I have a dream (comprehensive Ferrari registry)!

Great idea, sounds good. Find 3 major sponsors at $ 200 K each, preferably ex-Microsoft guys (like Jon Shirley or Greg Whitten). But that website/institute has to be better than any others (no, I won't mention any names here!). I would be happy to assist and support. Count me in.

 

What kind of legal liability did barchetta.cc run into? (No, I am not affiliated with the website.)

 

Rob, maybe someone else can chime in here, but isn't Ferrari attempting to do the same thing with their Hertiage program?


Dale

 

I think that is a huge Idea... Would have loved it when I was doing the classic f-cars.

I am sure you understand what you are getting into from an amount of work. Being in the Business Side of IT - I have worked with many companies that work to pull multi-congolmerations of data into a single source. No small task - for a company that owns/has the data - not to mention how difficult it will be when you don't have control over who will give it and who will not. And if it is not (for the most part) complete and comprehensive it will not be what you will want it to be. AKA no one will use it/value it.

The other big mistake is how it is put together. You will want this thing to behave in a true Datawarehouse manner. Multilinked and search capable - with drilldown data points, etc. If you were to do it right (IMO) you need to make this multi demensional - not a flat excel speadsheet. ie:
You are doing history on a 61 GTE serial no 2895. You do your first search - you find that Rich Wallace owns that car, Drill down - you find that he bought it from Wayne Ausbrooks. You want to know if there is more about this Wayne Guy (if he has owned more Fcars - does he have significant history) you drill down on Wayne - you find he has owned x cars and is a collector, he has 3 books, and he raced at Sebring - you get where I am going.

So much of the stuff I have seen attempted in this type of thing is half thought out from delivery - but with full passion. Just make sure you have the right delivery... Ok enough from the technical geek side of me.

The good news is - that this would be awesome - and years from now - it's own institution - spawing books, discussion, magazine articles. There of course is considerable revenue opportunities as well. I believe with the right business plan - you could get some nice "donations" to get this started as well. I would put some of my own money into this to help you get started...

Rich

 

Possessing sort of a "freshman" level of Ferrari knowledge, and thirsting for more, I am becoming acutely aware that a void exists for a comprehensive collection of historical data.

This week, I had a wild hair to repaint my 1/12 250 GTO in a different color scheme. All I knew about 250 GTOs one week ago is that they are rare, beautiful, and were racecars. I decided to do it in a historically accurate paint scheme. I faced a personal challenge: I didn't the who what where or how of the 250 GTO. The first place I went was barchetta.cc, because of the number and quality of images. It took forever to find the 250 GTO's, because I didn't know where to begin. I eventually turned away from barchetta, and googled. Thats where I found enough info to go back to barchetta.cc and look for entries of 250 GTOs. I ended up going back to google and doing an image search because there weren't very many pictures, in racing liveries.

The whole time I was looking, I was wondering why isn't there a more comprehensive database of specific cars, with articles about specific chassis, lots of images, and general articles about each model, in an easy to navigate format. I came to the conclusion that it was because it would be alot of work, and would be difficult to make profitable.

I would love to see it happen. If there's anything I could do personally to help make it happen, I'd be keen.

I also think that a discussion board would be key, so that it becomes and remains a living body of work.

FWIW.

 

I like this idea. From the standpoint of a budding enthusiast of historic Ferraris, I could order The Ferrari Archive (or whatever you want to call it) on DVD for $50, install the program and be able to browse information about the vehicles that would include high-resolution photographs, vehicle stats and history (and multimedia files, too), as well as expert commentary. Aside from the purchase price, I could opt to join the service for a monthly fee that would entitle me to updates to the program, as well as granting me access to forums concerning the vehicles.

...interesting idea!

 

Your idea is as surrealistic as like a child's illusion of peace. It can't be done.

When you are done with the chemical stuff, have a good look at Maranello, l.k.a. Barchetta and try to see all the things that went wrong. There was no focus, thery were not able to make records straight, they did not dare to put out everything they got to know, technical stuff is far from perfect and so on. Then the fire seems to have gone out. There were no legal problems when this had already happened.

I don't like the totalitaristic aspects of your idea either.

Best wishes, Kare

 

So did the plaintiff (i.e., the party that relied on said information) prevail?

