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Helping Israel While You Waste Time

There are some people (lots, actually) who really get into role-playing fantasy type games – nowadays, mostly online. They’re a waste of time, as far as I’m concerned. These are the same people who like thrill rides at amusement parks, I have noticed. Not me; I can’t be bothered with online games (who has time?) and for me, just driving down the highway is enough of a thrill ride!

But helping spread Israel’s message online is something I always have time for. And believe it or not, I discovered an online game that does exactly that! It’s called PMOG, “The Passively Multiplayer Online Game.” Basically, you take on “missions” that entail your surfing through internet in a guided format. The author of a mission assembles web site s/he wants to introduce people to, and you get points for visiting. You can also lay mines at sites, which explode (the screen shakes a little) when a fellow PMOGer surfs to the site (they lose points, too). You can also “leave some love,” ie points, for someone to pick up at the site. There are also associations, merit badges, weapons, defensive measures, etc. – all the “tools of the trade” that you would find on a fantasy game site, except this one takes place all over the internet.

The Israel connection in PMOG comes with the missions members can organize and leave for others. PMOG users who take missions (for which they earn points) are directed to sites by the mission organizers, the idea being that they discover sites – and information – they might not have known. A few enterprising people have built Israel missions. One, called “Israel media,” took me to sites like the Israel Internet Statistics, and a couple of pages about anti-Israel bias in the media. Another mission is sort of an Israel travelogue, taking users to sites describing sites in Israel.

Most of the missions in PMOG, it should be noted, are “fun” missions, like “Wizards and other Magical Beings,” “National Peanut Butter Day,” “Ukeleles,” etc. Of course, a game is supposed to be fun – but this one is educational, too. Why not some missions on Israeli medical advances, or hi-tech stories (I’ve got a couple I could contribute!). PMOG could be an interesting educational tool!

RepORTs from the teens

A network of high schools across Israel that emphasizes high-tech vocational training, ORT is an educational powerhouse, its 100,000-strong student body representing about one tenth of all Israeli high school students.

With six branches within rocket range in southern Israel, ORT estimates that 7000 of its pupils are currently under high risk of Hamas attacks.

ORT’s Ronson School in Ashkelon, which educates some 1800 students, has temporarily closed its doors due to this situation, necessitating special tutoring and commuting arrangements so that the 12th graders don’t fall too far behind.

In the meantime, the school’s Eye 2 Israel / Yama and student blogging (informational site in Hebrew only) projects have encouraged students to use their tech bent to help foment a positive image of Israelis in the blogosphere – a motivation close to Israelity’s heart.

One of their bloggers, 14-year-old Rebeca Mayer, is an immigrant from Cuba. Although her English isn’t the most polished, Mayer’s accounts of her day-to-day life are a poignant reminder that there are real people behind every headline. As she puts it in her blog, “I decided to open this blog so all of you out there will understand what we’re going threw here in Ashkelon.”

Writing from inside a bomb shelter, where she and her family have been spending lots of time lately, Mayer wrote on December 28:

I’m really board here cause there’s nothing to do, my little bro is playing with my grandma with a train.

….I wanted to go out today and buy some shoes, but I guess this plan would have to wait, it really sucks to live in this kind of reality I just hope everything will be ok.

More recently, this past Tuesday, she wrote about her feelings of personal connection to the IDF soldiers who had recently been killed in combat in Gaza:

I feel so responsible for there death, cause I know they died to defend me.

They were supposed to come home as heroes but they come back in a coffin.

Now nothing could change, I just hope they will be happy up there in heaven.

As of yesterday, Mayer was planning on going to Eilat for the weekend for some escape and fun. We hope she finds what she’s looking for.

Image Ashkelon courtesy Jason Turner from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

Hope for Israeli Startups

Tivo, Skype, Java, and other technologies that we now wonder how we did without – all of them were first displayed and demonstrated at the world’s premier hi-tech show, DEMO. Being able to present at DEMO is a prestigious accomplishment, and in order to get in, you’ve got to have something special.

This year, there are ten slots for Israeli companies at DEMO ‘09, and the lucky companies chosen to present this year – out of 300 applicants! – will be announced this Monday in Tel Aviv (yours truly has been invited to check it out). Those going on to the show (this year being held in Palm Springs, March 1-3) are practically guaranteed a shot at the big time (over the past four years, DEMO presenters have raised well over $2.5 billion dollars after the show). Previous Israeli entrants have included, among others, G.ho.st, which gives users a “personal computer” of their own from any terminal in the world, with it’s own operating system and software, and Vringo, which pioneered the business of video ringtones. Attending the show are dozens of computer businesses pros and journalists, as well as angels and VC’s.

