“It’s like the Biblical ‘end of days,’” Ben-Zur says. “Computing power will be such that you’ll be able to have all the resources you need in one place. Transportation will be streamlined and things like power and food will be available for the same amount of money anywhere in the world. The result will be that there will be no need for countries to covet the possessions or resources of others – since there will be plenty for everyone, and there will be no need for anyone to invade the space of others. Thus, ‘nation shall not lift sword against nation.’”

It sounds fantastic, the naive vision of a facile optimist. But as chairman of a company that works with Israel’s largest software, hardware, internet, telecommunication, and software companies, Ben-Zur knows first-hand of the marvelous inventions and developments on the drawing boards, and in the workshops of hi-tech companies. And last week, Ben-Zur and Bynet treated thousands of visitors to the annual Bynet Expo, which gathers dozens of Israel’s largest tech companies under one roof to show off their wares and innovations. For those who worked in the computer industry abroad and wistfully remember the computer shows of old – with floor shows, T-shirts, keychains, “drop your business card in the box to win a laptop” contests, and a free lunch, Bynet Expo is as close as you’re going to get in Israel!

But of course, the main attraction at the show was the technology – of which there was much to see, too much for the day allocated to it. While there were numerous lectures and discussions on innovations in many areas of the computer industry, the main attraction, as it always is at such shows, were the booths set up by the biggest tech companies in Israel as well as many from abroad, including Cisco, IBM, Polycom, Audiocodes, Radware, etc.

Among the many things coming to a computer store near you is a better, faster way to do videoconferencing – in 3D! Thanks to a new generation of video transmission perfected by Radvision (a member of the RAD group, along with Bynet), called scalable video coding (SVC), which helps correct video transmission errors and enables superior forward error correction (ie anticipating when there is going to be packet loss and preparing for it) and faster transmission, with fewer bottlenecks. The transmission, coupled with superior 3D rendering software, enables users to have as realistic a video communications experience as possible, even from halfway across the world. And of course, no glasses are necessary.

According to Moshe Machline of Radvision, the system is good enough for the company that it was able to save nearly a million and a half dollars last year by enabling conferees to “meet” by video, instead of flying to meetings. “Eye contact is very important at meetings – you miss a lot the nuances on the screen, and that is one major thing that has held up adoption of videoconferencing. But with 3D videoconferencing, you can get a much better ‘read’ on everyone in the room, just as if you were actually there,” he says. The Radvision solution is sold by Bynet as part of a full videoconferencing solution.

Or take security – an area that unfortunately, in this period when the “end of days” has not quite yet arrived. Along with advances in video surveillance, Bynet partners have developed various technologies that enables the company to offer a unique solution for border patrols, police, and other law enforcement agents: a communication system capable of transmitting live, real-time video, data and voice communications via a single broadband connection, using a fast, secure, private network.

The key to the system is the high-speed wireless network, which allows fast transmission of high-resolution video and audio without any effort required on the part of the driver; the vehicle continues on its rounds or pursues a suspect, and the camera focuses, with an individual in the control center able to enhance the picture to see inside a vehicle even hundreds of meters away. Again, SVC and video correction and enhancement techniques are used, so observers get a full, uninterrupted view of the action. The network enables full transmission of the data with no bottlenecks.

And although the deployment of these technologies would seem to have little to do with the good and bountiful future Ben-Zur sees, the technologies that are being built today for prosaic and workaday needs will be the technology that supplies the future change, he says. “We’re coming into a period where there are going to be unlimited digital resources,” he says. “The bottlenecks that have prevented us from doing what we want are being eliminated, just as the problems of storage and standards were eliminated in earlier periods.

Once we get used to working with these resources, new uses for them will be developed – all of them making life easier,” Ben-Zur says. And the standardization and unlimited bandwidth that are coming won’t be used just for a faster Facebook connection; it will be used for things that really count, like delivering energy to far flung parts of the world, cheaply and safely. When that happens, he says, you’ll be able to stay where you are, and you won’t need to conquer the resources of others to fuel your economy. “When everything is available to everyone for a reasonable price and computers are doing most of the work – you have the building blocks for universal peace,” Ben-Zur says. It’s a vision even the most computer-phobic can embrace.

Related articles by Zemanta

• May 26, 1995: Gates, Microsoft Jump on ‘Internet Tidal Wave’ (wired.com)
• iPhone Video Conferencing All But Confirmed with Latest Leak [IPhone] (gizmodo.com)

But getting money out of an angel isn’t so simple; there’s an art to it, and not everyone qualifies. There are criteria to fulfill – but not necessarily the ones you’re thinking of. According to Chaim Venezia, founder and co-CEO of Proxima Israel Investments, it’s more about you than about your idea. “How many times have we come across a product or web service, and someone has told us that they thought of it a long time ago? So you can see that ideas on paper are just that,” Venezia says. “Anyone can have a great idea – the question is, can you turn it into a product?”

A good question from a man who’s been there and done that – investing in a successful startup called Onigma, an information security solution provider, which had a very positive exit, being bought out by anti-virus giant McAfee. “That exit was a little too successful, in fact,” says Venezia, because his U.S. investor partners made so much that they had short-term capital gains issues with the IRS (we should all have such problems!).

Venezia spoke at an event last week sponsored by the MIT Enterprise Forum of Israel, called “Day of the Entrepreneur,” where seminars and talks discussing the perks and pitfalls of running a hi-tech business. The Forum, says Ayla Matalon, director of the Forum, tries to educate entrepreneurs on the process of running, funding, and growing a business, with an emphasis on hi-tech (although the information presented in forum events is certainly useful in any business, she says, and many of the speakers at Forum events come from various industries). “It’s not a typical ’startup’ crowd, but a more serious group that already has years of experience in business, and already understand the issues that they need to deal with,” Matalon says.

Past speakers at forum events have included some of the top names in Israeli hi-tech and business, including Yossi Vardi, Shai Agasi, Stef Wertheimer, Dan Maydan (Applied Materials), and many others. Presenting at last week’s seminar at Tel Aviv University were, besides Venezia, Prof. Amnon Shaashua, CTO of Mobileye, Dr. Shlomo Kalish, Founder of Jerusalem Global Ventures grad, Dalia Prasher, Co-Founder, New Dimension (which was sold to BMC for $620 million), and several newly successful web and tech entrepreneurs. A number of the presenters, in fact, were MIT graduates; the Forum is one of 26 started by MIT alumni around the world (the Israeli branch, the first outside the US, was started 15 years ago).

