This recently posted video of Israeli soldiers dancing to the beat of Ke$ha’s “tick tock” in the middle of their patrol in the West Bank is a great example of the clash of context. The video went viral extremely fast, as many Israelis re-posted and proudly emailed the link, naively thinking that “the world will finally see that our soldiers are humans who also like to have a little fun”. They could not have imagined just how offended people across the world would be from watching the video. Slogans like “It’s easy to laugh at the occupation when you’re the oppressor” were posted in response, causing lots of frustration and confusion all around.

Intentions were good, but were lost in translation.

Ethan Zuckerman has been writing about xenophilia and culture bridging for a while. He points at people’s tendency towards homophily (’birds of a feather flock together’) and sees this as a fundamental challenge, since with the web, we’re more able than ever to find people that are like us. He stresses the importance for us to seek out and understand people different from us, especially as cultures clash on global web services become more common. Ethan defines xenophilia as people in the world who are genuinely fascinated by the breadth, complexity and difference of the world; “third culture kids”, people who were raised in one country, but are “from” another. Bridge bloggers are xenophiles who have the capacity to connect both sides of a story, because they themselves are associated with both sides.

In his recent blog post, Ethan looks at data released by peace.facebook.com, boasting how many daily connections are made between pairs of battling entities. According to the site, 15,747 connections between Israelis and Palestinians have been made over the last 24 hours on Facebook. I find this piece of data incredibly hard to believe (especially since the number doesn’t seem to change over the course of the week). Even if a reciprocal relationship equals 2 connections, I can’t imagine such a high number of connections forming on a daily basis. That said, 20% of Israeli population is Arab, many with roots and family in Gaza or the West Bank. This fact could certainly explain the data.

Their notion of “connections” makes me wonder if they account for Facebook fan pages. Successful fan pages tend to be politically charged, and polarize the users according to their political agenda rather than bring those with different views together. However, if Facebook’s data is counting Israeli Arabs as Israelis (as they should!), I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d accounted for multiple connections forming via these fan pages.

I am extremely doubtful that much bridging happens through direct Facebook “friending”, nor that it is represented by direct Facebook “friendships” between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs. So where does it happen if at all?

In order to answer this question, we must discuss the notion of a “safe space”, which I consider crucial for bridging to happen. A safe space makes us feel comfortable, almost at home. Its an environment where we are supported and validated; a place where we are willing to lower our defenses.

I am a huge fan of Global Voices, but wouldn’t consider it as a safe space for Israelis. The majority of readership on the Middle East section tilts heavily towards Arab articles, comments and opinions. One might say that is totally fair since it is representative of actual world distribution of population. But the outcome is an imbalanced environment, which for an Israeli, feels unsafe; a place where they won’t be supported, nor will they be identified with. Why hang out where everyone’s picking on you when you can easily go play with fun friends elsewhere? For the most part,like the Guardian or Al-Jazeera, Global Voices is not perceived as a safe space.

However I believe that Facebook creates new opportunities for safe spaces to form, especially as they are based on people’s familiarity with each other.

Facebook received massive adoption in Israel, easily taking over any other Social network or service. Israel is a tiny place, and people are inherently social – making Facebook a perfect place to interact with the “hevre” (Hebrew for ‘gang’ – also the name of one of the earliest Social Networks that saw light in Israel). Facebook is a place where my friends from Israel feel extremely comfortable. Even when someone lands on my profile page, there are always other friends a mere click away, in the periphery. One is never alone, in any given context.

The Flotilla incident triggered something I hadn’t seen before. Friends from different contexts don’t tend to communicate with each other, even when reacting to the same post. The flotilla events changed this.

When dealing with such a complex topic that has no clear “right” or “wrong”, I witnessed multiple “cross boundary” conversations happening on my own Facebook page, and also amongst my Israeli friends who are also living abroad. Our pages served as bridges, or safe havens, where contacts from “opposing sides” could have a conversation.

It would go something like this – (1) Facebook page owner posts link to article (2) Israeli friend/relative responds with a pro-Israeli message (3) European friend responds to that with a counter opinion (4) Another Israeli friend responds (5) another foreign friend supports #3 (6) profile owner mediates…

…you get the drift.

