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.
14 Israel-related headlines from the week of March 29, 2009
Filed under: Cleantech, Company Briefs, IT management, Industry pulse, Information Technology, Israeli Websites, SaaS, Uncategorized, VC, Web2.0, cloud computing
The week of March 29, 2009 was one of the busiest weeks of the year for Israel’s Web industry, with conferences and events happening everyday. Three bigg events were TheMarker’s COM.Vention on Sunday and Jeff Pulver’s Tel Aviv breakfast and Techonomy on Tuesday. While these events showcased Israel’s most promising Web startups, there was buzz about Israeli companies starting to bypass the US market and target the market in China. For more on these stories and the rest of this week’s 13 Israel-related headlines, see below.
Cleantech
Israel’s Aora Solar To Begin Clean Energy Production
Leviathan looks to wind energy device sales
Global VC Funding of Clean Tech Plunges
Investments and M&A
Building A Bridge Between Israel & China
Israeli Entrepreneurs: Know What Game You Are Playing
The tycoons’ companies don’t create jobs
Information Technology
AICC member Unisfair Launches Channel Program to Capitalize on Growth of Virtual Events
Savvy entrepreneurs tapping risk (CTERA)
XMPie and NowDocs Introduce XMPie-enabled NowPrint 7.0
SaaS’ Testuff Nabs 2,000th Customer
Miscellaneous
Techonomy 2009: Great Startups And Amazing Event
MyHeritage: Avoiding the MetaCafe Curse
Impressions of TheMarker’s COM.vention from a new immigrant (Israel Innovation 2.0 coverage from guest blogger Jessica Korman)
15 Israel-related headlines from the week March 22, 2009 (Sarah Lacy TechCrunch Edition)
Filed under: Cleantech, Company Briefs, Environment, IT management, Industry pulse, Information Technology, Mergers and Acquisitions, VC, Web2.0, virtualization
During the week of March 22, 2009, it was announced that Israel will share its farming technology with Kenya and more details of the government’s water technology initiative, NEWTech were given. The sale of Aladdin Knowledge to Vector Capital was completed with the news that Aladdin and SafeNet were under common management and information security company, Tufin, added new features to its firewall management platform. Facebook became even more stalkerish with a new photo facial recoginition and tagging application by Israel-based Face.com and SEO guru, Barry Schwartz shared what he found Israeli SEMs are looking for. These stories are only some of the main ones that made it into the media last week. For links to these and the rest of the stories from the week of March 22, 2009, check below.
Cleantech and Environment
1. Israel NEWTech, A Government Initiative To Promote And Grow Israeli Water Technology And Innovation
2. Israel to share farming technology with Kenya
Investment and M&A
3. Value of Israeli high-tech M&A fell 19 percent in 2008
4. Funded: GoViral, BriefCam, Extreme Reach (BriefCam)
5. SafeNet, Aladdin Knowledge Under Common Mgmt
Information Technology
6. HP to Provide Compaq My Bhasha with its Desktops
7. New Cyber-Ark controller clocks all super-user activity
8. SkillIQ is set to Revolutionize the Human Resources World
9. Dell Certifies Aternity as ISV Partner
10. Tufin adds white lists to firewall management platform
Miscellaneous
11. Israel’s Explay helps you see the big picture
12. First Look: Photo Finder facial recognition app for Facebook
14. Partnerships between Florida, Israel are key
Bonus: TechCrunch’s Sarah Lacy in Israel and reactions.
Sarah Lacy, August 2008
Last week Twitter and the Web erupted when the newest member of the TechCrunch team, Sarah Lacy, posted that Israeli entrepreneurs lost their mojo and that investing in Israel was overhyped. Here are are just some of the responses to Lacy’s post as well as her post and its follow up.
Now that China Is the New Israel…What’s Israel? (TC)
What’s behind Sarah Lacy trash talking the Israeli VC scene
Israel is the new Israel (Israel Innovation 2.0 response)
Sarah Lacy, David Li and the Wrong Side of Historical Performance
Risk Aversion And The Perils Of Selling Too Early (Israeli Startups, Part II) (TC)
Twitter responds
Israel is the new Israel (Alternatively, if TechCrunch is the go-to online tech publication, will TreeHugger be the new TechCrunch?)
Filed under: Cleantech, Industry pulse, Information Technology, VC
Sarah Lacy over at TechCrunch posted today that Israeli entrepreneurs post-bubble have lost their mojo and VC funding has reflected that. There has been a lot of reaction to her post in the comments section and off the site, but it is really much more complex and wide-ranging than a post on TechCrunch or even here on Israel Innovation 2.0 can handle. I think that Sarah is both right and, of course, wrong.
She is right that the crop of Israeli IT and Web startups are disappointing when compared to Check Point and ICQ from the 1990s. There have been many theories, denials and other responses of the lack of companies of this caliber in the past few years and I have to say, when researching these different companies, there definitely is a difference.