The Forum encourages entrepreneurs at all stages of business experience to attend events. “The session we held last week at Tel Aviv University, under the partial sponsorship of the Recanati School of Business (among the other sponsors were Carmel Ventures, Canaan Partners, Ramot, Erlich and Fenster Patent Attorneys – and the Golan Winery, which threw a smashing wine and cheese party!), included presentations on how to get funding, how to grow companies, technology transfer from academia to hi-tech, and much more,” Matalon says.

Including a session on the care and feeding of angels, given by Venezia – specifically, what entrepreneurs can do to find favor in their eyes. As mentioned, having a great business plan isn’t a guarantee of anything, Venezia says, except of having a great business plan. “There are so many factors involved in the way the world works that no business plan can anticipate,” he says. Not that ideas aren’t important; “obviously we wouldn’t invest in a crackpot scheme,” he says. But in the end, history decides just who the crackpots are. “I can just imagine the reaction many angels had a few years ago, when Sergey Brin and Larry Page were shopping for money for Google,” he says. “The world had enough search engines.”

But what it didn’t have were creative geniuses the likes of Brin and Page – and that, says Venezia, is what angels look for when deciding to place a bet on a startup. “We want to see creativity and drive,” he says. “We understand that ideas are fungible, that business plans and markets change. What we want to see is if the entrepreneur has what it takes to succeed. It’s about integrity, honesty, drive, and ambition.”

It sounds a bit unfair and subjective, but then again, we are talking about private funding, which can legally discriminate all it wants. But Venezia says there a few “tells” he watches out for that indicate whether he’s found his person – such as whether or not the entrepreneur has a job when s/he comes, hat in hand. “Anyone who wants funding for their idea and is still working for a salary is automatically out of the game, as far as I’m concerned,” Venezia says. “You’re not going to succeed unless you have enough faith in your ideas and abilities to dedicate your full working time to making it work. Here you are asking me to take a risk on you – but are you willing to take a risk on yourself? If not, we can’t do business,” Venezia says. “At the very least, we should split the risk 50/50 – me with my money, and you with your time,” he adds.

And although he realizes that in many cases, the tech “flavor of the month” – whether its an application using Youtube’s API or a service that hooks into Twitter, to name two popular development trends – is more likely to come to his attention, Venezia is willing to look at any idea, as long as it’s viable, and especially if it the people behind it have the right stuff. “It’s easier to get money for a ’sexy’ idea, but that doesn’t mean that those ideas are better than one that is far less exciting,” he says.

Matalon would agree – and in fact, one of the speakers on entrepreneurial success at the Forum was Amir Shpitalni, the founder and CEO of Spiral Supports, one of the few ‘low-tech’ companies funded by the Chief Scientist’s Office. Shpitalni invented a new kind of support for shelving that reduces stress and mess – certainly not a ’sexy’ product, but a very practical one. Speaking to Matalon, I got a hint on how well this company was doing – and all I can tell you is that I’ve started praying for my own angel, to fund my big idea!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Why Not Having a Plan Can Be the Best Plan of All (blogs.hbr.org)
• Mit Forum Annual Event 2009 Mit Research (slideshare.net)
• Introducing a business prospectus to friends and family. (startups.com)

Nervous, a young man rises and strides to the front of the conference room, his eyes darting around. The perceptive observer notices a small lump in his throat, as he observes the eyes of those present boring into him. Thoughts race through his mind – Am I good enough? What if they laugh at me?

Well, there’s no turning back now; he’s here, and it’s his turn. So the presentation begins – and as he feared, he’s in for it. “Too loud,” shouts one, “no, not loud enough,” says another. “I don’t get it. How are you going to make money with this idea?” “Isn’t there already an application that does this?” “It sounds good, but what’s your selling point? Without an elevator pitch, you’ve got nothing!” And so on. He sweats as emotions churn inside him – anger, indignation, even hints of depression. Am I really that incompetent? But then our young man remembers where he is, and sighs with relief; better here, at “presentation practice,” than in front of the investors!

Call it the last revenge of capitalism over the hippy-dippy 60s and 70s: The techniques perfected back then by therapists doing group counseling are now a mainstay of Israeli hi-tech life. Instead of seeking to enhance the personalities if participants, today’s hi-tech “group therapy” sessions are dedicated to marshaling the power of “the we” to helping entrepreneurs improve their game and presentation, the better to attract investors to their startup idea.

“Today’s investment climate is tough, and any entrepreneur seeking funds had better be on top of their game,” says Sharon Weshler, a social media expert and sponsor of a series of roundtables dedicated to helping entrepreneurs improve their pitch. “The roundtables are a form of social networking where entrepreneurs can get together and help each other improve their presentations,” Weshler says, and the experience and input of the members of the group can go a long way towards making each one “the best that they can be,” he says. Once they work out the kinks in their presentation, says Weshler, companies have a much better chance of making the money connections they need to survive and grow – and some of those investors may just come from one of his many contacts in the VC and angel investment world, he says.

At a recent roundtable run by Weshler and Aviad Levy of the Termiks startup center, eight entrepreneurs showed off what they hoped would be their million-shekel ideas. One of them, Yubitech, definitely seemed quite ready for prime time – but then the company has already moved beyond being just an idea or an early beta, and has won a bunch of awards and contests with its cellphone platform development technology. Perhaps Yubitech CEO Danny Weissberg was attending as an example of just how far candidates can go with the right kind of guidance.

Most of the other ideas were pretty early stage, ranging from the practical (an innovative nursing home management) to trendy (an environmentally friendly business portal) to futuristic (genetic manipulation of grains) to downright mysterious (a home media device that the inventor would not disclose too much about). In each presentation, participants peppered presenters with questions about the how, what and why of their product – as in how easy it would be for investors to “grok” the idea, what problem or meet it was supposed to solve or supply, and why it was better than the competition (or, if there was no competition, why the world needed it).

Interestingly, not all the presenters were able to answer those questions satisfactorily, indicating that they had not given much thought to marketing. And that’s too bad, says Weshler. “Without the marketing, the greatest idea in the world will just sit on the shelf. The only way to get your idea across is to make it make sense to the people who can give it life, the investors.” That quality and saleability are divorced from each other is clear to anyone who has gone to a bad Hollywood blockbuster that got funded for tens of millions, or watched a z-grade TV show that keeps coming back, season after season – while the quality movies are relegated to the art-house cinemas, and the good shows get axed after half a season. After each presentation, Weshler and Levy gave participants their considered opinions on what the presenter needed to do to improve their presentation – so that their quality ideas get the funding they deserve.

Once an entrepreneur has the appropriate feedback from his or her peers, what comes next? Well, the smart ones will start working on their pitch – and for that, they can turn to Top Class, a Ramat Gan firm that runs various courses and classes in schools and companies to help participants improve their English. And for the hi-tech entrepreneur, Top Class runs business english courses, training participants to improve their “elevator pitches” – where you sum up what your business or product does in the two minutes you would have someone’s attention while you rode with them in an elevator – as well as how to handle a business lunch, with participants sitting down to a meal, complete with English language menus, learning how to handle deal-making over the dinner table.

