Home » Marco Zamperini, the Funky Prof of the Web, suddenly leaves

Marco Zamperini, the Funky Prof of the Web, suddenly leaves

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On October 13, 2013, we felt lost. Marco Zamperini had died and I remember that, among those who knew him, we told each other with dismay. He had been one of the pioneers of the Net in Italy, but he was much more. He called himself the Funky Professor because he had a unique way of interpreting digital and innovation. It took all the heart of the world into it. But then his heart suddenly stopped when he was just 50. A few days earlier I had seen it at the first Maker Faire in Rome and we had fun like kids in that inventor’s amusement park. I have never stopped thinking about Marco over the years: the thing that surprised me most of all about him was the ability to get in tune with anyone, make others feel important, of knowing how to give a kind joke when the situation got complicated. In a world of envious and conceited, he saw the best side of each of us, sometimes what we ourselves were unaware that we had.

I had met him shortly before the launch of Wired Italia, during a breakfast with some of the gurus of our local network. Friendships were born with many of them, but with Marco more. It will be because he was physically massive, with Einstein hair; or for the loud voice and contagious laughter; or just because it was infinitely good, but going to see it extended your life, literally. It made you feel good.

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He was born on August 2, 1963 in Milan; at the age of 27, with a degree in Statistics, he had entered that little gem that was Etnoteam, becoming its chief technology officer. From there he had made an important career, but not a legendary one. Yet he was a legend: he spread brilliant ideas, common sense, wisdom and encouragement everywhere. His public interventions were hilarious and profound. He had a way of talking about the urgency of the digital revolution, of learning and then disengaging and relearning everything, which had no equal (here a collection of his articles). He left behind a fantastic wife and two beautiful daughters who meanwhile have become women with something of him inside.

But above all it left a void. Which he would lightly fill, triggering, as only he knew how to do, a laugh capable of sweeping away all sadness; putting your arm on our shoulders, as the giant Hagrid did when he wanted to protect Harry Potter.

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