Blogosphere Vs. Analysts Round 2

I see that Michael Gartenberg, CEO of Jupiter Research (link to his post here), took issue with my post Lotsa Kool Aid which suggested that the " The bloggers of 2005- 2010 are the research analysts of the 1990s."

Says Gartenberg:

"Heh... You're kidding Michael, right? No one, least of all us, would diminish the role of the blogger in the 21st Century but to call them the new research analysts is about as accurate as those that insist bloggers will replace mainstream press....bloggers can help you generate buzz if you're starting out but if you think that's a replacement for data driven research and analysis, you're totally off base."

The Stalwart (as usual, right on the mark) comes to my defense with this post:

"We don't know (or care) to what extent blogs will pose a threat to the likes of Jupiter Research analysts, though his suggestions that blogs are good for mere "buzz" seems a little off the mark.

The real issue, for places like Jupiter, is how much of a monopoly they can maintain on "data driven research and analysis". At the moment, the biggest advantages a place like Jupiter (or Gartner) has, over mere bloggers, are the barriers to entry associated with the costs of full-time employees who can collect and crunch data.

Despite the fact that they employ "analysts", the real value-added from these firms comes from their data (e.g. marketshare info for handset shipments in Q3 '05. When you need that kind of info, it's best to find a Gartner report). The actual insights and opinions of the individual analysts (at places like Jupiter, or even on Wall St.) is somewhat secondary.

And as for the data collection, that's becoming easier too. New techniques of scanning the internet to collect sales information and prices are popping up. The idea of paying employees to call around to collect data may one day seem quaint. Then were does that leave the Jupiters and Gartners? Not sure exactly, but the sanguine outlook might be somewhat naive."

heh...ask any of today's 20-something or 30-something entrepreneurs any of the following questions and tell me the answer.
1. Would you prefer an audience with Om Malik or Jupiter prior to launching in order validate your product, service or message.
2. On the internet, does it really matter what analysts say? The users show the way. They use the content in ways many entrepreneurs did not predict and have helped markets that analysts have given up for done explode (read GOOGLE)
3. Would you pay Jupiter or Gartner $20K for market data or would you use Google to find it instead? In fact, freely accessible and re-postable data and analysis is becoming more powerful and influential since it travels the internet at light speed while much work done by analysts is behind a $20K firewall.

Now, you might say that this is well and good for the internet space but telecom and software is a different story. Let's look at the financial world. Since the beginning of time, stock research was assumed to be an expert function at well-known Wall Street firms (investment banks etc.) and wall street publications such as Valueline and others. Now, sites like SeekingAlpha have empowered the blogosphere and turned them into research analysts. If you think the quant data gathered by analyst firms is an unassailable competitive advantage, check out this link on SeekingAlpha. Savvy entrepreneurs will find the necessary data out there and someone will package it up and make it available to corporate America.

Why won't this happen across other industries? The internet has democratized expertise! In an era of zero-cost publishing, someone's opinion matters because he knows what he is talking about and not because he has the imprimatur of a research organization. These experts are in the blogosphere or are publishing independently in some other form.

Heh...Gartner probably thinks there is a 0.4 chance of all this happening :)

Web 2.0 Creator Communities

I loved Greg Yardley's post on Creator Communities. be sure to check out Yahoo's Brad Horowitz's rebuttal in the comments section and his original post. Here is an excerpt:

"I’d call the ‘creator-community’ the primary lesson of Web 2.0, but in fact creation-demanding services have been around for ages. Think about e-mail. Think about instant messaging. These huge applications are just frameworks for delivering user-created content to other users. While it’s possible to just passively receive e-mails or instant messages the vast bulk of people add their own content to the system, which in turn acts as an incentive for others to participate. A virtuous circle sucks everyone in, and e-mail and IM are now near-universal. I expect BitTorrent - which forces the user to upload as they download - is on a similar trajectory.

As a counterexample - think about the feed reader. Another framework for delivering user-created content to other users. However, the feed reader hasn’t yet found an application that demands participation and creation. For every creator of an RSS feed I imagine there are a hundred passive consumers; the community of feed reader users looks a lot like Horowitz’s pyramid. And that’s why RSS feeds have minimal impact compared to e-mail and IM. That’s why RSS isn’t ‘mainstream’. Until an application is invented that makes publishing a useful feed a natural and painless consequence of reading one, it’ll never reach ubiquity. (An aside - ‘edge feeders‘ do indeed exist in a very early stage of development. Am watching them closely.)"