“There are over 4,000 startups operating in Israel at any one time, and each year about 1,000 open and close, or get bought out or go public” says Weshler, “so every four years there is virtually a new set of startups.” That there are so many great ideas is testimony to the creativity of the Israeli mind, but that there is so much turnover (most of the thousand definitely do not get to the next stage, says Weshler) shows just how much work is needed on the marketing side. Folks like Weshler, Levy, and Top Class directors Shoshi Gal and Tali Treistman are doing what they can to improve things. “I am a strong believer in the power of the group to help,” Weshler says. “When people get together, there’s no limit to what they can do.”

Related articles by Zemanta

• REAL Giving Back to the Community (israeltech.net)

Funny – we consumers are being squeezed all around, too! And if companies don’t have a grush (that’s an old-fashioned Israeli penny, for those who don’t know) to spare, we consumers are doing far worse – we’re in overdraft!

In one sense, the modern relationship between consumers and service suppliers (or even manufacturers) has become a see-saw. Companies are anxious to attract customers, so they offer rock-bottom prices for their products or services. But prices can only be cut so much; there are expenses that have to be covered, and somehow, companies have to make that money back.

For example: When a supermarket offers a “loss-leader,” they know that hordes of people will descend on the store for the on-sale product. But they’re also counting on those customers to buy the higher-priced items, to make up for the expense of the sale items. Airlines also provide an object lesson in this: Fares are historically low, but with crowded planes and iffy (if non-existent) service, flying is hell!

You’re always compromising something – either quality or service – when you buy cheap. But it’s not just the bargain providers who are stinting on service these days; full-price stores and service providers, encouraged by the example of how consumers sheepishly accept second-class as the norm, figure that they can save money on quality and service, too. The result: The whole concept of quality and service has been mortally wounded, with consumers expecting to get the proverbial “finger” at every turn.

Of course, you can always pay “premium” for “extra” quality or service – at a level that just a few years ago would have been considered “standard” (re commercial air travel). And while I could perhaps sympathize with the bottom-feeders for stinting on quality and service – I think consumers know what to expect when they buy at too-good-to-be-true prices these days – I have nothing but contempt for companies that are charging top shekel for their goods and services, but act like bargain sellers.

Take, for example, an internet service provider I work with, one of the six largest ISPs in Israel. They’re not a fly-by-night company – they’ve been doing ISP for over a decade, and usually my only relationship with them is paying the connection charges, since I am pretty self-sufficient when it comes to computer setup, installation, etc. For the first time in a long time, though, I needed their help with something – something that would have required the imparting of about five minutes of advice (which, it turned out, was readily available on the internet). But knowledge is power – and they weren’t about to part with that knowledge without a hefty payment!

Here are the details (don’t worry, we won’t get too technical!) Due to circumstances beyond my control, I’ve been using an internet router provided by Bezeq, the phone company, which I won in a lottery (or somehow other got for free). The first time I plugged in the router, I ran for cover, because it had far too many features for a home setup. Then when I recovered, I unplugged it and put it on a shelf – where it stayed until my “normal” router died, and out of desperation I decided to give the router, made by Asus (the infamous Asus 604g, for those who have had the pleasure) a try.

It actually works just fine, and is more or less self-managing – except for one issue. In order to work on several websites, I need to access port 2082, for an online application called Cpanel. Unfortunately, there is something in the guts of the Asus router that prevents accessing that port (very strange, because at this moment, a certain torrent program is downloading a certain file on an even more obscure port, 45601!).

After much effort configuring and reconfiguring, I figured I’d give my ISP a call. I’m a good customer – I pay my bills on time and don’t bother them too much with silly questions. Now, though, I had a serious issue; perhaps, having worked with this router extensively, they could give me some advice on what to do. I mean, it’s not like they’d be doing it for free; according to http://www.kamaze.co.il/, the NIS 75.90 I pay these people each month puts them at the “upper crust” (ie, second most expensive) of ISPs in Israel.

But no, said a pleasant fellow on the other end of the line (we’ll call him “Oren”). That information is classified – available only to “preferred” customers. One of which I could be if I was willing to shell out a subscription to their “network services,” at a cost of NIS 13.90/month, minimum six months. Wait a second, I told Oren. You’re saying that it’s going to cost me nearly a hundred shekels for five minutes of time with your ‘experts’ to get this working? Yup, said Oren. “How about this,” I said. “What if I ’subscribed’ now, got the information, and then cancelled my subscription after a month?” Nothing doing, Oren said – you “make a commitment to pay,” you pay. After much negotiating, Oren gave me his best offer: NIS 30 for a one-time conversation with the tech staff, who would guide me on what to do.

Well, of course I refused. And after a lengthy conversation, he suggested I call Bezeq, which supplied me with the router in the first place. In fact, he said, check out the Bezeq support pages – there just happens to be a PDF discussing exactly what I was trying to do! Wasting no more time, I did just that, and configured things according to the Bezeq site’s document. Alas, still to no avail. Even though I had done everything right, I still couldn’t get it to work.

It was time for a call to Bezeq, which I pay an internet connection fee to each month – surely they would support what they provided? But I should have gotten an idea of what to expect from the ads they kept pitching during the long (very long) minutes I was on hold; “networking” services for ten shekels a month, anti-virus protection for thirteen shekels a month, and other varied and sundry “products.” And of course, when “Yaron,” the Bezeq service rep, got on the phone, he quickly disabused me of my idea. The sought-after conversation could be had if I subscribed to Bezeq’s “expert” service, for more money, of course.

As it turned out, I got my answer for free – after a little more Googling. But the whole incident left a bad taste in my mouth, and in my wallet. In the old country, they used to call this kind of behavior “nickel and diming” – where a business tries to milk a customer for whatever it can. But it’s usually associated with “clip joints” on the Lower East Side, or other such less than savory shopping districts; you’d expect a respectable company you’ve done business with for years to want to prevent alienating customers. For example: Since the ISP in question was not the cheapest around, I told Oren, it’s an indication that price is not necessarily the main motivation for customers to remain with their service. Why not just charge an extra five shekels across the board and provide tech help to all who need it? That would surely cover the costs entailed in a more generous approach to helping customers, and enhance the experience for customers, who will feel more like humans and less like milk cows?

To this Oren had no clear answer – and as a junior employee in a big conglomerate, he’s the wrong person to ask. But if my ISP – or any other business or service provider, for that matter – prefers to think that price is the main (or perhaps only) motivation for my using their products or services, does that mean I am a “frier” for not automatically going for the cheapest option automatically? At least there, I won’t feel I’m overpaying when I don’t need “special services” – unlike the case now.

