About

An introduction to Clipperz and zero-knowledge web applications

The origins

During summer 2005 Marco and Giulio Cesare felt the urge to spend more time thinking and writing with no constraints about the idea of the “web as a platform”. Quite soon they focused on few topics that seemed central to this very idea: privacy and information security. The Clipperz blog was launched to share their visions and get feedback and insights from other people.

Then, being entrepreneurs at heart, they envisioned a path to make the Internet the most convenient and safe place to store and share private data. This weird and counterintuitive business idea seemed sound, so Clipperz became not only a blog, but also a company: Clipperz Srl was established as an Italian resident limited liability company in November 2005.

The vision

Over the last decade the Internet has proved to be an unprecedented communication tool, dramatically altering both social and professional communications patterns. Nonetheless the advent of the web has made little difference to the way in which we handle private and confidential information.

We got used to trust online services with our data (photos, text documents, spreadsheets, …), but Clipperz proves that this is not necessary: users can enjoy a web based application without the need to trust the web application provider.

Clipperz was founded on the firm belief that security is just another form of intelligence which needs to be built on the edge of the Internet. More specifically, we wanted to design and implement a security architecture within browsers and other terminals used to access the Internet.

Clipperz aims to satisfy the need for confidentiality which is innately present in most human activities.

Our recipe is simple: trasforming the browser into a new ubiquitous “number crunching” platform, capable of executing strong cryptographic algorithms. Clipperz exploits Ajax and browser-based cryptography to build applications that users can wholeheartedly adopt to manage their private data.

People

Marco Barulli and Giulio Cesare Solaroli

Marco and Giulio Cesare met in 1988 at the University of Bologna where both were attending the Computer Science courses at the Department of Mathematics. Soon after graduation in 1993 they pursued different paths, Marco in the telco sector and Giulio Cesare as an independent software and IT consultant.

Eventually, in 1999, Giulio Cesare accepted the proposal from Marco to join him in a company he recently founded named eXtrapola. There was no big venture capitalist money, but a nice and practical idea about changing the way “press clippings” were produced and used by companies and governments.

Together they designed and built a sound technological infrastructure aimed to collect and process hundreds of thousands of news items gathered daily from online media. eXtrapola is today a 20 people company with a strong leadership in the italian market of online media monitoring services and good chances to expand its business both internally and abroad.

Marco and Giulio Cesare both resigned from eXtrapola at the end of 2005, after acting as CEO and CTO, respectively, for six years.

Further information here: Marco CV, Giulio Cesare CV

Sharing thoughts with us

Stefano Mancini and Lorenzo Viscanti have been constantly involved in discussions about the Clipperz project since January 2006 and their contributions have been very important.

Marco Barulli

Profile

Passionate expert of digital media. Inspired entrepreneur. Technology advisor for companies, local governments and public institutions.

marco barulli

Experiences

Founder and CEO Clipperz srl, Italy, 2006-today
Clipperz is a start-up focused on researching and prototyping innovative cryptography systems and services.

President, TTG Italia SpA, Turin, 2003-today
Publishing company, part of Rimini Fiera SpA, one of Italy’s top exhibition venues. TTG Italia covers the tourist sector with business publications and leading trade fairs.

Board member, UniRimini SpA, Rimini, 2002-today
UniRimini is a consortium based in Rimini supporting the development of the local branch of the University of Bologna.

Product Development Director, eXtrapola Srl, Cattolica, 2005
Supervision of R&D activities, design of new products and new services.

Founder and President, eXtrapola Srl, Cattolica, 1998-2005
eXtrapola is the leading Italian provider of online media monitoring services. It provides information tools for all business sectors where timely, comprehensive and up-to-date reports are essential.

Board member, Rimini Fiera SpA, Rimini, 2000-2004
Rimini Fiera SpA is one of Italy’s top exhibition and conference venues, a leading organizer of trade and consumer fairs.

Adjunct professor, University of Bologna, Rimini, 2001-2002
Course of “Communication Techniques” at the Statistical Sciences faculty.

Senior Network Engineer, MCI WorldCom, Milan, 1996-1998
In charge of service provisioning for business costumers. Design of voice, data and Internet solutions.

Education

Loughborough University of Technology, UK, 1995-1996
Research fellow at the Parallel Algorithm Research Centre.

University of Bologna, Italy, 1989-1993
Degree in Computer Science, final thesis in Numerical Analysis.

Papers

D. J. Evans and M. Barulli, BSP linear solvers for dense matrices, Parallel Computing, Volume 24, Issue 5-6 (June 1998), Pages: 777 - 795, ISSN:0167-8191, Elsevier Science

D. J. Evans and M. Barulli, Implicit Gauss-Jordan scheme for the solution of linear systems, International Journal of Parallel, Emergent and Distributed Systems (former Parallel Algorithms and Applications), Vol.12, N.1-2, 1996, Taylor & Francis

M. Barulli and E. Loli Piccolomini, Parallel Triangular Solvers on Transputer Ring Networks, proceedings of “Transputers ‘94” edited by M.Becker, L.Litzler and M.Trehel, Besançon (France) 21-23 settembre 1994, IOS Press Amsterdam, pp. 234-246

Giulio Cesare Solaroli

Profile

Experienced software developer with an acute sense of interface design and the ability to quickly assess and learn unfamiliar technology. Leadership in all phases of the software development lifecycle and a strong commitment on meeting the requirements of all parties involved. Distinguished software architecture history.

Giulio Cesare Solaroli

Experience

Founder and CTO, Clipperz srl, Italy, 2006-today
Clipperz is a start-up focused on researching and prototyping innovative cryptography systems and services.

CTO, eXtrapola srl, Italy, 1999-2005
From inception to full deployment, eXtrapola has grown to be the italian largest online media monitoring company. Design and deployment of the IT infrastructure and of web-based applications for production and service delivery.

Senior IT consultant, Imola Informatica srl, Italy, 1997-1999
Consultancy and software development for Vodafone, CGIL (largest Italian trade union), Olivetti and other corporate customers.

Consultant, Etnoteam spa, Italy — 1996 - 1997
Software development of an Intranet application for Banco Ambrosiano; design and development of a tool to analize power grid failures for ENEL (Italy’s biggest power company).

Education

University of Bologna, Italy, 1988-1994
Degree in Computer Science, final thesis in Human Computer Interaction.

Domus Academy, Italy, 1992
Advanced course in Interface Design.

University of Bologna, Italy — 1990
Advanced course on Distributed Systems; ACM international workshop.

Other

Member of IEEE Computer Society since 1991; member of ACM since 1993.

Contacts

Contact form

If you have any questions, remarks or suggestions regarding Clipperz you are kindly invited to use this contact form.

Email and chat

Giulio Cesare and Marco can also be reached at the following email addresses:

Offices

Clipperz Srl
Via Berti 137
48012 Bagnacavallo (Ravenna)
Italy

map

Further information

Giulio and Marco are both based in Emilia-Romagna. Marco lives on the Adriatic coastline in Cattolica, a seaside resort near hectic and fashionable Rimini, while Giulio Cesare enjoys the quiet and peacefulness of Bagnacavallo, a beautiful ancient village near the historic town of Ravenna.

Bagnacavallo by night
Bagnacavallo, night shot by Giulio Cesare

Cattolica
Cattolica, view from Gabicce Monte