| Kinnernet Israel - Will Gates, Olmert Join Internet Gurus, Vardi?
By
Joel
Leyden Jerusalem
---- March 7 ...... At first glance it appears like a gathering of Mossad agents.
Vardi is chairman of International Technologies, which is engaged in private hi-tech investments for its own account. He is one of Israel’s hi-tech veterans, with 38 years of founding and helping build some 40 hi tech companies in Internet, software, telecommunications, electro-optics, energy, environment and other areas. Yossi Vardi is also the founding investor and the former chairman of Mirabilis Ltd, the creator of the highly popular instant messaging program ICQ which pioneered the internet-wide instant messaging phenomena, making it one of the most successful and popular Internet products of all times The company was acquired by AOL for $287 million, to which he still serves as an advisor. Vardi is respected as one of the brightest and most open techies in Israel. One can always spot him as a speaker at an Internet or tech conference in Israel. The Israel News Agency tried to reach Vardi to comment regarding the upcoming Kinnernet. Our calls were not returned. From second hand information on the Net, one can learn that Vardi has pointed out that his native Israel has produced three major brands, that have more than 350 million users: The Bible, Christianity and ICQ. All three used word-of-mouth marketing to achieve popularity. It took the Bible (Old Testament) 2700 years; Christianity 2000 years and ICQ less than 10 years. The difference: technology improved the tools. "The Internet is word-of-mouth on steroids," he said. Vardi has illustrated that research shows that conversations are the number one form of human entertainment, over storytelling. That's why we lay down a book or stop watching TV when the phone rings. Yossi also used the example of Emory University Prof. Gregory Burns who has done research that reveals when release the same brain chemicals when they are collaborating as when they are having sex or gambling. "We are hot-wired to collaborate, "says Vardi. Vardi, who is a member of the board of Amdocs, served in the Government of Israel as Director General of the Ministry of Development (being then the youngest ever appointed — at the age of 27), as the North-American Director of the Investment Authority and as the Director General of the Ministry of Energy, leading the oil related negotiations in the Israeli — Egyptian peace talks. After leaving the government, and on its request, he led the peace economic and regional cooperation negotiations with Jordan, as a special advisor to Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Finance, as well as heading the Israeli effort for preparing the Israeli plan for regional cooperation and participated in the Wye peace negotiations with Syria, and in the economic discussions with the Palestinians. Vardi has also chaired number of government-appointed commissions and committees, among them the Public Commission for the Regulation of the Electricity Sector, The Public Commission on Raising Venture Capital in the Stock Exchange, the Fertilizers Development Council, the Oil Explorations Concessions Council, and others. He also advised the Government on initiating both Yozma and The Bi-national Industrial Research and Development Fund. Vardi is an advisor on Middle-Eastern economic affairs to the Council of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations in the U.S, and serves on the board of governors of the Weitzman Institute.
Vardi is a member of the World Economic Forum. He is the chairman emeritus of the Jerusalem Foundation. He served on the Advisory Board of the Bank of Israel, on the board of directors of the Development Corporation for Israel (State of Israel Bonds), on the Board of Governors of the Hebrew University, the Open University and was the co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Israel Chemicals, Chairman of Israel National Oil Company, Negev Ceramics, Transportation Enterprises and others. He served on the Boards of Directors of a number of Israel’s major companies. Among them, lsrael Electric, Elite, Bezek (Israel's national telecommunication company), Sonol, Scitex, Oil Refineries, Haifa Chemicals, Dead Sea Works, Dead Sea Bromine, Arkia Airlines, Koor Communications, Chemicals and Phosphates, Maariv and Hamashbir Hamercazi. Vardi has acted as an advisor to the World Bank, United Nations Development Program, the Mexican government, and to the CEOs and the chairmen of Occidental Petroleum Corp, Signal Corp, Allied-Signal corp, Wheelabrator Frye Corp. and Siemens-Albis A.G. He is co-author of Electric Energy Generation: Economics, Reliability and Rates published by M.I.T. Press. Vardi has also published various scientific papers on energy and operation research. His entrepreneurial accomplishments have been chronicled by numerous local and foreign business publications. He received numerous awards for his achievements among them the Prime Minister’s Israel hi tech award for life achievement, Entrepreneur Of the Year and the Rominisiaru prize for Economics from Tel Aviv university, and CEO!’s Entrepreneurs Hall Of Fame. So why has this professional Israel communicator remained silent on Kinnernet? "The Internet is word-of-mouth," says