The interesting part here is that even if there are no direct links between those in Israel, and those with opposing perspectives wherever they were, a conversation could take place because of the personalized nature of Facebook. Because it felt safer to do it there, on a shared friend’s page. Much safer than on Global Voices, or other international news websites.

The more Facebook grows, the more I see these kinds of exchanges happening. In his post, Ethan claims that “we overestimate how many of our online contacts cross borders and underestimate how often these tools are used to reinforce local friendships”. While I agree, I’d add that we shouldn’t only look at direct cross-border connections, but rather try to understand and estimate the value that Facebook serves as a safe space for bridging to occur. I’m not sure how we quantify the amount of cultural bridging that is not represented by FB connections. We could only do this by analyzing public discussions happening on profile pages, between profiles who are not friends on Facebook.

To conclude, Obama argues that we suffer from an “empathy deficit”, as quoted from a speech to college students:

“There’s a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit. But I think we should talk more about our empathy deficit – the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes; to see the world through those who are different from us – the child who’s hungry, the laid-off steelworker, the immigrant woman cleaning your dorm room. As you go on in life, cultivating this quality of empathy will become harder, not easier.”

Placing yourself in someone else’s shoes is much easier when the store attendant is your close friend. Facebook as a platform has the potential to host these conversations; be the store. Safe space.

But we the users, have to make the conversations happen.

What I’d like to see is a comparison of multiple people at the same time. I’d also like to minimize the timeline so that i can see the whole evening at a time, rather than have to scroll horizontally. I don’t like the aesthetic of circular profiles over a black background. The circular border has too much contrast – some alpha blurring would’ve done the trick nicely. Whats definitely missing most is the multiple channel view, especially now that people aren’t talking as much about the event. In any case, nice to see MTV investing in a Twitter viz. (click below to try it out)

]]> http://giladlotan.com/blog/2009/09/twitter-visualization-mtv-vma-tweet-tracker/feed/ 2 http://giladlotan.com/blog/2009/04/holocaust-memorial-day/ http://giladlotan.com/blog/2009/04/holocaust-memorial-day/#comments Tue, 21 Apr 2009 01:32:01 +0000 http://giladlotan.com/blog/?p=429 We must never forget

Alfred Sirleaf is the managing editor of The Daily Talk, a white plywood shed trumpeting the latest headlines along Tubman Boulevard, one of Monrovia main thoroughfares. “Those who don’t have opportunity to buy newspaper, go on the Internet, who can’t afford to buy generator to buy TV,” he said, describing just about everyone in this battered city, “I do all the dirty work for them, and I just give them exactly what they want.”

Alfred’s solution to dispersing information to the people around him is simple yet highly effective. He also seems to have made a business model out of this board, charging for advertisement space on the bottom. Alfred wants to make sure every Liberian can keep up with the news and play a part in the country’s young democratic government, but in a way that wholly depends on what type of information he displays.

But there are so many advantages to providing “analog” news:

Alfred serves as a reminder to the rest of us, that simple is often better, just because it works. The lack of electricity never throws him off. The lack of funding means he’s creative in ways that he recruits people from around the city and country to report news to him. He uses his cell phone as the major point of connection between him and the 10,000 (he says) that read his blackboard daily. (link)

[tags]mobile, development, blogger, analog, africa,news[/tags]

This summer, the Frugal Traveler is embarking on the Grand Tour, reimagining the classic European journey as a budget-minded, modern-day jaunt. Over 12 weeks and on less than 100 euros a day, Matt Gross will circle the continent in search of cool hotels, memorable meals and contemporary culture. New columns and videos will be posted every Thursday, with updates and frugal tips throughout the week. (link)

Another travel related endeavor which I am very excited about was created by the company I work for – Endemol. The GAP YEAR is produced by Endemol UK in collaboration with bebo. It follows six young British youth on their gap year adventures, documenting their adventures, thoughts and exciting moments. Fans are encouraged to vote on tasks for the contestants. In addition, produced videos are constantly released, while the travelers themselves update blogs and photo albums with their thoughts. An exciting project, extremely successful in the UK, with a real potential to get people excited about meaningful travel.

