Fondazione Telecom Italia today presented the new web portal of the Telecom Italia Historical Archive. Appearing at the event were the Chairman of the Foundation, Franco Bernabè, the Mayor of Turin, Piero Fassino, the director of the Activities of the Ministry for Arts and Culture, Rossana Rummo and Chiara Ottaviano, curator of the archive.
Containing 220 texts, 1000 images, 200 historic documents in PDF format and 43 video clips (archiviostorico.telecomitalia.com), the portal traces the history of the companies that went to form Telecom Italia Group, and represents a valuable contribution to 20th century Italian history with a particular focus on the process of modernization which provided new opportunities and stimuli for education, information and research.
The portal is divided into several sections. The section “Italy on the phone and beyond” highlights various aspects of the country's past: technology, society, habits and customs, major events and everyday life, with ample references to 20th century Italian cinema and literature. The company's history is told through references to the business, the labour force, welfare and communication inside and outside the organisation.
Ample search and navigation options enable the viewer to browse the wealth of photographic material and a selection of hitherto unpublished audio visual clips.
The Guide section gives a detailed overview of the contents of the Archive with examples, either in full or extracts, of the various texts or images available online.
The Historical Archive of Telecom Italia was originally created in 1992 as the Sip Archive which was immediately acknowledged by the Superintendent for Archival Heritage as being of "considerable historic interest."
The Archive comprises the documentary patrimony of the various companies that were eventually merged into Telecom Italia Group. The oldest items date back to the 19th century, while the most recent concern the formation of Telecom Italia in the 1990's. The corporate documents are drawn from the archives of the SIP electricity company, the Stet-Sip telephone company as well as the private collections of former managers and employees. More recently the Italcable Archives were acquired, and the Archives of the State Telephone Company (ASST) are currently in storage.
The archive of pictorial material is particularly rich, stretching from the early decades of the 20th century to 2000: photographs, slides, positives and negatives mainly from the Sip and Stet press archives (more than 64,000 images).
The audiovisual content consists of around 2,500 corporate films and videos produced for personnel training, corporate communications and advertising purposes or to record company events and activities.
Today's presentation forms part of a program to valorise the Telecom Italia Archives, making it more widely available to scholars and researchers and forming a hub for cultural initiatives revolving around the company's history.
In 2013 TiLab will see the creation of a new multimedia space designed to host and engage scholars, students and anyone interested in our past and the modernization of Italy.
"2014 will be a year of anniversaries for Italian Telecommunications and our Group," declared the Chairman of Fondazione Telecom Italia, Franco Bernabè. "We will be celebrating 50 years since the birth of the first single nationwide telephone operator, SIP, and the first 20 years of Telecom Italia, born out of the merger of five IRI-STET companies operating in the telecoms sector: SIP, Italcable, ASST, Telespazio, Sirm. Against this background comes Telecom Italia's renewed efforts to valorise its historical archives and create a national cultural resource available online to everyone without limits.
These efforts to explore the past are not only aimed at safeguarding our corporate memory but also represent a contribution, in a rapidly changing world, to the construction of a ‘culture of the future’ requiring a preparation for more complex scenarios. This is what makes history such a valuable training ground.”
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Fondazione Telecom Italia is just one expression of Telecom Italia Group's corporate social responsibility policy. It was created in December 2008 to reinforce the Group's commitments to the community in which it operates, promoting ideas and projects designed to improve the lives of ordinary people. Fondazione Telecom Italia promotes social, educational and charitable works in support of the weaker or disadvantaged sections of the population; the valorisation of projects to assist schools, education and scientific research; the protection of historic-artistic patrimony and the environment, as well as developing new platforms and methods to provide wider access to knowledge for all.
Turin 12 November 2012
