Archive for 'Culture & Arts'
Jerusalem Venture Partners
We met with JVP who work with Israel’s Chief Scientist and receives substantial government backing for promising entrepreneurs. We heard presentations by several “under the radar screen” start-ups that are about to release their products. We can not give details, but several involve animation and use of Avatars that are very intriguing (Second Life?Watch out!)
One very interesting soon to be released startup involves self-enrichment with good content provided by knowledgeable people for those who seek beyond Google searches. As I heard this young Israeli woman, who has a philosophy and psychology educational background present, I thought about this as the fulfillment of Doug Engelbart’s hope for the use of technology (Doug invented the keyboard and mouse among other innovations in the hope people would use these tools to solve human problems). peta dunia satelit . Hope this venture succeeds as it would help provide more access to useful information for everyone.
Two of the venture partners, Erel Margalit and Uri Adoni, provided an overview of Israeli start-ups and the role of JVP in development. These are as bright VC’s as you can find anywhere. Amazing Israel can play as large a role in tech innovation as it does. How such a small country can provide such large successes is the wonder of the world. Erel and Uri are certainly part of the answer.
Israeli Women in Tech
At Israel’s Marker conference this week, I was pleasantly surprised how many women were in attendance. Some women I spoke to complained that they make up a very small percentage, maybe 10%, but my sense was that it was much higher.
Compared to technology conferences in the states, Israeli women seem to be leading the way. Even if they’re not all CEOs or VCs, they showed up. As for the male/female speaker ratio, its pretty small and probably comparable to the U.S.
I chatted with several women, but not enough to get a sense of what the breakdown was between clerical, large corporate management and entrepreneurs. I did talk to a number of content producers, graphic designers, marketing execs and journalists however and all of them were interesting, driven, well traveled and spoke English fluently. Many have lived abroad.
The other thing I noticed was the strong presence of feminine energy – from clothing, shoes, make-up and bags to their walk, hair styles and smile. It was all there – purses rather than logoed backpacks, vibrantly designed cell phone holders, European barrettes, wild boots and multi-colored glasses.
Below is a fair representation of the female faces of technology in the greater Tel Aviv area. I probably took another 200 or so shots, so you tell me where there is a higher number of women in technology?
Fashion blogger Daria Shualy
Maayan Cohen, New Media Reporter at the Marker
Hagit Katzenelson
Maayan Cohen, New Media Reporter at the Marker
From Old City Inspiration to New Ventures: A day in Jerusalem
The last 24 hours have been somewhat strange for me. There’s been a sizable amount of meshugass on this trip – misfired communications, sardine-like conditions of our “bus” (which was actually a late model Ford van that the Israeli Consulate very graciously replaced today with a proper tour bus… YAY!), and the TG gang consensus that our goals for the trip and the itinerary were a bit off kilter.
Fellow TravelingGeek, Sarah Lacy, wrote a bit about our rebellion on Monday – an act that set into motion quite a few interesting activities and experiences.
As a result I have several half-finished posts sitting in my draft folder that I’ve just not been able to complete. (Confession: I’m a relatively newly minted blogger in terms of style. My writing has always tended to be a bit more in-depth analytical second day story type of stuff, so this whole rapid-fire writing thing is a new challenge).
In any case, that mini-backlog of items is going to have to wait a bit longer because after today’s adventures I’m focused on something deeply important to me.
Faith.
More specifically the way in which faith inspires.
It’s funny to think that on my first trip to Jerusalem in the summer of 1995, I found myself nearly paralyzed at my first approach to the Western Wall.. While I’ve only returned to the spot twice since that time, I’ve had exactly the opposite experience on each return. English to Armenian . Rather than feeling repelled by the energy that comes off of this majestic edifice, it’s as though a tractor beam grabs me, pulling me in.
But I’m getting ahead of myself… the story begins when we began the most enjoyable forced march you can imagine.
Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre
It has been more than two decades since I last walked through Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre (black and white shot is of the church in 1885).
A deeply spiritual and moving place, a Greek orthodox woman prayed to my left, a Polish catholic priest led a group to my right and every religious variation in between stood among me. Within its walls, you can either pray or quietly reflect with every other walk of life from around the world and be at peace.
I took a few short video clips while inside which are captured below. Click play.
As I took these earlier today, they were streaming live on Flixwagon.com, a real-time video solution by an Israeli start-up. More on them later.
if you’re wondering…
…why all the blogs all the sudden, there are two reasons.
1. we got a new bus. THANK YOU ISRAELI GOV’T! we are not actually sitting on top of one another in sweltering heat. (although craig is still sitting in scoble’s lap….we’re not quite sure why*) most of us are just clacking away happily on keyboards.
