iPhone and 10 Israel-related headlines from the week of June 14, 2009
Filed under: Breaking News, Cleantech, Information Technology, Mobile Web, New Ideas, Uncategorized, Web2.0, cloud computing
During the week of June 14, 2009, Israel was named a developed market which will be effective in 2010 and its economy was hit less hard due to the high tech industry. While the protests, demonstrations and online activity heated up in Iran, Israel’s Fring announced that its software was being used by several protesters and helping their cause. Inside Israel, the biggest news was that the iPhone from Apple will finally be coming to Israel officially. For these stories and the rest of this week’s 10 Israel-related headlines check below.
Cleantech
1. The Next Solar Frontier: Distributed Inverter Architecture
Investments
3. Israeli exports hit less thanks to high tech
4. Israel Named Developed Market at MSCI, Korea Isn’t
Information Technology
5. Storage Startup Axxana Announces the Availability of the Phoenix System
7. Iranian protesters using Israeli software
8. Blue Coat ProxyClient Software Gains OESISOK Certification
Miscellaneous
9. Israeli carriers line up to sell iPhone
10. Coca Cola Israel develops new flavor
11 Israel-related headlines from the week of April 12, 2009
Filed under: BTM, Cleantech, Company Briefs, Environment, Information Technology, Mergers and Acquisitions, New Ideas, Partnerships
During the week of April 12, 2009, talk continued about the pros and cons of Shai Agassi’s electric car plans and Check Point announced its purchase of Nokia’s security appliance business. In addition, business transaction management (BTM) company, OpTier was named a 2009 Hot Company by Network Products Guide and frogs might hold the answer to the effects of alcohol during development. For these headlines and more, check below for this week’s 11 Israel-related headlines.
Cleantech
Saving energy – one step at a time
Investments, M&A and the Economy
Check Point Software Technologies acquires security appliance business of Nokia
Int’l credit crunch shifts Israeli business focus in China
Information Technology
PeerTV Announces MX 3.0 Content Management Tool
OpTier Named a 2009 Hot Company by Network Products Guide
Miscellaneous
Israel turns to robotics to boost students’ interest in high-tech industry
Israeli companies make Forbes’ list
Frogs Reveal Clues About The Effects Of Alcohol During Development
The future of media and technology now: Media Innovation Lab at IDC
I recently met Daniel Shein of the Media Innovation Lab (miLAB) during Jeff Pulver’s Breakfast in Tel Aviv. Shein told me about the different research going on at miLAB and the projects he is working on in specific. In this video he gives a brief overview of miLab and one of his projects.
A little more on the Media Innovation Lab, according to miLAB’s website,
“The Media Innovation Lab at IDC Herzliya (miLAB) is a research and prototyping lab that explores the future of media and technology; Through a collaborative creative process new concepts for media experiences are transformed into working prototypes.”
Several of its projects are in collaboration with other research labs around the world, including MIT’s Media Lab. Some current miLAB projects include a study on the “Media in Context”, answering “How does the context of use influence a media experience? What types of context have a stronger influence than others?”; Urban Insights, a social-computerized system that more accurately connects you to the help you need; and ARG’s, a lab experiment in which the lines between “real and virtual, true and false” are blurred.
In addition to the website, more information on miLAB and these projects is available on the miLAB channel on YouTube.
Impressions of TheMarker’s COM.vention from a new immigrant
The following is a recap by Jessica Korman of TheMarker’s COM.vention which took place earlier today. Jessica Korman is a graphic designer, blogger and new immigrant.
“The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed yet” – William Gibson
I just got back from The Marker COM.vention held at Airport City. It was a great opportunity to see “Twitter” friends whom I may or may not have met before. While social media is not a dying trend, it is still important to connect to people on a personal level. That was my main purpose in attending the convention; as a new immigrant in Israel I find myself in the midst of a networking frenzy. In that respect, social media is a tool, a means to an end and not the end itself.
