Last March, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt published an article in the London Review of Books. Entitled “The Israel Lobby: Does it Have too Much Influence on US Foreign Policy,” it drew swift charges of anti-Semitism in the editorial pages of American newspapers.

At root are passages like the following:

...the thrust of US policy in the region derives almost entirely from domestic politics, and especially the activities of the ‘Israel Lobby’. Other special-interest groups have managed to skew foreign policy, but no lobby has managed to divert it as far from what the national interest would suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that US interests and those of the other country – in this case, Israel – are essentially identical.

Those attacking Mearsheimer and Walt suggest the duo outline a nefarious Jewish cabal with a stranglehold on American Mideast policy. Think smokey back rooms; think political and media domination; think subtle and sneaky manipulation of the unsuspecting, innocent gentile. Think historical stereotype.

Mearsheimer, Walt and their defenders counter that they neither suggest a cabal nor a monolithic Jewry driving the American body politic. Instead, a close alliance of disparate groups form a capital “L” Israeli Lobby that distorts US interests in the region. While this is lead by the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Lobby includes Jews and Gentiles alike:

The Lobby also includes prominent Christian evangelicals like Gary Bauer, Jerry Falwell, Ralph Reed and Pat Robertson, as well as Dick Armey and Tom DeLay, former majority leaders in the House of Representatives, all of whom believe Israel’s rebirth is the fulfilment of biblical prophecy and support its expansionist agenda; to do otherwise, they believe, would be contrary to God’s will. Neo-conservative gentiles such as John Bolton; Robert Bartley, the former Wall Street Journal editor; William Bennett, the former secretary of education; Jeane Kirkpatrick, the former UN ambassador; and the influential columnist George Will are also steadfast supporters.

The above debate centers around these two perspectives as the panelists move among issues such as US-Israeli relations, the Middle East peace process, the origins of the Iraq War and Israeli settlement policy to name a few.

Panelists:

• John Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago.
• Shlomo Ben-Ami is a former Israeli foreign and security minister and the author of Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy.
• Martin Indyk is Director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy and Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution.
• Tony Judt is Erich Maria Remarque Professor in European Studies and Director of the Remarque Institute at New York University.
• Rashid Khalidi is Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies and Director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University.
• Dennis Ross is Counsellor and Ziegler Distinguished Fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the author of The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace.

Moderator:

• Anne-Marie Slaughter is Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Bert G. Kerstetter ‘66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University.

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The above debate took place at Cooper Union in New York City and was captured by ScribeMedia on behalf of the London Review of Books. A transcript of the event will be available shortly.

About the London Review of Books Founded in 1979, The London Review of Books is dedicated to carrying on the tradition of the English essay – giving contributors the space and freedom to develop their ideas at length and in depth.

To subscribe please visit the London Review of Books Web site.

Inquiries about this video, DVDs and the debate can be made to michael [at] scribemedia [dot] org.

“Truth in E-Learning” broadcast live to a web audience last week from our New York Studio.

As with any live production, there were the last minute concerns and near-heart-attacks for fear that something had broken at the last second, but on the whole the broadcast went extremely well.

I think it’s difficult to really appreciate what happens at these live webcasts without being there in person.

Try to imagine all the technical complexity of running a webcast (say just for argument, one that you are doing from your home webcam) with a chat room, slides to alter and display, uploads coming from other users, on top of accounting for all the bandwidth your dozens of users will be eating up (this is of course assuming that you are a very popular person.)

Then consider what it’s like running a live television broadcast. There’s the camera people to cue, the talent to cue, the script to work from, the set, the lights, the pressure…

Believe me, the list of things only gets exponentially longer.

Now ram both the live TV broadcast and the webcast together.

Boom. That’s what ScribeStudio does.

Me? What was my job during this little adventure? I got the pleasure of being the guy that made everything run.

Despite how daunting such a task can be. It really can be a lot of fun. At Scribe’s New York Studio, we have the right people with the right technology and the right equipment to make it all come together and actually work.

