Sherbango soup

The journalistic promise of social media was to connect directly with the people who live the news that others only report. That is, the teachers, cops, soldiers, mothers, philologists, farmers and accountants who recorded their personal experiences - what they saw and what they felt. Instead, the bulk of social media that "reports" the news seems to be there primarily to reinforce our a priori prejudices.

I call bullshit on that.

So here are a group of voices that come out of non-crazy people. The fact that it probably seems surprising they're Israeli, Palestinian-Israeli and Palestinian is only more proof that we seek out people that reinforce our expectations. These won't.

Sponsor

Lisa Goldman

Lisa is a Canadian-Israeli journalist with a wide array of credits, from the Guardian to Haaretz to the Columbia Journalism Review to Time Out Tel Aviv. She came to prominence during the Israel-Lebanon war, when she reported from Lebanon and kept a dialog going with Lebanese bloggers, an undertaking which at times seemed freaking dire.

Lisa's neither apologetic for being Israeli nor blind to the country's failings. She's steely at times, funny at others and remarkably empathetic. Though she doesn't suffer fools gladly, she'll talk to anyone.

From her latest post:

"Somehow, a certain brand of Judaism and militarism have become part of the settler movement's ideological identity. For many religious settlers, the army is an extension of their identity in the sense of serving the state that controls the land mentioned in the bible, that was given by God. For American Jews who support the settler movement's ideology, and share their conviction that they are surrounded by enemies that present an existential threat, a course in the use of firearms might feel as important as a visit to the Western Wall or the Tomb of the Patriarchs in terms of identity tourism - not to mention power. For Caliber 3′s bareheaded instructors, the settlers' ideology is certainly a lucrative source of income."

Issa

Issa is a Palestinian-Israeli (more often in the media called "Arab-Israeli"). He works as a diplomat in an embassy in Tel Aviv. Because of his work, he remains anonymous. But he blogs in a voice you'd think would belong to a good diplomat: empathetic, bridge-building, possessing a distinct point of view but willing to engage. As a Palestinian-Israeli, he focuses a lot of his attention on his country (Israel) and his people (the Palestinians, as well as Palestinian-Israelis).

Among his subject matter is Knesset debates with Palestinian-Israeli and Israeli lawmakers, refugee crises, Israeli basketball and boycotting products of the Jewish settlements.

From his latest post:

"After 62 years, the Ministry of Education has finally decided to implement Arabic language studies starting the fifth grade. The new initiative would allow students at 170 public schools in northern Israel to learn the second official language in Israel on a relatively early age . . . Those who had some knowledge, acquired it at the military service, either at the check points or the intelligence branch. Others have basic pathetic sentences from their junior high school days. It sure felt like someone is missing the point out there, how pity."

Gaza Mom

GM's a mom. She's from Gaza City. Mystery solved. She's also a journalist. Her family live, and she blogs from, the U.S. now, "unable to return to or even visit Gaza due to the siege." Her blog's about "the trials of raising (her) children between spaces and identities; displacement and occupation; and everything that entails from potty training to border crossings."

On visits to Gaza, she walks. I think that's crucial. She walks, sees, talk, then blogs about what she sees. It's a welcome corrective to media tunnel-vision and propagandistic screeching. Not a big fan of the Israeli state, it's safe to say, but she registers clear, sharp pictures rendered in sharp, evocative phrases - neither slogans nor anger-deformed truisms. "No ideas but in things" might be her motto.

From her latest post:

"While out doing field research for The Gaza Kitchen yesterday, Maggie and I stumbled upon what we think is Gaza's only "certified organic" farm. Now before you roll your eyes, keep in mind this is not a departure but a return to very traditional farming practices of pre-1948 days, when life and livelihoods were violently and abruptly disrupted."

There. That's three. An Israeli, a Palestinian-Israeli and a Palestinian. They're all worth listening to. They deliver what we thought bloggers around the world would deliver in the early days: real, human intelligence on where they live and who they live among and what happens there.

Do you have a favorite blogger you follow in Israel | Palestine? Someone who provides a surprising viewpoint, who brings you the good and bad of where they live and who they are? If so, please give us a link in the comments.

By the way, I encourage, in this post and all others, vigorous, propulsive comments. But if you I swear to G-d start hating - on anyone and from any direction and for any reason - and I will delete you so fast it will make your virtual head spin. The whole point of this post is to remind ourselves that human beings bring us human intelligence no matter where we look, thanks to this series of tubes. Emulate them.