The convention itself had 2 tracks, ‘The New New Thing – NGN’ sponsored by Bezeq, and ‘Beyond the web 2.0.’ I attended two panels within the ‘Beyond the web 2.0′ track. The first panel I attended, “Beyond Web 2.0,” was moderated by Israel’s Hi-Tech guru, Yossi Vardi and included Anil Hansjee, Head of Corporate Development EMEA, Google (UK, London); Allen Hurff, SVP MySpace; Jane Thompson, Managing Director, International, IAC and Greg Cohn, Director of Strategy and Business Development Yahoo! as panelists.
Yossi Vardi, LeWeb 2008
They discussed how the Internet is moving from our PCs (or in my case, Mac) onto a smaller screen, such as the Android or iPhone and other trends, such as social networking, semantic web and cloud computing, and that search engines are evolving with those trends. The discussion also brought up that there will also be more engagement with entertainment, for example more interaction between the consumer and the advertiser. They concluded that social networking needs to evolve by indexing our relationships, and we must trust our networks to make our privacy decisions for us. From an entrepeneaurial perspective, the economic downturn is actually a great opportunity for start-ups.
The second panel I attended was “Microblogging, Substance or hype.” It was moderated by Gadi Lahav, Director of Internet Content at Haaretz Media and the panelists included Deborah Schultz, Consultant, Advisor and Strategist to Start-Ups and Large Organizations; Yosi Taguri, VP R&D and Social Thinker at Nuconomy and Joi Ito, CEO of Creative Commons. The panel was basically about Twitter, and, in fact, one of the panelists tweeted that this might be the only time it is socially acceptable to tweet when part of a panel.
Deborah Schultz, October 2008
They said that the idea of microblogging is socially connecting on the fly and that it broke the “real-time” barrier. While Facebook is a database of social connections, Twitter is a constant flow of content and ideas. Actual blogging is much slower but that is not to say that Twitter will be the death of blogging. It might mean less frequent updates or less people creating new blogs, but blogging will still remain part of the conversation.
At this point in time, it is imperative that corporations learn how to participate and use social networking with their branding and marketing. Companies need to learn to use the tools to listen to customers, and let the users know they are being listened to. What still needs to be determined is how to monetize microblogging sites such as Twitter and we have yet to see a business model. The question was raised by one of the panelists, that at this point, does Twitter even need a business model?
What was clearly a sign of the times was the scaling back of emenities commonly found at conventions such as these. Instead of coming home with an armful of gifts, I came home nearly empty handed. Most of the stands were giving away chocolate coins instead of shwag.
Green Innovation: Green Any Site (GAS)
Filed under: Cleantech, Environment, Israeli Websites, New Ideas, Uncategorized, Video
I recently helped co-organize Jerusalem Twestival ‘09 which raised money for Charity: Water, an organization that provides villages in Africa with clean water. The Jerusalem event was one of over 180 “twestivals” on the same day worldwide and featured booths with different clean technology and water technology companies and organizations along with musical performances.
One of the organizations at the festival was Green Any Site (GAS). Green Any Site takes advantage of affiliate sales programs, such as the one offered by Amazon.com, by offering a “Green This” bookmarklet that people can add to their browser and click on before adding an item to their shopping cart. After following the directions they can then continue to go about the regular purchasing process. At the end of the month Amazon.com and/or other similar sites send a percentage of each sale made to Green Any Site which then donates all of the proceeds to a charity or charities decided upon by bookmarklet users.
During the festival, Tal Ater, the founder and creator of GAS, showed me how it works. Here is the video:
More thoughts on TechAviv: VC and Angel funding alternatives
Filed under: Industry pulse, Information Technology, Israeli Websites, New Ideas, Uncategorized, VC, Web2.0
Since I attended TechAviv two weeks ago, in which nearly half the startups there were early stage and pre-seed, I have been thinking a lot about the discussions on getting funded that took place there and earlier that day at Eze Vidra’s VC Cafe breakfast and in general.