The theories for this that I believe and have often mentioned (sorry to anyone familiar with those posts) are the ones Daniel Cohen of Gemini Israel Funds wrote about in an article on Venture Beat back in the fall of 2007: “Entrepreneurs want to retire with $3-$4M, Impatience of investors, ‘Think small’ mentality and The lack of $1bn experience.” Add to these reasons the brain drain of top engineers and entrepreneurs and relocating the company outside of Israel and Lacy has a very good point.
Fortunately though, Lacy’s post on TechCrunch was only fulfilling a certain agenda and only relevant for the IT and Web 2.0 sectors which TechCrunch covers. No matter what happens with Israeli IT companies in the future (and I believe Israeli SaaS and security companies, such as Clarizen, Imperva and Trusteer all have a lot of potential), Israel is almost guaranteed to be the main player beyond this in the next tech revolution, clean technology.
A lot of VC funding has gone into cleantech companies in wastewater management, solar energy and wind energy that won’t mature and really show its worth for another few years. In addition, there is a noticeable trend over the past year of people from Israel’s IT sector considering and heading into cleantech.
So, where does China fit into cleantech? I haven’t researched it to say, but on the Israel end I know that China, along with several other Asian countries, countries in Africa and Australia have all expressed interest in Israel’s innovations especially to deal with water conservation management and solar energy. If in relation to Lacy’s article, China is getting more investments in IT (the greatest tech sector in the past) in comparison to Israel but not in relation to cleantech (the likely greatest tech sector in the future), the answer to Lacy’s question about “If China is the new Israel..” would really be that Israel is the new Israel.
Software-as-a-service “comes of age” with Clarizen
As budgets get tighter and software-as-a-service (SaaS) matures, there is an increasing amount of interest among small and medium-sized businesses and now the eneterprise to use SaaS solutions.
In an article by Kevin White about online project management software that appeared on CBRonline.com earlier this week, White mentions that in addition to companies turning to SaaS solutions for managing projects because of the low price point, another benefit is that SaaS is “inherently collaborative since it allows any user of an application to access information anytime from anywhere.”
The company that he focuses on that is proving this theory right is Israel-based Clarizen. Clarizen, a project management software company, has enjoyed popularity in the past few months because it allows contributors to edit at the same time and for the changes to be visible immediately to anyone involved on the project. In addition it covers all the aspects of managing a project, from assigning tasks to budget tracking.
Clarizen has also received a lot of positive attention as a significantly cheaper alternative to other enterprise collaboration solutions ($25 a month per user vs. $125,000 entry point). Though it currently faces steep competition from other free or low cost solutions such as Google Docs and Basecamp, Clarizen is expected to roll out new enterprise features in the upcoming months that will set it apart.
14 Israel-related headlines from the week of March 1, 2009
Filed under: Advertising, Cleantech, Company Briefs, Information Technology, Internet Security, Uncategorized, VC, cloud computing
News from Israel’s cleantech industry during the week of March 1, 2009 showed that it will continue to grow throughout the recession and that substantial progress is starting to be made, such as with Aora receiving a license for its solar thermal plant on Kibbutz Samar. In contrast, IT companies Comverse and SAP Israel announced layoffs this past week, however, several companies, including ComAbility and Kenshoo, raised funds and new partnerships were announced. For more details on these and the rest of the 14 Israel-related headlines from the week of March 1, 2009, check below.
Cleantech
1. Cleantech faces wave of growth, not layoffs
2. IQwind a Red Herring Top 100 Global Company
3. Aora Gets License for Solar Thermal Plant
Investments and Economy
4. Comverse to fire hundreds – many in Israel
5. Sequoia Capital leads Second round of financing for AICC Member Kenshoo Ltd.
6. Israeli technology company ComAbility secures a further $4m in venture funding
7. Onset Technology lands $3M venture round
Information Technology
8. SAP, IBM to Showcase Tech for Cloud Mobility
9. Ness Technologies Uses WorkLight to Secure Social Media
10. A New Advertising Tool That’s Truly Cool
11. Triond: A Writing Opportunity Worth Investigating
12. Actimize, a NICE Company, Positioned in Leaders Quadrant of Magic Quadrant for Web Fraud Detection
Miscellaneous
13. A tourism crisis hits the Middle East
14. Keeping your mind sharp with Israel’s CogniFit
Renewable Energy Conference shows depth of US-Israel collaboration
Filed under: Cleantech, Environment, Industry pulse, Uncategorized
When the second annual Eilat-Eilot International Renewable Energy Conference took place recently with over 700 attendees, it was known and expected that some representatives from both the Israeli and US governments would be there to talk about new projects between the two governments and that there would be other officials from state governments and municipalities there to learn more about cleantech and the solutions for municipalities offered by the vendors in the exhibition. What was less expected was to learn about the collaboration efforts to go green being undertaken on the U.S. state and municipality level with Israel’s southern region.