I think this is particularly instructive in the emerging web video space. This space is spinning up very quickly and satisfying many users because the community is involved in contributing the content, rating the content, sorting the content and consuming the content. Entertainment sites like Metacafe (Full disclosure: Benchmark portfolio company) and video-sharing sites like YouTube are roping users into editing and sorting functions in metacafe's case and blog posting functions in YouTube's case.

I think Yardley's model is a good one to apply as a sniff test to web 2.0 companies. Think next gen game companies like Kartrider, Web 1.0 companies such as Epinions and Web 2.0 sites like Financial hub Seekingalpha. User contribution is a fairly good indicator of whether the site will increase in velocity beyond its initial users and contributors. Power Laws will still be major influencers on the degree to which individual members of the community will contribute and consume but as a core qualifier, Yardley hits the nail on the head.

Work places for people who the knowledge economy has left behind

The income gap between well-to-do citizens and poor people in Israel is widening. This socio-economic gap is to be expected on some level but its breadth is very troubling, especially in a small country like Israel.

I had a fascinating conversation with a friend of mine describing the plight of someone who the knowledge economy has left behind and is unsuitable physically for the manufacturing world. I think if we all thought about this for a second, we would all know somebody like this. These are wonderful people who are being downsized from Government jobs, administrative help and even junior lawyers and accountants etc.

It got me thinking that there must be a way to create sustainable jobs for non-knowledge workers out of the knowledge economy outside of the incidental job creation in restaurants and furniture business that service these knowledge-based companies. Unfortunately, no ideas came to mind immediately aside from call centers. Is anyone aware of work that has been done in this area? Do you have any ideas?.

Sixkidsandafulltimejob on Cnet

Thanks to Michelle Meyers for posting my Friday Blackberry Post to Cnet (link here) . I was pleased to see that the courts have not yet shut it down.

Top 10 Things I Will Miss About My Blackberry If They Shut It Down

10. Bathroom reading on your hip
9. Rapid email delivery
8. Getting dissed by Treo owners
7. I will need to buy an alarm clock
6. Smooth UI
5. Much more lightweight than other phones and email devices
4. Now I will have to have an antenna sticking out
3. One letter per key
2. My partners pushing me to get Goodlink from Good Technology (A Benchmark portfolio company)
1. Hiding it from flight attendants as you type away during takeoff

Lotsa Kool Aid

I have been doing a lot of work and research on the blogosphere recently and I am coming to two conclusions about our new medium that, a priori, may appear contradictory:

1. Everyone is drinking the same kool aid
2. The bloggers of 1005- 2010 are the research analysts of the 1990s.

What do I mean? Topics, companies and stories tend to pick up speed in the blogosphere much faster than they are picked up or cared about in the outside world. This is the result of top bloggers linking to each other and expanding on each others commentary and due to a few very aggressive commenters, pingbackers, diggers and talkbackers.

See this snippet from a great New Yorker article entitled "Blogs To Riches:"

"Huffington also neatly intuited the importance of linking, putting scores of A-list bloggers on her blogroll, realizing they would probably return the compliment."

You can follow a story from Gigaom or techcrunch, where they often break out, through the blogosphere, watching as it reaches hysterical escape velocity across all the tech blogs out there (of which there are a lot). The Net Neutrality discussions or web 2.0 company discussions are perfect examples. This point came through to me clearly from a recent post by Dion Hinchcliffe. Here is an excerpt:

The Wall of Hype: This seems to have calmed down a bit but it also might just be moving around. Web 2.0 hype does seem to have diminished in the face of some withering anti-hype and the hype cycle has moved more to Web 2.0-related developments like mashups and the latest round of Web 2.0 startups. Nevertheless, Web 2.0 promotion continues unabated in certain circles (My note: read: blogosphere)... I will give you my point of view one last time; Web 2.0 is real. And for that good reason, and some not so good ones, there is a lot of hype surrounding it.
The Wall of Ignorance. I find that most people in the real world (as in not the blogosphere) have no real idea what a blog is yet, much less a wiki.

In my view , this is the blogosphere drinking its own manufactured kool aid.

The second point is a little more subtle. In the 90s, if you sought credibility as a start up, you needed to get your sector's analysts on board. The likes of Gartner, Meta, AMR became large and ever more important for that reason. For whatever reason, customers felt more comfortable buying your product if it was recommended by one of these firms and good PR or coverage in a major newspaper or magazine was predicated on getting a reputable analyst to say something nice about your company or product and create a space or a magic quadrant around your start up. The research firms were credibility markers.

