Israel taking a leaf out of Barack's blog?
If you've been watching or reading the news lately you'll likely have noticed that Israel has gotten 20th Century on Hamas' ass again.
But what you may have missed is how 21st Century Israel has also gotten on Hamas' ass as well - unleashing a 2.0nslaught on the internet as PR to accompany the action in Gaza. What am I talking about? I'm talking about the Israel Defence Force's You Tube channel which launched on 28 December 2008 with the profile statement:
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit is the Israel Defense Forces' professional
body responsible for media and public relations in Israel and around
the world. This is our new site that will help us bring our message to
world.
This message being a combination of b&w on-plane footage of bombing raids such as:
And paint-dryingly dull images of prep for airstrikes:
What I love about the above video is the pixelation of a guy's face at the 14 second mark. Proof positive that this incursion into the realm of web 2.0 and UGC is being undertaken with a limited knowledge of the tools at hand. Any experienced user knows that you can't tell a face from an arse on YouTube if the subject's more than a foot away and moving.
Also, I'm wondering why that guy gets his face pixelated? Everyone else is happily on display and proud of their work. Clearly the dude's moonlighting. He's got another job and doesn't want the boss to know that he's been pulling sickies to lovingly polish spy-craft and other assorted death-mongering war cocks. OR, worse, he's pulling a Mr Inside-outski Fistful of Dollars routine and working for Hamas at the weekends - a sweet little deal which this film would blow right out of the water.
So, the IDF's on YouTube, I hear you huff and shrug. No biggie. Everyone's on YouTube, Dan. Shut up. Don't you have a 'Best of 2008' blog to better clutter up the net with? (All in good time, my loves...) Well, how's scoop number two rock your shit, web-fans: Israel is also getting a Twitter buzz on. Yes: you can follow David Saranga, Consul of Media and Public Affairs in New York via http://twitter.com/IsraelConsulate and you can take part in a Citizens' press conference on Twitter to get your questions in. Sort of an 'Everything you wanted toknow about the Israel-Palestine crisis but didn't have the 2.0 messenging client to ask' deal. Pretty cool. (Yes, fine - this blog is just another excuse to talk about Twitter. Look - go out and build something better to yack about and I'll get yacking.)
First Barack Obama, then Britney, now the State of Israel - all Twittering. It's like Biz Stone looked upon all the Twitter column inches, the hype, the tech-obsessive-fandom and celebrity sign-on and said - "Historic presidents, psychotic sex-kittens... It's not enough! 2008 needs to finish BIG for us! We need a war - and we need both sides making their threats, demands and terms known through political statements of no more than 140 characters in length. Get me The Middle East!"
Sigh. So, listen - any Venture Capitalists or Angel Investors out there interested in backing a 2.0 internet start-up for peace in our time?
What's that you say? It would never catch on? Why?
Because web 2.0's all about user generated content.
Oh. Yeah.
Article Dan
NB - this blog is written neither as a statement of support nor condemnation of Israel's policies or actions in the Middle East.
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