Click to see video about DEMO \'09

Speaking of money: Is there any out there for startups anymore? Haven’t all the investors been scared off, after losing their shirts on the stock market and almost every other investment vehicle? Some have, sure. But in recent conversations with a whole raft of entrepreneurs, I’m hearing that there is money out there – and that because of the crisis, they may even have an easier time getting some. With stocks now considered suspect, investors are looking for places to put their money – and startups with good ideas and a good model are more attractive than ever, because they’re seen as a better bet than speculative stocks right now. Of course, that could just be the “happy face” talk they’re putting on to impress me (or reassure themselves) – but there’s a definite logic there. Besides, there’s this company, which just a couple of months ago netted $19 million in VC money. Not a bad take during a recession – or a boom, for that matter!

Them’s the (Data Line) Breaks

Israel, being the high-tech powerhouse that it is, should be able to handle something as simple as a computerized primary election. But for two weeks in a row, in two different primary contests, the computers seemingly caused more problems than they solved.

All three major parties – Labor, Likud and Kadima – had decided to dispense with traditional paper balloting in their primaries this year. A paper ballot election run by party insiders almost guarantees allegations of corruption – and past scandals have proven that where there’s smoke, there’s fire. In order to remove from party functionaries the temptation to, say, “lose” some ballot boxes (as has happened several times in the past) and to head off accusations of corruption, even if they were untrue, the parties decided to computerize the process.

Last week, the computer system crashed on Labor primary day, forcing the party to cancel the whole thing and reschedule for two days later. In Monday’s Likud primary, the system more or less worked, but it was slow – so slow that voting hours had to be extended for three hours, while party members spent hours waiting on line for their chance to choose. As a result of their rivals’ experiences, Kadima, which has its primary next week, has begged off using computers, and will instead go back to paper ballots, despite the problems.

Network experts still haven’t figured out what caused the Labor system crash, but in the case of the Likud slowdown, at least part of the problem was attributed to – a tractor. While digging the foundation for a structure outside Jerusalem, a tractor apparently damaged a fiber-optic communications cable, shutting down communications in the Jerusalem area (and beyond) for several hours, a delay from which the Jerusalem area Likud polls apparently never recovered.

Could a similar communications line cut have been responsible for Labor’s computer problems too? It’s very possible – because it happens far more often than people realize. Erez Ronen in Yediot Achronot tells the story of his trip to the mall to buy a computer – and how he couldn’t check how well it surfed the internet, because a tractor doing construction in the area had broken the data line. Clearly, it happens more often than we realize. It’s the digital age’s equivalent of a water main break (those still happen a lot, too).

It’s not just tractors that can break data cables – ships at sea do their share of damage. Earlier this year, in fact, most of the Middle East – except Israel – was off the net for several days, and in some cases for weeks, because a ship’s anchor had spliced through one of the main underwater communication cables running from Egypt to Europe. Most of the Arab countries, Iran, and India, used the line for their internet and e-mail connections to the rest of the world. Israel, which uses a separate cable (the MedNautilus cable, pictured), wasn’t affected – leading to accusations that somehow Israel had engineered the shutdown of the internet, in preparation for a war against Iran! Eventually the break was discovered, but countries affected, including Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and India said they lost billions of dollars. Losing our net connection is annoying, whether you’re running an election or just surfing. But for communication companies – like the ones that ran the Labor and Likud primaries – there’s a bright spot: You can always find someone to blame for the fashla!

TechAviv hits the web

Earlier this month, TechAviv launched a new blog described as “1,000 Israeli entrepreneurs and investors that come together off and online to showcase, discuss and help fellow Israeli startups succeed.” Founded by Yaron Samid in the summer of 2007, Tech Aviv has built, first offline, a network of Israeli entrepreneurs located in Silicon Valley, New York City and of course in Israel. TechAviv came on my radar just a couple of days ago but has obviously been on the radar of every Israeli startup that I’ve ever heard of – evident in their list of Israeli startups and investors.