During the conference I had the opportunity to meet John A. Berenyi, an alternative energy advisor who has been a key figure in initiating these joint projects. In July 2008, through his efforts, South Carolina became the first state to sign a collaboration agreement with the Eilat region. Under the agreement, the two will conduct research together on alternative and renewable energy opportunities and “promote a more sustainable environment and enhance the quality of life for the citizens of both regions.”
On a more local level, Mt. Vernon, NY is interested in becoming the first green municipality in the United States and is willing to be the first lab for using different Israeli technologies, and has become a sister city of Eilat’s to do so.
Berenyi’s plan is to expand collaboration efforts between state and municipalities and the Eilat region. Tapping state research programs and state VC funds will help make more joint efforts possible as will President Obama’s stimulus plan, which, hidden in little bits, has over $40 billion for alternative energy and sustainable projects that can be good for mature Israeli companies.
13 Israel-related headlines from the week of February 22, 2009
Filed under: Cleantech, Company Briefs, Environment, IT management, Information Technology, Mergers and Acquisitions, Nano, SaaS, Uncategorized, VC, cloud computing, virtualization
The week of February 22, 2009, was a fairly quiet one for Israel’s technology and business sectors… but there was still plenty that happened. News about Microsoft’s interests in purchasing 3DV Systems, a motion-sensing company, continued, as did layoff announcements. Tufin Technologies announced the general availability of its SecureChange Workflow software and IT Structures, an on-demand virtual enterprise software evaluation service, demonstrated its technology during VMworld Europe last week. For these stories and more, check out the rest of this week’s 13 Israel-related headlines below.
Cleantech
1. DOE & Israel Update Energy Cooperation Agreement
2. Ancient Jordanian wells radioactive, study finds
Investments, Economy and M&A
3. Stormy day for high-tech as layoffs, pay cuts announced
4. Microsoft Set to Bring 3D Motion Control to Xbox & PC Games
5. Venture capital investments rise in China, India, and Israel
Information Technology
7. Tufin Technologies Announces General Availability of SecureChange(TM) Workflow
8. Red Hat Targets VMware, Microsoft With Virtualization Line (Qumranet)
9. IT Structures Emerges to Take Center Stage at VMworld Europe
Miscellaneous
10. Financial crisis gives universities a chance to reverse brain drain
11. The Mobile Industry Meets Hollywood
12. Israeli ‘Spiderman’ attacks commuters
13. Nanotech activity in Israel jumps 150%
Is Formula Travel Solutions Ltd. (FTS) in talks to be acquired?
Filed under: IT management, Mergers and Acquisitions, SaaS, Uncategorized, cloud computing
VShield Software Corp. announced today that it has begun talks to buy an Israel based B2B software company that develops software packages for the travel industry, including hotel chains and several International airlines.
According to Andrea Zecevic, Chief Product Officer,
“The Israeli company will operate independently as a wholly owned subsidiary in addition to our existing Trust Vault platform. They have some great technology that can serve as a platform for future growth.”
One Israeli company that can fit the description is Formula Travel Solutions, Ltd (FTS). FTS provides advanced software solutions for the travel industry and its products include TOPAX Management, TOPAX platform, AMSYS 2000 and the TOPAX B2B site. According to the Israeli R&D database Matimop,
“The TOPAX platform includes the entire commercial, operational, and administrative aspects of Tour Operator activities, providing the necessary planning, costing, pricing, inventory, allotment, document printing, accounting and reporting. It includes hotel and flight reservations, packages, tours, transfers, car rental, and more.”
While it is possible that FTS is the mystery company that VShield is after, it is unlikely. FTS is an established company that has been around since 1982. It also has a parent company, Formula Vision Technologies Ltd. that would makes a sale more complicated.
Imperva’s busy month continues with SecureSphere Database Gateway for z/OS announcement
Filed under: IT management, Information Technology, Risk Management, SOA Governance, Uncategorized, cloud computing, data security
Imperva, an application data security company, today announced the SecureSphere Database Gateway for z/OS (DGZ), which offers end-to-end protection and auditing for IBM Mainframe Databases.
According to the announcement,
“SecureSphere DGZ provides comprehensive monitoring, auditing and protection for DB2 databases running on z/OS mainframes. DGZ tracks local and network activity by privileged users, non-privileged users, and applications to prevent data loss, fraud, and automate regulatory compliance reporting.”
Earlier this month Imperva named Henk Jan Spanjaard vice president of sales for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa and released that its business grew by more than 80% in 2008. According to thewhir.com, as VP Sales, Spanjaard “will direct Imperva’s aggressive growth initiatives in key European markets, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and The Netherlands.”
In 2008, Imperva added over 300 new customers and “boosted the total number of organizations protected and monitored by SecureSphere to more than 4,500 [in 35 countries].” Based on a USA Today article last week, Imperva isn’t just rising through the ashes of the current economic downturn, but, because cost-saving tech services are in demand, actually thriving.
Indicators of this include that the company recently signed a deal with SuccessFactors, hired Spanjaard (presumably in an aggressive manner) and invested in developing new technology. All in all, February has been quite a busy and good month for Imperva.
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