The Getty Conservation Institute has introduced the Middle Eastern Geodatabase for Antiquities - Jordan, a GIS-powered, map-focused site to "inventory, monitor, and manage Jordan's vast number of archaeological sites."

Working for four years, at the cost of $1 million, the Getty, with the cooperation of the Jordanian Department of Antiquities and the World Monuments Fund, has created a system for matching geographic information and historical research in a land whose history is vast and varied.

Sponsor

The project is two-fold. First, it will enable scholarly access to, ideally, every archaeological site in Jordan. Second, it will aid in the protection of ancient sites. Looting in nearby Iraq, and globally in general, is on the rise again.

MEGA lists over 10,000 sites of archaeological and historic importance, from the neolithic to Ottoman times. Information the integrity of these sites was formally listed only in a local Jordanian database, with no connection to the Internet.

The site was built with a number of realities in mind. It should be map-based, use free or low-cost software, be bi-lingual in Arabic and English, be easy-to-learn and customizable and allow the export of data that is fully compatible with other GIS tools such as Google Earth, Quantum GIS, and ESRI's ArcView..

The project's website will open next month to a group of authorized users. The intent is to open it to a wider and wider group as time goes on, as well as to spread the experience with the system to others who might be interested in implementing it in their country or area. Iraq, which was originally the target of an earlier version of the project but was given up in favor of Jordan due to instability, has indicated a desire to revisit the possibility of implementing the system in that country, according to Qais Hussein Rashid, Iraq's Director of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage.

Blogging, Tweeting and Facebook have changed the world by making it easier than ever for everyday people to publish and distribute their thoughts and media to the world. The resulting tidal wave of data now offers opportunities for innovative entrepreneurs to build entire new products, services and companies based on processing that data and offering recommendations, analytics and other information products to consumers.

Social data is set to be surpassed in the data economy, though, by data published by physical, real-world objects like sensors, smart grids and connected devices. The United States may have dominated the first basic and the second social stage of the Web, but the Chinese government is moving quickly to make China the world leader in this next stage, the Internet of Things. A major new public/private partnership in Chongqing aimed explicitely at the Internet of Things is just the latest signal.

Sponsor

The Plan

The Chinese municipality of Chongqing and telco giant China Unicom have announced a multi-billion dollar partnership of investment and tax breaks aimed to create as much as $7 billion in annual revenues within five years from what's called the Internet of Things.

According to a report in Near Field Communications World, "Under the terms of the agreement, China Unicom and the municipal government will also jointly establish an NFC [Near Field Communications] Industry Alliance while China Unicom will establish a research facility specialising in the Internet of Things..."

We reported last month that the national government of China is also developing a national Internet of Things plan. China could take the lead, and Chongqing could try to become the next Silicon Valley.

A world-leading Internet of Things infrastructure and economy would give China a big advantage in efficiency throughout any industries that become instrumented with sensors and a platform for significant innovation.

In June, the parliament of the European Union officially endorsed development of an Internet of Things as well. The United States has no official state plan for the Internet of Things, but earlier this week objects surpassed new human subscribers to wireless data plans for the first time in US history.

Photo credit.

The journalistic promise of social media was to connect directly with the people who live the news that others only report. That is, the teachers, cops, soldiers, mothers, philologists, farmers and accountants who recorded their personal experiences - what they saw and what they felt. Instead, the bulk of social media that "reports" the news seems to be there primarily to reinforce our a priori prejudices.

I call bullshit on that.

So here are a group of voices that come out of non-crazy people. The fact that it probably seems surprising they're Israeli, Palestinian-Israeli and Palestinian is only more proof that we seek out people that reinforce our expectations. These won't.

Sponsor

Lisa Goldman

Lisa is a Canadian-Israeli journalist with a wide array of credits, from the Guardian to Haaretz to the Columbia Journalism Review to Time Out Tel Aviv. She came to prominence during the Israel-Lebanon war, when she reported from Lebanon and kept a dialog going with Lebanese bloggers, an undertaking which at times seemed freaking dire.

Lisa's neither apologetic for being Israeli nor blind to the country's failings. She's steely at times, funny at others and remarkably empathetic. Though she doesn't suffer fools gladly, she'll talk to anyone.

From her latest post:

"Somehow, a certain brand of Judaism and militarism have become part of the settler movement's ideological identity. For many religious settlers, the army is an extension of their identity in the sense of serving the state that controls the land mentioned in the bible, that was given by God. For American Jews who support the settler movement's ideology, and share their conviction that they are surrounded by enemies that present an existential threat, a course in the use of firearms might feel as important as a visit to the Western Wall or the Tomb of the Patriarchs in terms of identity tourism - not to mention power. For Caliber 3′s bareheaded instructors, the settlers' ideology is certainly a lucrative source of income."

