Michael Bueza left a top IT company in 2013 to become part of Rappler's Research Team, where he gets to process data, create interactive maps and share trivia on a regular basis.

He has immersed himself in news and general information since he picked up his first newspaper at age 8. Back when he was a student, he was almost always at the library after classes or during breaks, reading TIME Magazine and perusing encyclopedias (both hard-bound ones and those installed on computers).

At Rappler, Michael has worked on various data sets: elections, EDSA bus stops, even beauty pageants. And he's excited to wrangle more data to better understand the world.

Among his dream projects: a database of every elected and appointed government official in the Philippines.

At home, Michael has a box full of finished books, another boxload of books in his reading queue, and a list of books he will buy in due time. One cool bookshelf or even his own library? Soon.