Posted June 12 2008 by Ezra Butler
MashBash Tel Aviv - The Official Jewneric.com Report
MashBash TLV the Official Jewneric.com Media Partner Report
Last night, as previously reported, I had the pleasure of being a sponsored guest to MashBash TLV. For those who still don’t know what Mashable is, go to their website (Mashable.com). (Hint: it’s the Social Networking news source.) 800 people mingled for many hours, including a 3 hour open bar. As part of my contract, I have to give a write-up of people I met, things that I heard, and drinks that I tasted at the Sightix booth (more about that later).
MashBash TLV was filled with the latest startups, websites and technologies coming out of Israel. I was able to feel the virtual pulse of what is hot now, and from the relative few people I met, I saw some patterns. (This is not meant, at all, to be an extensive overview. Just a couple of conversations that I had, sites that I checked out. Ya know.)
Check these sites out, and let me know what you think.
Search:
Search, as always, is hot. The two big ones that I spoke with also happened to be sponsors.
Copenda (copenda.com), with their tagline “social people search engine” is basically a new search engine that does an aggregate search on all different social networks for what you are looking for. Their technology is primarily for dating.
Sightix. (Sightix.com)Let’s start with the fact that they have a green logo, and they served absinthe shots (complete with the sugar cube and fire.) [Full Disclosure: I work with Sightix – so I had multiple shots]. Sightix’s search will change the way that you find things, people, services, you know the kind of things that we use every day.
Last month, for instance, I wanted to throw myself a birthday party. So I started the phone calls to specific friends who know people and things. And then they called their friends. Who called their friends. And finally, I got the information that I needed to organize my party.
But my friends actually have jobs, so why should they be wasting their time making calls for me?
Enter Sightix. Their search is supposed to be “like your friends, just faster”. It takes all the information that your friends know, filters it for you, and tells you how you are connected to that information. You get the benefit of having friends, and they have the benefit of you not having to bother them.
I also saw the crew from nostupidanswers.com, a sub-thing (not really sure how to describe it) of answers.com. Apparently, as I found out, the original site name was: weunderstandthatpeopledontknowhowtosearchwellsowecreatedanalgorithmstohelpthemfindstuffeasilyandmakesurethattheydontfindnostupidanswers.com but they cut it down to make it easier for people to type on their Blackberry or iPhone. In all seriousness, cool site, cool theory, cool people. It’s part of this new anti-Google, people know best, movement out to change the world.
Video:
I met a few people who have different sites and technologies for video:
RayV (RayV.com), a company starting a beta now, who want you to “[i]magine being able to broadcast HIGH QUALITY LIVE TV to an unlimited number of concurrent viewers.” (Their caps, not mine). All sarcasm aside, this is going to be a massive bandwidth saver for smaller sites that want to have live broadcasts, without having to pay oodles and oodles of cash (an extremely technical term) for the privilege. You can spend your time thinking about other things, like quality content. This is pure blue and white tech.
On the flip side, imcandy.com is a new site that wants to provide quality programming, and is willing to share the revenues with the content creators. In this initial stage, they are even paying for content upon acceptance. Check it out.
Local/Travel:
Do you remember life before GPS? Well, when I was driving in the States a few months back, I became kind of addicted to it. Quite honestly, I could not down the street without it by the end of my trip. And I grew up on that street. Local/Travel is the localization of web, to your own personal city.
I ran into someone that I remember from my childhood, and he is coming up with something really cool that I cannot talk about yet. But it fits into this category. And it was my first sign that people are talking about this.
3DVU (3dvu.com) brings to your phone a mashup of actual satellite photography and your location. Not just some cheap pixelated awkward pictures like we are used to. Simply put: this ain’t your father’s (or mother’s) GPS.
