Welcome back to www.valoroso.it, your portal dedicated to the fascination of the technological past. Today we will immerse ourselves in a fascinating journey through time, going back to the 90s, to discover the history of Pangea, the first civic network in the province of Varese (Italy). It was a time when connecting to the Internet was still an adventure for the few, but three young visionaries, Lorenzo Emilitri, Marco Petino and Gabriele Petino, wanted to change the rules of the game, creating Pangea: an innovative graphic platform to interconnect people.
The conference was recorded at Varese Retrocomputing 2023, and is now being presented on the YouTube channel @ValorosoIT!
The Civic Network to respond to the technological difficulties of the 90s
In the technological context of the mid-1990s, in Italy, Internet connectivity was considered a luxury. In those days, the Internet was really for the few: in addition to the cost to have to have the subscription, there was a considerable difficulty in setting it up. Hence the idea of Lorenzo Emilitri, Marco Petino and Gabriele Petino: to create Pangea, the civic network of the province of Varese.
In the video, the speakers offer us an in-depth look at how Pangea was born: a graphic BBS as a response to these challenges. The founders shared an enthusiasm and passion for computing, motivating them to develop Pangea to make the digital world accessible to everyone in a simple way. All you had to do was install a program from a floppy disk and own a modem. No subscriptions, no costs apart from the phone call.
Pangaea: not just a civic network, but a life project
Pangea was not just a network, but a life project. Its mission was to improve the quality of life through connecting people. The software was based on Worldgroup, a popular program at the time to create BBSs. The user only had to connect to the network via a floppy disk, without the need for complex configurations. The floppy disk to connect to Pangea was distributed free of charge in the first Runner Computer store: today a large computer distributor in Italy.
During the conference, viewers are guided through a journey through Pangea's graphical interface and its features.
The closure of Pangea
Lorenzo Emilitri, Marco Petino and Gabriele Petino explain the challenges they faced at the time. The difficulties were both technical and financial. From a technical point of view, the Worldgroup software, on which the civic network was based, had become obsolete and suffered from the Millennium Bug.
In addition, difficulties in raising funds led to the end of this adventure. Towards the end of '99, Pangea closed its doors.
But don't despair! Today, Pangea is back online: the last backup from 1999 has been restored.
An invitation to explore the technological past
Speakers: Lorenzo Emilitri, Marco Petino and Gabriele Petino
Presenter: Sergio Gervasini
Filming and audio: Fabio Massa (BioMassa) and Mariangela Sapia
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