We look forward to “Truth’s” next live broadcast and invite you all to tune in (or in the webcasting age is it “click in”?) to watch.

I thought i’d take a little time to share what we’ve been up to in the way of video production here in our New York studio. today I worked on our bi-weekly filming for Source Media, a publishing company, and ScribeStudio customer.

Source Media has many divisions and many publications. the group I worked with this morning uses ScribeStudio’s New York production facilities to create regular web-based video newscasts for visitors to their Managing REO (www.managingreo.com ) web site visitors, who are professionals in the real estate industry.

Each segment they film in the studio is short (3 to 5 minutes). the importance lies in being able to deliver information in their video newscast quickly and efficiently.

We fully support the concept of creating web-based multimedia content that is short and sweet. We typically recommend to our customers that they chunk their content, making small 3-10 minute pieces of content. A web site visitor will typically not stick around to watch much more at a time. We often help customers break up hour long presentations into shorter segments.

If you can present an end user with an hour of web video in a DVD style player with chapter markings, where each segment is clearly labeled, they can have an enjoyable experience with the content and find what they want to find and not have to sit through the parts that aren’t of interest.

In contrast, think about how many people put video online, especially long video, with simply a play and a stop button. That’s not very user friendly.

How do I get to the question and answer part of the presentation? I can’t. But if you chunk it up and put it in a nice player and label each segment, the end user can easily get to the content they want.

ScribeStudio works with Source Media to make the process of filming their web newscasts simple. they show up to our New York production studio (we’re conveniently about 5 blocks from their office), we shoot, we do post production, and we upload the video.

Since I’ve been here, ScribeStudio has really built out our technology and our studio capabilities to account for the ever growing and more techno-savvy needs of our customer.

We have started using green screen effects for our clients looking for something ‘a little different’, we’ve added all new lighting equipment to give them the best possible images, we shoot on state of the art 24pA capable cameras, and we’ve also acquired a new video mixer for broadcasting, multi-camera, multi-angle, live events from our studio directly to live web audiences – what we call WebTV.

And webcasting has certainly become a huge part of ScribeStudio’s marketability. People can literally walk into our New York studio and broadcast a live two camera webcast to the world. recently we kicked off a new webcast series called ‘truth in e-learning’ which is set to air its second episode on wednesday september 6th.

Since ScribeStudio is also a technology company, we have a webcasting solution called ScribeLive.

By using our production studio and our webcasting capabilities, broadcasting through ScribeLive, ‘truth’ not only gets the professional studio setting they need for broadcasting hour long live webcasts, but they can benefit from the ScribeStudio web architecture to power their broadcast to hundreds or thousands of live users, all while recording a web-archived version for those that couldn’t make the live broadcast.

As an editor/video producer, its always fun to work with a new client and new technologies. since no client ever wants the same thing and is always looking for that extra edge they need to draw in their users, its a consistent challenge re-tailoring your work, and to be willing to do a little experimenting, in order to create new ways of helping them to achieve their individual goals.

Might be lastest, but certainly not leastest, Why the Lucky Stiff from RailsConf 2006 in Chicago.

Humor, music and animation all in a little over an hour of keynote video goodness.

This video has been moved to a permanent home at ScribeMedia.Org

And that, dear friends, concludes the RailsConf 2006 Keynote Series. We hope you’ve enjoyed… even the buggers who complained about the Flash players we’ve been using to present these two you.

Speaking of which, I did a search to see how many incoming links there are to the RailsConf Keynote Page. The magical number: 1,236.

That’s just plain nutty. I think back to something I think Rich said at the conference, maybe it was Dave Thomas, not really sure anymore, but someone said it: just a few years ago the interest in Rails was neglegible. It just wasn’t known and so few were learning it, studying it, working on it, mastering it, you get the idea.

