Discussions at Kinnernet USA 2009

 

You define the agenda and the program at KinnerNet

Add your topics to the list, or your name to the ones you'd like to join

 

A tipping point for technology innovation in healthcare:

• healthcare is a $2+ TRILLION industry in the US alone
• the current healthcare system is broken and needs to be fixed (soon!) 
• the US government will spend $30+ BILLION on innovative healthcare technologies over the next few years
• the worldwide mobile footprint is pervasive enough to support health workers/patients almost anywhere
• the global economic crisis has highlighted the need for change and created unprecedented openness to disruptive innovation

Whether it’s snap-ons for the iPhone, API feeds from the doctor's office, or tweets from an insulin gauge, bring your creative ideas about how to create and utilize cutting edge technologies to transform healthcare!  Join us for a discussion of the future of healthcare!

Hosts:

Ron Gutman & Brent Tworetzky

 

Making Sense of Scents

Why is smell the most important of our senses, yet the least understood.  What constitutes good smell and bad smell?  Why is body odor good and bad breath bad? Smells and the brain. Smells and sex. Smells and the internet. Live demonstrations.

Hosted by: Jessica and Mel 

 

Pilots an Extinct Species?

Only 105 years ago the Wright brothers performed the first controlled, powered and heavy than the air flight.

Today, 105 years later, almost all missions, military and commercial, can be preformed with no pilots on board, by UAV’s (Unmanned, Aerial Vehicle).

As Arlen Rens, a Lockheed Martin test pilot said:

"Airplanes are now built to carry a pilot and a dog in the cockpit. The pilot's job is to feed the dog, and the dog's job is to bite the pilot if he touches anything."

So back to the Million $ Q - Are Pilots – an Extinct Species?

 

Hosted by: Gabriel Shachor, Participants:

 

It's the Creative Stupid!

It's not the economy. It's not the users. It's you. It's the creative.

A couple of months ago Randall Rothenberg (IAB CEO) went out with a call for the agencies to become more creative with their use of the Internet, and save the future of Internet advertising.

In this session we will explore some of the most succesful Internet campaigns of the last year. We will trade ideas on what is missing, what needs to be done and basically - how the hell can we make money from this Internet.

Hosetd by: Shahar Nechmad, @nechmads.

 

• Learning to balance between being personal and oversharing
• Figuring out the critical "kernal" of personal code that will engage your audience
• Integrating your *who* with your *what*
• How to tell a story to someone who disagrees or thinks you're wrong

Today's world is a hyper-connected one. And thanks to technology we know almost an excessive amount of information about what people are doing every day. However, this does not equate to knowing who they are or what engages them. In this session we're going to step outside the comfort zone and learn a bit about telling personal stories of self and finding a way to integrate that to your business life.

 

Host (and storyteller):

Cathy Brooks

 

Who You Calling User

Offensive UI Flops

Edo Amin

Interaction guru Alan Cooper talks about software that "offends" users. I get it. I'm a UX designer and a product manager, so I have a professional interest in UI that offends me. I collect screenshots of offensive stuff delivered by Intuit (see right), Brother, Microsoft, ConstantContact, etc. Do I want to get even? You betcha. In fact, I could ID the culprit in the development team if you line 'em up.

I used to limit my vendetta to occasionaly writing newspaper columns about bad UX (in a far away country I eventually had to relocate from). I still capture and collect the occasional flops - they're always good for a cheap shot at the expense of some poor and clueless corporation. Hopefully, my commentary and the discussion would redeem the karma. Voluntary attendance is required.