 

His idea is not surreal, and it can be done. Look what he has done with Fchat. Well, look what Fchat's members have done for themselves and the community under Rob's shadow. While I cannot speak for the past efforts of others, I'd like to think that there is enough combined knowledge to push this project forward.

That it is billed as Non-profit from the outset is a clear indication of his motives.

Yes, having tiered subscriptions to Fchat is Totalitarian in nature. Or is it? How is the notion of offering tiered services to people Totalitarian in nature?

Or is it his choice of moderators that makes him Totalitarian in nature? Lessee....quick sampling here.....Darth550 who has clearly overstepped his bounds on many occasions in order to enforce Fchat Totalitarianism, or is it Wayne or Aura who are the last bastions of Rob's need to enact strict code of conduct (AKA Totalitarianism) on its members AKA JRV *cough*.

No? Beuller? No? No? No?

So, my point being is this: Tell me how Rob is Totalitarian, and I will point out to you a few reasons why he is not.

I have already mentioned a few of those reasons, and some of them by name.

 

I like the world full of independent people researching whetever happens to interest them. Many of these people have worked for decades. You can't go and tell them how things should be done, what is important and what is not, if you think they are important or if you think they are not.

Best wishes, Kare

 

I think the technical challenges of this are interested and not to be overlooked. This is going to be a very expensive issue and not something remotely trivial. Methinks employing a db / content wizard would be very advisable.

--Dan

 

I would love to see it happen, but I think it is just too utopian. There is no way that you can hold up the pretention to offer a COMPLETE registery of the COMPLETE history. You´ll always be out there, searching for new, undisclosed information, you´ll never know for sure whether or not your data is complete. On top of that: Ferrari-history in particular is filled with all sorts of contradictions, mysteries and other rather questionable stories. It´s just not feasable to stand up and decide what is actually history and what is just another story and offer it to a paying audience as such.

On another note: if you are offering a COMPLETE registery of COMPLETE history, than I don´t see how non verified and partly verified info can relate to such a pretention. I don´t think it can, unless you are willing to offer all factual information you can find (which is impossible to begin with) and every other rumor that has ever been launched along the way of making history. And like I said: who is to decide what is a rumor and what is actually history? Me thinks the verified-section would look very tiny compared to the non- and partly verified section, and that would pretty much defeat the purpose of the project, wouldn´t it?

 

Interesting discussion ...

From a technical point of view, it is certainly possible, but it is quite a challenge. The underlying database structure will be VERY important, so you need to spend a LOT of time (and money!) to design everything. Think about every aspect you can think of. Learn from websites like Barchetta, Classicscars and you-know-which-mailing-list. Functional design, technical design and the investments will be major issues.

You also need a full time lawyer, with knowledge of international laws. Especially regarding COPYRIGHT and PRIVACY. Believe me, you need this! And as you know, I know what I'm talking about ... (at least a bit)

Oh yeah, to which address can I send my curriculum vitae?

 

I would love to have a register like this. But of course this wish is quite selffish: I would use this register to search for more and more detailed info (like the info on chassis and engine types I requested a few weeks ago).

On the other hand, my contribution to such a database would be extremely small. All info I have is from official Ferrari documentation and a large collection of published books and magazine articles - the later written by the same (and small!) group of experts we all know....

IMHO this can only work when these experts are willing to share their knowledge.

 

Have said nothing about Rob. Hope words are not put into my mouth.

Best wishes, Kare

 

Some will, some won't. The three major issues are: copyright, privacy and money.

And to just add something more to this discussion, what will you do with (for example!) the well-known 0846? I don't want to discuss the history of this car over here (there are plenty of other threads to do that), but I just want to show that it is VERY difficult to know which information you should publish in a register. Who is telling the truth? Will you accept information from everybody? How can you identify lies? That's hard stuff to deal with ...

 

My point exactly...

There´s no such thing as the truth. There are only perceptions of the truth.

 

I think it's a great idea. And why shouldn't it work? With all the knowledge of the people here, all the enthusiasm, dedication, experience. I say; Rob have a go for it!!! Goodluck!

 

In IT world there are several "open source" communities (the best known is Linux). Groups of people all over the world contribute to new development. Why not take this as an example? And in case you cannot reach consensus on a certain bit of information, leave it out or mark it as "controversial" .