Jay Meydad's Life Mashup

Last weekend I participated at the first ever Kinnernet USA, an un-conference, inspired by Tim O’Reilly’s foo camp, that was organized by Jeff Pulver and Yossi Vardi. The camp was at the beautiful Bolger Center at Potomoc MD and it brought together about 100 people who came from all over the US, Europe and Israel to interact, discuss, create, play (music and games) and share thoughts and ideas.

This was my 3rd Kinnernet (first two were the “original” ones in Israel). It was very enjoyable & also different than the Israeli version. Kinnernet USA had less of the wild outdoors activities Kinnernet is known for like drag racing, robotics, fireworks, water activities and others and there was more focus on workshops & discussions. Similarities included tons of food, very little sleep, very funny Eggstravaganza, extremely creative Gadgethon (winners were a  computer powered sand table and Zoozbeat created by the very talented Gil Weinberg), Midnight Cooking Madness (I think it was the best ever) and fun jam sessions.

The biggest evidence to how different this Kinnernet was compared to its Israeli version could be found in the gaming section. The game room, typically the most crowded place 24×7, was well equipped with plenty of gaming consoles, large screens and massive sound systems. However, it remained empty most of the time. At the same time, plenty of folks played all night long, sessions of Werewolf games thanks to Jimmy Wales who initiated this. Not only that, Werewolf has made it to future Kinnernet’s official playlist and got Yossi’s blessing.

Overall, it was a very fun weekend as you can see in some of the photos I shot and in the videos uploaded to qik here.

And here’s the presentation I gave at the opening ceremony. Named “Kinnernet For Dummies”, it is a quick start guide for newbies done using photos from past Kinnernets.

This is what Peter Hirshberg (Technorati’s Chairman and CMO) had to say about the Sedder and how it could be upgraded. One of the best comedy acts presented at Kinnernet 2008.

Chag Sameach!

Earlier this week, I returned from Israel where I participated in Kinnernet, Yossi Vardi’s geek camp that took place to the shores of the Kinneret.

Cathy Brooks (of Seesmic) asked me there what was the best part. My answer was simply – “the beginning, the middle and the end”.

Yet, there were a few specific sessions, workshops & presentations I liked the most:

• Itai Talgam’s lecture about “management styles of great conductors”. It was fascinating to see how much the body language of conductors can indicate what type of managers they would be.
• Hanoch Piven’s “Art using Junk” workshop. This is the portrait of Avi Nimni I made (especially for Klieger).
• The home made satellite built from a PC, GPS, Digital Camera and transmitter connected to a helium balloon. Once in the air it sent photos of Jordan as well as its location and those coordinates were mashed up using Google Earth API to display its route. Very cool!
• Simon Levene (Accell Partners) presenting in a hilarious way the business plan for his next venture – WhoTheHell.RU. Does anyone have the video?
• Barak Berkowitz’s Paint with Light night workshop. Check out this art work.
• and last, but not least, the talented Ariel Qassis, who hypnotized me whenever his fingers touched the Qanun.

I am sure I am missing at least 100 other things that made this creative event simply great.

More photos can be found here, here, and a zillion more on Flickr

Update: Here is the video of Seder 2.0 by Peter Hirshberg

I went to Israel for a very short and intensive trip. Spent a few days in Tel Aviv and a few at the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), saw family & friends and participated in two major internet/technology events that took place that week.

The first event was Kinnernet, the un-conference created by Yossi Vardi. A crowd of about 250 creative & fascinating people were invited to spend two days collaborating, discussing, juggling, and playing.

The second event was TheMarker COM.Vention, Israel’s largest internet conference. I sat on panel called “Disruption 2.0: The Way Web 2.0 Challenges Web 1.0? and had the opportunity to present the way Snap disrupts the search market.

The conference was a great success. Over 3000 people attended the well organized event. I had the opportunity to meet many colleagues from past life (conratulations to my friends Itzik, Eran, Eyal, Amir and the rest of the InfoGin team for winning the ‘most promising startup award’) and get to know new Israeli internet professionals and entrepreneurs. Here’s a brilliant video made by two of them.