Israel Innovation 2.0

Earlier this year I posted an entry about the lack of women in technology that included some of the famous women who contributed to technology and some of the causes that prevent women from studying fields related to technology or having a career in technology and connected all this to Israel.

I’ve been waiting for a good time to post the follow up, and was going to post it back in June after Roi Carthy of TechCrunch mentioned, but didn’t cover, the question in his post about three of Israel’s most-promising female entrepreneurs and then again last month after Ada Yonath won the Nobel Prize in chemistry, thus becoming the first Israeli woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first woman since 1964 to win one in chemistry, but wasn’t able to either of those times.

Fortunately, Boris’s post “What is keeping women out of technology?“ on The Next Web today has given me another opportunity to post this. He suggests that considering the 50/50 male/female attendance he recently saw at a networking event and the 44% women who read The Next Web but how few of them comment, fewer women are in tech compared to men because women miss important phone calls and never bring their business cards with them.

These are interesting points that can perhaps take women out of technology but they are not the main factors. How many of the women at the networking event or who read The Next Web are actually on the tech side of technology and not just the marketing or journalism side? How many of them have backgrounds in science, math, computers or engineering?

The problem is that women first need to be interested in technology and pursue that path. Even if they are interested in math, science, technology when they are younger, women face a lot of social pressures as they grow older that challenge their pursuit and ultimately result in many abandoning these areas.

In her dissertation “Women in the Land of Milk, Honey and Hi-Technology: The Israeli Case,” Ronit Kark takes an in-depth look at Israeli society and the underlying dynamics that are preventing more women from going into technology, engineering and science in Israel.

The reasons that Kark gives for why women are being kept out of technology in Israel include: the high school education and military service of women, familialism and motherhood in Israel and the role of the Hebrew language.

Taking this further, based on my first post and Boris’s, while Boris is planning to teach his two daughters PHP when they are old enough, he should also make sure that they gain the self-confidence to go along with those skills. Real encouragement is also one of the things we can all do to get more women in technology.

Note: Major thanks to Guy Tessler of the American Israel Chamber of Commerce in the Southeast Region who pointed out Kark’s study to me.

A few months ago I had the opportunity to meet Daniel Shein of IDC’s Media Innovation Lab (MiLAB) and to hear about the project he was working on then. Shein has since started LoFT with two miLAB friends and released its first  project, LooKATOR, an application for Google Android phones.

LooKATOR uses Augmented Reality to enable users to find the best WiFi signals by opening the app and holding up the phone, which will show the signals around you with their relative strength and direction.

According to the site, “LooKATOR uses vector-based models that continously update as the user moves around to calculate where WiFi signals are coming from – so you’ll always know where to go for better reception.”

Shein’s team is currently working on new features for it including click-to-connect and password security, as well as a version of the app for the iPhone.

Here’s a look at the LooKATOR for Android in action.

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

2. Fifty Best Tech Startups

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

6. Update on the Cloud

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

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

Batteries Not Included

Saving energy – one step at a time

Going On A Water Cequesta

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

Red Bend Software ‘Continues to Dominate’ in Firmware Over-the-Air Updates, According to New Ovum Study

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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:

1. Israel Internet Society Research Grants
2. US-Israel Binational Industrial R&D Foundation (BIRD)
3. US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF)
4. Intel-Annual Research Grants Program
5. Technion Research and Development Foundation
6. Israel Science Foundation
7. Incubators (Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor Office of the Chief Scientist)
8. Call for proposals (Israel Ministry of Science, Culture and Sport)
9. Yozma Group

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.

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.

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

17. One to Watch: Tvinci

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.