Who’s Luca Spinelli?
interview
Luca Spinelli, author and journalist. Born from a Swiss mother, a translator and hearty trencherwoman, and an Italian father, a university professor and inveterate smoker. Transplanted here and there in Europe thanks to a patched-up blue jalopy. On the net since his childhood thanks to the aforementioned inveterate smoker. User of enigmatic publishing alter egos. The owner of this website has been:
- Investigative and legal journalist, had his first page news or comments featured in all the major Italian newspapers and magazines: La Repubblica, La Stampa, Corriere della Sera, Il Manifesto, Wired, Punto Informatico (columnist), PC Magazine and others. Author of investigative reportages attached to parliamentary inquiries, leading to legislative amendments and sparking national strikes.
- Author, along with lawyer Guido Scorza (Italian Data Protection Authority) of the legal initiative ‘Give a meaning to the degradation‘ and co-writer of the resulting legislative bill. The initiative, intended to introduce liberalizations in the Italian copyright law, was supported and signed by prominent figures such as Elio Veltri, MPs Fiorello Cortiana, Mauro Bulgarelli, and others. Main journalistic correspondences are from Milan, Bruxelles, Zurich and Bern. Areas of interest encompassed: innovation, culture, development policies, and related legislative frameworks.
- Legal advisor (copyright, disclaimer, tax legislation, consumer protection and rights, freedom of press). Father of Oscon, a non-profit project that promotes a widely adopted standard contract in Italy, with over 200,000 copies distributed, and provides pro bono legal consulting services.
- Project leader, team manager and advisor for companies (Boero Group, Veneziani Group, Verrini Group…), law firms, and international NGOs.
- Guest professor at the University of Genova, Italy (Psychology of Visual Communication course). Scientific and technical advisor for ten years (faculty of Education Sciences). Developer and manger of the first university website published in the Ministerial Directory for Accessibility. Selected member of the Italian Ergonomics Society.
His passion for interviews has backfired, resulting in being interviewed himself at conferences and radio broadcasts. Some years ago, he refuted a news report by the Wall Street Journal, with a subsequential denial of his denial and a denial of the denied denial. With a touch of foppery, he rewrote the definition of the word ‘link’ in the De Mauro Italian dictionary by suggesting it to the publisher. A few years ago one of his works was nominated for the Ischia International Journalism Award. He proudly contributed to the official translation into Italian of the Creative Commons 4.0 licences. For years, his blog Scripta Volant was one of the most read in Italy between those held by journalists (source: BlogBabel): deeply ashamed of this fact, he started to update it less and less.
Welcome here, and thanks for reading this far!
Luca Spinelli