Address: Via San Carlo 17, 40121 Bologna (ITALY)
Nationality: Italian
Date of Birth: 6 July 1967
Mother tongue: Italian
Email: claudio@cicali.org, claudio.cicali@gmail.com or http://ccl.me/in
Website/blog: http://ccl.me
LinkedIn profile: http://linkedin.com/in/claudiocicali
Stackoverflow Careers: http://careers.stackoverflow.com/claudiocTwitter: caludio
Education September 1981 – July 1986 Liceo ScientificoScientific high school degree.
Current positionmay 2004 – today Since May, 2004 I have been freelancing as an IT freelance/consultant mostly working as the lead developer and solution architect for a small web software house in Bologna (Italy) – see http://renomo.com. I primarly deal with the architecture and development of web sites of various genre and dimension: institutional, public administration, ecommerce, sport, news, recruiting, etc. I’m responsible for technological choicesand the coordination of a development team (3 people). Renomo also builds web applications that act as management platforms tailored specifically on the needs of the customer.One recurrent task of mine is to collect the software requirements by the client, writing down the specifications and selecting the most appropriate technical solution(s). Delivery and client interaction processes are based or directly inspired by the Agile software development methodologies.

Owing to my various past experience working with enterprise grade systems I’m also a good system integrator.

I’m a passionate and experienced free software advocate so our projects make use of free or open source software only (like GNU/Linux, PHP, Apache, MySQL, Drupal, Apache SOLR, Zend Framework, etc.).

I also strongly believe in a W3C standards-compliant vision of the web, so my team and me always try to work following those recommendations.

I recently had to develop for another client a quite complex set of web applications for the Apple iPad platform (games for a big italian magazine).

My range of skills covers both the “server” and “client” side of the whole software development process.

More specifically, on the web client/frontend side I’m fluent in:

  • JavaScript and helper libraries (mostly jQuery, jQueryUI. Past experiences in YUI and ExtJS). Teaching grade level.
  • CSS up to and including version 3. Teaching grade level (I have past experience in teaching some classes).
  • HTML, HTML5 and some related technologies (Storage, WebWorkers, WebSockets)

On the server side, I have current experiences in

  • PHP, with the aid of Drupal and Zend Framework
  • Node.js (I’m the author of the – now deprecated - XML-RPC and SCGI modules)
  • MySQL (DBA level) and PostgreSQL
  • Python, for “glue” scripting or batch processing (the backend of my project appdate.it is Python powered)
  • WordPress, of course. Not my best skill though, but this very theme is hand made
  • Perl (galrey has been written in Perl and is my only contribution to the Debian project)
  • Ruby and Ruby On Rails (up to version 1.2.6; I was an early adopter since 2004, then abandoned it)
  • Apache SOLR as my full text search engine of choice, and its Drupal intergration
  • Apache ActiveMQ as the MOM
  • Apache Tomcat, if a servlet container is needed
  • Apache httpd, lighttpd as my web servers
  • Git, Subversion or Mercurial as the SCM

I’m an author for the Edit blog in the HTML.it network.

My Operative System of choice is at the moment GNU/Linux (Ubuntu) but I’m also the owner of a MacBook Pro.
Recent projects I’m maintaining a list of active projects on my personal web site: please refer to http://ccl.me/prj
Other IT skills Skills that I learned over the years and that could need some updating

  • C language (was very good)
  • C++ language (I was too good in C to get really “into” C++…)
  • Java language (never loved), and J2EE web programming
  • Oracle DBMS
  • Microsoft SQL Server (and anything related to developing in MS environment, starting with the SDK for Windows 2 and VB6)
  • COBOL and DB2
Past experiences
  • September 2002, May 2004: I worked as Project Manager in Milano at NordCom. All my activities were related to the biggest NordCom client: Ferrovie Nord (http://www.ferrovienord.it), an italian railway company. I’ve managed various projects for their big  information infractructure from CRM applications to statistical reports for train overdues, to a CMS for Ferrovie Nord website. I was also engaged as proposal manager in some NordCom and Telecom contracts with Regione Lombardia.
  • 1999, June 2002, I worked as developer in CHL (http://www.chl.it) . CHL has been the italian first great e-commerce shop, started in 1996. I was involved as a developer as part of the project of completely/totally rebuild their intranet (the backbone of all their IT department). When CHL went public, in 2000, I worked on their custom CRM system. Then I partecipated in the porting of their DBMS to Oracle from MS SQLServer.
  • June – November 1999 I was employed in EDS (http://www.eds.com) as a contractor in Monte dei Paschi di Siena in Siena, to analyze and provide instruments for monitoring MPS financial flows.
  • From 1990 to 1999 I was employed by Infogroup. Infogroup is an important software house in Florence, where I started my career. I was employed as a developer in C and COBOL. We mainly developed software for banks and insurance companies.
Known languages Italian: mother tongueEnglish: reading very good, writing good, verbal good
Work methodology approach I’m firmly convinced that the “interface is the application”. I also work hard to stay focused on the “agile” methodology approach and to have the customer involved in all the iteration that an application may have. If I believe that what I’m doing is good for me or for my customer I always work with passion and motivation and try to make my team feel the same.
What I love, love to do I’m a geek, passionately curious. I love computer programming, graphics, web technologies, wood models, photography (http://www.flickr.com/photos/enebish/), movies, good food, good wine.