I find that the same is true today of the blogosphere. If you want to be on the map or picked up in the mainstream press, you need to be anointed by the blogosphere. Truth be told, for a while this was much better. You see, the little secret of the research organizations was that they were essentially pay to play. You need to buy the research to get the analyst's time so that they would know about you. Nobody ever admits this but it is true. For a while, the blogosphere was pure. But recently, I have seen one too many disclaimers of bloggers who are on advisory boards or who have done consulting work for a lot of these companies. The good news is that at least bloggers have the honesty to disclose it. The bad news is that I am sure deep down it influences who these influencers write about, especially in a medium that drinks its own Kool Aid.

Among the reasons, I link to seekingalpha and GigaOM on my blog is because they are dependable and transparent. This is critically important. The blogosphere is a very important place but we need to guard it with transparency and credibility both in terms of what is discussed, how it is discussed and who is funding its discussion.

Rabbi LIchtenstein on the Events at Amona

I thought this was a very thoughtful letter sent out in the name of Rabbi Lichtenstein on the events at Amona so I am posting the entire letter.

SICHA OF HARAV AHARON LICHTENSTEIN SHLIT"A

On the Events at Amona

Summarized by Shaul Barth

Translated by Kaeren Fish

A week ago, the Israeli government carried out the demolition of some of the houses in the settlement outpost of Amona, an event unfortunately accompanied by violence. I was reminded of an episode that occurred in 1970, a year before I made aliya. At Kent State, an enormous crowd participated in stormy demonstration against the Vietnam War, a war that was widely opposed among students. Some members of the National Guard who were present apparently felt threatened, lost their composure and opened fire on the student demonstrators. Four people were killed in this incident, which shocked the entire American nation. I was reminded of those days when I wondered, last week, what would have happened if one of the youths at Amona had, God forbid, been killed as a result of the police behavior. Aggression of the sort that we witnessed is an expression of weakness, not strength – especially when it is carried out by agents of the state, who are meant to maintain restraint and maximum control.

On various occasions, I have mentioned the fact that the prohibition against hitting appears in the Torah specifically in connection with the agent of the court: "Forty lashes he may give him; he shall not exceed" (Devarim 25:3). This seems strange: after all, it is prohibited to strike any person, at any time. Why, then, is the prohibition mentioned specifically as an issue pertaining to the agent of the beit din, who is assigned to carry out a punishment ordered by the court?

The answer is that it is specifically when a person enjoys a special status because of his position that there is a danger that his inner aggressive streak - the wild animal that exists within each of us - will burst forth. It is specifically in a situation where a person is performing his actions out of a sense of duty, when he feels that his actions have official sanction, when he feels that he is representing a system – it is precisely then that there is a need to emphasize the prohibition against "excessive beating." Indeed, it would appear that some of the aggressive feelings that the Torah warns about did find expression on that black and bitter day at Amona. Those actions represent a stain on Israeli society, and this crisis should shake us profoundly.

What took place is surprising because it is so different from what happened during the summer. During the Disengagement from Gaza, we witnessed how – regardless of political affiliations – the process was carried out with understanding on the part of both parties and a certain respect for each other, despite the distance between them. Great efforts were made not to be drawn into violence – neither on the part of the government nor on the part of the leadership of the public that suffered and was expelled; the latter generally restrained the public, both ideologically and practically. This time, that did not happen – on either side.

The difference would seem to arise from the fact that this time both parties believed that what was in jeopardy now was much more significant than what had been at stake in the summer. Even those members of the government who believed that the evacuation of Gush Katif was necessary and called-for, understood that the inhabitants of those settlements went there with the purest of motives and intentions, with governmental guidance and support, and were now paying a heavy price because the circumstances had changed - and the attitude towards them accordingly. The inhabitants of Amona, in contrast, are viewed by the government as violators of the law, engaged in patently illegal behavior, and the concern that this would not be a one-time event but rather a phenomenon spreading over a whole chain of hills triggered its action. On the other hand, the public that opposed with force the demolition of the houses in Amona did not act in the same way in the summer because Gush Katif was considered relatively peripheral, both geographically and existentially, while now we are confronting the evacuation of outposts located in the heart of the Shomron.

Hence, at Amona both sides displayed determination, but abandoned sensitivity in order to gain the upper hand. While the question of which side was in fact victorious is an important one, it seems clear which side lost: the State of Israel and its population as a whole. Thus, the question that arises in light of what we saw is – God in heaven, what are they waiting for? For deaths? Those who dispatch youths and fire them up to the point where they endanger the lives of soldiers and police by throwing cinderblocks at them – what are they waiting for? And those who send mounted police to suppress those same youth – what are they waiting for? This problem is a national one; even somone who is altogether cut off from one of the camps – emotionally, politically, ideologically – must regard the actions of both sides with concern.

Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that the Religious Zionist public must view the situation with even greater concern, and rightly so: partly because its institutions and constituency represent the principal injured party in these events, and partly because the vision of the Greater Land of Israel is one that this public holds especially dear. It would appear that it is specifically because we feel so strongly about these issues that our camp and its leaders bear an even greater and more significant responsibility – to consider their actions and the consequences thereof, and to grapple with the issues.

Therefore, it pains us particularly to hear, from within our camp, expressions that do nothing to heal the rift and schism, but rather aggravate and amplify them. According to the polls, we are currently witnessing the justified disappearance of a party (Shinui) that garnered considerable support in the last elections because its central message was one of hatred. Unfortunately, there are those among us, too, who attract and draw people along using messages of hatred and disengagement. Such trends express not only an inability to understand what is going on from the other side's perspective, but also an unwillingness to do so.

I make this point both with regard to those youth who rove the hilltops and with regard to important rabbis who are certain that what happened in Amona is a heavenly sign that the government means to break the back of the Religious-Zionist camp. Woe to us if we are not able to rise up, despite the difficult times, to gird ourselves, to understand the historical responsibility that we bear – both young and old – and to try to bring more insight to bear on our approach to the problems facing us. The problems exist and they will not go away. Along with the insight and restraint that are required, we need to understand not only our own needs and our own wounds, but also those of the other side. Along with our questioning of the measure of force and power mobilized against youngsters - and these are undoubtedly serious questions – we must ask ourselves what thoughts and feelings motivated the people who dispatched those youths, those who stoked the flames of violence against the police and the state. These, too, are serious questions. The same passion can be destructive, God forbid, or it may be constructive and valuable.

It was, as we have said, a black day, and heaven protect us from any more days like that one. At such times, what is required of all of us is soul-searching, the drawing of conclusions and the learning of lessons. Today, more than ever, we need to bring hearts closer – and we should start with the hearts of those in our own camp. We must act and pray for better days, when we shall be able to attain peace amongst ourselves; a true peace, a peace of understanding, a peace born of the will and ability to promote our own needs – along with an appreciation of the debate and of the needs of the other side. The events at Amona undoubtedly represented a stumble; let us act and pray that they not turn into a downfall.

(This sicha was delivered on the 9^th of Shevat, 5766 – Feb. 7, 2006.)

Broadband IS the solution to unemployment

With my two countries, Israel and the United States, falling behind in broadband penetration and unemployment still confounding Israel, I found the following posting to Slashdot very interesting.

"Well, let me detail my own situation then: I'm an IT engineer in a country where unemployment is in the double digits. In my specific age and education class it's over 25%. I only ever get few-month-long missions for ever-varying employers. I can be laid off in a single day with no compensation, and I know a pay rise won't be happening in years. Social care ensures I get a revenue in between, but only for a few months.

And aside from that, I make about half as much as my salary in Second Life using my programmation and innovation skills. I really consider this additional revenue to be my insurance against misery, should I not manage to get a new job after the current one, mainly because I can work at it from most places in the world, anytime, for almost as long as I want or can afford. That's some significant security in my opinion."

For those of you who don't know SecondLife (Benchmark is invested in Second Life) it is a virtual world with in-world and real world commerce and entertainment. Users can purchase, trade and sell goods and services in the world for real dollars. You can see a similar phenomenon in Kartrider, a Korean world with similar economic model. See this Business Week article on Kartrider (excerpt below).

After graduating from college this spring, Kim Hyun Wook of Seoul had been expecting to launch into a career as an engineer. Instead, he has joined the ranks of professional race car drivers -- though he never has to leave home to hit the track.

Every morning, Kim logs on to his computer using the screen name of Sarang (Korean for "love") and races against rivals in an online game called Kart Rider for at least eight hours. For his cyber-driving, he gets paid real money by a local clothing company, which in turn emblazons its brand name on the virtual driver of a virtual car. "I feel like a star," says Kim, 21. "My fans send me gifts, and I have a sponsor supporting my life."

What these worlds are proving is that with nothing more than some skills and a broadband connection, people are supplementing their income and staying off unemployment. This brave new world of the internet is creating "job opportunities" and earning potential in ways that we did not imagine.

Therefore, investing in the internet is akin to investing in highways and trains and other forms of infrastructure that spur economic growth. These "jobs" will spread to other more-connected countries if the US and Israel do not move faster. Especially in Israel, which is a small country, spreading subsidized broadband to the masses, can be easily accomplished and should be a national imperative to help alleviate unemployment.

