Project history

It all started in 1994 when I decided to settle in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina. From the very beginning, I believed in the importance of promoting this beautiful city to the world, even though at that time, the Internet as we know it today did not exist. Instead, we used BBS (Bulletin Board Systems). That was when, after installing a dedicated landline for a 1200 baud modem, I decided to create SoftFree, which eventually had 360 users, although only one could access it at a time due to the Dial-Up connection (phone-to-phone), all supported by a 386SX PC, a 2X CD drive, and RA V2.0.2 software.

Email was not like it is today. Messages were bundled and sent from node to node at 4 a.m., passing from one BBS to another in the Fidonet network, incurring another local call expense. Everything was in text mode, no images, which greatly limited the possibilities.

However, this was not enough for me. My goal was much bigger. That’s when I decided to create EnMardel®, a project that would be a “Tourist Encyclopedia” showcasing Mar del Plata on a CD. This task, which took three long years of research, data gathering, image collection, meetings, permits, obstacles, bureaucracy, debts, discussions, and conflicts, finally came to fruition in late 1997. I had achieved what I set out to do.

Despite all the effort, my intention was never to settle. I always wanted to keep improving the project. One day, during a conversation, an idea arose that would change everything: “Why not plant a tree in the city for every CD sold?”

  Technology continues to advance, smartphones appear, therefore you have to adapt. In 2012 we developed the EnMardel® App that can currently be downloaded from the Google Play Store for free. With 1000 units of CDs produced at the Teltron company, the result was this: 70 units were sold and registered, 105 were in my possession and the rest were distributed in broadcast mode.

I invite you to visit the evolution 2.0 of the encyclopedia www.mardelplatasecreta.ar

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