What should the un-iversity be about?

What should the un-iversity be about?

Nothing, and everything. The curriculum should resemble a me-nu more than a syllabus. It should be a resource for learning, for thinking, for creating new ideas, new paradigms (whatever those are). It shouldn't compete with regular universities (we have enough of those) in offering standard courses. The courses we offer should be 'off the wall'. It is likely that the first will be offered by Lior Manor. I dream of a course in which he explains the thought processes of the magician, the psychology involved, and the scientific principles which magicians use to 'bend' our perception of reality. Now that would be a course worthy of the un-iversity. You can expect me to be in attendance. Other courses I would personally like to attend or help teach:


1. Dentistry: medicine or business?
2. "Tricks of the Trades" How not to buy a piano, a house, etc.
3. How to think and succeed like Yossi Vardi (this is one I would strictly be on the listening end)

What might a teacher at the un-iversity do? Freely share his/her disruptive view of one segment of our un-iverse. What should a student do? Commit to attend the entire run of any given course (maybe with one or two unavoidable hookies).

Your comments are welcome!

The un-iversity might also publicize groups and events that share this vision. See, for example, the e-mail below I received from Or-Tal Kiriati. There are lots of organizations promoting innovation among youth, but there is no site that we know of that un-ites them.

יזמות טכנולוגית
http://startupseeds.com/

חינוך ליזמות
www.unistream.co.il/ and www.decimaventures.com/unistream.html

בנק לאומי
www.leumi.co.il/Leumi/Article/0,2777,170994,00.html
http://www.leumi.co.il/Leumi/Home/0,2777,6567,00.html
http://www.yazamim.org.il/

קבוצת עופר
http://ne.sisma.org.il/school/hativa-b/nashad/default.aspx

התאחדות התעשיינים ומשרד התמ"ס
http://www.industry.org.il/?CategoryID=1151&ArticleID=1034&sng=1
http://www.kav-lahinuch.co.il/?CategoryID=311&ArticleID=4644

מרכז נוער יזמי כפר סבא
http://www.kfar-saba.muni.il/?CategoryID=548&ArticleID=290&sng=1

אשלים - נוער בסיכון - פרויקט יזמות
http://www.ashalim.org.il/default.asp?catid=%7bBDEAE394-92AC-4DAD-B186-83834981C3BC%7d&details_type=1&itemid=%7bCE608647-E844-4132-9DC6-2BCACA99260C}
מסמך על התוכנית
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/1986480/%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%99%D7%A7%D7%98-%D7%99%D7%96%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%A2%D7%A1%D7%A7%D7%99%D7%AA-%D7%9C%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%A2%D7%A8
ועוד קישורים
http://www.zionut2000.org.il/hebrew/meidaon-yazamut/email.html

תוכניות אחרות - יזמות חברתית וכ'
http://noar.education.gov.il/main/upload/merkaz/merkaz5.htm
יזמות התנדבותית
http://ivolunteer.org.il/Index.asp?CategoryID=280&ArticleID=2811

עמותת צבע (צעירים בונים עתיד) - יותר חברתי פחות יזמות
http://www.tzeva.org.il/

Summary of the idea:
Let's get them all together all the doers, mentors, leaders, investors together with the youth, in a one day happening, at any given date around the summer vacation or at the beginning of the school year.

Mel with Smell - The New Smelly Book Collection

Mel takes off for Bologna's International Children's Book Fair

In a week and a half, I should know whether the work we've done over the past two years has been worthwhile. By the work, I mean a labor of love: preparing eight (!) children's books, illustrations and all, for the children's book fair in Bologna. Together with our potential partners in the UK (The Smelly Book Company), we are having smells applied to each of the books in different parts of each story. The smells include good ones such as orange, chocolate, and grass, and less pleasant ones such as garlic, tuna fish, etc.

Will we succeed? I have no idea, but I sure hope so. Kids loved my previous children's stories (Bacteria Galore by Sunday at Four, and The Talking Toothbrush). I have been working with another outstanding illustrator (Rotem Omri) and we have edited each story carefully. Three of the stories comprise the Dr. Cluck series, three titles are about tooth fairies, one is about a dragon who falls in love with ice cream, and the final one is a secret (you have to read it).

Our original idea was to create a website that would bring the stories to children around the world (for free, of course). That website, http://www.meltells.com/ is up and running, with pages that flip, books that fly, narration and song, the whole nine yards. The dream of turning these colorful e-books into real books started about a year ago when a new British company, specializing in adding odours to books, suggested that we join forces.

So if you are attending the Bologna Children's Book Fair, please follow your nose to my smellicious books. Come say hello. Put in an order to buy a few (thousand). At least tell me what you think.

Wish me lot's of luck. It's my first children's book fair. Let's hope it's the first of many.

Big Band, Big Dream

Next week is an exciting one for me – my seventh performance with the HED Big Band in south Tel Aviv.

Singing with a big band has been one of my greatest dreams since I started to perform eight years ago. Let me tell you how it came true.

My sister-in-law Neta reads people's futures in Ecuadorian stones. "What would you like to ask my stones?" she asked one summer's day.

"Will I ever have the chance to sing with a big band?". I asked. I picked a stone from the bag. It wasn't the right stone. "I'm sorry", she told me, "according to this stone this doesn't look like it's going to happen."

I am not a great believer in reading the future. I don't cast much faith in Ecuadorian stones. The question was, how to prove them wrong.

Yossi Vardi, the famous and omnipotent Israeli entrepreneur, and jazz lover, came to the rescue. "Here", he told me, phone 03-7914914 and ask for Yehuda Cohen. He has a really good big band. Maybe he'll let you sing with them.

Yehuda agreed to meet me (perhaps Yossi had put in a good word, or the mere mention of his name was sufficient). My meeting with Yehuda started off poorly. I played him a couple of tapes I had made of live performances. He wasn't very impressed. He played me a recording of his regular male singer, Danny Saguy (I was impressed). "You see", he said, "I already have a terrific male singer. What do I need you for?"

At this point I began to believe that the Ecuadorean stones might have the upper hand. But I persisted. Finally, a crack appeared. "If you buy the entire hall (100 seats), then I'll make you a performance".

"No problem", says I. I am thinking, my birthday is coming, instead of presents, I'll ask all my friends to buy tickets.

But my parents intervened. To their thinking, it was pretty tacky to 'force' friends to buy tickets. As a birthday present (one of the nicest you can imagine), they bought half the tickets and gave them away. I did the same with the other half.

My premier performance was three years ago. My soul brother from Toronto, Chris McCulloch came for 46 (!) hours to be with me, and bought me a Sinatra-type hat. Other wonderful friends from Boston (Neal and Varda Farber) happened to be in the country and came as well. Family, university colleagues and friends filled the hall.

I soon learned that singing with a big band was like nothing I had ever attempted before. It's like sitting on top of a Boeing jumbo. When the roaring bird takes off, you're alone up there, and there's no stopping the song till it's over and you're safely landed. You can barely hear yourself sing. Horns are blaring from the left, piano from the right, bass and drums right behind you.

Despite my middling debut performance, the crowd was pleased, and Yehuda has invited me back on occasion, the seventh being a week Wednesday. I am appearing with Daphne Levy, one of the foremost jazz singers in the country. I may even play my horn in a song or two. I can hear my singing improve from one time to the next, and that makes me a very happy camper indeed. So if you are free on October 17th, come see this crazy dream of mine come true, again. Enjoy Daphne and the hot band. Have a drink or two. And don't put too much faith in Ecuadorean stones. I didn't.