When you hit this vending machine, it moos back

The premium ice cream junkie that I am, I was wowed when I came across Moobella (story here) today when going through a summary of this year's Demo Show. Moobella is a linux based ice cream vending machine.

Here is an excerpt from the Moobella website:

"Imagine the best ice cream you’ve ever tasted. Now imagine ordering it from a machine at the mall, the museum or your campus center. Every scoop of MooBella is made just for you! Right on the spot!"

Ever since I stopped drinking Coke 5 years ago, I have not had the fun of hitting a vending machine that eats my money. I am relishing the opportunity now that the payoff is premium LINUX ice cream.

Truth is, I can picture Bill Gates getting even more pleasure than me of slapping a Linux vending maching

Planes Trains and Automobiles

Some of you may remember this movie which starred John Candy making his way home in a blizzard. That is what the last 24 hours have felt like. I landed in Newark yesterday in a blizzard. It took me two hours to get from the terminal to the Marriot hotel across the airport. I waited outside in a beautiful, cold and serene scene. It was white everywhere as the few cars that dared venture out skidded around the airport in what looked like a bumper car ride. Amazingly, I got three meetings done yesterday, two at the Marriot Hotel at Newark Airport (One intrepid soul hopped his 4X4 to come and the other rode the train and hotel shuttle) and one in the city after taking the still-running NJ transit into the city.

The city was a magnificent mess. No streets were plowed. Grasping my rugged wheelie, I jumped over 3 food high curbside snow embankments. There were few people out on the streets in the frigid cold at 6am. I spent a good part of yesterday trying to reschedule my flight to San Francisco. I was on the phone and on hold so long with the 1K line that I went to bed last night humming the hold music from United Airlines. Nada. No flights from New York to SFO. Not sunday or monday.

I bunked up with a friend last night in NYC rather than spend an exorbitant sum on the rapidly filling hotels. I called United Airlines just before going to sleep and in desperation asked for a flight from anywhere on the east coast. I got the last seat on a noon flight from Washington DC to San Francisco. One problem, I had to get to Washington DC. I left that hard job to my assistant in Israel who got me the last seat on an Amtrak train to DC on one of the few trains that was not cancelled this morning.

I started out for Penn Station from Park Avenue and 22nd street. I hopelessly waited for a cab and after 10 minutes started my trek for the train by foot in the frigid 10 degree temperatures. The streets were still prety calm and definitely not plowed. I needed a combination of ice skates, cross country skis, boots and track shoes to navigate the ice, snow, goopy slush and 3 foot high snow hurdles. I had none of the above, just my very airy sneakers. I made it to the train in plenty of time (thankfully, it is not like the airport when you wait in security lines forever).

I am now sitting on this Amtrak train and it is magnificent. The entire eastern seaboard is whizzing by covered in white. The train kicks up a mini blizzard from the snow covered tracks, blowing it on the faces of frigid passengers who are standing on the platforms waiting for delayed trains to come. The trackside cemeteries look like islands of floating tombstones and the out-of-service trains stand frozen still. The bare trees are covered in snow. It is like living in a fuzzy dream. The whole world around is white, flying by at 150 miles per hour. It is beautiful. The sun is up now, shining off of the snow and reminding me that after this train ride, I have a car, a plane and another car so that I can get to sunny California.

P.S. - I have a cousin Daniel who is a big train buff, taking trains all over the United States and writing his impressions of the scenery. I never understood the fascination. Just for a brief moment this morning, seeing the cradle of America covered in beautiful white, I think I got it.

When is a cup of coffee not only a cup of coffee

I have commented on numerous previous posts that access matters again. That is why Google is pulling a network together and Yahoo's is hooked up with SBC. And, the RBOCs are flexing this muscle on the net-neutrality debate. For further proof of this phenomenon, see this comment from Starbucks which appeared on Paid Content.

"What a concept: have wi-fi in-store, will offer downloads. Anyway, at Starbucks' annual meeting in Seattle yesterday, chairman Howard Shultz spoke about, among other things, digital media. He said that the company has the largest Wi-Fi footprint of Internet hotspots in its stores, but it has yet to adequately leverage the service.
While he said the CD business "has a very long life," having Wi-Fi gives Starbucks a "unique proprietary competitive advantage...We understand the cultural relevancy of digital fill-up. I can't say when, but it’s in our future."
He wouldn't provide many specifics but said the company may partner with entertainment or Internet providers to create a proprietary network. "Starbucks is a network," Schultz said."