Issa

Issa is a Palestinian-Israeli (more often in the media called "Arab-Israeli"). He works as a diplomat in an embassy in Tel Aviv. Because of his work, he remains anonymous. But he blogs in a voice you'd think would belong to a good diplomat: empathetic, bridge-building, possessing a distinct point of view but willing to engage. As a Palestinian-Israeli, he focuses a lot of his attention on his country (Israel) and his people (the Palestinians, as well as Palestinian-Israelis).

Among his subject matter is Knesset debates with Palestinian-Israeli and Israeli lawmakers, refugee crises, Israeli basketball and boycotting products of the Jewish settlements.

From his latest post:

"After 62 years, the Ministry of Education has finally decided to implement Arabic language studies starting the fifth grade. The new initiative would allow students at 170 public schools in northern Israel to learn the second official language in Israel on a relatively early age . . . Those who had some knowledge, acquired it at the military service, either at the check points or the intelligence branch. Others have basic pathetic sentences from their junior high school days. It sure felt like someone is missing the point out there, how pity."

Gaza Mom

GM's a mom. She's from Gaza City. Mystery solved. She's also a journalist. Her family live, and she blogs from, the U.S. now, "unable to return to or even visit Gaza due to the siege." Her blog's about "the trials of raising (her) children between spaces and identities; displacement and occupation; and everything that entails from potty training to border crossings."

On visits to Gaza, she walks. I think that's crucial. She walks, sees, talk, then blogs about what she sees. It's a welcome corrective to media tunnel-vision and propagandistic screeching. Not a big fan of the Israeli state, it's safe to say, but she registers clear, sharp pictures rendered in sharp, evocative phrases - neither slogans nor anger-deformed truisms. "No ideas but in things" might be her motto.

From her latest post:

"While out doing field research for The Gaza Kitchen yesterday, Maggie and I stumbled upon what we think is Gaza's only "certified organic" farm. Now before you roll your eyes, keep in mind this is not a departure but a return to very traditional farming practices of pre-1948 days, when life and livelihoods were violently and abruptly disrupted."

There. That's three. An Israeli, a Palestinian-Israeli and a Palestinian. They're all worth listening to. They deliver what we thought bloggers around the world would deliver in the early days: real, human intelligence on where they live and who they live among and what happens there.

Do you have a favorite blogger you follow in Israel | Palestine? Someone who provides a surprising viewpoint, who brings you the good and bad of where they live and who they are? If so, please give us a link in the comments.

By the way, I encourage, in this post and all others, vigorous, propulsive comments. But if you I swear to G-d start hating - on anyone and from any direction and for any reason - and I will delete you so fast it will make your virtual head spin. The whole point of this post is to remind ourselves that human beings bring us human intelligence no matter where we look, thanks to this series of tubes. Emulate them.

The Getty Conservation Institute has introduced the Middle Eastern Geodatabase for Antiquities - Jordan, a GIS-powered, map-focused site to "inventory, monitor, and manage Jordan's vast number of archaeological sites."

Working for four years, at the cost of $1 million, the Getty, with the cooperation of the Jordanian Department of Antiquities and the World Monuments Fund, has created a system for matching geographic information and historical research in a land whose history is vast and varied.

Sponsor

The project is two-fold. First, it will enable scholarly access to, ideally, every archaeological site in Jordan. Second, it will aid in the protection of ancient sites. Looting in nearby Iraq, and globally in general, is on the rise again.

MEGA lists over 10,000 sites of archaeological and historic importance, from the neolithic to Ottoman times. Information the integrity of these sites was formally listed only in a local Jordanian database, with no connection to the Internet.

The site was built with a number of realities in mind. It should be map-based, use free or low-cost software, be bi-lingual in Arabic and English, be easy-to-learn and customizable and allow the export of data that is fully compatible with other GIS tools such as Google Earth, Quantum GIS, and ESRI's ArcView..

The project's website will open next month to a group of authorized users. The intent is to open it to a wider and wider group as time goes on, as well as to spread the experience with the system to others who might be interested in implementing it in their country or area. Iraq, which was originally the target of an earlier version of the project but was given up in favor of Jordan due to instability, has indicated a desire to revisit the possibility of implementing the system in that country, according to Qais Hussein Rashid, Iraq's Director of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage.