Particpants: Yael Sahar, Jay Meydad, Rick Segal, Steve Garfield

 

(sign up as participants; you will not be forced to talk.Paticipant signup is sometimes used to gauge public interest)

 

 

Do Good 3.0

The internet has changed the way we communicate, learn, do business, find love and a whole lot more. But what about doing good? There are various philanthropic online services that try to harness the power of the internet, but I don’t know of any that have really moved the needle, turning people into more moral beings. I will host a discussion on whether a blockbuster “do good” site can be built or whether it goes against people’s self centered nature, plus, a brainstorm session intended to spec that blockbuster “do good” site…

 

Host: Hanan Lifshitz (hanan@palore.com)

Participants: Jay Meydad, geo geller, Edo Amin

 

 

"Back to the Future"

 A Brainstorming Session to discuss the future of today's prominent New Media Players (Facebook, Google, Apple, etc.).

Participants will team up to a number of "Boards". Each Board will simulate a futuristic Board disucssion of those Players.

 

Hosts: Tuvia Rosenthal & Eyal Keren

Suggestions, Registration, etc. : tuvia@meezoog.com , ekeren1@gmail.com

 

 

Life and Love Among the Droids: 

Everything you wanted to know about robots but were afraid to ask

Guy Hoffman

Having spent most of my waking hours in the last 7 years with social robots, I will host a discussion about our fears and hopes from our mechanical counterparts. Why bodies matter, even for AI; what theater has to do with robotics; and what can go wrong when you decide to put a robot on a theatrical stage. Videos of robots behaving well and less well will be used liberally in the session.

Suggestions, Registration, etc.: guy@media.mit.edu

 

 

helping people to visualize their ideas and dreams

Introduction to stock photography

A picture is still worth so much more than than a thousand words ..or a video clip :)

 Due to cool new cameras and available editing tools and courses many of us became amature photographers and enjoy it much!

now , lets say that out of 100 photos you take there are few that actually have a commercial value ...and lets also say that somewhere on the other side of the world there is an ad agency or an art buyer that is looking for the exact same photo you just took !

join us to the intro to stock photography workshop to learn what are the available options and business models out there , how to properly manage your stock collections , and how nowadays people are making passive income from their own habit while helping other people to visualize their ideas and dreams.

 

host:  Eyal Gura   

interested?  eyal.gura

participants: Gabriel Shachor . Eyal Gura .  You . 

 

Social Sculpture "Meeting of Inquiring Minds"

Discussion/Collaborative Poem 

by geo geller

 

on "the power of one is more then the power of none" jeff pulver, as it relates to how we as individuals, butterfly/bee's flapping our wings can make a difference and change the direction of a storm or even create a storm - given the present state of systemic meltdown we have the ability/opportunity to re-invent ourselves and change the past/future and if we are fearless and open minded enough explore building a society built on trust that serves we the people vs a society built on distrust/fear that serves its masters...

 

i/you/we will write down one liners taken from the conversation and compile them into a poem that i/you/we will record and read at the end and i will put it online as a random nonlinear poem - but aside from the above "maybe" we can walk away from the experience with some individual/collective action - this is an open discussion no leaders no followers with only one un-spoken un-written rule: you let people finish what they are saying as you would like that same ability too - food for thought - geo geller  geo@MyOwnPrivateRevolution.com

 

 

"Without a Rose We Can't Do It" 

SocialSculpture by geo geller

 

in tribute to Joseph Beuys 1972 social sculpture who would have loved Kinnernet-USA - i will sit at a table or walk around with or without an empty vase without a Rose - - i will  be available to talk to anybody about anything...? i will also invite people to hold the rose vase and talk to anybody about anything as well - i will also record moving/still and audio of it as an art performance and eventually put it online - FYI this is a continuation of a series i have done over the years

 

"We Can't Do it without the Rose" Joseph Beuys 1972

The photograph (link) by Wilfred Bauer, shows Joseph Beuys, an artist with a social consciousness and also one of the prime movers & founder of the greens party in Germany at the desk of his Information Office at documenta V, Kassel in 1972. The Information Office was run under the auspices of the Organization for Direct Democracy, a platform for the propagation of the artist’s radical ideas, which he had founded the previous year. For 100 days Beuys tirelessly debated his ideas with visitors to the exhibition. On the last day, he fought a Boxing Match for Direct Democracy.

