. He also wrote technical and educational articles and manuals about the Internet, addressed in particular to academic users.
In 1994 he worked on the drawings of many projects and has contributed to define the characteristics of the first user interface for the Italian National Library Service (Servizio bibliotecario nazionale, SBN). He was a member of some working groups of the Italian Organisation for the Academic Networks (GARR).
Starting in 1995, for over a year, he provided to all the divisions of his company the necessary technical support for the drawing of all the projects on the Internet, also by writing technical documents

Since 1996 he has been a freelancer, working as an Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) journalist, as author of educational manuals about the Internet, as translator from English into Italian of computer science books, and more generally as expert of ICT, of the Internet, of online information sources, of the Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) and of professional printing. Since 1996 he has been enrolled in the Italian journalist register.

Contributions to magazines and newspapers

From 1994 to 1997 he contributed widely to the Italian monthly magazine «Virtual», with several reports per issue, also writing many of its sites' and books' reviews and a column for readers' questions about the Internet.

From 1996 to 2000 he contributed to the Italian ICT magazines «Inter.net», «Internet news», «Il Mediario», «Happy Web», and to the Italian online magazines «Repubblica online», «Elettrica/mente» and «Apogeonline».

In the year 2000 he contributed widely to the Italian magazine «E-business trade» (formerly «Pc trade»); in 2001 he wrote the ICT sections on the Cd-Roms «Equest» about the new economy, printed as supplements of the main economic Italian weekly «Il Mondo». For these Cd-Roms, he also made several video interviews.

Since the beginning of 1997 he contributed regularly to the Italian weekly «Week.it» (formerly «Pcweek Italia», now closed), on which he published over 700 reports and articles, also covering interviews, meetings and events abroad, mostly in Europe and in the United States. He also contributed to the Italian monthly «Zerouno», with articles and book reviews.

From 2000 to 2003 he contributed to the Italian monthly supplement «Panorama Web», in which he published many reports and wrote two columns, one about the Internet connectivity and the offers of the Italian Service Providers, and the other one about search engines. Now he seldom contributes to the main weekly magazine, «Panorama», as its supplement has been closed.

From 2001 to 2003 he contributed to the Italian monthly «Jack», in the sections dedicated to the Internet, personal computing and mobile phones.

In July 2002 he began to publish again on the Italian monthly «Internet news», for which he wrote reports and was responsible for a page of books reviews for about four years. Now this magazine has been renamed «Internet.pro» and since April 2006 will be published only on the Web. For «Internet.pro», he has written not only articles, but since 2004 also the four or five pages per issue of a section called «Ideas and portraits», with interviews to ICT managers and software engineers.

From 2003 to 2005 he contributed to «@lfa», the weekly supplement of the main Italian economic newspaper «Il Sole 24 Ore» dedicated to computer science and technologies, now renamed «Nova 24». For «@lfa» he also covered interviews, meetings and events abroad, mostly in Europe and in the United States.

Since 2003 he has been contributing with brief spoken reports to the program Mondo Web of the Swiss Italian speaking Radio, renamed Impulso Web at the end of 2005 and become again Mondo Web in September 2007.

Since September 2005 he has been contributing with many long articles to the professional magazine «Italia grafica», which specializes in graphics, prepress, printing and finishing.

Since 2005 he has been writing also for «Biblioteche Oggi» (Libraries today), the most important magazine for Italian librarians.

Since 2008 he has worked for the page dedicated to technologies of the Swiss Italian daily «Corriere del Ticino», writing both long reports, even full page, and editorials, generally about the Internet.

For the instalments «Scrivere» published by De Agostini in 2007-2008 and edited by the Scuola Holden of the writer Alessandro Baricco, he wrote contributions about online writing in asynchronous environments (from chat to Second Life), business email style, cryptography, online communication in forums and newsgroups, and about the usage of international English on the Internet. These instalments have also been published by «La Repubblica» since the Spring of 2008.

Articles and reports about Second Life

He has been a Second Life resident since August 2006.