[* may not be true. may be just inserted to see if valleywag has discovered my blog]
2. we are going to Jerusalem today!
i think that’s pretty much a dream for anyone of muslim, christian or
jewish faith whether they consciously realize it or not. i can’t wait
to see what affect it’ll have on me. in silicon valley, you almost
never hear anyone talking about religion. it really might be the only
taboo subject. it’s such a macho-intellectual culture and i think for
many entrepreneurs and techies admitting a belief in a higher mystical
power is almost a sign of weakness, naivety or even stupidity. (don’t
yell at me, i’m just telling you what i hear)
i’m not sure if i’ve made it a point not to talk about religion myself or i’ve just never been asked. either way it’s fair to say i don’t wear it on my sleeve, wave it like a banner or whatever other cliche you want to use. we’ll see if today changes that. true test: if i BLOG about it.
ethnic profiling also hits home…
yesterday i found the most rad present EVER for my super hip husband geoff. (who it feels like i haven’t seen for MONTHS) it was a black t-shirt with this rad panther jumping from behind hebrew letters that said “black panthers.” the shop keepers refused to let me buy it because i was american. in fact, it was worse than that. they all fled the store and went upstairs and just yelled at me from up there. after making me wait 15 minutes. it was the most passive aggressive ethnocentrism i’ve ever seen. peta dunia satelit WTF? i thought we were allies?
everyone seems to be *aghast* saying things like this “never” happen in super progressive, hip tel aviv. guess there are just jerks everywhere.
religious freedom hits home…
i feel horrendous again today. turns out walking around in the heat for 12 hours then capping off the evening with champagne and immense laughter isn’t a great cure for the flu, or whatever plague this is. ALL i wanted was a bagel this morning. an american christian girl like me wouldn’t have expected that’d be impossible in israel. peta dunia satelit English to Armenian . apparently, at passover time it is. looking back on the time in elementary school i thought it was “awesome” that my jewish friends got to eat matzah with whole new eyes….
T.G.: Bloggers, entrepreneurs, women
On Tuesday, had a chance to talk with a broader range of Israeli women bloggers and tech VCs and entrepreneurs. Some pictures in advance of real words.
Brasov . peta dunia satelit
Garage Geeks, Bloggers, and More
Israeli tech people have been extraordinarily hospitable with our group.
Sunday evening we went to a party in the industrial area of Holon. Filled with an amazing collection? bloggers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists schmoozing with rock music blasting while consuming potluck?pizza, falafel, beer, wine, and bbq skewers. Lots of good connection.
Monday we had an elegant dinner with about fifty Israeli tech folks at Mendys in Tel Aviv: VC’s, entrepreneurs, Haaretz Marker execs and lots more. The dinner (elegant, copious and delicious) was hosted by two amazing entrepreneurs. Check out their companies Flixwagon and Meemix
Tuesday we were hosted by Israel 21 C a news service that presents stories of Israel beyond the conflict with Israeli Bloggers for a cocktail party in Mish Mish, (means apricots in Hebrew) a hip bar salon. So hard to go back to the Bay Area and return to our fairly boring lives after all this attention.
TG: Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa
Talking with the spokesperson for Rambam, the big medical center for northern Israel; learning that there’s a diversity here in staff–Druse, Moslem, Jewish, Christian–more pronounced than in some other areas; there are more Russians here than Arabs, the spokesperson says; you can see the northern border/frontier(Lebanon). The city is more secular than Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, there’s lots of high tech and everyone goes to the beach (this is the hospital spokesman snapshot of the city.)
Like Palo Alto, the city has a high tech center, a big hospital and a technical university; there’s a 2004 Nobel Prize winner in biochemistry–Faculty is also doing interesting work in regenerative medicine (like growing bones back…), as well as in treatment of stress and trauma (understandably, this is the border center…)
Listening to this preso, I understand how irrevocably I am a geek; prototyping medical instruments, treatments and protocols grabs my attention, even when the data is way outside my field; the whole process of exploration, analysis, testing, and development is always compeling.
We’re also hearing their preso on “Medicine Under Attack” –there’s a short film (and lots on the web)–The hospital was treating patients and under threat of missle attacks–this is a huge part of the historical memory of the place, and a history of which they are very proud in terms of the service they delivered.
(Susan sez: I’m a newbie visitor here, and yet I’m noticing that no one in the film is visibly Arab….am I being a total nickpicker to notice this? he staff is clear everyone participated in delivering care and was brave and comitted, serving the Gaza and other areas as well as the city. Is it a valid observation? I have no idea–the dedication of the medical staff in the film, despite the terrible dangers, is amazing.)
(Added note: There’s the wish to stay here and learn more, talk more, understand the moving stories, the great science, the lessons of war I know I don’t understand at all, but there’s no time for that today; this is a footnote in a lesson I have barely started to learn and may never full experience.)
And another note: This hospital keep giving service to the community and the soldiers 24/7 during the war–that is an amazing thing.)