I’ve always been impressed by how unified and supportive the startup scene is here. It’s something I first noticed when working for a myriad of startups during the dotcom boom of the late nineties (none of which exist today!). Now with the advent of blogs and social networking this support system has become even more organized and successful. This past Wednesday, TechAviv hosted a meetup of several Israel-based startups at the IDC in Herzliya. Three startups, Devunity, Contrust and Waze all presented and showed off their websites and services. Next week I’m going to start a feature here called Israel 2.0 where I will focus and write about a different Israeli startup. Other big things are coming very soon on this blog, so stay tuned.

A Sneak Peek at the Future of Jerusalem Mass Transit

CityPass, the international corporation that is building and operating the Jerusalem light rail system, recently opened the doors to its hi-tech transit depot and we joined the tour. We learned more than we wanted to know about the facility’s electricity system and the minutiae of how the maintenance staff cleans dusty wheels.

The highlight for us, though, was getting a chance to wander through the train cars themselves. Despite seats still wrapped in plastic, the enormous vehicles – five times the size of a normal bus – were immensely impressive and a stark contrast with the desert landscape around them (the depot is located just west of the northern Jerusalem satellite community of Pisgat Ze’ev).

Each car consists of five articulated sections and can seat 64 (with a total capacity of 250). There are LCD screens to announce stops and magnetic card readers throughout. 24 cars out of a total of 46 have already been delivered so far.

The Jerusalem light rail has a few features not found in other locations, like France and Spain, where CityPass is operating. The vehicles have to contend with Jerusalem’s notorious hilly terrain. And all the windows have been reinforced to be resistant to stones and Molotov cocktails. A controversial security decision has meant that the light rail travels through the Arab neighborhood of Shuafat…but makes no stops.

Nevertheless, visiting the depot and seeing the cars all in one place gives one the feeling of being in a sci-fi flick: could these state-of-the-art contraptions ever roll through the historic but out of fashion center that represents Israel’s capital?

But that’s just the point.

Jerusalem used to have a more vibrant downtown. But in recent years, many of its more upscale shops have relocated to the Malcha Mall and tourists now flock to the Emek Refaim area. Much of the town center has been reduced to a sad medley of hole-in-the-wall shops selling cheap shmatas and rowdy teenagers who haunt the night hours.

That’s why I’m so enthusiastic about the light rail. Upon its completion, Jaffa Road will turn into a pedestrian-only walkway with the new fangled trolleys running down its center.

Freed from the narrow sidewalks and never-ending traffic, the street will experience a resurgence. Already you can see a row of new cafes in the space of a few blocks, flanked by my favorite The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (the only branch in Jerusalem). A European-style walker-friendly promenade is just the ticket for revitalizing Jerusalem’s core.

Getting there may not be so easy.

Jaffa Road is in the process of being dug up. Large swaths are currently blocked off entirely. Buses have been diverted to adjacent Nevi’im Street which is much too congested to handle the flow. Construction has been painfully slow, leading mayor-elect Nir Barkat to call for the entire project to be stopped and be replaced by high-speed buses.

I’ve already lived through this once. When I was growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, the City’s main artery, Market Street, was dug up for nearly a decade during the building of the BART subway. Businesses folded and Market Street was off-limits for private cars and buses alike.

Eventually, construction was completed and the street now boasts a range of trendy shopping and entertainment facilities. The subway brings in visitors from all over the Bay Area, conveniently and quickly. No one discounts BART’s effectiveness today.

The same will undoubtedly be true for Jerusalem.

A project as grand and complex as Jerusalem’s light rail system has never been attempted before in Israel (the high speed train between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv may eventually top it, if it doesn’t get derailed for the umpteenth time). After a peek at the vehicles that will, hopefully no later than 2010, rattle through town, I remain an enthusiastic supporter.

Barkat where he belongs

Municipal elections were held across Israel yesterday, with leadership positions up for grabs in 159 regional councils and cities. In Tel Aviv the race was extremely close, making for high drama into the night, as ballots were counted. However, the mayoral race in Jerusalem was arguably the most dramatic of all, with the very soul of the city up for grabs.

Outgoing Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski was elected five years ago by the city’s ultra-Orthodox sector, who knew that as mayor, he would fight hard for their agendas. Disillusioned by the then-outgoing Olmert administration, Jerusalem’s non-Orthodox populace largely sat out the election, paving the way for the city’s first ultra-Orthodox mayor. The biggest loser in that election – aside from all hopes for a pluralist, commerce-friendly, tourist-welcoming and culturally vibrant Jerusalem – was candidate Nir Barkat.