At which point, faced with a plethora of choices, you may just find yourself wishing that now-defunct monopoly back in existence!

Israeli trust-busters have been having a field day in recent years, legislating corporate diversity among cell phone service providers, long distance phone companies, TV and radio broadcasters – and now, local home and business phone service, wresting control of the fixed line phone business from Bezeq. Now, anyone with a license (which you get from the Ministry of Communications) can offer competing fixed line phone service, using the same phone infrastructure installed by Bezeq (but paid for by our tax shekels!). In other words, you use the Bezeq phone line, but you don’t pay Bezeq a shekel (or maybe you do, depending on whom you ask).

Long-time Israeli residents who remember the nose-up-in-the-air elitist attitude of the “old” quasi-governmental hyper-bureaucratic Bezeq jumped for joy when competitors started entering the home phone market in 2006, after the Knesset amended the Telecommunications Law (http://tinyurl.com/pp775z) to allow the licensing of fixed-line phone service providers – and to enable customers to keep their phone numbers when signing up with a new service provider (a provision which came into effect in 2007). Finally – a chance for the consumer to tell those Bezeq so-and-so’s where to go with their smug and condescending attitudes! On to the brave new world of freedom of telephone choice! Yeah!

Well, it certainly is a new world of home phone communications out there – and make no mistake, you need to be brave in order to take it on. For most home phone subscribers, there’s Bezeq, the known quantity, on this side of the technological abyss. Bezeq service works pretty much as it always has; you plug your phone into the wall, pick up the receiver, hear a dial tone, press the numbers on the phone pad, and talk. You get your bill at the end of the month and pay. Then you do it all over again next month. No surprises, and the service is usually pretty reliable; the only times you don’t get that dial tone are usually the result of cataclysmic events, like a war (when the lines may be jammed with worried callers or diverted for defense purposes), after a major storm when phone lines may be down, in the event of a strike – or, when you forgot to pay your bill.

But in this high-speed trust-busting freedom of choice era, variety is the spice of life, and you can now avail yourself of no fewer than five other choices for your local phone needs. Besides Bezeq, local phone service is now provided by 013 Netvision, 012 Smile, Hot (the cable TV service provider), Orange (the cellphone service provider), and Bezeq International (separate from Bezeq, known heretofore only as a long distance company).

As a good consumer (and thanks to a suggestion by a loyal reader), I decided to check out the phone field in order to determine whether I could save a few shekels by leaving Bezeq. So, can Bezeq customers save money by moving to another service provider? Short answer: Yes – but (there always has to be a “but!”)

The first question that people new to the concept of alternative phone companies ask is whether or not they can keep their current phone numbers. The answer is yes – thanks to the amendments to the telecommunications law mentioned earlier, your number is yours as long as you want to keep it, regardless of where you send your payments. You even get to keep your area code (if you sign up for a new line with any of the new service providers, they will give you the area code assigned to the company – for example, new accounts with 012Smile that were not transferred from Bezeq get an area code of 072).

All the competitors to Bezeq use broadband to connect your calls to the local and international phone network, so you have to be an ADSL customer with some level of high-speed internet in order to take advantage of their deals (unless you’re a customer of HOT, the cable company, which uses its own infrastructure to offer phone service).

All of the service providers offer what appear to be very attractive prices. Speaking at length to Ilan, a rep from 013Netvision, for example, I was offered a deal that would let me surf the internet (at a speed of 5MB/s) AND make 3,000 minutes of calls to landlines in Israel for NIS 55 a month. That sum does not include calls to cell phones, but for an extra NIS 7.90 a month, I could reduce the cost of calls to cell lines from the 33 agurot per minute they usually charge to “less” (depending on how much I called, times of day, etc.). In addition, Ilan told me (after somehow ascertaining that I was observant) that his company’s service was “approved by the Great Rabbis,” and that since calls to other 013Netvision customers were free, I could hear the various Torah-on-the-phone lectures that the company hosts for free, for as long as I wanted to listen. That sounded like a good deal – maybe a little too good, as we will see below.

I also checked out Orange, with whom I have a cellphone account. While Orange may not have the best price, it does have very advanced services, especially for Orange cellphone customers; for example, you can forward a call to your home or cell phone to the other device when one of them rings, you can hold as many as three conversations at once, and you pay one price to all phone numbers – including cell numbers (everyone else charges the same rate as Bezeq for calls to cellphones). I figured I could save about NIS 60 a month if I switched to Orange’s phone and internet service provider plan (you can find a helpful calculator here which will show you how much you can expect to pay, based on how much you surf and talk).

The story was the same everywhere else; Bezeq, it turns out, is more expensive than all the other providers (the one with the cheapest rates was Bezeq International). So of course I called Bezeq in order to see if they could be bargained with.

Apparently many others have done the same in recent months, because as soon as I said “013Netvision” and “Orange home phone,” they transferred me to a fellow who was clearly trained to deal with calls like mine. Of course, he said, you realize you won’t get the same quality with “the others,” since you’re using your ADSL line for talking and surfing at the same time. “I have had so many customers come back after they left to try out the others, complaining about how their calls drop when they download a movie or other heavy item,” said Matan, the rep. In addition, he said, all these companies were still obligated to pay Bezeq a line fee for use of the ADSL line, which added about NIS 25 to all the alternative providers, including (he said specifically) 013Netvision, a claim that both they and Orange denied, claiming it was already included in their monthly fees. In addition, Matan from Bezeq said, you have to pay an installation fee to switch services, and there is definitely a negative impact on phone service when you surf the net.

Installation does indeed cost money, with all the Bezeq alternatives – mostly in the area of NIS 200 or so. However, many of the companies seem willing to waive the installation fee if you are willing to commit to a period of service, like a year (both Orange and 013Netvision said I could drop the phone service any time, although they both wanted a year commitment on the internet service).

The latter claim is easy to check out too: If you’ve ever used a service like Vonage (or even Skype) on your home ADSL line, you’ll be ready for the worst-case scenario with the alternative phone companies. Just how much broadband “juice” does an Internet phone call use? I found a few interesting discussions on the internet (see http://tinyurl.com/qd4cfh, http://tinyurl.com/qu5yts, and http://tinyurl.com/okjx8g), but of course, those rates are dependent on many local factors that may or may not be relevant here in Israel.