  geo@MyOwnPrivateRevolution.com

 

Good Mistakes - Spirit/Art of Invention & Making Your Life an Art/Invention

combined workshop/discussion by geo geller

 

my definition of invention is - invention is seeing the obvious that nobody sees

in the early 1990's i was threatening to give a talk/workshop at Princeton Uni-verse-city engineering school and other schools on the spirit of invention and good mistakes so i will do this finally as a combined discussion/workshop, since i have the feeling there are a lot of us who are interested in invention at Kinnernet

 

the discussion/workshop will be on some of my experiences and insights from an un-book called a Good Mistake - the Spirit/Art of Invention & making your life an art/invention - that i am not writing because it would be a mistake to write it -  food for your imagination

 

the discussion/workshop will be an open conversation exploring invention, the uncertainty principle, thought process behind the mind (my mind & maybe your mind too), invention as a state of mind, the tradeoffs of being passionate and being an inventor, when to let go of an idea, thinking, thinking too big to small, not thinking at all, my experience with patents (see below) and patents vs no-patents vs patience or being a patient (being seduced by your imagination, pygmalion syndrome), commercialization, open sourcing your mind, training your mind muscle,  following your dreams, suspending your mind/pre-conceptions, synchronicity of inventions -  the worst of all things for an inventor is whenever everything works fine you wonder what you missed syndrome - and after all is said i will unveil a few of my inventions never before seen and if you want to bring your own we will attempt to dissect them and the mind behind them -  - and hopefully make some good mistakes and enjoy ourselves wondering about wonder

 

in 1987 i was finally* issued a USA patent for a textile process for softening denim - a stone washing like process - that my partners Cotton inc and Burlington Industries (the largest textile mill in the world at the time) thought would revolutionize the textile industry - Burlington built the largest and most expensive textile machine in the history of the industry and according to my patent law firm was unique in many ways but most remarkable for them was that burlington industries built the machine and commercialized the process before the patent was officially issued - (by finally - my patent law firm Ladas & Parry (largest patent law firm in world) and i had to wait for the patent officer to retire before the patent office supervisor personally called to say he didn't know why the examiner didn't issue me a patent but he was going to)  - geo@GoodMistake.com

 

 

Amazon-on-Earth: Presentation and Discussion of Future Mobile Interaction with the Real World Scenarios

by Amnon Dekel

http://www.google.com/profiles/amnoid

 

For the past few years I have been fascinated with how the mobile phone, the most ubiquitous end user computing platform, can interact with the real world. Some scenarios are obvious: it knows where we are so it can do a number of things (help us get somewhere, tell us what might be interesting near by, help us meet our friends, etc). Others slightly less so: using various sensing technologies (vision, electro-magnetic, etc) it can sense and identify objects nearby, and with that offer another set of scenarios (i.e. get movie trailers from a poster, buy tickets, etc). This discussion will start with an introduction to the field, a presentation of some of my work, and will open a discussion about possible future scanarios and business models.

 

 

Geeks at Home

Sharon Barr, Alon Cohen 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

what, all those below are past discussions?

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Get ideas from past kinnernet discussions:

 

 

 

The Idiots Guide to Basic Hebrew

What we need is a volunteer as teacher each day for 30 mins

I think I can... Ayelet 

Will be happy to help. Sheizaf

 

Participants:

Gary Shainberg

Jennifer Schenker

Rick Segal (like really basic for a real idiot)

 

 

Thoughts for Thinking

David Sable

Innovation; management; collaboration; team work and PASSION – through the eyes and words of Buddha: Oscar Wilde Mark Twain Shakespeare and Darwin…amongst others.  Open your own thinking process by tapping into the great masters.

The one responsive to change

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." -Charles Darwin

 

Participants:

Eyal Ziv

Lior Shalev

 

Can 'Design By Committee' actually work?

