2024-10-10, 16:30–16:50 (Europe/Luxembourg), 42 Cluster 3
In 2016, the "Open & Linux Desk" (Sportello Open & Linux) was already active in Bolzano (South Tirol, Italy), managed by the LugBZ group. With the arrival of the Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020, the desk became active in responding to the needs of distance learning, collecting and donating used PCs to students and families. The idea was born to create a laboratory to collect, clean, repair and install the donated PCs, in collaboration with the School Authorities. The "SchoolSwap" project was launched, with the aim of providing sustainable PCs (with the FUSS Linux operating system) on free loan to students. In the summer of 2020, a first web platform was activated to centrally manage PC requests, donations and support from the "Desk". A late version was activated using osTicket. Overall, from March 2020 to December 2023, over 850 PCs with FUSS9, FUSS10 and FUSS11 Debian-based operating systems were prepared and donated. The project aimed to bridge the "digital divide" and provide students at home with the same digital tools used at school, promoting digital sovereignty and circular economy.
Paolo Dongilli graduated in IT Engineering in Padua (1998) and he began to pursue one of his early passions, Computational Linguistics at EURAC Research and then at the Faculty of Computer Science of the Free University of Bozen/Bolzano. In 2008, he left research and joined the Information Technology Department of the Province of Bolzano, where he worked for the Office of Strategic Orientation and IT Planning in the Enterprise Architecture Group. In 2016, he received a position in the Italian Education and Training Directorate as School Technical Inspector and Coordinator of the FUSS Project. He began exploring the world of Free Software in the 1990s, when he was studying at the University of Padua. Once he returned to Bolzano, together with some friends he co-founded the Linux User Group Bolzano-Bozen-Bulsan (LUGBZ) with the aim of spreading the culture of Free Software in South Tyrol, Italy.