Vardi. Which would then make this INA / Google News story "word of mouth?" So here we have the ultimate contradiction. ICQ became a success through viral marketing. So now one would think that Vardi does not have to rely upon interviews with journalists. No news releases. No control of information regarding what Kinnernet is or is not. Vardi is very Israeli. His marketing methods are very Israeli. That is - many Israelis believe that if you have a good product or service you need not advertise it. No need for PR. It is this belief which has led Israel to suffer from one of the worst images in the world. Remember, not even after AOL bought ICQ for $287 million, not a dime was ever spent for marketing! A recent BBC survey reveals that 56 percent of respondents from 27 countries perceive Iran and Israel as two nations with most negative influence, followed by United States and North Korea. Roughly 56 percent of 28,389 respondents from 27 countries had at least one negative opinion regarding Israel, while a mere 17 percent had at least one positive opinion on Israel. As for Iran, 54 percent had one negative view of the Middle East nation, while 18 percent had one positive view. According
to one of the organizers, Kinnernet has no "spokesperson." No public
relations firm handling Kinnernet. Another organizer pleaded with the INA not to write about Kinnernet until it was over. She had stated that it was a "private event" and "did not want journalists bothering the families". According to the Kinnernet 2007 Website, "The camp is closed, private event, by invitation only." But also states: "We are very sorry, but we can not accommodate spouses, siblings, pets (other then gold fish )." The event has several commercial sponsors and even displays Google ads on its Website. So we ask: "how can event which has over 200 of the best Jewish and Israel minds and abundant financial resources, discussing the future of the Internet not be news worthy?" First, let's take a more in-depth look at Kinnernet. Kinnernet is taking place in Israel from March 15 to March 17, 2007, at the Ohalo resort on the Kinneret (Israel's Sea of Galilee). The Kinnernet 2007 site states in their "who" section: "In cooperation with Hubert Burda Media, and following Tim O'Reilly's original Foo Camp, we are inviting this year again about 150 net and technology - addicts, nerds ,geeks , thought leaders, and other creative people ,in order to give like-minded individuals the opportunity to gather informally and discuss topics and concepts that are of interest to them, in fields such as Software development, Internet culture, site building, blogs, forums, social networks, chat rooms, instant messages, P2P, search engines, web services, Wi-Fi, open source, Email, Infrastructure services, Cellular services, Computer games, Interactive T.V, VOIP, technological trends, Gadgets, Security and more, to share their thoughts , work-in-progress, show off the latest tech toys and hardware hacks, and tackle challenging problems. Together we will try to figure where the Internet is going and what are the prevailing trends. For three days we will get back from on-line chat to the vanishing art of face-to-face conversations. The site further states regarding Camp Activities: "In order to participate you must contribute to the program! The camp is not about any business related issues (two of the reasons why not, no Power Point presentations other then for humoristic purposes ,please! ), only about the Net’s culture, content, future and technology. We'll have some planned activities, but trying to migrate the spirit of open source and open code to the camp, most of the agenda will be determined and performed by you. We'll provide space, electricity, a wireless network, and a wiki. You bring your thoughts, ideas, passion, enthusiasm, and projects. We all get to know each other better, and hopefully come up with some cool ideas about how to change the world. What will be going on: The camp will be centered around the following major themes; presentations: (see the onion http://www.theonion.com/content/node/30903 ). Kinnernet discussions will include - the Serious stuff! Kinnernet Workshops will include "in the spirit of sharing and collaboration": Internet and computing, Cool stuff, Hack (white hat only !) Google, amazon, Ebay or other popular sites, Travel, Art: photography, 3D, crafts , cooking, well-being, Hebrew for beginners, Martial Arts in theory practice and bits Ola Ahlvarsson - An odyssey in how Karate, Kung Fu, Thai boxing, Tae Kwon Do, Kick boxing, Tekken 2 and other attempts to kick punch and wrestle are fascinating people. How to grow your company international? Ola Ahlvarsson: I want to sit down with those of you who have good, bad and ugly experience of going international and compare notes, draw conclusions and hopefully become wiser. The Future of TV with Jeff Pulver: We will take a look at the effects of the broadband Internet on the future of TV, Film and Broadcasting. Difference between IPTV and TV over IP. Defining Unisodes and Episodes. Is RSS the future for TV Distribution? Who is producing for 320x240, for the 2" iPod and for the ten foot IPTV experience? Who happens when the traditional broadcasters wake up and try to apply legacy regulation