Lead By: Mushon Zer-Aviv

Participants: ______________________

Too many cooks in the kitchen? Design by committee? Many questionable superlatives, all claiming we cannot design the way we write wikis or develop software. But why? Some reasons are more obvious, some less, but the debate should and can be challenged.

I will introduce the discussion, present some of the work done by my students in my 'Open Source Design' class at Parsons, NY and will share some of my own processes. Please join and let's think of this together. You are welcomed to post some relevant examples of (possible) open source design here:

 

 

Kabbalat Shabbat

David Sable

The great Kabbalists of Tzfat would go into the fields, Friday Night, as the sun was setting, to meditate and pray as they literally welcomed the “Bride of Shabbat” into the world.  Eli Weisel once wrote about Shabbat as a concept critical for our times.  It is a day of Peace; of ecological power; of meditation and connection; of innovation.  What better way to begin Friday Night at Kinnernet than by following the mystical custom that was created right where we are standing and preparing ourselves for great creativity and collaboration over the next week.  Join us on the banks of the Kinneret as we sing; read texts and discuss the implications of Shabbat.  Open to all…the more the merrier – traditional – egalitarian – spiritual and holy….

Participants:

 Jennifer Schenker

 

The Future of Journalism

Jennifer Schenker

There is a place for twitter, crowd sourcing and blogs but what business model will support quality journalism, i.e story telling based on in-depth analysis with hard market data, benchmarking and the input of experts. As traditional newspapers and magazines fold will they be replaced only be self indulgent and self promotional chatter or can we use the Internet to deliver a richer form of journalism that is free to anyone who wants to read it and supported by something other than advertising? 

Participants:

Mushon Zer-Aviv

Ayelet Yagil

 Sheizaf

 

Using the Internet to build a better narrative between Europe and Israel

Marc Goldberg

Participants:

Uri Levanon

Sheizaf

 

New Innovation models in established companies -

a threat to startup companies or an opportunity?

Yoram Yaacovi

Participants:

Lior Shalev

 

Motown Records - a precursor for Obama?

Ayelet Yagil

Participants:

Steve Greenberg

Uri Levanon

Yael Givon

 

 

Popular Music In The Age Of The Social Web

While it's clear that new technology has meant that music is marketed and distributed in different ways than before, does it also mean that different types of music than before will inevitably emerge? 

Steve Greenberg

 

Participants:

Uri Levanon

Ayelet Yagil

 

The Future of TV: What happens next? - Jeff Pulver

 My basic assertion is that the “Future of TV is TV.” How we get there and what “TV” really is by the time we do get there is up for grabs.

The advent of the Internet has had a profound affect on many industries. As worldwide broadband penetration continues to grow, the worldwide Television industry will be disrupted. In fact it already is. It is just a matter of time before the disintermediation of: studios, broadcasters ( terrestrial, cable and satellite) and consumers becomes that obvious. When that happens, television as we know it will be changed forever.

As the current generation of 16-24 year olds continue to consume Television on the Net, there are mega trends emerging that will forever change the traditional TV industry and will effect the future of advertising and more.

One trend which I first saw happening a few years ago was the advent of TV becoming an “application” rather than a “service.” We now live in an age where consumers no longer need to own a television, an antenna or a TV tuner to watch television content. All someone needs is broadband internet access. The implications of this is huge.

When I look to the future. I believe that over time major studios will gain in power and significance (“Content Remains King”). While this is happening, broadcast TV stations will continue to lose power and their need to exist beyond serving the public good becomes questionable. Over the same period of time, today’s Television Networks and Cable Companies will also lose much of their power and significance. While Cable companies and Telephone companies will continue to have a future to be access providers and perhaps as content distribution agents, I question their willingness to allow themselves to become marginalized providers of Internet access.

The advent of Social Media layered on top of this will only help to accelerate change. And in a world of "Social TV" - television viewing will never be the same.