The journalistic promise of social media was to connect directly with the people who live the news that others only report. That is, the teachers, cops, soldiers, mothers, philologists, farmers and accountants who recorded their personal experiences - what they saw and what they felt. Instead, the bulk of social media that "reports" the news seems to be there primarily to reinforce our a priori prejudices.

I call bullshit on that.

So here are a group of voices that come out of non-crazy people. The fact that it probably seems surprising they're Israeli, Palestinian-Israeli and Palestinian is only more proof that we seek out people that reinforce our expectations. These won't.

Sponsor

Lisa Goldman

Lisa is a Canadian-Israeli journalist with a wide array of credits, from the Guardian to Haaretz to the Columbia Journalism Review to Time Out Tel Aviv. She came to prominence during the Israel-Lebanon war, when she reported from Lebanon and kept a dialog going with Lebanese bloggers, an undertaking which at times seemed freaking dire.

Lisa's neither apologetic for being Israeli nor blind to the country's failings. She's steely at times, funny at others and remarkably empathetic. Though she doesn't suffer fools gladly, she'll talk to anyone.

From her latest post:

"Somehow, a certain brand of Judaism and militarism have become part of the settler movement's ideological identity. For many religious settlers, the army is an extension of their identity in the sense of serving the state that controls the land mentioned in the bible, that was given by God. For American Jews who support the settler movement's ideology, and share their conviction that they are surrounded by enemies that present an existential threat, a course in the use of firearms might feel as important as a visit to the Western Wall or the Tomb of the Patriarchs in terms of identity tourism - not to mention power. For Caliber 3′s bareheaded instructors, the settlers' ideology is certainly a lucrative source of income."

Issa

Issa is a Palestinian-Israeli (more often in the media called "Arab-Israeli"). He works as a diplomat in an embassy in Tel Aviv. Because of his work, he remains anonymous. But he blogs in a voice you'd think would belong to a good diplomat: empathetic, bridge-building, possessing a distinct point of view but willing to engage. As a Palestinian-Israeli, he focuses a lot of his attention on his country (Israel) and his people (the Palestinians, as well as Palestinian-Israelis).

Among his subject matter is Knesset debates with Palestinian-Israeli and Israeli lawmakers, refugee crises, Israeli basketball and boycotting products of the Jewish settlements.

From his latest post:

"After 62 years, the Ministry of Education has finally decided to implement Arabic language studies starting the fifth grade. The new initiative would allow students at 170 public schools in northern Israel to learn the second official language in Israel on a relatively early age . . . Those who had some knowledge, acquired it at the military service, either at the check points or the intelligence branch. Others have basic pathetic sentences from their junior high school days. It sure felt like someone is missing the point out there, how pity."

Gaza Mom

GM's a mom. She's from Gaza City. Mystery solved. She's also a journalist. Her family live, and she blogs from, the U.S. now, "unable to return to or even visit Gaza due to the siege." Her blog's about "the trials of raising (her) children between spaces and identities; displacement and occupation; and everything that entails from potty training to border crossings."

On visits to Gaza, she walks. I think that's crucial. She walks, sees, talk, then blogs about what she sees. It's a welcome corrective to media tunnel-vision and propagandistic screeching. Not a big fan of the Israeli state, it's safe to say, but she registers clear, sharp pictures rendered in sharp, evocative phrases - neither slogans nor anger-deformed truisms. "No ideas but in things" might be her motto.

From her latest post:

"While out doing field research for The Gaza Kitchen yesterday, Maggie and I stumbled upon what we think is Gaza's only "certified organic" farm. Now before you roll your eyes, keep in mind this is not a departure but a return to very traditional farming practices of pre-1948 days, when life and livelihoods were violently and abruptly disrupted."

There. That's three. An Israeli, a Palestinian-Israeli and a Palestinian. They're all worth listening to. They deliver what we thought bloggers around the world would deliver in the early days: real, human intelligence on where they live and who they live among and what happens there.

Do you have a favorite blogger you follow in Israel | Palestine? Someone who provides a surprising viewpoint, who brings you the good and bad of where they live and who they are? If so, please give us a link in the comments.

By the way, I encourage, in this post and all others, vigorous, propulsive comments. But if you I swear to G-d start hating - on anyone and from any direction and for any reason - and I will delete you so fast it will make your virtual head spin. The whole point of this post is to remind ourselves that human beings bring us human intelligence no matter where we look, thanks to this series of tubes. Emulate them.