This is very meaningful. Companies who control the access point will begin using that leverage to upsell various items and find new revenue streams. Content providers need to pay careful attention to this phenomenon.

Sleeping pills

I am just getting off of a flight to New York and was reminded of this article from the NY Times about the increasing number of people taking sleeping pills.

"Americans are taking sleeping pills like never before, fueled by frenetic workdays that do not go gently into a great night's sleep, and lulled by a surge of consumer advertising that promises safe slumber with minimal side effects." (NYT)

"Another problem associated with using sleeping pills is a condition commonly called traveler's amnesia, in reference to the frequent use by people who travel across time zones. Such amnesia can occur when people return to daytime activities too quickly after taking the drugs." (NYT)

My anecdotal evidence from flying frequently is that almost everybody around me is popping a pill. Thankfully, most of the people getting up are not sleepwalking, they are just clumsily tripping over me on the way to the bathroom.


I have my own approach to sleeping on the plane, a couple of glasses of wine following a week's worth of my son Yehuda waking us at the crack of dawn, normally puts me out. In fact, as the name of this blog would bear out, I sleep better on the plane than at home.

But for those of you, not fortunate enough to hear the little pitter patter at dawn
or long chats with older children at night, here comes a new airplane sleep aid brought to us by airtroductions.com. This service allows you to post when you are flying and find a companion booked on that same flight with similar interests. Or, for the truly bored, you might even switch your flight to join a companion on a similarly-timed flight.

I have given this airtroductions concept a lot of thought and tried to figure out how it could match my needs. So here goes: I am looking for a very boring person who flies to New York often and will put me to sleep very quickly.

No Words

Yesterday's NYT ran a story under the headline "Bush Urges World Leaders to Halt Violence Over Cartoon" on the worldwide violence that has claimed countless lives following the publication of a cartoon about Muhammad. I had to do a double-take after seeing the words violence and cartoon in the same sentence.

This is completely abnormal and abhorrent and, unfortunately, telling of what we are up against with Muslim extremism spreading around the world. See this excerpt from the Times article:

Fury continued in other parts of the Muslim world over the cartoons, first published in a Danish newspaper and since republished widely in Europe and in at least one American newspaper. The satirical drawings depict Muhammad, including a drawing in which his turban is a bomb. Muslims generally regard any depiction of Muhammad as blasphemy.

International monitors pulled out of the West Bank town of Hebron after hundreds of Palestinians attacked their headquarters, news services said.

The only point they neglected to mention was the Palestinian attackers in Hebron were 12-14 year old school children let out from school for this.

The irony is striking given the number of anti-Semitic cartoons that appear routinely in the European press and the Arab press. No Jews have rioted because of that. It reminds me of the claim that suicide bombings are caused by the poverty in Gaza. There is poverty in Mexico too but nobody is blowing up themselves and hundreds of innocent people.

Citizen Journalism Comes to Israel

Together with Co-founder Michael Weiss and two intrepid editors, Ronit Sela and Yossi Saidov, we launched www.Scoop.co.il Israel's first citizen journalism site three weeks ago (in Hebrew). The results have been astonishing. We have over 400 citizen journalists signed up and our readership is growing daily. See this article in the worlds leading citizen journalism site Ohmynews.com on the launch of Scoop (excerpt below).

".. it was clear to that the country is ready for its first citizen-reporter Web site. Over 70 percent of Internet users are connected to the net with broadband. Israelis are "news-hounds" by virtue of living in one of the most dynamic countries on earth. More than 55 percent of Israelis don't trust the current media. And much like Korea, there are a lot of different social groups that want to participate in the "information industry." So, it's true to say that Scoop was born during the OhmyNews conference. When I returned to Jerusalem, Michael and I started to move things faster.

Since the launch, more then 400 reporters have registered for Scoop, with the youngest reporter being 12-years old and the oldest 80. We have reporters from all over Israel, reflecting the diversity of the country."

This is a democracy project! We want to enable all citizens of Israel to have a way to influence public opinion and make sure their news gets into the press. With all of your help we can be successful in encouraging good, well-toned, democratic discussion on a broad scale. Feel free to come write for Scoop or just read it. We think you will find the news very refreshing.

Maagalei Tzedek

I received the following request to my inbox:

"I arrived at your blog by googling maagalei tzedek. THe links in your text did not work. I am a Jewish educator in New Jersey and would like to introduce this organization to my students in the context of teaching Amos. Would you be able to direct me to the correct site? Many thanks. "

The web site is www.tav.org.il. For those who do not know the organization, I highly recommend becoming familiar with it. They are pioneering a social justice contract and educating a generation on respecting one's fellow man and the "invisible" people of society. On fast days, they run seminars in Jerusalem on social justice issues that attract thousands of people.