Our shop, which has/had been Java (cue the boo/hiss) is releasing its first Rails commercial application with more to follow. If you’re interested in learning more, visit the Rails page and scroll down.

as we get ready for another season of Producer’s Guild of America events, i thought it might be time for a quick summary of last season’s events. the first event of the 2006-2007 season is on September 19th. more to come once the season event calendar is finalized. check back in next week for more details…

fortunately, in case you missed them, we webcast every event from the 2005-2006 season and every presentation / panel discussion is available on-demand at the Producers Guild of America multimedia site: producersguild.scribestudio.com

if you have not seen any of the past events (listed below), you can watch them online @ the Producers Guild Multimedia Web Site. registration is free.

there are lots of great topics and great speakers to explore, all related to delivering media in a convergent media world. speakers include founders, ceos and investors in new and old media companies.

the new season kicks off in September, and you will be able to view each event in person, live online as a webcast, or as on-demand online video or audio / video podcast. watch in person, watch live online, subscribe to the podcast…content delivered how you want it, when you want it.

we webcast the final Producer’s Guild of America New Media Council event of the season on June 20th @ the New School here in NYC. the event is titled:

Internet Advertising: How Can I Advertise My Work Online? The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) announced that Internet advertising totaled over $2.8 billion for the first quarter of 2005 making it the highest reported quarter in nine consecutive growth periods.

When it comes to connecting brands with customers, fostering action and driving sales, Interactive media and marketing has been proven effective time and time again. At this session, you’ll find knowledge from leading Producers who have embraced online as a way to market their content via case studies, research and other information that demonstrates how Interactive efficiently increases brand awareness, brand attributes and purchase intent.

From its immediacy of action to its depth and quality of customer/brand interaction, Interactive is the only true “brandaction” medium.

Event hosted by Jeff Dachis and Marc Scarpa, Producers Guild New Media Council Board members.

Panel moderated by Shelly Palmer, Chairman, The Emmy Awards Advanced Media Committee, National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, – http://www.shellypalmer.com.

Panelists Include:

Thomas Burgess, CEO, Third Screen Media – http://www.thirdscreenmedia.com Mr. Burgess is the CEO of Third Screen Media, a software and services mobile marketing company that provides advertising campaign and inventory management solutions to advertisers, content publishers and wireless carriers. He is a seasoned executive with over 13 years experience in online and wireless interactive marketing and technology. He is a pioneer of innovative advertising solutions and has spent the majority of his career introducing technological advances to advertising agencies and consumer marketers. He served as President of internet portal CollegeLink.com Incorporated, purchased by Monster.com early in 2001. Prior to that he served as CEO of 9th Square Inc. (currently Bluestreak.com, Inc.) an Internet E-commerce and advertising software and services company that he co-founded, angel financed and guided through successful initial product development and market launch. Before that Mr. Burgess held senior management and sales positions in the interactive marketing and telecommunications industries.

Mitch Davis, CEO, Massive Incorporated – http://www.massiveincorporated.com Mitch has 10 years of experience in technology and software development with expertise in middleware software, online media and general management. He is a former Senior Vice President of Encyclopedia Britannica, where he spent three years heading the Britannica.com and CD Rom business units. In this position, he oversaw P&L responsibility and coverage for the ad sales team, business development, editorial, production, product development and international offices. Mitch has a track record of success in entrepreneurial ventures as co-founder of Digital Rights (acquired by Liberty One) and founder of Parcelhouse (an international middleware software developer with clients including FedEx, DHL and IKEA). Mitch has 12 years of integrated agency experience at APM Consulting and Maine Marketing. He received a Bachelor of Commerce Degree in marketing from the University of New South Wales, Australia.

