Crastinate

For all those who have been following me on Twitter, you’d know that my Macbook Pro’s monitor decided to stop working on my first day in Israel. I’ve already got over 200 photos and plenty of insights to share but they’ll have to wait until I get back to the States and fix my computer.  I”ll have to stick to blogging from my iPhone for the time being.

What I can tell you is that I’m having a great time with our crew. To get a good idea of what we’ve been up to, check out Loren Feldman’s hilarious video about our first day. Also check out the Cartoon Barry blog for constant updates. I will try to provide some quick posts from time to time but the in-depth posts will have to wait. On to day 2!

The clapping started as soon as the wheels touched ground. That doesn’t happen when traveling anywhere else. When traveling to Israel, however, this is an expected occurrence. I’ve been to Israel many times and while I know what to expect, I’m trying to tour Israel this time with a different perspective. As an Orthodox Jew, Israel’s religious history and spirituality is where I usually make my connection. On this trip, I’m trying to admire the balance of old and new worlds that Israel has become since its inception in 1948.

Tomorrow I will tour Jerusalem with Tamar, Brian, Loren, Michelle, Barry, and Jeanine. I’m hoping to gain a new insight into areas I’ve visited many times. I’ll let you know how it goes.

UPDATE: The source of information I used for this post was a hoax and I completely fell for it. I leave my original post here for your laughing pleasure (laughing at me that is). Enjoy!

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Twitter unveiled new premium accounts that allow users/companies to pay a monthly fee for additional services. Here is the breakdown of available premium accounts:

• Sparrow ($5/month) – Users get 145 character limit, 5 extra random followers.

• Dove ($15/month) – Users get 160 character limit, 25 extra random followers, 1 random celebrity follower, auto-spell check, “Fail Whale” T-shirt.

• Owl ($50/month) – Users get 250 character limit, 100 extra random followers, 2 random celebrity followers, 30 minutes on recommended list, auto-spell check, “Fail Whale” hoodie.

• Eagle ($250/month) – Users get 500 character limit, 1000 extra random followers, 3 celebrity followers of their choice, 5 hours on recommended list each month, Twitter Concierge for Tweeting while user is asleep or busy (and more), auto-spell check, “Fail Whale” tuxedo, custom “Fail Whale” page when service is down.

5 Reasons why this business model will work

1. Twitter is being talked about on every major news station. With all that buzz, Twitter will receive LOTS of business from marketers who don’t want to miss out on this hot new trend.
2. Most promotions take more than 140 characters to explain (and that’s not taking into account the url). It’s worth paying for more characters.
3. A couple of hundred dollars a month is a drop in the bucket when looking at what marketers typically spend on marketing their brands.
4. It adds value that 3rd party services can’t compete against.
5. Many marketers need a cost to justify ROI. Free doesn’t make sense. This provides the cost basis for adding Twitter to marketing campaigns.

5 Reasons why this business model won’t work

1. There isn’t enough value added to justify the costs. If you need 500 characters to say something, split it up amongst multiple tweets or make a web page and link to it.
2. Random followers don’t help. Businesses want targeted followers.
3. The Recommended List is just a list of people who can afford to be there. Users will see through the charade.
4. Who wants a custom “fail whale” page? That shows the user that not only is Twitter down, but also that business’ communication.
5. Who cares if a celebrity is following you? Would you care if M.C. Hammer is following Cisco?

I’m angry, like everyone else, that taxpayer money went to pay for big bonuses for AIG employees. I think most people, however, are angry at the wrong people.

AIG, as much as they have screwed up, claims that all the bonuses that were given out were contractual. If that’s the case, than how could AIG NOT pay these bonuses? Did the government say they have to cut salaries? Did the government tell AIG that in exchange for bailout money they would need to renegotiate all their employee contracts? No. Why is everyone getting angry at AIG?

The real problem here is the bailout. Don’t get me wrong. I think a bailout is necessary. But we’re giving money out to financial institutions that only care about their survival. They don’t care about the American taxpayer. They shouldn’t care. We work in a free-market economy. It’s a fight-for-survival world and that’s what they’re doing. I’m angry at our government for not thinking about this sooner. I’m angry at our ridiculous accounting system that allows contractual bonuses to go through in this situation (if your company nearly sank the economy, I don’t care what performance goals you’ve met, there shouldn’t be any bonuses). And frankly, I’m angry at the misguided people out there who think that AIG is the only entity to blame here.

Who are you angry at?

Crastinate is going to take a change in direction for a little while starting March 22nd. I have been invited on a bloggers delegation to Israel by the Israeli Consulate. We will be taken around the country to areas that, from my understanding, are not typically visited by traditional media. We are under no pressure to do anything for this generous trip but I believe the consulate is hoping that us bloggers report our findings of what life in Israel is like.

I’ve been following the @israelconsulate on Twitter and have been impressed with their efforts to engage web users via social media recently. There was also a successful Qassam rocket campaign via Facebook status messages but I’m not sure if the consulate was involved with that as well. Regardless, it seems that Israel is experimenting with new tools to educate people about what Israel is really like and what is really going on there.

I’m looking forwad to the trip and plan on reporting from Israel on a daily basis. Because of this, my posts will seem a bit one-topic focused for a while but I promise to get back to commenting on the web, economy, politics and everything else when I get back. Some of the other invitees that I’m aware of include Loren Feldman, Barry Schwartz, David Shankbone, Tamar Weinberg and Brian Weinberg. I encourage you to not only read my experience of the trip, but theirs as well.