to prevent Internet TV from happening? Does Long Tail TV have a future? How do we expect consumers to discover this long tail content? Why are we seeing an explosion of Long Tail Internet TV now? How do you join the Internet TV revolution? Creating avant-garde artistic, silent mobile video Gil Rimon: Try to formulate a cinematic, artistic language for video on cellular cameras. Following the 90s - "Dogma" movies, to the contemporary Avant-garde Dugma micro-movies. Some applicable rules: One session movies with only "pause" and "record" editing. Using hyper-realistic angles, a lot of close-ups and no soundtrack, for instance. Fear Greed and Disruption - How to disrupt an industry and make $100 million on the way with Jeff Pulver. A look back at the past 10 years of the evolution of the IP Communications Industry. During the discussion I will be sharing some of the lessons learned which can be applied by others to disrupt other industry sectors. Lunch and Learn @ our Hummus 1.0 workshop. For years the Israel Innovation phenomena has remained an unexplained mystery for those outside of the country. We ( Kinnernet ) feel it is time to unfold the mystery and share with you that Hummus is the source of the Israel Genius. Hummus is the secret weapon used by the Israeli High Tech industry for years to fuel the brain cells of its' talents. Yet knowing the secret is not enough, most important is how to apply this knowledge: it all about how to eat it! At our Hummus 1.0 work shop - we will share with you (step by step tutorial) how to eat this mysterious brain food as part of a nutritious and healthy lunch. Date: Friday 16.3 Time: Noon Location: Front balcony of the Ohalo dinning room. Who should attend: Kinnernet participants from abroad Instructors: Gilli and Yariv Hints: 1. It is NOT a DIP. 2. It is All in the wrist. Notes: 1. A Hummus 2.0 advanced workshop might (or might not) be offered at Midnight focusing on blind Hummus tasting. Disclaimer: Consumption of over 1/2 KG of Hummus a day may cause a severe appearance change over time (mainly in the waste line area). TechSpec: Here is the complete Tech spec of Hummus Great Hummus explorers: A task to explore the best Hummus. The Social Web. You're welcome to add topics here. This will be an open discussion with different leads, about the different and practical aspects of social interactions and user generated content on the web Derivative Viral Growth – Yael Givon The pros and cons of riding someone else's tide wave or how can you enjoy the tide of Skype, YouTube, Flickr etc. PGUC - Passively Generated User Content - Davidi Silberstein "wisdom of crowds" vs. user generated content Flickr as a social tool – Yael Givon How online pictures change the offline social scene Social shopping: the future of e-commerce or a fad? - Alon Cohen. From Pareto to the Long Tail and back – Yaniv Golan. The power of aggregation – from small building blocks to the Eifel Tower. The Arab world is making its move – Idan Feigenbaum. Latest trends in the Arab online world. TalkBack – history, present and future – Amit Jurgenson How to get your house filled with people by writing three words Gray Interaction - Maya Lotan. The Great Origami Workshop with Arnon Katz. After the last year success of the Great Origami Workshop we are committed to continue with the tradition, and bring this exciting workshop once again to Kinnernet. This year we will create only with papers: Real Dragons! Frogs! Boats and Yachts! One Humus! Samurai! Flowers! And many more…. Wanted!! Top models for the new paper collection. Save your place in the workshop today!! (the number of papers is limited). For RSRV please contact Arnon Fire Eating for Absolute Beginners Itsik Orr No previous knowledge is required, only guts (heh heh). Actually you don't really digest the fire so you don't need guts. Just balls. Unless you're female. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that the only thing between being your old boring self and being a fire eater is a psychological barrier. You're welcome to come and overcome. Cyclic breathing for Absolute Beginners with Itsik Orr Ever wanted to play a didgeridoo? Or better yet - make an endless farting sound with your lips (go on, admit it, you always craved it)? The dij is the easiest musical melodic instrument I know - once you get the hang of cyclic breathing it's almost as easy as singing. Cyclic breathing can also induce a state of meditative high, almost, but not completely unlike hyper-ventilation. In other words - It's fun, not too hard, and requires no previous knowledge. The Mathematics of Juggling with Itsik Orr. Warning: Super ultra geeky workshop! The workshop will start with a brief introduction to juggling. Knowing how to toss 3 balls (and to catch them of course) is not a prerequisite, but note that Segev and Ofek will be conducting a "how to juggle" workshop prior to this one, and it's recommended that you take it if you're interested in redundant, frustrating and useless activities of this kind. The core of the workshop however will deal not with juggling itself but rather with the mathematics governing it, namely the Siteswap System and how useful it has been since its invention (by three separate people independently, around 1985) for communicating