It seems to be the new big thing to question: How well do you know your city? And to find out that there are all these places that you don’t know, events that you haven’t heard about, and things that you really have to do. Using the world wide web in a very localized way.
rampa.mobi is a site in beta that is starting in Tel Aviv, but will be including other major metropolitan areas as well. From what I understand, it will be a mobile portal to finding anything in your city. If the interface is like the CTO explained to me, it will be really useful.
I also met this guy Harry Rubenstein, who has launched an extremely informative website a few months back called Jerusalemite.net. It is the Jerusalem Culture Guide, and they have been prepping this for years. For anyone living in or even visiting the holiest of cities, my hometown, it is a must-read. I do not think that this will be spreading out to any other metropolitan cities in the near future.
This isn’t local, but it is travel: I spoke with someone who is launching a website like Orbitz, but that you are connected to professionals in the particular area in which you want to travel. For example, someone who knows all the great places for find mountain trails in the Himalayas. You will always deal with someone who knows the target area like a local.
???????? ????? ????????Terrorism:
I encountered a guy whose deals in terrorism. Well, anti-terrorism to be more exact. His website doesn’t say too much about what he does, but we had a fascinating conversation about it, and I am scared of what he will do if I say too much. He probably has friends, who have friends. Maybe they should use Sightix. This is just another example of Israeli out of the box thinking to solve global issues.
There was another guy there, who deals in a different type of terrorism. He created a TV show on TruTV called Tiger Team that hires people to break into different secure areas. Exciting. But that is in America and has nothing to do with Israel.
Other Random Things of Interest:
When I walked in, I was handed a trilingual business card for this site mepeace.org – which is a platform for peacemakers. Social networking for people who want peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis. I’ll take a look at that later today, I think. Using tech for good.
I met a couple of guys (one who had an funky digg t-shirt), who are creating a revolutionary new application to… take care of your calender. After talking with them, I still have NO clue how its going to be useful, cool, or different… But I admire their enthusiasm. Really.
With the preponderance of blogs (like this one), there is a market for people who want to monetize them. There is a new site, Bloggerce.com that provides support to blogs to publish an e-book of their postings (and sell or give that away). Check it out. Tell me what you think of it.
Swag:
There wasn’t much in the way of swag. I did get a Sun blue shot glass (someone had to give me it, because I didn’t really win the game that they were playing.)
Twitter:
Last, but certainly not least.
The twitterati (or tweepple, tweeps, whatever) were a-twittering. Israelis who twitter were walking around sporting cool stickers (again, I’m biased, I designed them, but it was the brainchild of @israluv), with their twitter name and something about themselves. It was an amazing conversation starter. I finally met certain people that I am in contact with on a daily basis. It was really nice. And people were really friendly as well. If you are on Twitter, follow me @ezrabutler.
In short. Lots of conversations. Lots of people. Lots of ideas. Welcome to the Silicon Wadi, Israel.
Add This Blog to Your Technorati Favorites
Jewish Blog, Jewish, Jewish Leadership, Jewish News, Jewish Values, Jewish Events
5 Comments currently posted. 
Tel Aviv might be hi-tech, but Jerusalem is Online. « lizrael update says:
Liz says:
Aww gee, we’re blushing over here : )
Yeah, “no stupid answers” is a way for some of us Answers.com/WikiAnswers folks to share the love of Q&A with everyone. Just doing our thing with the Q&A community watching.
It was a great event; good review. See you at the next one…
Omer Kaplan says:
I’d love to tell you all about Project (Y), but then i’d have to kill you 
The bash was great, you should hop by for a coffee sometime.
Cheers,
Omer
AKA “one who had an funky digg t-shirt”
Israelity » Getting Mashed in Tel Aviv says:
[...] For more write ups about Tel Aviv’s Mashbash check out this post on Jewneric. [...]
Diana says:
How did I miss this event? Social media and me, we’re like peas and carrots! Next time…
[...] many others, I’ve fallen deeply in love with the Israeli hi-tech scene, whether Jerusalem or Tel Aviv style. Next time I’m at one of these events, I’ll raise a glass (of free alcohol) to [...]