Company Profile 2012

About Memoro – The Bank of Memories -

For many of us, we have fond memories of sitting on the lap of a parent, auntie, or grandparent, listening carefully and closely not to miss a word of their experiences, memories, and life stories. We didn’t know it then, but they told us their stories for a reason--so that we may learn from their experiences and to teach us about our family, our traditions, shared customs, and moral values. Our elders told us stories about themselves so that we might benefit from the wisdom that comes from lives long-lived. As adults, we now realize the importance of these stories, especially now that so many of our elders are no longer with us. Only now do we fully appreciate our grandparents’ memories and stories. However, sometimes we are the only ones who remember such stories, and as time goes by it becomes harder for us to recall their rich detail and colorfulness. Unfortunately, we carry these memories in our hearts and minds, but too often we do not pass them on. We think: Who wants to hear these old stories?

We do, because we know that a story not told is a story not heard. We know that when we make the time in our busy schedules to sit and listen to each other’s life stories, we are certain to discover wonderful things about each other. But if we do not take the time to listen and capture and preserve our life stories, they will most certainly disappear. Without stories, we have no memories.

Our project is about saving and sharing our memories and life stories—for now and for future generations.

We encourage the use of video and audio recordings to capture and preserve memories and life stories. A person’s voice, face, and body gestures are an essential part of who they are, and these features are reflected in their stories. Photographs are important, too. Furthermore, we think that the Internet is the best way to preserve and share our stories. It also guarantees that everyone with a computer has a chance to contribute to our growing archive and to organize content effectively so that others can access it.

Memoro - the Bank of Memories is an international non-profit project dedicated to the collection of the memories, experiences, and life stories of people born before 1950. We accept audio and video recordings of interviews, as well as photographs.

The project was started in Turin, Italy during August 2007. Our first website was launched on June 15, 2008. Since September 2009, the project has been managed in Italy by Banca della Memoria ONLUS (NPO) and it has been spread in a lot of countries where qualified people are running it establishing a network of NPOs/different bodies worldwide.

The project Numbers in the World Press review Collaborations Services

Company Profile 2012

The project Numbers in the World Press review Collaborations Services

Memoro – The Bank of Memories in the World -

Since the beginning, the project is been considered as an international initiative based on the concept of memory as an universal value. The translation of the website and the collection of the local memories are essential activities for the start up of a local Memoro.It's possible to access to each local Memoro from an international home page: www.memoro.org

Nowadays the existing local entities of Memoro are present in the following countries:

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One of the main targets is “restoring the value of memory”. Replace the importance of elders in the society is very important to protect and transmit their knowledge, wisdom and experiences to the next generations.

Numbers and results demonstrate how the value of memory is still live in the world.

- 8.000 online videos corresponding to 586 hours of uninterrupted view

- over 1.000 videos generated by users

- over 8.000,000 pageviews

- over 4.500,000 displayed videos

- over 45 years of memory's transferred time (total time of viewed videos)

- over 17.000 referrals

- Italy- Germany- Spain- France- U.K.- Poland- Greece

- U.S.A.- Japan- Cameroon- Argentina- Venezuela- Puerto Rico

The next opening Countries are: Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Australia, China, Cyprus, Mexico, etc.

Company Profile 2012

The project Press review Collaborations Services

CARO direttore, quattro ragazzi piemontesi, come ha raccontato nel suo bell'articolo Fabrizio Ravelli, girano l'Italia

a raccogliere, sulla strada, le testimonianze e i ricordi dei vecchi del nostro paese, per farne una banca della memoria consultabile su Internet. A Pieve Santo Stefano si raccolgono, in quello che credo sia il più importante archivio di storia nazionale, i diari scritti da italiani qualunque. I ricordi, le storie, i drammi, i sogni di persone che non hanno altro titolo per raccontare di loro se non quello di aver vissuto, di aver attraversato ore, giorni, mesi, anni della vita. Vita spesso condizionata dalla grande storia: quella che fa le guerre, le battaglie, le malattie, le ingiustizie. Il grumo di vita vera che le vicende umane di Pieve Santo Stefano e di www.memoro.org raccontano e ci ricordano che tutto non può essere riassunto in grafici colorati e in parole sagge.

Die Erzählungen, teilweise auch in Interviewform, werden dabei ohne großen Studioaufwand

aufgenommen: in einem Straßencafé oder zu Hause auf dem Sofa. Der technische Minimalismus ist gewollt, es soll ganz so wirken, als ob der Großvater den Enkeln von früher erzählt.

Allerdings sorgt nicht nur die Redaktion der vier Erinnerungsbanker für neues Material. Genauso kann auch jeder Interessierte nach Registrierung auf der Seite selber Videoclips hochladen. Was erzählt werden soll, bleibt jedem selbst überlassen. Derzeit kommen auf diese Weise jeden Tag vier oder fünf neue Clips dazu, manche mit einer Länge von kaum 60 Sekunden, andere von über zehn Minuten.