Since the end of 2006 he has spoken about SL in over fifteen reports on the program Mondo Web of the Swiss Italian Speaking radio. In May 2007 he wrote an 11 page report about SL for «Biblioteche Oggi». During 2007 he has written for his own amusement nearly twenty articles in English about SL for the online American magazine «SLNN.com»; in the same period he has written several articles, comments and editorials about SL for the Italian magazine «Week.it» (now closed), that have been pubblished also on the Web site of the main newspaper «Il Giornale». Since September 2007 he has been writing reports about Second Life and other topics also for the economic magazine «Espansione» (now distributed with the daily «Il Giornale»), and to SL, again, he dedicated a whole page of the newspaper «Corriere del Ticino» in May 2008.

Academic papers

- Author of the report Risorse Internet e biblioteca virtuale (Internet resources and virtual library), presented at the meeting Università: quale biblioteca? (University, which library?), organized by the University of Trento (published in the Proceedings: Atti, 1995, pp. 87-119).

- Author of the report The Internet in Italy: Nir services and Opacs, on the American magazine «Computers in libraries» (Meckler Media, Vol. 15, n. 2, february 1995, pp. 50-52).

- Coauthor of the report Le biblioteche italiane in Rete (The Italian online libraries), on the monthly magazine «Economia della cultura» (Il Mulino, n. 3, agosto 2003, pp. 407-412).

University teaching

- January 2003, Milan: lecturer of the module «Information sources» (16 hours) in the Master «Campus multimedia» organized by Mediaset and by the Scuola di specializzazione in studi sull'Amministrazione pubblica (SPISA) of the University of Bologna, and funded by the European Union.

- February 2004, Bari: lecturer of the module «Online information sources» (16 hours) for the High training course «Cultural valorization manager» (CVM) organized by the publisher Laterza and by the research center Tecnopolis-CSATA, and funded by the European Union.

Published books

- September 1997: coauthor of Incontri virtuali, la comunicazione interattiva su Internet (Virtual meetings. The interactive communication on the Internet), for the publisher Apogeo.

- April 1998: author of one chapter in the book Gens electrica, tendenze e futuro della comunicazione (Electric people, trends and future of the communication), for the publisher Apogeo.

- June 1998: coauthor of Ricerche bibliografiche in Internet. Strumenti e strategie di ricerca, Opac e biblioteche virtuali (Bibliographic researches on the Internet. Tools and strategies, Opacs and virtual libraries), for the publisher Apogeo.

- May 2000: coauthor of Dalla email al chat multimediale. Comunità e comunicazione personale in Internet (From the email to the multimedial chat. Communities and personal communication on the Internet), for the publisher Franco Angeli.

- March 2003: author of Comunicazione personale e collaborazione in Rete. Vivere e lavorare tra email, chat, comunità e groupware (Personal communication and collaboration on the Internet. Living and working with email, chat, communities and groupware) for the publisher Franco Angeli.

- May 2002 - June 2005: coauthor of Biblioteche in Rete. Istruzioni per l'uso (Libraries on the Net. Directions for use), for the publisher Laterza. This book was published again in September 2002 (Second edition), in June 2003 (Third updated edition), and in June 2005, as Fourth updated edition. Since the Third edition of June 2003, this manual is available not only on paper, but also online, as free HTML edition.

The manuals about online libraries have sold until now, previously for Apogeo and afterwards for Laterza, about 12,000 copies. As forecasted, the number of sold copies has dramatically dropped since the free availability of the online edition, but the book has become more widely used. Despite its online availability, the book is still selling well and has been printed again in April 2006 and in May 2007.

The essays about the Computer Mediated Communication have sold until now, previously for Apogeo and afterwards for Franco Angeli, over 4,000 copies.

Both these books in Italy have been adopted as texts for several University exams (altogether, over fifteen).

During the last years, Biblioteche in Rete has been one of the few manuals recommended for junior essay and senior thesis writers in Italian literature by the Research Guide written by the Harvard College Library. Besides, Biblioteche in Rete has also been included in the selected and very small bibliography for the the entry «biblioteca» (library) in the most recent update of the prestigious main Italian encyclopedia, L’Enciclopedia Treccani (Appendice VII, 2006).

Translated books (English -> Italian)

- September 1997: Guida a Front page '97 (Microsoft Front page 97 for Windows. Quick start, Ziff-Davis Press, 1996), for the publisher Apogeo.

- November 2000: Strategie competitive nell'industria del software (Secrets of software success, Harvard Business School Press, 1999), for the publisher Etas libri (Rizzoli).