A high-tech entrepreneur and a champion of culture, Barkat went on to serve as an effective opposition leader in the city council, but when the ultra-Orthodox parties banded together and named Knesset member Meir Porush their 2008 candidate for mayor of Jerusalem, many feared a repeat of 2003’s results. And even if one believed that Barkat’s popularity exceeded Porush’s, one had to wonder about wildcards like the candidacy of oligarch-playboy Arcadi Gaydamak and Green Leaf leader Dan Birron, who had the potential to at least split the secular vote.

As a result of this situation, Barkat’s 2008 campaign featured some right-wing posturing moves that made some wonder if perhaps they’d be better off with Porush after all. But in the end, these efforts paid off, with many of the city’s National Religious elements supporting Barkat as someone who had their back. Ultimately, Barkat received over half of the votes, no small feat on a crowded ballot.

Democracy and change have been so thick in the air lately that perhaps a global reconnecting with the voting process also helped turn the tides. If apathy is what put Lupolianski in City Hall, a hearty can-do spirit is what has given us Barkat. And like that other high-profile candidate billed as the agent of progress, he certainly has his work cut out for him.

Economic crisis? Not quite yet

The economic news these days is depressing, gloomy, and quite frankly downright scary. And while Israel hasn’t yet fallen victim to the hysteria that is sweeping the US and the UK, where spending has collapsed overnight, the malls here are beginning to feel the first fall in sales as customers hold on to their wallets a little bit tighter.

Nice to read today then that despite the worsening financial climate, Israeli high-tech companies still managed to raise $600 million in the third quarter of the year – an eight year quarterly high, and up 45 percent from a year earlier, according to the Israel Venture Capital Research Center.

The IVC said the third-quarter capital raising exceeded all projections – and you can see it in the news. Just a couple of days ago, an Israeli Internet start-up, iSkoot, raised $19 million in investment. Most of the investment was in communications, followed closely by the Internet sector.

It can’t stay like this, however. VC’s are already warning people that belts are tightening, and that companies must reduce their burn-rate drastically if they are to survive.

“We don’t expect the same rate of investment in the coming quarters,” said Efrat Zakai, director of research at IVC. “However, 2008 will be logged as a record year, even if the fourth quarter comes in considerably below average.”

In the first nine months of 2008, Israeli high-tech companies raised $1.68 billion from local and foreign venture investors, up 34 percent from the same period of 2007.

“Israeli high-tech companies, responding to early signs of market changes and the falling dollar-shekel rate, have been raising follow-on capital to help them navigate through the long-anticipated global crisis,” Zeev Holtzman, chairman of IVC Research Center and Giza Venture Capital, told reporters.

It’s interesting to see how countries react to the current financial crisis. The UK and the US are undoubtedly deeply traumatized, but here in Israel, you can’t help get the feeling that people just aren’t taking it all that seriously.

Maybe it’s just a question of time, maybe, however, it’s a question of character. The Israelis kinda like a crisis. It’s a chance to come up with interesting solutions using a bit of old string, an elastic band, and a great deal of imagination.

This Year I’m a Voter…The Next Mayor Election Vote for Me, Your Deputy Mayor

Did you know that Jerusalem has six deputy mayors? And each one gets paid NIS 35,000 a month. So now you are thinking, how do I become a deputy mayor? Me too. But it’s too late for us because the election for mayor and city council are just two days away and we’re not on any of the party lists so chances are that we’re not making a career change any time soon. But for those of us voting it is important to understand that we actually get two votes, one for mayor and the other for city council. It is on the city council that these deputy mayors will sit as part of the 30-something coalition and make the crucial decisions affecting me and you.

It is also important to know that while the deputy mayors are making the big bucks, the rest of the city council is doing volunteer work–that is, they are not making a penny, or shekel, if you will. As Shira at The Big Felafel informs us:

“While the two highest elected municipality positions, mayor and deputy mayor, are paid positions, the other 29 seats on the council are volunteer positions. The mayor’s salary comes from your taxes, has his/her hand most tightly around the budget and has the best chance of passing his/her policy decisions. But the council members are either a part of the mayor’s coalition, thus helping the mayor pass policy and allocate money, or they are a part of the opposition, with a unique opportunity of exposing the improprieties of the coalition to the public and leading a strong opposing stance to the ruling force. So both votes are extremely important.”