Garry Kitchen, President/CEO, Skyworks – http://www.skyworks.com Garry Kitchen is President/CEO of Skyworks, the leading developer of sponsored online entertainment. His career in interactive entertainment spans 25 years, initially as a toy designer and quickly transitioning into a pioneer in the launch of the video game industry. From 1981-1995, Kitchen was an industry leader in the development of home video games, generating over $300 million in retail sales. In 1995, with the founding of Skyworks, Kitchen brought his gaming expertise to online marketing, launching the innovative LifeSavers Candystand, hailed by experts as the premier example of brand-sponsored gaming, or Advergaming. Today, Skyworks supplies advergames to world-class brands, including Nabisco, Pepsi, BMW, and Ford. Kitchen has received numerous awards and is well respected by the media with appearances on CNBC, CNN and the NBC Today show.

Doug Scott, Senior Partner and Executive Director of Branded Content and Entertainment, Ogilvy North America – http://www.ogilvy.com Douglas Scott is a Senior Partner and Executive Director of Branded Content and Entertainment at Ogilvy North America. Prior to joining Ogilvy, Douglas was Senior Vice President at Bragman Nyman Cafarelli and the General Manager of the New York office. While at BNC, he was responsible for developing original branded entertainment initiatives for Sony PlayStation, General Motors, T-Mobile and American Express. Prior to BNC, he launched MATTER, an entertainment marketing company, in 2004, and he has held key positions at firms, including Hypnotic (where he created innovative branded entertainment campaigns for numerous companies, including the famed “Terry Tate, Office Linebacker” campaign for Reebok); Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX), and Red Herring, where he was a co-founder.

the past few events include:

Internet Advertising: How Can I Advertise My Work Online? When it comes to connecting brands with customers, fostering action and driving sales, Interactive media and marketing has been proven effective time and time again. At this session, you’ll find knowledge from leading Producers who have embraced online as a way to market their content via case studies, research and other information that demonstrates how Interactive efficiently increases brand awareness, brand attributes and purchase intent. From its immediacy of action to its depth and quality of customer/brand interaction, Interactive is the only true brandaction medium.

Salon: Broadband Media – From Network to Networked Herb Granath, Chairman of ESPN discusses of the current state of broadband entertainment and what to expect in 2006. The revolution may not be televised, but television is certainly undergoing a revolution of its own. What will the mandated migration to digital television by 2009 mean for programming? What will the introduction of next generation networked gaming consoles and personal DVR’s mean for distribution? As entire towns introduce personal “always on” networks for their citizens, how will this transform how consumers interact with entertainment? Join us for a conversation between two of the industry’s biggest influencers to explore what lies ahead for broadband and networked media in 2006 and beyond.

Death of the Producer? The Rise of User Generated Content & Community With the proliferation of user generated content on the internet and big media networks such as Google, Yahoo, AOL and MySpace encouraging video files to be uploaded and shared, will the traditional producer have a role in the future of media?

Panelists: Jeremy Allaire, Founder and CEO, Brightcove Shawn Gold, SVP of Entertainment, Myspace Scott Heiferman, CEO and Co-Founder, Meetup Murray Hidary, Co-Founder, iAmplify Salon: Entrepreneurship in New Media Join us to hear some of the most well known Silicon Alley entrepreneurs and investors talk about everything you need to know to create your own start up success story in 2006.

Join us for an evening with Silicon Alley’s leading venture capitalist, Alan Patricof, and one of its most notorious entrepreneurs, Jeff Dachis, to explore the success factors in today’s climate for identifying, funding, and starting the next big thing. Find out who’s leading the next generation of media entrepreneurship and learn all you need to know to create your own start up success story in 2006.

Console, Internet, and Handheld Gaming: Hollywood Killer or Savior? The videogame market – whether on consoles, handheld devices, cell phones, or PCs – continues its rise toward dominance in the U.S. entertainment market. In 2005, revenues were greater than $9 billion in the U.S. alone. With the unveiling of PlayStation 3 in spring, 2006, this year should represent an even greater frame for gamers.