Maagalei Tzedek - Keep up the great work!

Scary Web 2.0 Picture?

See this link from Flickr. Pretty Scary. Definitely too many companies.

This week's sign the apocalypse is upon us

See this article from the WSJ on the workplace in the bathroom. Here are two excerpts (it is worth reading the full article):

"So it's come to this. The humble bathroom, long a place of refuge and solitude, is playing quiet host to more workplace transactions. Bathroom business has gone way beyond tapping out furtive emails on a BlackBerry. Lately, more hard-driving homeowners have converted their loos into virtual satellite workspaces, with retractable desks or waterproof touch-screen monitors. Manufacturer Acquinox of New York says sales of its steam shower/whirlpool units -- a hands-free phone is standard in each -- nearly tripled last year to 14,800 modules. Wisconsin-based Seura, meanwhile, reports rising sales of its vanity mirrors, which feature LCD screens in the glass. The mirrors, starting at $2,400, let users check their tie-knot, then flip a switch to watch the embedded TV."

And some of the hazards of working in the throne room....

"Working in the bathroom, of course, brings old workaholic conflicts (spousal discord, late nights) even closer to home. There's also Warren Struhl's worry -- that he'll be outed when making a call from there. Mr. Struhl lives in Boca Raton, Fla., but he's the CEO of snack-food maker Dale & Thomas Popcorn, which is based in Teaneck, N.J., so he conducts much of his business by remote. In the morning, he spends his first quiet moments in the bathroom reviewing his overnight emails. He often dials into work calls on his BlackBerry, and he figures that if he happens into the bathroom, the acoustics may give him away. To avoid embarrassment, he says, he'll cough to cover noises, or press the mute button. "They know by the echo," he says.

Another emerging hazard: the BlackBerry dunk. "There's something magnetic about a BlackBerry and a toilet," says Paul Normand, president of BlackBerry Repair Shop, a Houston company that specializes in fixing the devices. He says he gets about 100 broken units a day, and estimates five to 10 have fizzled out after customers dropped them in a sink, tub or worse. "They get leery when we ask them, 'Was the water clean?'"

I don't mean to dwell on my suggestions in recent posts that the newspaper industry was whithering but I have often said in public forums that "when you can take your online newspaper to the bathroom with you, that will be the end of the newspaper business as we know it today!" And now, we are not far off.

More reconnecting

My last posts elicited a bunch of comments. Some were on the blog and some on the telephone. The blog comments were all anonymous. That is a pity but I think it is indicative. Nobody wants to be caught expressing a public opinion on this topic (or publicly associated - see below). That is a shame. I think this is a valuable discussion.

I will add one comment to the first two comments on the blog. I agree that there is a leadership problem here. Interestingly, the Torah in describing Pharaoh says that he led the Egyptians in chasing the Jewish People toward the Red Sea. Rashi says that he wanted to show that it was very important so he led from the front. Our current situation is the Opposite. My father remarked correctly at our Shabbat table that this is a classic example of a feeble leadership doing battle: The older leaders sit at home and send the young people to stand on the front lines! That is wretched. This is of course true of BOTH the protestors and the police. If the Political, Rabbinic and Police leadership had turned up in Amona, we would not need an inquiry to find out who was responsible :).

Suggestions for Reconnecting

We need to break the apartheid and ghettoization of Israeli society so that we can all reconnect. Why do we have Yemenite communities and Ashkenazi communities and Anglo Saxon communities? Why do we need this isolation? Homogeneity further reinforces differences within our society. While we do not all need to agree, we do need to understand each other and find ways to cooperate and co-exist. Otherwise, I said in my last post, this will end badly.

Here are a few suggestions:
1. Instead of once again settling alone in Nitzan or elsewhere in small communities, the government should provide housing (dare I say free) in the Tel Aviv area for the evacuees from Gush Katif. Alternatively, some housing could be found in Sderot or Netivot where the entrepreneurial nature of the former residents of Gush Katif (they owned their own agricultural plots) could help elevate the economic situation.

2. How about a shabbat exchange program? We should pair up religious and secular, middle class and lower income communities to visit each other for shabbat. This could be done on an individual family level or on a community level.

3. My favorite one time event: Hands across Israel. Remember Hands Across America that raised money for the homeless? We need a rally in which people link hands from Dimona to Gush Dan and through Mea Shearim and from Ashdod to Ofra. This would be a symbolic show of unity that will hopefully lead people to rethink their attitudes toward others. No politicians. Just people.