It has been clear for several months now that VCs are being more conservative in choosing companies to fund and that those that do get funding, are generally receiving less than they would have in good times. Additionally, somewhere along the way in the past few years, VCs have become more concerned with the capital aspect of what they do which has led them to invest in fewer “ventures.” They are taking less risks, such as by not investing in ideas, and are looking more for “ventures” that have already proven themselves a little – in many cases, by already becoming profitable or developing the technology. Whether this is good or bad, it’s just the way it is.
Since an angel investor panel, which included Yossi Vardi, at TechCrunch50 in September 2008 discussed what the decrease in VC funding would mean for them, I have constantly heralded angel investments as an alternative to VC funding and one that would still thrive… then the stock market and economy crashed. While that was already a few months ago, The New York Times had an article earlier this month titled, Angels Flee From Tech Start-Ups, about how bad it has really been and is for them.
So, hypothetically removing VCs and Angels from the startup funding equation, what other sources of funding are there in Israel? For more established startups, close to nothing.
For small startups and individuals though, here is a list of nine alternative funding programs:
- Israel Internet Society Research Grants
- US-Israel Binational Industrial R&D Foundation (BIRD)
- US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF)
- Intel-Annual Research Grants Program
- Technion Research and Development Foundation
- Israel Science Foundation
- Incubators (Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor Office of the Chief Scientist)
- Call for proposals (Israel Ministry of Science, Culture and Sport)
- Yozma Group
G.ho.st: A real model for coexistence
Filed under: Data Storage, Information Technology, Israeli Websites, New Ideas, Uncategorized, Web2.0, virtualization
As if reading the news the past few months hasn’t been depressing enough with the worldwide economic downturn, the current conflict going on in Gaza had to happen to bring the news down to a whole new level of sadness. With each passing day it seems less likely that there will ever be a real peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and yet, as the current conflict unravels, one company, with an office in the Israeli city of Modi’in and another in the West Bank city of Ramallah seems to have found a solution.
That company, G.ho.st, is the only joint venture between Israelis and Palestinians and is defying the odds and difficulties that have arisen from strong sentiments on both sides. Founded in 2006, G.ho.st is short for Global Hosting Operating Systems and provides its 100,000 and growing users with a free vitual desktop that allows them to store items from their desktops and files and to access them from any computer connected to the Internet. G.ho.st calls it a virtual computer or VC.
The company is made up of 35 Palestinians who do software programming and are led by Director, Tareq Maayah and 6 Israelis, including CEO, Zvi Schreiber. Though the offices are relatively close to each other (under 6 miles away), because of restrictions, workers usually have to communicate via video conference and don’t have leisurely access to visiting each other. While the Palestinians are paid less than their Israeli counterparts (because the cost of living is less), both the Palestinians and Israelis have equal shares in the company.
According to correspondence I had with Schreiber this week, this model worked well and thrived during the relative peace that took place from the time G.ho.st was founded and, even now, is continuing to.
(Picture on left: Zvi Schreiber with Israeli President Shumon Peres. Picture on right: Ghost team.)
Schreiber explained that despite everyone’s concerns about the current conflict, in which employees on both sides have family and/or friends who are affected, work is still going on as usual and that the team, which includes people who worked through a previous conflict at their last job, is prepared to continue to work even if the situation were to spread to the West Bank.
Perhaps the secret to G.ho.st’s success and resilience of its employees so far has been the care that’s been taken to keep and maintain the common ground between employees in both offices. Prior to the latest conflict, the company would manage to get permits to bring everyone together in Israel for valuable team activities, meals, business updates etc. Because of the conflict though, Schreiber said that everyone is now (understandably) worried about the safety of their families and friends on both sides and there’s only so much the company can do about it. His hope however, is that “in some small way our team, working peacefully together, can be an example of what a different reality could look like.”