As studios learn about and embrace social media, they will have an increasingly evolving set of tools which they will be able to take advantage of as they empower the distermediation of the networks by leveraging the internet for their content to be made directly available to consumers, and the ability to sell advertising that will increasingly target the specific demographics and profiles of the individual persons consuming the content. Direct to consumer content subscriptions will also become a huge opportunity.

Now some of the changes will be slowed down due to the existing relationships between the studios and the broadcasters and the cable companies. And it is possible that it might take an act of Congress to truly liberate some of these relationships because they go that deep.

So while this is happening, I expect to see a lot of fighting and lobbying around Washington DC where the traditional Broadcast and Television Lobby has strength. The effects of: Fear, Greed and Disruption will usher in a new era in Television.

One day there will be a show as popular as American Idol that will pioneer this space by moving from a major television network to being available only on the Internet. When this happens, television will be forever changed. The way I see this, it is just a matter of time before it will happen. It is not a question of if, just when.

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Like it or not, Television has been Disrupted. It is just a matter of time before the media industry recognizes this.

 

5,000 Friends on Facebook and 15,000 Followers on twitter:

Lessons Learned

- Jeff Pulver

Reflection of some of the things I have learned about social media and social communications by having 5,000 Friends on Facebook and 15,000 followers on twitter.

 

 

Mountain Biking Therapy: Lessons from the Field

 

(Deep in thought over Nachal Netafim). About three years ago I've started a mountain biking group for young convicts in a correction facility. We ride every Tuesday, rain or shine, all over Israel. We also visit some interesting places like an F15 squadron or an artist studio. Over the years I've accumulated some interesting anecdotes, insights, and video clips, which I will show in the session. Lead: Shimon Schocken

 

 GoofyGUI Networks

Why we (and Tom Robbins) define goofiness as user friendly weirdness, and why should GUI be goofy - we'll discuss networks, inspiration and conversations behind GUI design and give lots of examples to what GoofyGUI is

Yael Givon, David Silverstein, Nir Ofir, Mushon

 

The Mobile Future(s)

This discussion will focus on the brave new world of Mobile computing. Already the most ubiquitous form of end user computing, the space has undergone some major changes since the iPhone dropped into the scene like a bomb in Jan 2007. The iPhone 3G with iphone OS 2.0 strengthened these changes, along with unbridled success of the Apple Appstore (over 500 Millions download in 6 months, developers rushing in, and new millionairres created). All established players are now struggling/rushing in to "do the same".  In Parrallel, the Google led Androind platform has joined the ranks and presents a similar user experience philosophy (although much less polished) but with a very different concept of application dvelopment and openness.  These, along with Palm's WebOS and Blackberry, present a world in which we are always hooked in to the real web for communicating, working and playing. This discussion explore future developments: mobile interaction with the real world, mobile ecommerce, personal/social ubiquity, personal "history bending" and more (time permitting).

Led by Amnon Dekel.

 

Behind Yahoo! BOSS  -  Can you Compete in the Search Business? 

Search became the killer application for the web, and the best software business ever.   Have you seen a search start-up lately (yes, many…) have you seen really successful ones (hmm…).  Why search is so difficult to do?  is the competition over?

We will discuss search and the philosophy and technology behind BOSS, Yahoo’s service that aims to disrupt the search market ( and a Crunchies nominee for best technology innovation for 2008 :-) )

Eran Palmon (Yahoo!)

Advanced SEO tactics

Beyond the 3 building blocks of search engine optimization (structure, content and links). How new webmasters can seriously achieve top ranking and why old webmasters are left with crumbs.

Michael Lugassy

 

SOFTware is the new HARDware

Purpose built electronics (like Slingbox) can be replaced with by generic "do it all" connected-platforms powered by DSPs and low cost processors within inexpensive netbooks, iPhone and Android mobile platforms, etc. What used to require expensive prototyping and manufacturing can often be built with software created in your lap on your top.  Get it?  Laptop....  OK-Bad joke.