And that, really, is where the dream of “punishing” Bezeq for all the injustices Israelis have suffered at the company’s hands over the years fell apart, at least for me. Because while in theory a 5MB/s connection sounds like it should be able to cover both serious surfing and internet phone calls, the sad truth is that you’re probably getting far less speed than you think you are (that’s a story for another day, but meanwhile check out the Hebrew article on the subject at here). Bezeq, of course, will say that the reason your bandwidth speed is up to 40% less than what you’re paying for is because of your home network, devices that are using the bandwidth, etc.

Which could very well be true – but currently, 5MB/s is the most cost effective speed for Bezeq ADSL (the price jumps significantly at 8MB, the maximum offered to home users, unless you live in an area served by its next generation network, which you probably don’t). Unfortunately, based on my experience, I’m not ready to trust my home phone service to the graces of my current ADSL setup – and as a result, Bezeq gets to keep its monopoly at our place, at least a little while longer.

Of course, there’s a good reason for that, says Knesset Member Robert Ilatov of the Yisrael Beiteinu party. “Until now, the hi-tech industry was able to hold its own. But with the recent worldwide recession, investment money has almost dried up.” With hi-tech such an integral part of the economy – constituting as much as half of the country’s exports – the government really has no choice but to get involved, at least temporarily, in order to keep the industry alive to fight another day.

Of course, nothing comes for free – and with the government set to become an investor in Israeli hi-tech, entrepreneurs should prepare for at least some strings, if they take the cash, says Ilatov. “Obviously there must be a balance – a comfort level that both the government and private investors and owners will feel comfortable with.” But, he adds, “Like any other investor, the government has a right to ask for conditions from those who benefit from the taxpayer’s money,” he says.

There is a difference between the government and private investors, though; while an angel or VC looks at the bottom line, the government is likely to look at the “greater good” its money can bring about. “It’s not just about the developers and engineers,” Ilatov says. “For every worker in hi-tech there are six or seven supporting workers – the waitresses in the restaurants where they eat lunch, the cleaning staff who prepare the office for the workers, the taxi drivers who take the software people home at night.” If 7,000 hi-tech workers lost their jobs this year, that means some 50,000 other workers  are out of a job, too. Any help the government proffers to the hi-tech industry must go to help those support workers, as well as the elite tech workers, the MK says.

Clearly, Ilatov has done some thinking about the troubles Israel’s hi-tech industry faces – and he has decided to do something about it. Ilatov has established the Knesset’s first Hi-tech Lobby group, which he hopes will bring together government officials, leaders of varied hi-tech industries, university administrators, and members of Israel’s financial community, in order to give Israeli hi-tech a boost in the arm during troubled times.

The first meeting of the lobby saw well over 100 people get together at the Knesset to try and put together an agenda for a plan of action. Amazingly, this was the first time the Knesset saw such a comprehensive discussion of the problems and plusses of Israel’s hi-tech industry, Ilatov told me in an interview later. And, he added, by “hi-tech” he means all the advanced industries Israel is known for – computer networking and security, Web 2.0, biotech, medical devices, cleantech, etc. Representatives of those industries were present at the first lobby meeting, with speakers summing up what their businesses were facing as the recession continues.

Startups and established companies are, of course, just one aspect of the industry, he adds; it all starts in the universities, and maybe even earlier, at the high school level. So, there were also a number of top university officials at the meeting as well, discussing the difficulties faced by computer and science departments in the schools. Fact: The student to lecturer ratio in the country’s computer science departments are among the worst of any department, hovering at about 40:1.

With so many diverse ideas and interests represented, more than an initial exploration of the issues could not have been expected, says Ilatov. “The meeting was very helpful in clarifying a possible agenda, to help us decide what, if any steps to take or legislation to pursue in order to help the industries survive and thrive.”

One of those pieces of legislation is likely to be a rule that will require Israeli pension funds to invest at least some of their money in Israeli hi-tech. “Much, if not most, of the investment and VC money in Israeli hi-tech comes from abroad,” says Ilatov. But pension funds, arguably the Israeli investors with the biggest pockets, have barely given a shekel to local hi-tech, preferring to invest their money in far-flung places, says the MK. If it’s good enough for American VC’s to sink their money into an Israeli startup, Ilatov says, it’s good enough for a huge pension fund to allocate at least some of their funds to the same purpose. “It’s not like it’s any riskier than some of the other things they’ve invested in,” like Central European real estate, Ilatov says. “Americans who invest in Israeli hi-tech get excellent returns, and pension fund investors will as well. We intend to bring up the issue with the heads of the pension funds and try to persuade them that it’s in their, and the country’s, best interests to invest locally. If they agree, that’s fine. But if not, legislation of some sort may be necessary.”

Several other issues were brought up at the meeting: A number of speakers derided a new law that is to be passed as part of the “package deal” between the government and the Histadrut, which gives the union the right to organize among workers in any workplace, including in hi-tech companies (Ilatov thinks this is a bad law, because it will only scare off investors, and won’t help workers, who make far more than the average wage anyway). The names “India” and “China” were mentioned by more than one speaker, the latter for the potential business opportunities available, and the former in the context of the formidable challenge Israel faces in maintaining its position as a hi-tech power. And, there were calls to simplify the investment process, eliminate red tape, and generally do everything possible to encourage foreign investment.

One would have thought that many of these issues would have been hammered out, considering the importance of hi-tech to the country’s economy. But they haven’t, and that’s worrying. Where does one begin? With the universities? Helping existing companies stay in business? Helping fledging startups with great ideas to survive long enough to turn a profit, instead of selling their technology to multinationals for a relative pittance? Do we start with the universities, helping them produce more qualified personnel to fill the great need for top quality people? Or do we try and encourage a love of the sciences in high school and even elementary school students – many of whom, according to one speaker at the meeting, don’t know their multiplication tables as late as sixth grade? Yes, MK Ilatov says. All these areas are important, and we are just going to have to find a way to fund programs to work on all these levels. A tall order indeed, it would appear.

To all those who think being a Knesset member is a cushy job: Take an example from MK Ilatov. I’m sure he didn’t think setting Israel’s hi-tech policy right would be easy, but I’d guess he didn’t realize it would be this complicated. Like Charlie Brown, he has a chance to be a hero, if he succeeds. Let’s not think about the alternative.

“Trade” shows aren’t always the best place to get detailed information about the specifics of a company or a technology, but they’re a great place to get an overall impression of an industry. So it was with this year’s mid-May IVA show, coming after the traumatic financial events that have rocked the world in recent months. No doubt about it – Israeli hi-tech is limping as a result of those events, which have resulted in layoffs and company closures. Venture capital funds, meanwhile have become much more conservative in disbursing their largesse on startups; the performance bar has been set higher, so only ideas with the most merit – as in moneymaking potential – are going to get funded. It makes sense.

