So did you miss the the recent ROI Summit? You know that annual gathering of 120 young Jewish innovators and leaders from around the world? Well have no fear! You can go to the ROI120 Web site and read various blog posts about what went down, and Haaretz even covered one of the technology showcases:
A communications overload brought down the internet connection on Tuesday at Jerusalem’s Hebrew Union College. The surge came from room 104, where the summit’s 20 computer fanatics were trying to simultaneously connect their laptops to the Web to demonstrate their online inventions. After finally connecting, the computer lovers pitched ideas on how to eclipse online anti-Semitic content, use Anglo blogs to have fun in Jerusalem, help organizations maintain a more professional-looking online presence, and use computer animation to get African-American rap singer and retired drug dealer 50 Cent to teach about Passover… The session was part of the Third Annual ROI Global Summit for Young Jewish Innovators – a week-long conference for 120 people from 28 countries deemed to be “engaged in projects with potential to change the face of the world,” as stated in the invitation.
The article featured projects by Harry Rubenstein and Jerusalemite.net, William Levin and his Web site Shabot6000, Ori Neidich who does Web consulting for small non-profits and Dr. Andre Oboler, an expert in combating online anti-Semitism who talked about Google search engine optimization and how it can be used to diminish the reach of hate sites on the Internet.
Check out the rest of the article at Haaretz.com.
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Dr. Andre Oboler makes some good sense. however it seems like the number 1 conduit for anti-Semitic and anti-Israel propaganda are online video sharing sites like YouTube where any search for Israel or Jewish videos results in a slew of horrific videos and any pro-Israel or Jewish themed video that gets posted is almost immediately deluged by a veritable avalanche of hateful comments. Combating that kind of stuff while still trying to maintain a semblance of concern for openess, free speech and provides quite a challenge.
Bolinat is right. The solution however is that we need to focus on the community, not the content.
When there is general agreement that something on YouTube is not appropriate, it doesn’t matter how many times it is posted or seen… the result will be to ridicule it rather than accept the hate. It can’t be just the Jews who see the antisemitism, or just the gay community who see the homophobia. Islamophobia content should offend Jews, Christians and athiests – not just Muslims. When this happens (and we need to help it happen through education and awareness raising) then people will start to ignore the hate, isolate the haters and exclude them from the community (in a social rather than a technical sense).
I am currently working on a report on the topic (including YouTube) so stay tuned.