Ils sont le phénomène médiatique du moment. Une fille et trois garçons de Turin collectionnent les

articles dans les journaux et les passages à la télévision, armés de leur seul enthousiasme juvénile et d'une idée aussi simple que géniale. Valentina Vaio, Luca Novarino, Lorenzo Fenoglio et Franco Nicola, la trentaine entreprenante, se sont mis en tête de recueillir les souvenirs des Italiens nés avant 1940. Le projet, baptisé « Banque de la mémoire », leur vaut la curiosité bienveillante des historiens, des sociologues et des journalistes.L'idée est tellement simple que personne n'y avait pensé avant eux. Du moins sous la forme de petits vidéo mis en ligne sur le site Memoro.com.

Numbers in the World

The project Press review Collaborations

ENEL S.p.A. : The project “C'era un Volt” (Italy) created for the most important and old energy provider in Italy represents a collection of memories connected with the importance of “energy” in our life. 45-days tour, over 500 videos, a dedicated website www.ceraunvolt.it.

Services

ENI S.p.A.: Video historical archive (Italy) Collaboration with the Historical Archive of ENI, Italy's largest oil and gas industrial company, present in 70 countries. Development of cultural activities and creation of a section of videos.

Piemonte Region: Book Fair 2009/2010 and “The Memory of the future” path (Italy) 35 video-interviews to well-known scientists from Piemonte Region realized for the event ESOF 2010 (European Science Open Forum). A dedicated section on web.

Rome Province – The Bank of Memories - (Italy) 12 demo interviews, 8 training courses on filming and editing in schools of the Province.An interesting training on video/interview-making to over 100 students. A dedicated section on web.

OXFORD BROOKES University: The cinema in Italy (England)30 Video interviews and scripts for the Department of Cinema in Oxford towards the discovery of the relationship between movies and viewers in Italy in the 30s – 40s.

Association of writers in Catalan Language (AELC): Video-Interviews and Section (Spain)A dedicated section on web gathers the video-memories of the most important writers in catalan language over '70 years old. Webpage on AELC website.

History Channel: contents on channel and on web (Italy) Since April 2009 the videos of Memoro are available on digital Sky tv. Website link www.memoro.org and the spot “History Channell supports The Bank of Memory, support it, too!” are shown on Sky tv.

SECOM co., LTD: Video-interviews (Japan)A collection of stories of ex employees of SECOM, the largest security company in Japan, published on web. Management of a Japanese Hosting.

Einaudi: “I remember” book + DVD. (Italy) This book collects stories of the founders of The Bank of Memories and tales of famous authors of one of the most important publishing company in Italy: Einaudi. Videos of the Project contained in a dvd is also included.

Birra Peroni S.p.A.: Memories of Beer Factory in Bari (Italy)A collection of memories of ex-employees, distributors, retailers of one of the most important company in the production of Beer in Italy, Peroni. A dedicate section on web and a dvd.

Eataly: The excellences of EatalyAt the inauguration of the new store of Eataly Genoa (Italy), presentation of the 20 video-interviews to the main producers of traditional gastronomical regional products, preserved by Slow Food. A dedicated section on the web.

Civic Museums Foundation in Venice: an online museum for the the city (Italy) This particular museum gathers the memories of Venezia's residents. In collaboration with IVESER, the Venice center for International Jewish studies, the video contest Pasinetti, etc.

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Company Profile 2012

The project Press review

PathsTraditional songs, dances, customs of local areas. Stories and anecdotes of people who've lived and stored shared memories. Movies realized by a professional crew and gathered in a dedicated section on the website.

Services

The History of the CompaniesKeeping a bank account without a computer or producing a machine without robots..how was the life in the past times? The history of companies told by the ex employees in a collection of experiences opened to new users in webstyle2.0.

The History of the OrganizationsA dedicated online section about Foundations, Local Authorities, Associations, Labor Unions, Sport Societies, etc: each of them has a story to be told, shared, stored.

Tours: from the idea to the organizationThe best way to collect memory on field, getting close to people who've created that area and share their memories online. Involvement of young people in education and online contests.

Training 2.0.Training group of people involves them to generate new contents and at the same time educate them in a new original way. Courses on the basics of filming, video editing, conversion file formats, managing back office.

Schools and Education InstitutesThe purpose of the project is to rebuild the relationship between different generations. Youngers as final target of elders'memories. A teach program to develop education staff in management of student-training and analysis of the results.

Elder Cares ServicesAutobiography as a therapy. The interviews as a tool to re-establish the value of people kept away from the society. The stimulus of story-telling becomes a way to overcome the loneliness and at the same time a training of memory skills.

Digitisation on webA lot of material and also multimedia archives are available, but unfortunately they've not enough visibility between youngers. The digitisation on a youngers-oriented website makes this amount of information to a young public.

Interactive TotemPoints of gathering and sharing of memories in video-format. An easy way to help the elders in facing the technology and accept it. Automatic upload of interviews on web by a dedicated section.

Company Profile 2012

Documentation and generate contents services

Training

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