Giuseppe Sollazzo

Hornsey, London · @puntofisso · puntofisso@gmail.com

I’m a digital, data, and technology leader, specialised in setting up high-performing teams working predominantly with data technology and digital transformation.

In my day job, I'm a Senior Civil Servant at DWP, leading the Data Enablement division, where I deploy the lessons learned through my unconventional professional journey, made of senior leadership, hands-on technical work, advocacy and engagement, and the ability to make connections between people and areas of work that are not immediately related.

This is my personal website, and not related to my DWP role.

My one-page CV is here.

Subscribe to my free weekly data newsletter, Quantum of Sollazzo, read by over 4,000 data experts.

Projects

Parli-N-Grams

Client: personal project

I built and run a N-grams viewer and a series of related tools based on the Hansard extracts of parliamentary debates. It allows users to research how language in the House of Commons evolves over time.

Ward-le

Client: personal project

I launched a Worldle clone based on UK Local Authority geography, just to make a pun on the noun "ward". It went viral, but my server held.

The average face of US politics

Client: BBC

This is a project that had multiple iterations. I first calculated the average face of a British MP as a personal project. After it went viral, I worked for the BBC to do the same for the US Congress, and the results were an article and a video reportage from the Capitol.

EU Twinnings

Client: EU Commission

A pitch to the EU Datathon, selected and funded to produce a prototype. EU Twinnings used Eurostat stastics to create a “DNA” of each EU province-level area, and calculate the similarity matrix between all areas.

Faces of fashion

Client: Neo Mammalian/My Voucher Codes

I worked for comms agency Neo Mammalian at a project commissioned by My Voucher Codes. We produced the average faces of fashion in 7 countries, using photos of Vogue cover models, highlighting cultural differences in the concept of beauty.

Berlin Wall App

Client: personal project

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I created a simple Android app that tells you if your current location is in the territory of former West Berlin or East Berlin.

Chatbot Charlie

Client: European Food Safety Authority

A project for EFSA, the EU’s agency supporting food safety. I led a team working with Natural Language Processing tech to develop a chatbot that automatically answered questions about EFSA’s Register of Questions.

Brexit at the Commons

Client: personal project

Since the June 2017 General Election, the House of Commons has voted 121 times on legislation related to the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. Some of these votes have resulted in tiny majorities. This scrollytelling page tracks each vote, or division, chronologically, with links to the Hansard extract and ParliamentLive.TV video.

PACSMAN

Client: personal project

An irreverent, satyrical videogame, that I developed just in order to play the (admittedly, bad) pun Pac-man/Paxman. The politicians pictured were in vogue in 2017.

LiveRugby

Client: personal project (in partnership with Opta Sports)

I worked with Opta Sports to deliver Live Rugby, a real-time stats app for the Six Nations. There were multiple incarnations of this app, downloaded by over 15,000 users. It was covered by the Guardian, the Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph, ITV, and Sky Italia.

Swing 2017

Client: personal project

A swing simulator for the General Election 2017, inspired by a static chart by then BBC Newsnight policy editor Chris Cook.

EMAG Today

Client: Newington Comms

A campaign website for the victims of the Equitable Life collapse. I worked at the first iteration of the website in 2016, and built processes for secure petitions and e-mailing of MPs. The website was then taken up by the organisation, so I’m no longer responsible for its maintenance.

House of Commons 2017-2019 Divisions

Client: personal project

Using open data from the UK Parliament, I developed an interactive animation that allows the public to learn more about how MPs vote.

Election 1997

Client: personal project

A bot that tweeted the General Election 1997 in real time... 20 years later. Based on open data, available opinion polls, and press cuttings, it gained several thousands of followers including journalists and went viral. Here is a write-up.

Writing

When the EU won Eurovision... and what it teaches us about Brexit

Client: The New European

I wrote a half-serious article for the New European about the song that won Eurovision 1990, an Italian song about the European Single Market. My argument was that this event captures what the Remain campaign had missed.

Data for the community

Client: Power to Change UK

Power To Change UK commissioned me to research and write report to look at pockets of activity in the UK that point to interesting uses of data at a local level.

The Open Data delusion

Client: Broken Toilets

Now folded-up international development e-magazine Broken Toilets commissioned me to write about what went wrong with Open Data.

Open Data in the Health Sector

Client: NHS England/OpenHealthCare

Working with Open Health Care, I researched health open data and wrote a report commissioned by NHS England.

The National Information Infrastructure

As member of the Open Data User Group (ODUG)

When I was a member of the Open Data User Group, I actively contributed to our strategy paper on the UK NII.

I travelled to Vietnam and you should too

Client: personal project, 5,000+ reads

Vietnam was amazing to visit, and a pleasure to write up.

PayPal closed my account with no explanation. It could happen to you.

Client: personal project, 100,000+ reads

Telling the story of the absurdity that was PayPal’s decision to close my account became my most-read blog post ever.

When I spent 202 days in the jaws of civil service recruitment

Client: personal project, 22,000+ reads

In late 2014, I applied to a role at the Department of Health, was interviewed for it, then things went silent for a LONG time. The piece I wrote to tell that story had a bit of a following within the public sector community.