juggling patterns, inventing new ones, and writing realistic simulators for juggling. I'll try to do as little lecturing and as much demonstrating as possible, to minimize the percentage of participants falling asleep before we're over. Build Your Own Atlas Gloves by Mushon language: hand-gestures www.atlasGloves.org Tags: DIY, hack, interface, controller, Google Earth, Processing, cheap You are only 10 minutes and $8 (=2 keychain LEDs 2 pingpong balls) away from having your own 'Minority Report'-ish hand-gesture controller (for Google Earth and other apps) Participants: Augmented Reality vs. Real Reality with Tal Muskal, (Jan Wieghardt). In a world where wireless Internet connection everywhere, head mounted displays, and visual recognition is not sci-fi anymore, Some very cool applications may be in reach. In this workshop i am going to introduce Mixed/Augmented Reality, a technology which has been around for several years, and I think will become more and more practical over the next few years. We are going to play with one Augmented Reality Toolkit, and discuss some interesting applications (mainly, applications that you are going to suggest) and we will also talk about what the Semantic Web has to offer in this field. In a second step we will be looking at some applications (such as a ar-based navigation systems - in simulation) that will be part of consumer products in the near future. We will discuss how to realize the necessary context awareness for such systems and how to sidestep current blocking points. Technology for the Superstitious with Ofer Gadish and Gil Shai Superstitious? Innovative? Either way, you'd want to join this! Help us create a better world, by inventing gadgets that help the superstitious: avoid misfortune, keep themselves and their family safe from the evil eye, bring luck to everything they do Touch wood! Mountain Biking in Israel: the People, the Places, the Passion Shimon Schocken After biking in Turkey, Bulgaria, France, Greece, New England, Australia, Costa Rica and Equador, I am now convinced that Israel is the #1 place in the world for mountain biking. Come see why, and learn how to meet beautiful and powerful women in the trails. By Shimon Schocken, author of the first blog-based book published in Israel. Back To The Future: Technology in Science Fiction Movies with Ofer Gadish and Gil Shai. What futuristic technologies that were science fiction in the 80s, are feasible today, and how? If you are intrigued with this question, and want to help answering it, join this workshop. In order to foster a productive discussion, we reviewed 5 technology-oriented, popular and influential Sci-Fi movies made in the 80s, and classified the innovative technologies by feasibility. We intend to present our analysis results to the audience and trigger a discussion about how to implement those Sci-Fi devices today! Who sold the Internet and why do weirdos rule with Alon Cohen. The Internet, Virginity, a wedding dress and other weird stuff sold at online auctions, The weirdos economy, eBay hacks: How to get the best deals and not get ripped, hacks for sellers and the eBay API (web services). e-commerce at 2010, or: what would you do if you were running eBay, Amazon or Walmart? Hacking-the old fashion way with Eli Shraga. A Very Slow Liquid Indeed Indigo Melting glass is exciting! One moment you're holding a rod of solid stuff, and the next one (well, a torch is involved) you have this honey-like liquid to play with! It's simply magic! In this workshop we will learn the basics to understanding glass and safe lampworking. Phone App Development for the rest of us! Python for Series 60 Python is a very powerful but also a very easy language to learn. Many big players use it in the back end (Google included). Over the last 2 years a new and powerful version of Python has been developed and released by Nokia that enables anyone to develop apps for Symbian Series 60 Phones in a very easy and quick fashion. This workshop will show how easy it is to develop a mobile phone app using this technology and will show examples and tutorials for those who want more. I will bring 2 phones to play with, but anyone with a Nokia S60 phone is welcome to come and install the environment and play with it. aLL EARs - A KINNERNET 2007 WORKSHOP proudly offered to you by Michal Rinott Say: NO MORE to the domination of the eye in our interactions with technology. Begins: THE AGE OF THE EAR. The age of interactive sound. This workshop will be divided into two parts: An expo of the funkiest, coolest, smartest interactive devices that use sound in innovative ways. A blender you shout at, an audio shaker, finger puppets that howl, things that tap on pizza boxes and more. How to actually make this stuff (or at least prototype it). A hands-on intro to MAX / MSP - an exciting environment for creating sound interactions quite easily. You will make your own personal sound interaction! We will hook up some sensors and such so you can get input form the real world and use it as input to your interaction. Hope to see you there, Michal. Quick Guide To Microsoft Open Source Web Platform, by Shahar Nechmad. Yes. I know. It's really not cool to develop on the Microsoft platform. Yes. I should be ashamed of myself even mentioning the