Consulting pro-bono

In 2007 I had my first experience consulting pro-bono for a charity that was implementing a participatory process in New Haven during my PhD at Yale. In 2011 I started consulting for the participatory budgeting project in New York City and I contributed to the development of their initial impact evaluation framework. In 2014, I received an invitation to join their national research board, where I actively contributed to the development of their evaluation toolkit.

Over the years, I provided pro-bono consulting services for various entities, including a political party candidate focusing on digital engagement, the Italian Democratic Party in drafting bylaws for their internal referendum, Occupy Wall Street in Boston, and the City of Vancouver in exploring the implementation of Participatory Budgeting (PB).

Additionally, I collaborated with the group of academics behind QUALTD to design their digital forum and overall moderation strategy. I assisted the Citizens' Foundation in Iceland in applying for a prize, engaged in discussions with developers of digital platforms such as Ethelo, PlaceSpeak, and Pol.is, and aided a Police Station in the UK interested in PB. I worked with several European cities interested in PB or Citizen Assemblies (CA), including Rome, Milan, Lisbon, and Bologna. Furthermore, I supported the unsuccesful attempt to promote a new law for participation in the Autonomous Region of Trento and Bolzano.

My involvement extended to advising Extinction Rebellion Italy on CA, assisting an association in Italy that advocated for a national initiative to create a law on CA, and engaging in conversations with CESE Morocco regarding PB and CA. More recently, I've had discussions with OpenAI on democratizing AI and the SCOUTS of Milan, who are interested in initiating PB. If you share an interest in participation and deliberation, feel free to reach out to me for a chat. I rarely say no.

Paid Consulting

In 2011 I begun consulting for the World Bank Institute, joining the Digital Engagement Evaluation Team, that specializes in the implementation and evaluation of new technologies that can support citizens' engagement. I consulted for the World Bank for 2 years working on projects in Dominican Republic, Cameroon and Brazil. In 2015 I started my relationship with the EMPATIA project as a consultant, before working as a postdoc on the project. In 2019 I worked as a consultant on a project of the GovLab and Facebook (The power of Virtual Communities). 

Guest Teaching

I have been guest teaching and helping designing Masters/PhDs around Europe since 2015, I contributed to the PhD in Coimbra, Masters in Communication at Luiss in Rome, I help the Masters in Perugia on participatory planning, and I have been teaching in Switzerland minicourses on RCTs, and classes on democratic innovations. Lastly since 2022 I have been teaching at the School of Collective Intelligence in Morocco.