In the past, shows have been great places to score fun fan fare – T-shirts, hats, keychains, etc – all those little “status symbols” that show you “know someone” in the business (don’t try to deny you think those trinkets are cool!). But as usually happens in a downturn, the giveaways are the first to go; I was lucky to get business cards out of some people! Clearly, if we are to judge by the “freebie index,” Israeli hi-tech is in a major funk.

Without freebies to pursue at the show, I was forced to pay attention to the presentations and the technology of the companies attending; for balance, I sought out some investors as well (these were far more reluctant to speak than the tech people, of course, and demanded absolute anonymity). Thus I was able to gage the opinions of several people on the investing side of things, including one (very) heavy-hitter.

To tie these diverse observations together: It’s possible that next year’s freebie index will be somewhat improved, as investors are itching (at least one told me) to get back in the game, and if the recent good news on the stock markets continues, investors will feel more confident to invest in some of the technologies that clearly are going to have a major impact on the way we live, when they finally come to market. And those technologies are definitely worth investing in!

First, the technologies: At the show, I spent a lot of time in the area called the “Startup Pavilion,” where the real bootstrap companies hang out (as opposed to the more established startups that were presenting in the show’s sessions). Among the very cool companies I came across were: InphoDrive (http://inphodrive.com/), which is developing a voice-driven “infotainment” system for vehicles that will make driving safer; MobileRL (http://www.mobilerl.com/), which has a product that lets advertisers and media researchers determine with much greater accuracy the effectiveness of their campaigns; Leviathan Energy (http://www.leviathanenergyinc.com/), which believes that wind is a much better bet for alternative energy production than are solar photovaltic systems; and BioSpiral (http://www.biospiral.com/), with a technology that uses cooling & heating technologies to destroy prostate cancer, without need to resort to a knife.

I may have summed up their ideas in a line (because of space considerations), but rest assured that all four of these companies – plus numerous others – are doing unique stuff; VC’s would already have pumped millions into these and other technologies if this were 2007 (I intend to profile many of these companies in future articles). But 2009 isn’t 2007, as so many of us have found out in recent months (it should be noted that a number of these companies have products and services that are ready for market, and some are even working on ‘big deals’).

While trying to secure funding for a great technology nowadays is perhaps harder than it’s ever been, being an investor in times like these is no picnic either. VC’s are in business to make money, not lose it – hence their conservatism in matters fiduciary at this juncture. The investors just aren’t handing over the money the way they used to. But what are their alternatives? Sticking the money in the bank for a grand 1% return? It works for awhile, several investors have told me, but banking investment money is not a long-term strategy; they didn’t get where they are today by avoiding risk. Just the opposite.

This is where the strategy being pursued by many governments around the world, which are pumping money into the local economies, comes in handy, one major investor told me. “A trillion dollars is big money,” he said, referring to the potential deficit in this year’s U.S. budget, “and there’s certainly a risk of inflation. But it’s helping to build confidence, without which investors are just going to be too scared to invest in hi-tech. And we do want to invest in hi-tech, especially Israeli hi-tech, because Israel has traditionally had some of the most important startup technologies anywhere.” Among the people I spoke with were representatives of the New York Stock Exchange/EuroNext, who told me there were four IPOs so far this year on their global exchange. Considering where we were last October, it’s a good sign – and hopefully augurs a change for the better.

When things turn sour, it’s customary for pundits to push the “grim slide” theory – that things are bound to get worse. But keep in mind that some of the greatest innovations were actually first sold or marketed during recessions and depressions (http://tinyurl.com/cuwt8m). Sooner or later things bounce back – and no doubt some of the technologies that are going to be poised to help turn things around were right there at the IVA show. And I expect some cool freebies when those companies do start making it big.

In an exclusive Yom Ha’atzmaut interview with the Jerusalem Post, Oron says he is decidedly optimistic about Israel’s hi-tech future. In fact, he says, “the consensus seems to be that by the beginning of 2010, companies will begin to see significant growth in revenues, that will be translated into financial performance several quarters later.” And that growth, says Oron, will be strong enough to “raise the boats,” fueling development in all facets of Israeli hi-tech – and not just in the hot areas of cell communication or Web 2.0 applications, but in “traditional” areas of IT development – bringing back in its wake the hi-tech jobs that were lost during the current downturn, and then some.

Oron has been working with Israeli hi-tech companies for decades. He was, among other things, President and CEO of Aryt Industries; Co-Founder, President and CEO of Reshef Technologies; Co-Founder and Chairman of Telegate Ltd; and former chairman of the Israel Venture Association (http://www.iva.co.il/). Among his fund’s recent successes was the acquisition of anti-fraud solutions provider Actimize (http://www.actimize.com/), since acquired by Nice; semiconductor maker Siliquent, acquired in 2005 by Broadcom (http://bit.ly/195gPF); and optical measurement solution provider Cognitens (http://www.cognitens.com/), acquired in 2007 by Hexagon. Plus, he’s brought many companies to market with successful IPOs. He’s seen companies come and go, and helped businesses thrive through good times and bad. And, Oron says, while there is what to worry about, the overall picture is better than most people realize.

“One needs to differentiate between the market for tech products and services, and the funding sources available to hi-tech developers,” Oron says. Echoing the sentiments of many economists and experts, Oron says the problem is more one of Wall Street than Main Street. “The large U.S. tech companies like Apple, Microsoft, and the cellphone producers and service providers are doing OK, with sales down at most 5% or 6% overall. Lower sales in the U.S. and Europe are being compensated for by steady demand in Asia. We have a similar situation in Israel; it’s not that demand for products has evaporated, it’s the financing for fledgling companies that is hard to come by.” While most of us are familiar with the credit crisis at the banks, VC and angel funding is extremely weak as well, Oron says – and the investment markets is basically treading water. “The financing food chain for startups is on the verge of collapse. One hopeful sign is that we have seen some activity in the mergers and acquisitions area recently, but overall, tech companies that have only their ideas and patents as assets are suffering,” Oron says.

With that, Oron says he has become much more hopeful in recent weeks – after speaking to high officials in the Finance Ministry regarding the government’s business bailout plan, announced last week. “The message is very clear that the people currently running the Treasury ‘get it,’ and their plan should help ease access to money for many startups. In addition, the government plans to significantly increase – perhaps double – the Chief Scientist’s development budget, meaning that many more companies will have access to development funds.” It’s the first comprehensive government response to the crisis, and it’s a good one, he says. “It’s a serious plan that should accomplish what it is setting out to do.”

