THE ITALIAN EXAMPLE
Unfortunately, UFO research and study activity carried out in Italy is very badly known abroad,
mainly due to the language barrier preventing a quick diffusion of the documents. The same problem
produced a very imprecise knowledge of the national sightings, where international researchers could
actually find a lot of very interesting cases. The very few "classic" events often published in books
and magazines are usually full of mistakes if not completely wrong. This is another typical problem
of the transmission of information, a problem very common in the past activity of ufologists which
now can be solved for its most part, thanks to new computer-based technologies.
It is likely a surprise for many UFO researchers to get acquainted with the quantity and quality of
finished and in-progress Italian projects. It is even a bigger surprise to know most projects are
currently carried out by computers and Italian ufologists have been pioneers, together with their
American colleagues, in the massive use of the personal computer to run their activities.
Between 1984 and 1985 the very first database programs have been developed on the small
Commodore 64 home computer to store and manage generic Italian sightings and special collections
of cases. Thanks to the popularity of such a machine, several UFO buffs contributed locally to the
collection of all known Italian UFO sightings, soon making available a sample in excess of 9,000
events ranging between 1900 and 1990. Still around the mid '80s there have been the early
experiments with software devoted to the automatic presentation of text and graphics about UFOs,
ufology, classic sightings and results of UFO research, successfully presented in conjunction with
several conferences and shows. In 1986 the very first European BBS completely devoted to UFOs
was established and run by myself for more than two years and then disbanded due to personal
issues. A new BBS, named "U-Link", was established in 1989 in Rome and it is still active. Between
1988 and 1992 about eight issues of a bulletin completely devoted to the computer applications to
UFO research, "The Computer UFO Newsletter", have been published as an early experiment to
spread and promote the subject, completely unknown to most UFO buffs. Circulation was quite
limited and the reaction from the UFO movement was quite cool, likely beacuse ahead of the
times.
The use of computers is now normal in the activity of most Italian ufologists, so much that three
quarters of the material currently produced by the Italian Center for UFO Studies is available as files
for MS-DOS personal computers or Macs. A large percentage of exchanges of material (articles,
papers, images, letters, etc ....) takes place by floppy disks, saving money, time and adding a higher
flexibility in the management of such information.
Among the works and research projects based on computer facilities, some of them are worth to be
introduced as meaningful examples of Italian ufologists activities. Most of these projects have been
carried out on behalf of the Italian Center for UFO Studies, the leader organization as regards
quantity and quality of produced information and services. Besides promoting the scientific study of
the UFO phenomenon, CISU aims at the spreading of information and development/support of
research activities, fields where computer facilities may deliver an oustanding help.
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