About me
I had broken a balance, broken in so many ways. I think at that time my life moved to Japan and started the suffering of living in the midst of a humanity that is never itself, but always plays a role. When you meet Mr. Tanaka, is not Mr. Tanaka. He is the bank manager called Tanaka; or the doorman of the bank called Tanaka.
And he plays that role: not being Tanaka, but the role of the doorman of the bank, or of the director.
– Tiziano Terzani
Hi, I’m Ilias.
I’m a curious software developer and technologist passionate about free & open source software, open knowledge, digital rights, continuous learning and social justice.
I grew up in Italy as a computer geek. Since my University years I’ve always put a lot of effort in contributing and participating in volunteering groups, associations and software communities in the Open Source and Free Software ecosystem. With three great friends of mine I created one on-line community to help knowledge sharing and ease the student life for my University colleagues.
Since then I unsuccessfully tried to learn how to play three different musical instruments (poorly); I totally failed to get a second master in physics; I drove in the cockpit on one of the most advanced vehicle simulator while working as a F1 software engineer.
It’s after this that I decided it was time to meet the world and pushed me to join a group of friends in London!
During the day I’m currently enjoying the feeling of sharing my desk with great teams of ThoughtWorkers helping our clients in adopting and embracing Agile and Lean values.
I’ve been a tech lead and trainer but most of the times I still write code with all sort of technologies. I believe in humility, honesty and I try t pretend I like to support others in whatever way is needed.
I’ve been lucky to live and work in 4 continents across UK, India, Brazil, USA, Kenya, Italy, Germany and Spain meeting different cultures and slowly understanding some of the privileges and the stereotypes I grew up within.
Almost unintentionally I found myself participating aside of Occupy movement in London and from there started following social movements in Brazil, Italy, Germany and now in Barcelona.
When I was a kid in Tanzania I tried to escape from my parents to meet a lion in the savanna. When recently living in India I got 2 big bruises and I started feeling happy because they symbolized I’m still making mistakes and learning from them in a new and diverse ways. When I moved to Brazil I once got lost in the oldest favela of Rio at night and got angry with myself because I was feeling really afraid of it (angry because this feeling of fear was the result of my privileges, injustices and disrespectful to others)
Recently living in the Global South is where I embraced a path of social justice radicalization and I keep hoping that I will be unable to turn back.
I spent the last couple of years trying to learn and understand injustices, social psychology, media, climate change, modern history, anarchism and ethics. More often I get angry against injustices while learning to look at society from the eyes of the unprivileged.
Some of the people I keep taking inspiration from are Mahatma Gandhi, Zygmunt Bauman, Tiziano Terzani, Noam Chomsky, Vittorio Arrigoni, Aaron Swartz and more.
My personal mantra comes from the back cover of one of the diaries of Anne Frank: “Soit gentil et tiens courage” (Be kind and be brave).
Now I’m trying to learn how to get a better writer, how to put at the service of others the experiences I made.
I’d be curious to learn Arabic language, explore meditation, build resilient sustainable communities, media activism, design radical tech tools and …how to make ice creams.
I feel very limited in having an impact when working as an individual and I’m always looking for people to work with. Let’s join forces, help us organize and search how can we amplify our impact for social justice:
How can we change the world and help each other with limited structures of power?
Check my contact details and write me if you want to help in this.