possibility of using Microsoft technologies. But for those of you, who are willing to listen, I will try and show you how much change Microsoft has gone through in recent years, and why you should take a good look at the new offering such as the new Ajax Platform and ASP.NET. 2007 stuff above! AJAX: A Practical Tutorial How to Code a Web Chat System in 60 Minutes by Eli Marmor, in Hebrew (slides and examples in English, code in JavaScript). The new (?) revolution which aims to change everything you've ever known about the web, and is the main star behind "Web 2.0", will be presented in a live (coding and) demonstration. While a knowledge of JavaScript is required to understand the internals of the examples and in order to learn how to take advantage of AJAX for your needs, everybody else is welcome too to be impressed by the examples, and to learn how AJAX gives better results for less effort. Sailboats: Make it work (by Ezri Tarazi) Following the human sailing achievements in the Dead Sea, we'll do a workshop how to build a data-carrying sailing boat. You can then work on your own in the Garage. Sailboats: Make it work fast (by Nir Shental) How to make good boats great. Risotto workshop by Rafram Chaddad: After Thursday night, you will all know how to make a divine risotto. Cheese workshop (by Rafram) I will present the most comprehensive guide for cheese families, aging and terminology. And, tips on how to buy, cut, taste and keep cheese. bring your own cheese/food. The Zen of Knitting: The Hand, The Eye, The mind (hands-on tutorial by indigo) Learn how to take a break and relax a stressful day. When your hands and eyes focus on this repetitive, rhythmic activity, You free your mind to effortless, streaming contemplation. Yes, knitting can be used as a form of meditation. Knitting will also improve your fine coordination, your concentration abilities, your social skills, your sweaters, your pick-up phrases, and your relationship with grandma. BTW, Men knit too. It's trendy! If Russel Crowe can, so can you! Introduction to Digital Culture Jamming or How can you protest with Barbie with Nimrod Kozlovski. Culture Jamming is a social movement which opposes the commercial culture of consumption and aims to regain a culture which is created and developed by the people. As Mark Dery defines Culture Jamming, it operates by “Media hacking, information warfare, terror-art, and guerilla semiotic all in one”. The workshop will introduce culture jammers, the anti-commercial warriors of the Internet culture and present their modes of operation. We will explore how culture jammers effect the Internet culture with handful or innovative toolkit of protest: subverting commercial messages, defacement, domain names hijacking, anti advertisement campaigns, virtual sit-ins, mob protest etc. So, bring your Barbie dolls with you and make them a tool of online protest. From Startup to NASDAQ - Top 10 Lessons Learned with Bob Rosenschein. Answers.com grew from the original GuruNet 1-click popup tool to a question and answer information resource and the 120th most visited site in the US. The workshop will focus on a few successes and mostly our many pitfalls and mistakes made along the way.
Kinnernet Shows and performances: will include Thursday evening Gadtethone Olympics - "My phone is smaller than yours", and other gadget-bragging. Friday evening e-Xtravaganza! - playing music, video, standup, glass eating - what ever your talents are, unveil them! The Town Square Clubs and Arcades: The Arcade: Games Demos - Video games, Robots, tarot card reading, and more ! help to make Kinnernet rocks! The Cotton Club - Music and Digital Art Bring. Great Outdoors activities will include AirShow flying objects, telescopes, rockets on the vast greens. Robotics Alternative Vehicles Garage: Build It on site! Kinnernet
appears to be one very warm, fun and relaxing Internet conference which should
allow for an abundance of creative thinking. To say that Kinnernet is a "private
event" is a joke. On a simple Google search one will find more than 65,000
pages dedicated to Kinnernet. This includes some very open and honest descriptions
of all Kinnernet events, discussions, workshops and fun activities.
Yossi Vardi is to be truly complimented for creating this educational, networking
Internet event. For bringing many to Israel who will witness that we are not a
country of terrorism, but rather of peace and hi tech. But Vardi fails in bringing
this message to masses. On one hand Vardi states: "We are hot-wired to collaborate,"
yet on the other hand not one journalist has been invited to report in real time,
to become embedded of and for Kinnernet. This is an example of professional Israel
PR or should we say the lack of it. With no comment comes speculation, with speculation
comes negative rumor and gossip. Censoring and or ignoring the media, the journalist - the messenger of information was not what the Internet was and or is about. Is Kinnernet simply a convention for the rich and famous or truly a potent Internet conference for which we can all learn from? You decide. Lastly, if Kinnernet was truly a closed, private event, then how is it that the best minds in Internet could not even secure their own Web site? Enjoy the humus!
Sponsored by IsraelPr.com |
