My Hebrew blog (not mine – I just co-author) is celebrating 3 months at a cool party tonight, Tuesday, at Tel Aviv Harbor. Consider yourselves invited!
Archive Page 30
Newsgeek Party Tonight
Published June 16, 2009 Uncategorized ClosedTags: israel, newsgeek, party, בלוגים, טוויטר, ישראל, ניוז-גיק
My facebook identity
Published June 14, 2009 Uncategorized ClosedTags: email, facebook, messaging, social media, twitter, vanity url, אימייל, טוויטר, ישראל, מדיה חברתית, פייסבוק
At noon Saturday I picked my new facebook vanity url and from now on I’m facebook.com/dvirreznik. Simple and precise. According to facebook, 15min into the action, some 500,000 people registered their urls, at a staggering rate of 550 per second!
The question you need to ask is ‘what facebook has in store for us next?’ Having your own vanity url has been around for couple of years now, with LinkedIn, Flickr, SlideShare, Gmail, Twitter, Qik and many more. Being a number is so 1984, and facebook realized that. In my opinion (and others) facebook are working on something bigger, that would increase the loyalty of its friends – something like an email service.
And why the heck not? According to recent data facebook has some 200,000,000 loyal users and growing, built-in chat services, strong eco-system of developers – the only thing missing is messaging. And when you pick your vanity url you basically decide your email address: dvirreznik@facebook.com.
If you have other suggestions I’d love to hear them – drop a comment below.
The list: Israeli companies on twitter
Published June 8, 2009 Uncategorized ClosedTags: enterprise 2.0, facebook, israel, newsgeek, social media, twitter, טוויטר, ישראל, מדיה חברתית, פייסבוק
Since Ashton and CNN battled out over who’ll reach 1m followers first, Twitter has been gaining ground in Israel. And although the micro-blogging service is still no match to facebook in terms of # of users, the awareness is definitely growing, globally and locally alike.
According to twittercounter there are about 2324 Israeli twitter users, my guess is a bit higher, closer to 3,500-4,000, as opposed to over 600,000 facebook users – some even say 750,000. Twitter is still relatively un-known in Israel, and we’re waiting for it to make its leap, but already I’m seeing more and more businesses entering this space, opening accounts on twitter. The reason is simple: it’s easy to manage and update, and doesn’t require too much of your time. The question is what value (or ROI) you expect from such activities, and the answers here vary, a lot.
In an effort to make some order in all the cluter, I’ve created a list over at newsgeek, of Israeli companies on twitter: media and communication, government and retail, hi-tech and VCs, leasure and sport, food and beverages and others. The list is dynamic, and 3 hours after the initial posting I had some 15 comments (and 20-30 new followers) of new accounts that needed to be inserted into the list. My goal is to create a place where people can find the company and contact person, that would enable them to start a conversation faster, meeting the demand of the ever-changing-business-world (aka – Innovation). The only 2 rules are:
a) an updated account (less than 20 days since your last twit) and
b) full bio available for contact and details.
Although the entire post is in Hebrew, by hovering over the names you can get the feeling of ‘who’s who’ in the Israeli E2.0 arena. I’m sure the list will continue to grow (by at least 1 more) in the future.
Link:
The List: Israeli Companies on Twitter (Hebrew)
Meet my new employer – Isracard
Published June 7, 2009 Uncategorized 3 CommentsTags: career, isracard, israel, social media, ישראכרט, ישראל, מדיה חברתית, קריירה
After 40 something days of job searching (and beaching.. 😉 I’ll be starting my new job coming Monday, June 15 2009, at Isracard as Head of Social Media, part of the Marketing Division. I’m very excited as this position is a new one at Isracard, and as I’ll be doing the things I love and understand, at a large consumer company, internally and externally.
Isracard is Israel’s leading credit card company with some 2.5m card holders and over 100,000 clearing businesses via 3 products: Visa International, Mastercard International and Isracard. The company was founded in 1975 and employs some 1,300 people, HQ in Tel Aviv.
As my role is a new one, I’ll post a more elaborate entry about my responsibilities in couple of weeks, but basically my daily routine (as I see it) relates to every aspect of the company operations, split into 3 major routes:
- Customers – almost every citizen in Israel (inclusing me) holds at least one Isracard card and with 2.5m customers, I’m guessing the online conversation will be interesting…
- Clearing businesses – major aspect of any company operation is its eco-system, and in Isracard’s case those are the +100,000 businesses accepting Isracard cards, across the country.
- Employees – the human capital is any company’s strength, and with 1,300 people (300-400 of them at various call-centers) – they are the best evangelists to Isracard’s work.
So, even before I officaily started I can see some challenges and opportunities. Not sure I’ll get Obama’s grace period, but nevertheless I intend to do my best, as always. If you have any suggestions/requests/tips for my first day at the job, leave a comment or drop me an email.
And finally, I want to thank those who helped me in those 40 something days – thank you!
First 48 hours with Asus EeePC 1000HE
Published May 30, 2009 Uncategorized 4 CommentsTags: asus eeepc 1000he, israel, netbook, review, אסוס, ביקורת, נטבוק, סקירה
Picked up my new netbook the other day, the Asus EeePC 1000HE, black. Since we have a Toshiba 15.4 laptop at home, we looked for something small and affordable, with long battery life and above average performance. With a HUGE HELP from the master of netbooks in Israel, Nir, we opted for the Asus 1000HE, primarily because of its 9.5 hours (!) battery life (6-cell).
The first hours are spent getting used to the keyboard and touch-pad. Even thou I had a small factor laptop, Levono X60, the netbooks are something else entirely. With the 1000HE the keyboard has been upgraded, each key is separated and it feels more comfortable, but there’s still a learning curve. I was never a big touch-pad fan, and this Asus has a somewhat small pad that takes getting used to. This model has a multi-touch feature (like a MacBook), that enables you to scroll the screen and zoom in/out using 2 fingers – quite handy and cool.
The most impressive feature about this model is its battery life (the E at 1000HE stands for ‘Extended’), that can give you a full business day worth of power, without carrying the ac adapter. Using Eee Super Hybrid Engine you can control the different power scenarios, that under ‘Auto’ mode lasted some 6 hours of above average usage. I guess reaching 8 hours with Super Power Saver mode won’t be too hard – and that’s more than enough.
In terms of size and weight, you could find a smaller netbook – the 6-cell battery is taking its toll, and the overall weight of this model is 1.4Kg (3.2 pounds). Asus supplies a neat little envelope case for your 1000HE, that can also house the ac adapter – which is also small factor, and doesn’t add too much if you need to take it with you.
Performance-wise, Intel Atom N280 is doing a solid work with the 1.6GHz and 1GB of RAM. The 1000HE comes with Win XP Home, but you can reformat it with any OS you want – Ubuntu, Vista or even Win7 – but with the latter you’ll have to increase the RAM to 2GB. Unlike other netbooks, upgrading your RAM can be done at home via an easy to access panel at the back. I’ve installed Adobe Photoshop CS and as long as you remember what’s ‘under the hood’ – you won’t be disappointed. I think the only downside I’ve noticed is with the graphics card, Intel Mobile 945 Chipset with 224MB of shared memory. Viewing YouTube videos in HQ or HD that involves a lot of movement (like the NBA channel) can be frustrating at times. TED Talks are better, but there’s little motion in them, so the card handles them well. It does heat a bit, as with any laptop, but it’s not too bad.
Overall the Asus EeePC 1000HE is an excellent netbook, with super battery life and solid performance. For 2,250 NIS (about $500) it’s a bit expensive than others, but you get a full mobile package that will last a business day without blinking.
