Jerusalem Twestival tickets are available for purchase online now! Visit international sponsor Amiando.com to purchase your Twestival ticket!

Purchase your tickets here.

Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem

We’re happy to announce that our host for Jerusalem Twestival 2009 will be the Bloomfield Science Museum! Save the date and don’t miss this amazing event in a great venue! Tours of the museum will be given.

Purchase your tickets here.

Time: 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Date: Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009

Place: Bloomfield Science Museum

Cause: Tech-Career

Cost: NIS 50 per ticket - all proceeds to benefit Tech-Career

Directions: The Bloomfield Science Museum is located on Museum Boulevard, near the Givat Ram Campus of Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

By car:
From Tel Aviv – From the highway entrance to Jerusalem, turn right onto Herzl Blvd. After passing a row of hotels, turn left onto Wolfsohn St. Take the first right, at the sign for the University and a left after going around the traffic circle. You’ll soon see the Museum on your left. Parking is ample and free.

By bus:
Take Egged number 9, 24, or 28 to Hebrew University, Givat Ram. The Museum is a five-minute walk from there.

As you (should) know, we requested suggestions for causes that had to do with bridging the digital divide. This is void of religion and politics and since the common bond we have is technology, we thought something which works to ensure that those of us who are at the cutting edge of technology are not leaving behind others would be nice.

The cause we decided upon is Tech-Career, which in and of itself is a compelling story. Started by an Ethiopian Israeli with the goal of helping others of that community succeed in Israel, Tech-Career trains members of the Ethiopian Israeli community in high-tech careers. They have been extremely successful in job placement now with alumni who are not only in management positions in leading firms, but who have contributed financially back to the organization including one of its board members.

The organization is now encouraging its alumni to work together as they see fit to help the Ethiopian community in Israel.

Currently there is no need for equipment. However, because students live on the premises their expense goes beyond education and includes living expenses. The cost for each student is about $10k/year. Our goal is one month for one student $833.

For over 25 years, Ethiopian Israelis have been attempting to break out of the harsh socio-economic reality in which they live and integrate into Israeli society. According to the latest statistics (Brookdale Institute, 2007), more than 50% of Ethiopian Israeli families are still living below the poverty line, compared to 14.5% of veteran Israeli families. Tech-Career, founded in 2003 by a member of the Ethiopian Israeli community, provides an innovative solution and a unique opportunity for Ethiopian Israelis to climb the socio-economic ladder.

Tech-Career offers Ethiopian Israeli young adults professional technological training, personal development workshops and job placement services. Our combined training programs offer participants the opportunity to acquire the necessary knowledge, experience and skills to succeed in Israeli high tech industries, to develop their careers and to make the transition from economic and social dependence to independence. To date, all Tech-Career graduates are employed in Israeli high tech industries as software developers or software quality assurance professionals. Our aim is to ensure that by 2012 at least 1,000 Ethiopian Israelis will be working in Israeli high tech industries. We believe that our graduates and others like them will be the future leaders and social activists of the Ethiopian Israeli community.

• Software Development Program - Dot.Net – Intensive 11 month residential course. Curriculum emphasizes the latest MS programming technologies. Program carried out in cooperation with Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor. Graduates receive Tech-Career, John Bryce (the largest technological training center in Israel) and Microsoft certificates.
• Software Development Program – COBOL – Intensive 9 month residential course. Curriculum teaches COBOL (COmmon Business-Oriented Language) software development. Program carried out in cooperation with Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor and IBM. Graduates receive Tech-Career and John Bryce (the largest technological training center in Israel) certificates.
• Software Quality Assurance (SQA) Program – Intensive 6 month residential course. The curriculum focuses on the newest methodologies of software testing. Program carried out in cooperation with Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor and John Bryce. Graduates receive an international software testing engineering certificate (ISTQB) and Tech-Career certification.
• External Placement Program – Tech-Career is considered to be the technology training center for the Ethiopian Israeli community. As such, graduates of other technological programs approach us for our job placement services and we take great pride in being able to assist them.
• Mechina - Tech-Career’s Mechina Program prepares students for computer science tracks in universities and colleges.
• Tech-Career Graduates Forum –Tech-Career is now establishing an active alumni association whose goal is to increase social awareness and community activism. Activities will be decided upon by forum members.
• Ethiopian Professional Social Action Forum - Tech-Career is working together with other organizations in order to create a forum of young Ethiopian Israeli professionals. Forum members will come from a variety of fields – social work, law and high-tech to name a few and will be instrumental in leading the Ethiopian Israeli community in the future.

At Tech-Career, we believe that the programs we are developing may serve as a model for work with other deprived communities. We are currently documenting our work in order to formulate such a model, and examining the feasibility of pilot projects to determine whether our model is viable for other communities.

We had 61 Twestival attendees in February. Our goal for this Twestival is 75-100. Purchase your tickets here.

The cause was submitted and approved by Causecast, the official not-for-profit vetting partner for Twestival Local.