It’s not just the employees in the company working peacefully together though that can change reality. G.ho.st also has a foundation that is helping lay the groundwork for future joint ventures by creating community computer centers in Ramallah and in mixed Jewish-Arab towns in Israel. Perhaps if more companies were to use G.ho.st’s model in business and in the community, Schreiber’s hope will not only become a reality where the two sides co-exist knowing no borders and, in line with the G.ho.st slogan, no walls.
22 Israel-related headlines from the week of December 28, 2008 (Gaza operation edition)
Filed under: Cleantech, Company Briefs, Environment, Industry pulse, Information Technology, Internet Security, Israeli Websites, New Ideas, Partnerships, Software, Uncategorized, VC, Web2.0, security
Much attention in the news was paid to Israel’s operation in Gaza during the week of December 28, 2009, including to online technology related to it. Different Israeli government branches, from the IDF to Israeli Consulates in the U.S., began to leverage popular social media tools, such as blogs, YouTube and Twitter, to explain the purpose of Israel’s operation and its objectives, while supporters around the world used the same mediums and others, such as Facebook, to show their support for Israel and its troops. During the week it also became clear that the conflict wouldn’t be bound to physical operations as several Israeli sites became the targets of cyberterrorism.
Despite the conflict, there was plenty of news of unrelated innovations coming from Israel. Funds were raised and contracts were signed in Israel’s IT and cleantech sectors and announcements of foreign companies opening R&D offices were made. Not all the news that wasn’t related to the conflict was good though. For all these stories and more, check out this week’s special edition of Israel-related headlines from the week of December 28, 2008 below.
Israel-Hamas Conflict (Technology side)
1. Israeli news site down, blames cyber attack
2. Muslim hackers attack Israeli websites as Gaza strikes continue
3. Israel Backed by Army of Cyber-Soldiers
4. War sickens me, but I stand with Israel (HelpUsWin*)
5. The Big War You Never Hear Much About
6. Israeli Consulate to tweet about Gaza war
Cleantech
7. Israel’s SolarEdge Raises $23M to Crush Shady Solar
8. BrightSource Energy signs contract with Siemens for solar-powered generator
Investments and deals
9. 2009: Year of the survival of the fittest
10. Bluephoenix Announces Multi-Million Dollar Modernization Contract With a Large Scandinavian Bank
11. Intrinsyc Signs Soleus Licensing Agreement With ODM for Industrial PDA and LBS Phone
12. Oy Vey! Israeli VCs Exceptionally Gloomy on 2009
Information Technology
13. HCL opens office in Israel
14. Invention: Software research assistant
15. EMC continues to move forward
Miscellaneous
16. The American Idol for blogging superstars
18. Israeli’s documentary is drawing wide acclaim
19. MyHeritage Makes Family History Research Easier With Launch Of Family Tree Builder 3
20. Crude oil rises after Israeli attacks on Gaza roil Middle East
Israel Innovation 2.0 content related to Israel-Hamas conflict
21. Direct from the streets of Gaza… and Israel. How TechCrunch UK’s post could have read regarding UGC
22. Cyberterrorism against Israeli and American sites: How to Stay Secure
Video from IDF Spokeperson’s Unit TouTube Channel (Capt. Benjamin Rutland on the ground forces entering Gaza on 3 Jan. 2009)
*HelpUsWin is an online grassroots campaign helping to ensure that international coverage of the Campaign Against Hamas is balanced. To learn more about it or how you can become involved, please check out the HelpUsWin website.
Israel’s role in the future “depth” of the Web
In recounting Yahoo! President, Susan Decker’s remarks in my last post, a few things made me think about the role that Israel will have in the future of the Internet. As mentioned in that post, the topic of the panel that Decker, Sergey Brin, Rupert Murdoch, among others participated on, was, “What is the future of the new Internet media?”