Gap Year HQ have sent six travellers – Amy, Andre, Cara, Dave, Lewis and Roxanne – around the world on a six-month trip of a lifetime. We’ll be bringing you a brand new video every single day of the week, giving you the latest exciting and memorable footage from every corner of the world. As well as this, the travellers will be sharing their own photos, blogs and videos on their individual profile pages, which you can check out below. (link)

[tags]travel,gapyear,nytimes,interactive[/tags]

Israeli blogs are technologically different from their counterparts in the US, with two distinctions: comment spaces in US blogs are linear while in Israel they have a tree structure (similar to that of web forums). This format enables more constructive commenting since it supports numerous simultaneous threads. Secondly, Carmel claims that in the US the importance in a blog’s format is its text and links, while in Israel there is an emphasis on diversity and giving a user control over design features, while some of the options are given at a cost. She mentions that the Israeli media rarely covers the Israeli blogosphere, unlike the US. Those who DO mention Hebrew blogs are the tech writers and journalists.

Below is a video of her talk, focused on the rise of major Israeli political blogs and their effect on policy. She opens with a question – Why Israeli-political blogs are not as influential as their counterparts in the States? She claims that the Israeli model for influence and effect is culturally different than that of the US, and that the Israeli blogosphere might possibly be more influential than we think. She backs her hypothesis with some good examples (in Hebrew):

The ‘Haggadah’, a text read in celebrating households, was written around the 2nd century and deals with some of the basic notions of freedom. Those which we easily take for granted. Seriously, had the Hebrews not been freed from slavery we would be living in a dark, dark world -
no New York Bagels, no Goonies, Seinfeld and… well… leaving politics out of this one.

The Haggadah has been “open source” for centuries, as families and communities created their own versions and additions to the story – contextualized it, and made it relevant to their social circles. However, many were kept within closed doors, usually purely for geographic reasons. With the ease of online communication, it is amazing how many people have been sharing their Haggadah versions. Over the past week, I’ve heard personal stories about people who were asked by friends to e-mail out their version of the Haggadah (complete with subtext, images and pop-songs). We are getting so used to the notion of personalizing every thing around us. So why not read a more relevant version of this story? The idea driving this Passover custom is to be thankful for our freedom, and “never forget” that our ancestors were enslaved in Egypt.

Douglas Rushkoff began a web-based project called open source haggadah that lets you pick and choose which parts of the long text you’d like to read (actually, I have never managed to get to the end of the text… definitely not after wine+food). There is a standard Hebrew format, but many radically different translations and adaptations are used (best-of-the-bunch is the hardcore feminist Haggadah, with no masculine reference to g-d. With all the sizzling hot trends supporting open source-ness, this was a perfect chance to get a bunch of friends together over a .
(note to self: read through all of the Haggadah text before the Seder)…

Although it DID make out for a very entertaining evening… Especially after the wine started kicking in. Here’s one result – Souris managed to sign up for L_RD on twitter, and already has 22 followers – much easier being a twitter god than helping the Israelites out of Egypt :: Oh dear
Here are some pix from the Seder:

and a link to the Haggadah we used.

[tags]haggadah,jewish,holiday,religion,culture,technology,cultech,open,source,passover[/tags]

Mobile communications change the way we lead our lives, yet have a substantially greater effect on third world users, where they serve as an introductory communications device. In the majority of these locations it makes more sense to implement mobile phone networks rather than a land-line alternative. It took about 20 years for the first billion mobile phones to sell worldwide. The second billion sold in four years, and the third billion sold in two. Eighty percent of the world’s population now lives within range of a cellular network, which is double the level in 2000. And figures from the International Telecommunications Union show that by the end of 2006, 68 percent of the world’s mobile subscriptions were in developing countries.