And what projects, in his opinion, should the Chief Scientist be funding? Where are the strong growth areas going to be when things do bounce back? “Everything,” says Oron. “There is going to be huge demand for everything Israel specializes in, from broadband backbone to audio technology to last mile wired to wireless. Those who say that there is no need for many of the traditional technologies Israel has specialized in are just not aware of what is going on out there. Already there is a huge demand for technologies that can handle the heavy bandwidth necessary for the heavy internet traffic generated by online video. This market, along with many others, will continue to show strong growth, and it is in these traditional IT areas that Israel has a strong presence.”

Israel’s medical technology providers will also see strong growth, Oron says, while cleantech/greentech is likely to have less of an impact on local growth than many expect. “Much of the IT work being done by private companies trickles down from research and work being done for the IDF,” Oron says, “so we have a built-in market to produce for – something that doesn’t necessarily exist for cleantech applications.” That’s not to say there won’t be growth in that area as well, says Oron – but the areas that Israel has excelled in for years will continue to be just as important, if not more so, for local companies.

And despite rumors to the contrary, Israel’s technology base and innovative drive is as strong as ever. Commenting on the latest doom and gloom rumor – that China is somehow supplanting Israel as a world center of innovation – Oron says that nothing could be further from the truth. “I have been in this business for many years, and every little while someone comes up with a similar idea, that Israel is losing its edge. Everyone we speak to – world class investors, people from Silicon Valley, the elite of IT – who looks at the business plans, technologies, and business models of Israeli companies comes away highly impressed. I won’t say we don’t have some weaknesses when compared to China or India, but losing our innovative edge is definitely not one of them.”

And with all that expected growth, says Oron, those who were laid off this year have a good chance of getting a job – perhaps even their old job – next year. “The layoffs have not been uniform – we’ve been seeing two kinds of layoffs in recent months,” Oron says. “While everyone is cutting back, those working for local branches of multinationals are being more badly affected, since the multinational tends to protect workers in their home country, preferring to sacrifice their foreign satellites. But that’s this year; soon, hopefully by next year, the tech sector will be perhaps the world’s fastest growing sector. Based on the amount of data being generated and the services currently available to fulfill those needs, it’s quite clear that the market demand will be strong. And when the financial markets come back and funding is available, growth will be as strong – and probably stronger – than it has been in recent years.” It’s an optimistic forecast – but as someone in a position to know, Oron’s optimism can give all of us hope that next Yom Ha’atzmaut will be a lot happier for many more Israelis!

Where do new hi-tech innovations come from? From the minds of hi-tech innovators, of course. Okay, but where do those innovators do their innovating? Usually, in the basement or spare room of the innovator’s house, or in cheap digs in some industrial zone, where a couple of college buddies get together to come up with the Next Big Thing. They certainly don’t come from large corporations that have a business model, and a strict, rigorous hierarchy, where workers are busy meeting performance goals, dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s on the voluminous paperwork required by the various layers of management.

Forget that stereotype, says Tal Givoly, Chief Scientist of Amdocs, which operates around the world and has a large center in Raanana; large corporations are just as capable of coming up with breakthrough technologies as bootstrap startups are – and maybe, in the current economic climate, a little more capable. “Sooner or later the economy will turn – and the companies that used their time wisely, investing in innovation will be the ones that reap the benefits when things turn around. As a large company, Amdocs has the financial wherewithal to withstand the storm – and we expect to emerge stronger than ever when the economy bounces back.”

But hold on a minute – Amdocs as a hi-tech innovator? Absolutely, says Givoly – as Chief Scientist, a position usually identified with technological innovation on a national basis, it’s his job to identify needs and recognize trends, and discover and promote ideas that answer those needs and trends. “Once you know where the market is going, you can come out with products and services that provide your customers, in our case, the world’s largest service providers, what they’re looking for,” he says.

But – Amdocs?! Yes, and yes again, Givoly says. “We’ve been unfairly typecast as a firm that deals chiefly with billing solutions – but we actually offer more than 100 products and services, many of which have absolutely nothing to do with billing.” Besides billing, Amdocs produces systems to manage contact center systems, customer self-service, mobile portals, operations support systems, and commerce systems for multimedia content, to name a few. For example, says Givoly, “we serve content on 60% of all cell phones in the U.S.” Indeed, the fact that he works at the job he does is a sure sign of the innovative, start-up spirit of Amdocs, Givoly says. “Not every large company has a Chief Scientist, and the fact that my job is to identify and act on future needs and trends should make it clear that far from being a ‘corporate dinosaur’ interested in perpetuating its business model at all costs, Amdocs is an innovator that seeks to meet future challenges, and provide the products and services tomorrow’s customers will be looking for.”

To that end, Amdocs recently hosted an “innovation camp,” where managers and employees from Amdocs locations around the world – along with well-known internet innovators, like Yossi Vardi and Jeff Pulver – got together to exchange ideas and concepts, seeking to figure out where the world of media and communications is headed. The gathering was as freeform as you could get – “there was no set agenda, as there are at retreats of this type sponsored by many large corporations,” Givoly says. In fact, some of the biggest ‘innovations’ weren’t even tech-based, but involved demonstrations of the talents of participants – with demonstrations of swordplay, how to make a “potato rocket,” and a musical band where every instrument was based on an iPhone! All with the idea of getting the creative juices of participants flowing. And there was a method to the madness Givoly says – by the end of the camp, participants had come up with a list of top-ten “hot” issues or ideas, which Amdocs will now consider in detail how to address and pre-empt upcoming needs.

Givoly wouldn’t give me the specifics of those trends (like a good journalist, I asked), but he did tell me in what direction he believed the internet/communications market was heading. “There’s been a clear trend on the part of telephone and communications companies to increase their value added by offering not just technology or methodology, but content as well.” As recently as just ten years ago, says Givoly, a hardware manufacturer would produce a device – computer, cellphone, PDA – and sell it, with the content for use on those devices supplied by others. “The Apple App Store is a good example of the change, and many service providers, including our customers, are working on ideas to sell applications in the same manner on cellphones and devices other than Apple’s that will enhance the digital lifestyle. In fact, we have recently launched an offer to help them do just that,” he says. Add to that innovations in instant messaging, massive multiplayer on-line games, social networking, and the way kids use media on their devices, and picture of a digital future shapes up – one that Amdocs is plugged into, and intends to capitalize on, Givoly says.

The current recession is also going to have a big impact on the way people do business; for example, electronic communication is already becoming far more important to many organizations. “Businesses that need to cut their expenses will be looking to lowering costs wherever they can. Video conferencing technology today is good enough to allow multiple groups to get together in cyberspace, but as dependence on teleconferencing grows, there’s a greater demand for quality control, ensuring that everything runs smoothly.” That, Givoly says, is a good example of how technology evolves even during bad economic times. When things improve, chances are that video communication technology will remain popular in the business world, and any product Amdocs develops now to help keep conferences running smoothly will pay off for the company now, and in the long run. “We have other ideas and offerings we are working on in response to the global economic downturn, with these, we’ll help our customers emerge stronger when things improve.”