See http://www.tech-career.org

The upcoming Twestival will be Twestival Local aimed at supporting a LOCAL Charity which we have yet to select. Purchase your tickets here.

Having leaned from our last event, we will be simplifying the undertaking and we hope to organize a good time.

Twestival Local will take place in cities around the world between September 10-13th.
The Jerusalem Twestival Local will take place on Thursday September 10th.

The next Twestival Global will be on February 4th where everyone around the world will rally around the same cause - this will be decided in October.

In the meantime, let us know if you want to help organize Twestival Local in Jerusalem.

Think about potential charities which meet these requirements
- it is a registered and established charity in your respective Country
- it has been decided upon and accepted by the local city team and/or community
- a connection has been made between the Twestival organizer and the charity to ensure they are aware of Twestival

Throughout the evening, activities from the following presenters will be taking place in parallel to musical performances.

Music

8:00-8:25 Aaron Schner
8:35-9:05 Noah Lublin
9:10-9:40 Yitzchok Meir
9:45-10:30 Hamakor

Activities and Presenters

Baabua Gigantic Bubbles
Jewish Climate Initiative
Soreq Winery
Green Prophet
Magic Tec - Chaschamim
Green Any Site
Amir Yechieli - Water Harvesting
PresenTense
Tweetorials with J-Town Productions, HeadUp Semantic Firefox Addon and Innovation 2.0

Tickets available at http://www.amiando.com/twestivaljerusalem.html

The latest issue of PresenTense Magazine, the open source journal of new Jewish ideas, will be available for perusing and purchase tonight at Twestival.

Issue Seven is dedicated to Food and Eating — featuring articles on “Organic Zionism,” detailing the latest trends in social- and environment-concious food production and distribution companies from Israel and abroad.

Find out also about getting involved in the next issue, which will focus on innovations in Education and Education Theory.

Purchase a single issue for 20NIS, or sign up for an annual subscription for substantial savings.

The water crisis in Israel is mostly due to water mismanagement. One-fifth of the annual rainfall is lost as a result of runoff, particularly in urban areas, via street drains and sewers. This venture is about designing and constructing cost-effective systems to collect millions of cubic meters of rainwater from rooftops. Through rainwater harvesting, many thousands of homeowners, schools, and other public buildings can become less dependent on public water systems during the winter months. On an individual level, this project can provide an alternative to paying for public water and to buying bottled mineral water. On a national level, it can avoid dependence on imported water and desalination, and minimizes the cost and environmental damage from millions of plastic water bottles.

Rainwater harvesting in schools is particularly effective because of a good ratio of collecting area to rate of consumption. Yet, the primary importance of this project is in the teaching of sustainable values and of their practical application, as the system serves as a tool for studying computer science, math, climate and geography.

The innovation behind this rain harvesting system is the use of relatively small containers that are usually refilled about thirty times during the rainy season. Working with a small storage capacity, meant to last for only 7-10 days, ensures high quality water, with minimal space requirements and esthetic problems. The costs of such a system can be recovered in a few years. A system as described above is already operating in twenty five schools around the country and in numerous private homes.

Costs

The hardware for the rain harvesting system including drinking water should not exceed 12,000 nis. The hardware for the gray water system should not exceed 3,000 nis. Installation fee depend on the local conditions and on how handy is the customer. Usually if I have to install the rain harvesting system the cost is about 6,000 nis including 1 year warranty. For the gray water installation, depends on local conditions. It may get to several thousand Nis.

A fully operating system if the roof is over 100 sq meter could provide up to 4 month worth of full household consumption + top quality drinking water year round. Just on drinking water the savings could mount to 3000 nis/year.

Gray water use for irrigation could save up to 300 liters /day X 8 month =72 qm/year
Both systems when put in during the construction, through early planning, are cheapper to install and more aesthetic.

More information is available from Amir Yechieli at amir_y@012.net.il

Magic Tec., a leader in water-saving technologies will have water-saving devices available for sale at Jerusalem’s Twestival.

A portion of all sales will go to Charity: Water.

Water regulators for showers and faucets are also available on-line.

One of the most established boutique wineries in Israel, the Soreq Winery is nestled in the ancient wine country between the Ayalon and Soreq valleys terraced in the western Judean Hills on Moshav Tel Shachar. Soreq wines come from their Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot vineyards as well as a few other specialty vineyards which together produce about 5000 bottles of wine a year.

This family-run business also teaches the art of wine-making to dozens of students at their school, established with the winery in 1994. Hobbyist learn side-by-side with professionals and over forty alumni have started their own commercial wineries.

The Soreq Winery’s Wine Lovers’ Club is open to all. Register at soreq@barak.net.il or by phoning 08-9450844

Wines are available at the winery itself and all are invited to come and visit. Just please call ahead to arrange a time.

Wines by the glass and by the bottle will be available for purchase at the Jerusalem Twestival. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Charity:Water.

Israel 21C reports how “Twitter users across Israel will be coming together this week for a special ‘Twestival’ designed to raise money for Africa and show case Israeli clean technology companies at the same time.”

Read this excellent post