Israeli And Palestinian “Technology Geeks” Join Forces At Competition

Israeli and Palestinian tech geeks joined forces to build web and mobile applications in only 54 hours at Start-Up Weekend. 125 entrepreneurs, computer and web developers, designers, investors and your average amateur geek gathered recently  for an intense networking experience that led to 10 different applications with true commercial viability.

Start-Up Weekend, or better known as SW, is a global non-profit mission aimed at educating entrepreneurs; strengthening communities, and launching startups in less than 54 hours. SW started in June 2007, when a group of long-time friends discussed how they missed collaborating on projects. SW’s motto is “No Talk, all action. Ideas in less than 54 hours.”

The SWTLV (Tel Aviv Start-Up Weekend) is the 4^th SW event held in Israel, this time in the Peres Center for Peace in Jaffa. Most of the participants were Israelis (111 out of 125) due to security measures, but several  Palestinians arrived from cities like Jenin, Tulkarm, Neblus and Hebron. Dual-nationality groups started from scratch and by the end of the given 54 hours were asked to pitch their finished applications to the SW panel.

While the main goal of SW is to create a working product, ready to be presented to angel investors and venture funds, part of the thrill of SWTLV is to see intense cooperation between Israeli and Palestinians Hi-Techers.

The applications that won were versatile and unique. The second runner up was CorkIt– a platform that allows you to share everything in your digital life. The runner up spot was given to FunQ.It – an application that makes it easy to remember the movies, books, music and even restaurants that you want to buy/see/visit later. The first place went to PicSeek – a crowdsourcing platform that allows you to get a picture of anything, anywhere – right now.

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To read the original story in Hebrew click here
Translation by Alexandra Man
Via http://it.themarker.com