Recognizing the importance of innovation, Amdocs has a number of programs in place designed to discover new technologies, Givoly says – such as Amdocs’ Open Innovations programs, sort of like “free agents” week in baseball, where the company checks out hi-tech startups and matches what they have to offer with the needs of Amdocs customers; some of the companies are invited to work with Amdocs and build a product that the company will market (last year, Amdocs reviewed about 200 companies). “It’s a win-win idea all around, because our customers get exposed to great new technologies that can help them, and smaller start-ups get access to an audience of large organizations they probably would not have been able to reach otherwise,” he says. In addition, Amdocs actively promotes innovation within the organization, serving up immediate investment to employees who come up with innovative ideas that show promise. “We have over 17,000 brilliant people at Amdocs, and despite the turndown, we’re investing in them, and in the future, harnessing the company’s collective genius and developing the winning ideas our customers need and want.”

Recession or no, Givoly says, Amdocs will continue to invest and innovate. “Companies have a choice – if they innovate now, they can emerge much stronger when things improve, but those that don’t are likely to see their business erode. Cutting research and development now looks good on paper, but is a possible sign of the coming demise of an organization”, Givoly summarizes it simply: “Innovation is not mandatory. Survival is optional. We shouldn’t assume survival is a given – it’s a choice.” Obviously, Amdocs has clearly understood this and is acting upon it – with ‘due diligence.’

And in 2009, it appears those shocks are hitting home, as businesses begin the business of laying off workers in earnest. If you’re a victim, I feel your pain; it’s a hi-tech road I’ve been down before. And as many of us learned in the last downturn in 2002-3, things change after a major industry crackup; new companies demand skill sets you may not have, and while retraining is always an option, you don’t want to spend months learning some new skill only to find out that it has a limited shelf life. While there might be many jobs in requiring X skill right now, the question you have to ask is – what happens in five years, when you’re of a “certain age” – the age where computer industry bosses think you’re “overqualified” (i.e., too old and too expensive) for their business?

Even if you do do have the option of remaining in the same industry, you’ll still want to choose the right employer, one who will be around for the near and mid-term, at least; you may get a job now, but if you find yourself having to look again a year from now, you’ll be a year old, and a year more “overqualified.”

For many people right now, the immediate question is how to pay next month’s mortgage, and hopefully most of us will figure out how to keep going in “survival mode” for as long as it takes. But you still need a long-term plan that takes into consideration the day after tomorrow. Where do you see yourself – where would you like to be – in five years? Maybe a better question to ask is, will the industry you decide to get involved in still be there in five years? It’s probably a question that in a million years would not have registered on the radar of the 2004 MBA grad crowd, but as they – and the rest of us – have so painfully learned, anything, even the impossible, can happen.

There are no shortage of sites that claim to tell you what the “hot” areas of the economy are going to be – which is probably where you would want to be, if you can get there. I’m not talking about general predictions, like how people are going to be scared of real estate or stock market investments for a long time to come, but professionally researched predictions that claim to have a fix on the up and coming business and industry trends. In the computer business, for example, the best-known “industry prophet” is the Gartner Group (http://www.gartner.com/), which watches trends in all areas of the computer industry. At http://xrl.us/beemod, for example, you can see Gartner’s predictions for the Eight Mobile Technologies to Watch in 2009 and 2010, and at http://xrl.us/beemrv, you’ll find Gartner’s Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2009. Gartner makes its money by producing reports that predict trends for companies and industries (reports that cost a lot of money), so the Gartner “top tens” are pretty general.

Besides Gartner’s professional predictive systems, there are many sites that rely on “the wisdom of crowds” (www.randomhouse.com/features/wisdomofcrowds/) to give you a clue on what’s in store, the theory being that the many are wiser than the few. Ziitrend (http://www.ziitrend.com/), for example, is a site where anyone can make a prediction on anything, with site users voting on the likelihood of the event happening.

For most of us, both these approaches are a bit thin; they may be useful as water cooler talk, but we need something a bit more solid on which to build a future. If you’re being pushed into a career shift, you want to make sure you pick the right career to shift to, after all. We need a little more insight on where things are going.

If you thought I was building up to introducing a site that can predict the future – well, I apologize; nobody knows what is “really” going to happen. But: I can help point you to sites that will give you ideas on how to make those predictions for yourself – the potential areas you should be looking at, based on your skills and interests. Assuming you are in touch with your own experience, background, skills, etc. (if you’re out of practice on how to write a resume, interview, etc., by all means check out http://www.jobhuntersbible.com/), the ideas here will hopefully give you some insight about how to think about the future, thereby making it easier for you to make a decision on investing your time, helping you to figure out what stable industries and businesses are out there that you qualify for.

If we’re in a new era, it’s time to think differently, and one way to learn how to do this is to check out different “thinking methodologies” – like Triz, a Russian acronym for the “Theory of Inventive Problem Solving.” The system was developed in the former Soviet Union between 1946 and 1985, by Soviet engineer and researcher Genrich Altshuller and his colleagues. Boiled down to its basic core, Triz has two general principles: “1. Somebody, someplace, has already solved your problem or one similar to it. Creativity means finding that solution and adapting it to the current problem”; and, 2. “Don’t accept compromises. Eliminate them” (http://xrl.us/beemve). There are all sorts of Triz success stories out there (http://xrl.us/beemvp), with companies employing the 40 principles of Triz (http://triz40.com/aff_Principles.htm) to solve industrial and business problems. At (http://triz40.com/), you’ll find the “Interactive TRIZ Contradiction Matrix,” which demonstrates the system as applied to real problems.

Triz certainly qualifies as “thinking differently,” but can it help you figure out where you’re going? I believe it can. First of all, just getting exposure to different approaches to problem solving helps jog the brain, and pushes you to get more creative about solving your problem. Problem solving is what Triz is all about, and there’s no reason Triz problem solving methodology can’t be used to figure out employment and career problems, not just industrial production problems. That, in fact, is the theme of an article (http://xrl.us/beemxn), on the Triz Journal site (http://www.triz-journal.com/), probably the best resource online for insights into how to think Triz (note that there are many “professional” Triz sites that charge money for their services; the Triz Journal is completely free, and has at least as much information as the others, from what I could see).

Remember, we’re taking a long view here, so it stands to reason you’ll have a better chance of getting to where you need to go – and figuring out where that should be – using a scientific approach. Finding a job – one that you can be reasonably sure you’ll still have next month, much less next year – is a “job” during normal times, but in today’s economy, it’s more akin to rocket science. Actually, maybe we should make that “Triz science!”