These numbers are just mind-boggling. And it is inspiring to see just how phones in developing nations are changing people’s lives for the better. It is remarkable that even very poor families invest a significant amount of money in ICT (information-communication technology). What they’re buying are cellphones and airtime, usually in the form of prepaid cards. Even more telling is the finding that as a family’s income grows — from $1 per day to $4, for example — their spending on ICT increases faster than spending in any other category, including health, education and housing. “It’s really quite striking,” Hammond says. “What people are voting for with their pocketbooks, as soon as they have more money and even before their basic needs are met, is telecommunications.”

Nokia is making all the right moves. Learning from its potential users and seeing how their technology is adapted within foreign contexts. The company is also working feverishly on a 5$ handset, which is planned to hit the African markets very soon. It is obvious that such a device will have a substantial effect in many parts of Africa and Asia, and help register an even larger slice of users and behaviours. In addition to hardware design, Nokia needs to put much work into its UI. Nokia’s menu systems are still difficult to navigate, clunky and hardly intuitive. The S60 platform very heavy on the phone’s memory, making the overall experience excruciatingly slow.

I am still a big Nokia fan, not necessarily for the current experience on its phones, but for its support and dedication to provide an open mobile development platform. Lets hope it keeps making the right decisions, as the company grows larger.

Below are quotes from the NYT article:

Chipchase gives example upon example of the cellphone’s ability to increase people’s productivity and well-being, mostly because of the simple fact that they can be reached. There’s the live-in housekeeper in China who was more or less an indentured servant until she got a cellphone so that new customers could call and book her services. Or the porter who spent his days hanging around outside of department stores and construction sites hoping to be hired to carry other people’s loads but now, with a cellphone, can go only where the jobs are. Having a call-back number, Chipchase likes to say, is having a fixed identity point, which, inside of populations that are constantly on the move — displaced by war, floods, drought or faltering economies — can be immensely valuable both as a means of keeping in touch with home communities and as a business tool. Over several years, his research team has spoken to rickshaw drivers, prostitutes, shopkeepers, day laborers and farmers, and all of them say more or less the same thing: their income gets a big boost when they have access to a cellphone.

Robert Jensen, an economics professor at Harvard University, tracked fishermen off the coast of Kerala in southern India, finding that when they invested in cellphones and started using them to call around to prospective buyers before they’d even got their catch to shore, their profits went up by an average of 8 percent while consumer prices in the local marketplace went down by 4 percent. Public health workers in South Africa now send text messages to tuberculosis patients with reminders to take their medication. In Kenya, people can use S.M.S. to ask anonymous questions about culturally taboo subjects like AIDS, breast cancer and sexually transmitted diseases, receiving prompt answers from health experts for no charge.

“For the first time, there are more people living in urban centers than in rural settings,” Chipchase explained as we sat in the shade outside the studio. “And in the next years, millions more will move to these places.” At current rates of migration, the United Nations Human Settlements Program has projected that one-quarter of the earth’s population will live in so-called slums by the year 2020. Slums, by sheer virtue of the numbers, are going to start mattering more and more, Chipchase postulated.

How do you make a phone that can be repaired by a streetside repairman who may not have access to new parts? How do you build a phone that won’t die a quick death in a monsoon or by falling off the back of a motorbike on a dusty road? Or a phone that picks up distant signals in a rural place, holds a charge off a car battery longer or that can double as a flashlight during power cuts? Influenced by Chipchase’s study on the practice of sharing cellphones inside of families or neighborhoods, Nokia has started producing phones with multiple address books for as many as seven users per phone. To enhance the phone’s usefulness to illiterate customers, the company has designed software that cues users with icons in addition to words. The biggest question remains one of price

Motorola now provides free solar-powered charging kiosks to female entrepreneurs in Uganda, who use them to sell airtime. The company is also testing wind- and solar-powered base stations in Namibia, which could bring down the cost of connecting remote areas to cellular networks. “Originally mobile-phone companies weren’t interested in power because it’s not their business,” Banks says. “But if a few hundred million people could buy their phones once they had it, they’re suddenly interested in power.”

[tags]mobile,jan,chipchase,design,third,world,development,phone,nokia[/tags]