BUCOVINE.com

Ileana Taroi receives in his broadcast "Gens d'aujourd'hui" Mr. Bernard Brumberg, founder of Bucovine.com for Radio Romania International

                                                                                      

Ladies, Gentlemen, hello and thank you for being present at this new rendez - vous with the friends of Radio Romania International proposed [suggested] by the French Service and by Ileana. Today I invite you to make the acquaintance of a French friend of Rumania. His name is Bernard Brumberg, he is the creator of an internet site devoted to Romania, a site that is called Bucovine.com and who begins this conversation which we had with some time to introduce himself.

Bernard Brumberg : I am the founder of the site Bucovine.com which I invite the people on the internet to discover a little more of Romania as it really is through its cities, among its authors as well.

Ileana Taroi : Why have you founded, created this website”

BB : As it is written on the top of the site it has been created in homage to our parents.

IT : Are you a computer scientist by occupation

BB : No, not at all.

IT : What is your training?

BB : I have another course which is “international reporter,” then next management, nothing to do with computers and the Internet,

IT : And you discovered computers . . . is this a passion?

BB : It is a passion that came in the 90’s at the birth of the Internet.

IT : And so later you had this idea to create that site.

BB : Yes I looked for a subject for the site and it was right in front of me, because no one spoke about Bucovina.

IT : It is a feeling, an idea, a desire/longing?

BB : It is a desire/longing, also a duty, a duty of remembrance to my father who was originally from Bucovine.

IT : From what part?

BB : From Cernauti.

IT : And he left there?

BB : Yes, very young. He left in 1927 after having completed 2 years of medicine at Iasi and then at Bucharest, to Florence (Italy), then Paris where he settled definitely,

IT : Then, for you Bucovina was it . . . you might know Bucovina because your father passed it on to you.

BB : Yes, in my early childhood. I had lost my father very young, I was 11 years old but I had come to Romania in 1962, I rediscovered it today.

IT : This is a rediscovery?

BB : Of course with the eyes of a man and not of a child.

IT : And as a man who has also a great deal of travel experience.

BB : Indeed, through my old career as a reporter where I was actually in the theaters of operation from Africa, to the Middle East.

IT : And how have you designed this site?

BB : From the very start the original graphical conception, integrating 20 sections with easy navigation to about sixty pages.

IT : What can one find there?

BB : That it does not concern only Bucovina. Since my father was a Romanian - on his identity papers he was a Romanian from Cernauti - I considered that Bucovina was quite small and the site has grown because I also wished to develop it in different directions: the culture, the castles, the cities, the Danube, the monasteries . . .

IT : The celebrated monasteries of the North.

BB : And also the principal Romanian cities giving a description that is historical and at the same time descriptive.

IT : And how has the site evolved? Is it you yourself who developed it, introducing the information, or are there others who are willing to collaborate with you on it?

BB : Well, yes, at first, indeed, I designed it myself, the principal sections that constitute the site in general. There have been some modifications, there are
outside contributors who I thank here for their contributions.
The material is created from Romanian correspondents from Paris, or I have correspondents who write on what they love, articles on their town, on the painters, on the authors, on the subjects that are dear to their hearts.

IT : There are French-speaking Romanians who collaborate on the site?

BB : Yes, they write the texts, they do photos on the subjects that they are dealing with, moreover, they are continuing this collaboration; they send us the texts and now we have a small team which puts them up on a page.

IT : I have seen that your site is set out in French, English and Spanish. Why this choice of languages? French, I can imagine why . . . why the other two languages?

BB : Indeed the site has been designed in French which is my maternal language and very soon with the data on the visits, it was a necessity to put it in English since it is an international language. And recently in 2007, I opted for Spanish which does not concern just Spain but South and Central America. And there are a great many Internet users, those who then left at different periods according to the different migrations and who come to show their infants or to see for themselves. . .

IT : It is a portal site, you have links, what have you put as links? To sites of the same genre or utilitarian for the most part?

BB : Yes, utilitarian for the most part, there are some links with sites that deal with Romania but are completely distinct. A site of an individual trip or a family in Bucovina.

IT : The baby is born, but are you content to see it as it is, or do you envisage more projects for this baby.

BB : Oh, well, listen, the baby arrived one could say at its maturity of more than 600 pages, good, people who return to the site regularly are able to see the updates we are making, there are new pages which come regularly, an extension of the site indeed is necessary in all the areas, an increase in the number of contacts.

Beginning in 2008 we have set up a system where people can become active members and make donations, not for the site but for punctual operations on Bucovina and also in all of Romania. Thanks to the members who have written already, I must speak about you.

Regarding interactivity, an arrangement has been put in place; a forum, a chat room, the site is open!

IT : How do you explain, one way or another, the reticence to enter into the Forum and Chat?

BB : I think that there is a certain reserve in the people who have emigrated that have inserted themselves into the societies of the different countries of Europe, of America in the north and in the south. I notice that there is a strong demand from all sorts through the contact forms, indeed, that must be responded to manually. This is not something which can be dealt with automatically, I must reply case by case.

Even so, I wish that Romanians all over the world might come to our site, which is devoted to them. We appreciate internet visitors from any place (ou from all/any perspectives), I take this chance to thank some of the faithful from the bases in Antarctica who come regularly, you can see that the site bucovine.com is viewed around the world.

Ileana Taroi : Thank you Mr. Bernard Brumberg.
Ladies, Gentlemen, that is all for this edition of People Today.