Targapedia is...
Targapedia was born from the need to organise and categorise all the incredible information, in every format, which has been gathered on the first 240 pages of the thread dedicated to the Targa Florio on Forum-auto.com.
Until now it was never thought possible to be able to carry out such an undertaking.
The routes to uncovering the vast subject of the Targa Florio have been threefold: written documentation (books and magazines); visuals (VHS video - DVD), and the Internet.
But now the world wide web has created a new language, by uniting the static photographic image, the written word and moving images, and with the introduction and development of Forums, it has allowed for interactivity. We have an example right in front of us every time we scroll down a page of our own forum.
A friend of mine from Palermo begins to write about the Targa of 1966, another friend from Bologna adds some never before seen photos, someone from England tells the story of the restoration of his Austin which had raced that year, a Brazilian guy shows us the scale model which he’s made, another friend from France traces the exact serial number of a Ferrari and a guy from Messina begins to organise the data and make sense of it!
Each person contributes with their knowledge, documentation, photos and movies which have been preserved until this moment. Herein lies the enormous power of the Internet.
Until now only the creators of Wikipedia have gone beyond this by grasping the importance of a world without borders. When Wikipedia came along in the year 2000, something was born which in Europe had only been considered with the advent of “The Encyclopedia of Diderot and Rousseau of 1700!”
Suddenly from every corner of the globe, in every language, whoever wants to can learn about every conceivable subject!! If you have some time to browse the Internet try going on Wikipedia and looking up a subject which is dear to us: race car drivers, cars, races...
If you can’t find somewhere to talk about your passion then surely you can do so on Wikipedia. But Wikipedia goes further because you can add to someone else’s information and even correct their mistakes.
All you need is a PC and an Internet connection and you can find yourself among friends who have the same needs as you do; to tell a story and share.
Have you tried going back to look for something on the Forum? There’s already so much information it’s difficult and sometimes impossible to find anything. There’s the risk that everything we’ve gathered so far cannot be accessed properly because it’s so extensive.
And that’s when the idea of the Targapedia was born.
On the Aruba server we purchased the web addresses Targapedia.com and Targapedia.it. It’s a gift which all our Sicilian friends of the Forum-auto have made to all our friends from all over the world who are passionate about the Targa Florio and the history of motor racing. The idea is to create something different from anything else on the internet; a revolution in regards to what has already been done on paper.
The site is currently under construction.
The Forum obviously will carry on, becoming one of the most important places to find stories and images which will be organised and categorised on Targapedia.
