Tarek Fahmy: Cultural Critic

I never understood why ‘ma and pa’ cafes had free Wi-Fi and Starbucks never did. They forced their customers to pay for this service. Starbucks is a huge, powerful, and ubiquitous corporation (especially in the U.S.) and making ‘us’ pay for Wi-Fi surely had no effect on their profit margin.

So why did Starbucks wait this long to change their policy regarding the Internet??

Prior to their July 1st, 2010 free Wi-Fi policy change they forced their customers to go through this complicated procces to get “FREE” Internet:

• Purchase a starbucks card
• Fill it up with at least $5.00
• Scratch off a card specific number on the back
• Sign up on the AT & T (Wi-Fi) website using that
  number and input personal information
• Select a Username & Password
• Sign up on Starbucks website with that Username & Password
• Fre Wi-Fi is attained

This complicated and time consuming process seemed to disourage some non-techie folks from even trying to figure out this convoluted roadmap. As a UX Designer I was always asking the question why? Why a multi-billion dollar corporation did not hire a UX designer to make this Internet signing up process simpler? Maybe they hired a UX Designer to make this process purposefully complicated?!?

The question always led me to the same answer: that Starbucks (previously) did not want to make this process easy. For whatever reason[s] (people camping in their stores solely for Internet use and not for buying their products) getting Internet at Starbucks was harder then rocket science.

As of today (07.01.10) the Internet at Starbucks is FREE. This time it’s really free with no * next to the word FREE leading to a fine print explanation. Off-course there is the ‘I agree to the Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy‘ which if checked obviously means that the customer is selling their soul to Starbucks; but that’s OK as long as the Internet is free.

EVENT HELD @: Congregation Ansche Chesed
Co-sponsored by Congregation Ansche Chesed and J Street NYC

I found out about the New Israel Fund (NIF) via an old college friend,
(Hillit Zwick, Associate Director - NIF).

I am on their mailing list and I have been getting invitations to interesting events that promote communication and understanding. I like their overall peaceful message that stresses coexistence with the ‘Other‘. Off-course, the ‘Other‘ is the archetypal other tribe, other ethnicity, other color, other religion, the other person that is not like me.

On their website’s About Page, the first paragraph reads:

The New Israel Fund (NIF) is the leading organization committed to democratic change within Israel. Since 1979, NIF has fought for social justice and equality for all Israelis.  We believe that Israel can live up to its founders’ vision of a state that ensures complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants, without regard to religion, race or gender.

I like that message a lot and I truly hope that it’s for real and not just empty rhetoric. Whether the above applies to non-Israelis & non-Jews as well is an entirely different issue that I will not address here. I still love the fact that this organization is progressive and supports a two state solution.

I also understand that inside Israel there is a class system and a social hierarchy amongst Jews that needs to be addressed as much as the Palestinian question.  You see, there are a number of ethnic divisions amongst Israeli Jews. Some of these ethnicities are:

• Ashkenazi Jews: Eastern Europe, Hungary, Russia, Lithuania, Belarus (European Jews)
• Sephardi Jews: The Iberian peninsula Jews (Spaniards, Moroccans, Portuguese, Turks)
• Romaniotes Jews: Greeks
• Yemenite Jews: Separate from Ashkenazi & Sephardi
• African Jews: Amongst the African Jews there are many subsets and divisions.
• Chinese Jews: Kaifeng Jews is a prime example and an old example as well.
• Mizrahi Jews: Middle Eastern Jews. Similar to Sephardic but not exactly.
• Bene Ephraim & Cochin Jews & Bnei Menashe
  & Bene Israel & Baghdadi Jews & : Indian Jews
  (The above is taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_ethnic_divisions)

There are many sects, subsets, and permutations of the jewish peoples living today in Israel. Within these ethnic divisions there exists this tribal mentality of Us Vs. Them and a social class hierarchy that cannot be ignored. I believe that the NIF’s main message is to work on these seeming inequalities, within the Israeli society, and not only the Palestinian issue.

Next time you hear the words Israeli Jew ask yourself which ethnicity are they referring to. Israel is such a complicated country occupied by a melting pot of different ethnicities situated in an even more complicated area of competing religions. No wonder, I feel, that we will probably never see peace in Palestine any time soon.

This Thursday July 1st at Congregation Ansche Chesed Mr. Avraham Burg will hold a talk about Israeli politics and a potential two state solution.

If you are in the New York area RSVP here. I will be there!!

Below are screen shots of the event’s invitation page taken from the NIF website.

UX design means user experience design. These designers literally design the experience that the end-user (person using the web-site or application) will have online or on the desktop.

When websites and desktop applications are being designed, the end-user should always come first. This is called user centered design. Since different applications/websites have a different archetypal end-user(s), a user experience designer has to determine what type of design appeals and is more efficient to that particular archetype of an end-user(s).

The experience designer also delves into information architecture, user interface design, art direction (over-all aesthetic feel & vibe of site/application), branding, usability studies, story boarding and wire-framing, research, client interaction and client presentation,

As of late there are many different terms being used to describe these designers. Some of the terms being used are:
• Visual Designer
• UX Designer
• UI designer
• Information Architect

In my opinion, the best UI/UX designers are the post modern equivalent of renaissance artists; versed in many seemingly disparate but truly interrelated disciplines. These UI/UX designers combine logic, creativity, and communication on a day to day basis. They are versed in psychology, usability, graphic design, fine arts, as well as wireframe rendering and story boarding. These designers also have the ability to put themselves in the end-user’s shoes.

UX design is a growing field that is extremely integral in today’s business. The ceiling is high and the future is bright.

I love and respect Tom Waits. he’s a poet, a writes, a performance artist, an actor, and a musician. His singing voice is so distinct that it cannot be confused for anyone else. The second you hear his voice on you know it’s him.

Conan O'brien

Conan O’Brien’s popularity was based on one important ingredient; he wasn’t a run of the mill host. He was ‘different,’ goofy, and original and his time slot during his impressive ‘Late Night with Conan O’Brien’ run had a lot do with that.

The show started at 12:37AM and appealed to a segment of the population that was still awake (and stoned), expected weirdness, originality, and shock value (college kids, out of work folks, ‘weirdos’, and creatives).

After his move to replace the Doritoes guy (Leno), his time slot went back almost an hour. His show now started at 11:34 instead and with that comes a whole different market and a whole different sensibility. His main audience drastically changed. He had to adapt his schtick to Middle America in a sense and, to me, he lost that seeming ‘anti-Carson-Doritoes Guy’ image. As a result, his show became stale and Andy Richter’s presence (the Ed McMahon formula) did not really help at all!

O’brien was no longer Conan the ‘anti-host’ (Ala anti-hero). Self effacing and depracating humor no longer played a major role in his monologues. It did back in the day consistently as I recall. So did his complaints about his low budget etc. That was what appealed to me originally and NBC as well.

As a result of the ratings failure NBC decided to try to capture some of that ‘Late Night with Conan O’Brien’ magic and move the show to a 12:05 slot. Too late NBC. That did not work and this marriage with O’brien was doomed to fail from the start. My 2 cents.