Devices like BugLabs and PogoPlug with SOC (System on a Chip) Linux platforms enable $50 computing platforms that consume less power than a night light.  But will you have a "cloud of computers" in your home that are as ubiquitous as night-lights? 

Dave Mathews (CueCat/Slingbox/boxee/PeopleBrowsr/PogoPlug) 

 

Participants

Rick Segal (Dave, this is a great topic!)

 

 

UAV's Past, Present, Future & Vision

 

The UAV has become a major player in the modern battale field.

We will discuss about the history of UAV's, some major developments and future progress plans.

we will also try to find the answer to the question:

10 years from now, will pilot's still have a job...?

By: Gil Elmalem UAV Speciallist.

 

 

E-Commerce, Consumerism in Israel

 Do Israelis buy online? We know that we file swap, talkback and do geneological trees happily. But do we buy/sell as much as others? 

 I am involved in a study of this question (Israeli behavior online, with an emphasis on e-business). i am in possession fo the results of an in-depth survey of a representative, scientific sample of Israelis (over 1500, three languages, 300 questions). 

 

Would love to discuss the questions, and will also bring the data set and statistical tools to the session, so that questions can be raised and answered empirically, on the spot. 

 

Sheizaf  Rafaeli

Participants:

 

 

BITS OF DESTRUCTION

I would like to use a provocative blog post by Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures as the basis for a discussion.  The post, “Bits of Destruction” - written last December on a blackberry in a hotel lobby in Berlin - argues that 15 years after its original incarnation as the World Wide Web, the Internet “is in many cases the underlying cause of [the]... failures”  of “retailers, newspapers, auto manufacturers, banks, and a host of other businesses that have been the mainstay of corporate america for the past 100 years or more.”

He concedes “the economic downturn is the direct cause of most of these failures” but Wilson argues the Internet is actually “the straw that broke the camel's back in most cases.”  In other words, what we’ve always predicted should have happened in a marketplace with the Internet as its backbone, is now happening.

Wilson focuses on four industries: newspapers, finance, retailers, and the auto industry, but readers comments section delve into additional examples. 

I would like to use the piece to frame a discussion:

1. What are Kinnernet participants witnessing in the marketplace?  Empirically?  Regionally? Personally?
2. Based on what we’re seeing, what does Wilson get right?  What does he get wrong or miss?  How does this differ depending on the Empirical/Regional/Personal lens?
3. Based on the answers to 1 and 2, what’s are some of the financial implications of this?  Regulatory implications?  Sociological/Anthropological implications?

As I work in Digital Media, and have a background in law (NYU JD 03), I have a good understanding of the technical and regulatory aspects of the discussion.  My financial and anthropological/sociological understandings are not as strong, so I would like to treat the exercise like a “virtual Wiki” and have the audience help me fill in the blanks.

For some background on how I think about the regulatory issues, see Larry Lessig’s Code 2.0, specifically the first section of "FREE SPEECH" I've linked on how technology and regulation may interface online.  For the sociological/anthropological see Chapter 1 of Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel.

Don't worry, they're quick reads.

Andrew Rosen

Participants:

Uri Levanon

Rick Segal

 

Venture Capitalists - Do we suck?

 

I've doing this gig for just shy of ten years. The provocative title (Andrew, thanks for using that word above) is really meant to start up a discussion about investing in the future, in the little guy, in the great new ideas.  Is the whole term sheet with dilution is the solution finished? Can you really get businesses, real ones, etc, done with almost no cash? Am I obsolete?    This is an excellent crowd to have a frank/open discussion about the whole VC eco-system and what should be the new world order.. if any..

 

Rick Segal, Partner, JLA Ventures, Toronto Canada

 

Participants:

 

Lessons from the Crisis or Financial Economics is not a Branch of Physics

 

"Natural Scientists make theories about things.  Social scientists makes theories about things that make theories."

This talk outlined the manner in which modern finance theory and neoclassical economics enabled the financial crisis and the Great Recession.  The slide deck has been uploaded to the Main folder.

 

Bill Janeway