Join the PGA East New Media Council as it examines the full spectrum of the gaming market with some of the East Coast’s leading game developers and marketers. Hear the latest trends in cross-platform game development, the forecast for online multiplayer gaming, and which titles may reign supreme at the checkout counter.

Join us for a panel discussion and show and tell of the latest in gaming entertainment and upcoming industry trends and challenges.

here’s a concert that we filmed last year in Central Park. i want to start getting more into the entertainment space to do live webcasts of concerts using ScribeLive, our live WebTV platform. as exciting as conferences are….stuff like this gets me out of bed a little faster in the morning.

we’re working on a pretty big concert series right now (producing it and webcasting it globally). more to come when that deal is done.

tickets to this years Paul Van Dyk concert in Central Park can be purchased at http://www.madeevent.com.

if you like house music, it’s definitely a good time.

As I write this it’s summertime. There are lazy days on the beach to be had. And online video, audio, audio slide shows, and PDFs, Podcasts and QuickTime downloads from RailsConf 2006 are now available courtesy of our friends at No Fluff Just Stuff.

To register for or log into the site, please visit RailsConf2006.ScribeStudio.com

In the spirit of all that is incremental in releases, about 85% of all content is there. This weekend and next week sees us polishing off the site and getting the final pieces in place.

Still, a good 30+ hours of extraordinary content and deep thinking is available. If you registered at the conference I just sent you your User Name and Password to the site.

If you want to register now, just head over to the above URL.

now, i don’t really know who this guy is, or what his relationship is to business, but we filmed him for my alma mater, columbia business school.

the alumni club had him in as a guest. i like him though…an older version of woody allen.

i just looked him up. nobel prize winner eric kandel! so cute. like a little old teddy bear, only much smarter. let’s browse his autobiography on the nobel prize web site, shall we?

We had the good fortune of being invited by the South Asian Journalists Association to come up to Columbia University and film Brian Williams’ keynote address to their annual convention.

He spoke about his lifelong journey to the network chair, how the news is covered and whether the iPod is leading us back to a concept called broadcast TV. Actually, he made a lot of fun of the digital world, and that fun is funny even if I beg to differ.

As usual, the video below requires Flash Player 8 which you can download here.

Brian’s blog is called the Daily Nightly.

Below are highlights from his biography, his full biography can be read by following this link.

Brian Williams became the seventh anchor and managing editor in the distinguished history of “NBC Nightly News” on December 2, 2004. Now, more than a year-and-a-half at the helm of “Nightly News,” Williams is the nation’s most-watched news anchor. His nightly broadcast represents the largest single daily source of news in America. In June, the four-time Emmy winner received television’s highest honor, the George Foster Peabody Award, for his coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath…

...Since joining NBC News in 1993, Williams has become one of the nation’s foremost television journalists, covering virtually every major breaking news event and traveling extensively around the world. He is a veteran of political campaigns and elections, the Middle East, and has traveled to dozens of U.S. cities and foreign countries in the course of covering the news over more than two decades.

Contradicting the Old Testament and Yoda in one fell swoop, Paul Graham discusses what it means to be an outsider in the programming world.

He ties Rails developers’ outsider status to other disciplines such as art, and talks about the hopes and joys, fears and frustrations of standing on the outside and looking in on the mainstream.

Paul on Paul: The Biography. (Taken from his Web site.)

Paul Graham is an essayist, programmer, and programming language designer. In 1995 he developed with Robert Morris the first web-based application, Viaweb, which was acquired by Yahoo in 1998. In 2002 he described a simple Bayesian spam filter that inspired most current filters. He’s currently working on a new programming language called Arc, a new book on startups, and is one of the partners in Y Combinator.

Paul is the author of On Lisp (Prentice Hall, 1993), ANSI Common Lisp (Prentice Hall, 1995), and Hackers & Painters (O’Reilly, 2004). He has an AB from Cornell and a PhD in Computer Science from Harvard, and studied painting at RISD and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence.

His site paulgraham.com got 8.1 million page views in 2005.