4. Camp co-existence. I know this sounds like Seeds of Peace but what if we could do week-long camps in the summers where the goal of the camp would be to bring a diverse group of Jewish kids together.

These are just my top of head suggestions. I am sure you have more. Feel free to use the comments section to add your suggestions. And, if someone has the wherewithal, it would be great if there is someone who can help drive the project. We need to create this dialogue.

War of the Jews

Last night, I watched the scenes coming from Amona (cnn.com video link), a hilltop outpost in Judea, with horror. The beatings and blood administered both by the protestors and the police made me shudder.

Most of the press and politicians have been pre-occupied with allocating blame for the violence. Predictably, left-wingers like Rafi Reshef showed no sensitivity toward battered and bruised protestors and right wing MK Effi Eitam sounded like a rabble rouser with no understanding for the role of law-enforcement. I do not want to pass judgment on the protesters or the police. I simply want to make one observation.

When Jews battle Jews, we all lose. Like in the time of King Rechavam, son of King Solomon, we are once again becoming two kingdoms. Nobody needs a reminder of the bloody battles and exiles that ensued from that rupture. Assyria exiled the 10 tribes and not much later Nebuhadnezzar exiled the Kingdom of Judah. The War of the Jews documented by Josephus tells a similar tale at the end of the second temple period. When Jews battled Jews, the Roman's won.

Fast forward to 2005, the young, idealistic, salt-of-the-earth settlers have become disconnected from much of Israeli society. Much of Israeli society has also distanced itself from these modern day Zionist pioneers. This fissure is not good and does not bode well for the next 50 years of the Zionist enterprise. If we do not act quickly as a people and a country, we will cede much of the gains of the last 60 years.

This break sits on top of the widening socio-economic fault line that has developed between rich and poor and the religious fault line between haredim and other Jews.

We need to recognize that Jewish unity is paramount, especially in the land of Israel. We need to find ways to connect the hilltop youth to Shenkin Street in Tel Aviv and the entrepreneurial crowd in Herlzliya to the development towns of Dimona. And, we need to do it fast.

The Israeli government and members of Knesset are hopeless. In a fractured system of government such as Israel's, politicians thrive on reinforcing the differences in our society. Shas plays the ethnic downtrodden sephardi card and Shinui plays up its anti-religious themes. What we need is a peoples movement. In my next post, I will offer some suggestions for how to reconnect.

Google's Charity and Investments in Worthy Causes

While much of the financial world is focused on Google's financial results for Q4, I picked up this interesting quote from the conference call transcript (can be found at the SeekingAlpha).

"As we discussed on our last call during the 4th quarter, we contribute $90 million to the Google Foundation. This was a non-recourse, non-refundable donation and was recorded as an expense in Q4. We do not expect to make further donations to the foundation for the foreseeable future. We do however expect to make equity and other investments in for-profit enterprises that aim to alleviate poverty, improve the environment and achieve other socially or economically progressive objectives. We expect these investments to be made primarily in cash and to be valued at approximately $175 million over the next 3 years."

2 comments:

1. I think it is wonderful that companies such as Google contribute some of their profits to worthy causes.
2. I am certain that, having already established the Google Foundation, Messrs. Page and Brin will follow in the footsteps of Bill Gates who, through his personal foundation, has made a meaningful impact on world health. It is wonderful to see such successful business people giving tzedaka, charity, to those less fortunate.

A few serious questions:

1. In the call George Reyes, CFO, said "We do not expect to make further donations to the foundation for the foreseeable future." Why are they stopping the donations to the Google Foundation? Is it impacting cash flow too much? Was this donation an earnings management mechanism?
2. It is certainly worthy to "invest" in "socially and economically progressive" objectives. I was wondering if this was in-line with the normal course of business? Is it a separate line of business?
3. If someone has access to the prospectus from Google's secondary which raised $4Bn, was this investment objective in the use of proceeds?

And a few other questions:

1. I always assumed that Google's investment in search and Google News aimed to "improve the environment." With the reduction in need for newspapers, there are a lot of trees breathing a sigh of relief.
2. I have been trying to think through what "for profit enterprises that alleviate poverty" means. Hiring lower income workers and not Phd is certainly one way to alleviate poverty. Cheap food production is another but it is hard to see how that would have the margins of Google's current search and ad business (quick -- short the stock).
3. Oh and "economically progressive objectives:" I was not sure if that was a call for raising taxes or tax breaks for clean energy (oh…I forgot, that was environmental improvement).