Like Shira points out, both of your votes are crucial and with just a few days before the elections these “volunteers” are campaigning down to the wire trying to get you to vote for them. This past Thursday Hitorerut-Yerushalmim (Wake up Jerusalem) and Jerusalem Will Succeed made one of their last hits on the campaign trail in an English forum hoping to inform Anglo voters and make them vote for their team.

The head of Wake up Jerusalem’s list, Rachel Azaria, stressed the fact that their party does not answer to anyone. They are the people and they answer to the people and no one else. This list is dedicated only to the residents of Jerusalem and therefore does not have an adjacent party in the Knesset that they must take their cues from. They are young and most of them come from careers in social change.

And while youth can mean a fresh start for the city, Naomi Tsur of Jerusalem Will Succeed holds that against them, for the usual reason of inexperience. Tsur, former head of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Jerusalem decided to make the switch to government after her long battle with creating a sustainable Jerusalem. She explained that their party comes with mayoral candidate Nir Barkat. And if he is elected he will need the support of his coalition to help him implement his policies, thus he will need people from his own party to be a part of the coalition since they already agree with everything he stands for. As far as the young and fresh thing goes, Tsur said they have a young person on their list, as well as other representatives, like a native Russian speaker, French speaker, two pensioners and an Ethiopian.

So as you head to the startup capital of the world’s technologically advanced polling system – placing a paper in an envelope inside a cardboard box – remember to vote for mayor and city council. You can find a list of all the city council choices on The Big Felafel.

Jerusalem Election Diary: Haaretz gets it so wrong

I don’t usually write about the same topic two weeks in a row, but, with less than a week to go, the upcoming Jerusalem mayoral elections is so important that I feel compelled to post again.

Last Friday, Haaretz published an editorial slamming mayoral candidate Nir Barkat and endorsing “a responsible haredi” (a code word for Meir Porush, the only ultra Orthodox candidate running for the position). Many Jerusalemites like me were outraged.

The reason for Haaretz’s position is that Barkat has come out in support of building a Jewish neighborhood near the Arab village of Anata, at the foot of the Jerusalem neighborhood of French Hill. The area has long been a thorn in the Palestinian’s side: building there would help connect Jerusalem to the satellite city of Ma’aleh Adumim in the West Bank, but it would also have the effect of preventing territorial contiguity for a new Palestinian state.

Barkat says that building this new Jewish neighborhood will help solve the city’s “shortage of housing for students and young people.” But it’s also a clear ploy to help win over Jerusalem’s “swing vote” – the Modern Orthodox residents who, according to recent polls, are split between Barkat and rival Porush. Given that most of the city’s voters, whether religious or secular, tend to be right wing, it’s not a bad campaign tactic.

Whether you agree or disagree with Barkat’s position, Haaretz – by coming out against the current front-runner in the race – is saying something far more disturbing about Israel’s attitude towards Jerusalem.

Haaretz is, in effect, giving up on Jerusalem. Or perhaps they already have. In the eyes of the Tel Aviv-based newspaper, Jerusalem is already all religious; there’s nothing to do here; no nightlife; it’s too far away; too dangerous; too tense; and ultimately not even worth a visit. The Western Wall, the Old City, the quaint alleyways and gourmet restaurants, the cool summer air, the unique architecture, the spirituality, the Knesset and center of government – all of these are unimportant to the enlightened readers of Haaretz where the heaviness and tension that are part and parcel of Israel’s capital might, God forbid, impede the never ending pursuit of next party.

Indeed, to Haaretz, Jerusalem is not a city at all. It’s a metaphor, a bargaining chip on the geo-political stage to be divided in an eventual peace. Anything getting in the way of that end must be resisted, fought, denigrated. Haaretz couldn’t care less about the problems the city faces, from transportation gridlock to cleanliness and jobs, reverse emigration, religiously-mandated unemployment, and a rapidly deteriorating education system, all areas for which Barkat – in contrast to the other mayoral hopefuls – has clear, step-by-step plans for rapid execution. The quality of life in Jerusalem can go to hell, Haaretz is saying, as long as the next mayor doesn’t stoop to interfere with the inevitable outcome of Oslo and Annapolis.

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