Included in Decker’s response to this was a reflection that while Yahoo! currently covers the “breadth” of the
Internet, the future is in its “depth,” such as processing speed, low
costs storage, mass media distribution – three areas in which companies in Israel are constantly innovating.
For processing speed, one only has to think of the Intel chips that have been released in recent years and their original development here in Israel. Since Intel first opened an R&D lab in Haifa in the 1990s, Israeli researchers have developed the Dual-Core Intel Xeon Processor 5100 series, the first PC
processor with a 8-bit 8088 bus, Intel Pentium MMX and Intel Centrino. Although the Haifa lab didn’t develop the latest Penryn chip, it did play a part in determining how the “new chip micro-architecture could be manufactured on a commercial scale.”
The commercial success of Intel’s chips have enabled not just more digital activity and productivity, but have also increased demand for low cost storage – several innovations of which, have also come from Israel. In the portable storage realm, Walletex has added a new dimension to USB drive storage devices with its credit card-styled and -sized 4GB and 8GB storage devices. Its devices also have the technology to receive automatic updates from the Internet when plugged in and connected to the Internet. G.ho.st, a web-based operating system that acts as a virtual desktop, provides users with 5 GB of free storage that can be uploaded to the virtual desktop.
Storage on a virtual desktop isn’t the only free online storage idea coming from Israel though – eSnips, the multimedia and storage social network, allows its users to not just upload up to 5 GB of data for free, but to also utilize its mass media distribution features, such as document and media file storing and handling, for other users to access and share. While this is a hybrid of low cost storage and mass media distribution, pure mass media distribution websites in Israel include MetaCafe and AniBoom. Both sites rely on user-generated and -submitted short film content, regular and animated, respectively and active participation in their communities.
It is the active participants of these communities that make it likely that these three mass media sites leaders in the present Internet media will continue to play a crucial part in shaping the future of the Internet and Internet media. The social networking aspects of these sites help inspire innovation here in Israel in ways that almost guarantee that these sites will reach and maintain the “depth” of the new Internet that Decker was talking about and which Yahoo! is still seeking.
About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership
Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or
inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be
directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.
Susan Decker discusses the future of technology and Yahoo! on panel at the Presidential Conference in Jerusalem
As mentioned in my previous post, I attended the Presidential Conference in Jerusalem this past Thursday. One of the sessions that I attended was a panel discussion entitled, “The Revolution of the Internet and the New Media.” The panel was moderated by Yossi Vardi and the panelists included, Yahoo! President, Susan Decker; Google Co-founder, Sergey Brin; Publicis Groupe Chairman and CEO, Maurice Levy; News Corporation Chairman and CEO, Rupert Murdoch; and Windsor Media Chairman and CEO, Terry Semel. The question posed to the panelists was “What is the future of the new Internet media?”
While the panelists were able to paint an overall picture of what the relationship between the Internet and media will probably look like in the future, only Susan Decker’s comments really stood out. She began by mentioning that “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” She discussed the importance of the Internet for essentials and mentioned that while Yahoo! currently covers the “breadth” of the Internet, the future is in the “depth,” such as processing speed, low costs storage, mass media distribution.
In relation to mass media distribution and the role that it will play, she emphasized the personal connection that will be widespread in the future, and how it will affect news and TV in the future. This new media, dubbed “we” media, will allow individuals to define news and entertainment and receive it for themselves based on their own personal interests and then to share it with their entire social graph. What role Yahoo! will play in this, is still a major question. In reference to that, Decker concluded by stating that with over 500 million users, Yahoo! is both the largest social network and the least useful, and that the social graph will be used in the future to prioritize one’s information and interactions with others through it.
The means of attaining this in the future are what IT professionals should keep an eye on and try to really understand:
1. Creating open experience – figuring out the how and where.
2. Highly personal filters that are user generated and customized.
3. The connection of the online and off-line worlds and the digitization of everything.
(Note: Picture is of the stage before the panelists arrived.)
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