AbleBrains

Steve Mann 2.0: Open for Business

2009-07-27T00:05:39-04:00

Well... its been quite a long while since I've written anything in ye ol blog o mine. So what better way to dust off this thing than to to talk about what I've done and what I plan on doing. First things first. I am pretty damn happy these days. The Trips are great and there are super special people in my life supporting me thru the big transitions I'm making these days.

I've been doing a lot of noodling... about me, what I want for myself yada yada yada... I came really close to leaving tech all together... you see, I've always had a passion for the brain, neuroscience and clinical psychology (the book sitting next to me right now is titled, "Welcome To Your Brain" ... so I was thinking seriously about going back to school and getting my PhD or PsyD in Clinical Psych and hanging a shingle.... and one day I may yet do that... but now... as the 2.0 extension implies, my love of and passion for tech is still strong in me and I want to play that out.

What I'm attracted to... I've been thinking about the large company experiences I've had... CA, SAP, [ Insert Large Company Name here] ... and while they've been mostly good (like anything) -- the capital resources, the people, the opportunities to work in global organizations with global cultures, I am finding myself attracted to smaller, agile organizations... I like to build young companies... to grow things... to make them successful... that's what turns me on. Of course if Eric Schmidt asked me to run Google, I wouldn't turn him down (I do expect that call at any moment).

What am I doing now? Well, I'm having a great time imparting what I know to other companies...in other words, I'm consulting... what a shock eh?

Consulting you say Steve? What type? Well here's what Steve Mann 2.0 is offering:

Social Stuff

Social Media Strategy
Social communications and buzz monitoring
Go-to-market refinement and execution

Marketing & Business Stuff

Market Segmentation including Attitudinal Segmentation.
Category Development and Management -- marketing organizations are too often brought in late in the game for a corporate push. Whether a product launch or a new go-to-market effort, typically these teams are the last to know. But in this economy that doesn’t work. So rather than focus on fighting for a market toehold or the arts and crafts aspects of sales and marketing, we help companies define, deploy and build fundamentally new categories for your products and services. We’ll teach your sales and marketing teams intrinsically unique go-to-market approaches. And if we’re successful, we expect your organization will spend upwards of 70% of its time building and managing those categories rather than fighting for market toeholds. We're helping companies remove the wedge between Sales and Marketing and put the same lens on specific opportunities so you can work as a team.
Unhooking from the machine - Success. Companies go numb from it. As they grow they develop corporate machines to manage the processes and operations that make the company hum. But these machines constrain further dramatic growth and foster cultures of incrementalism. Companies can't drive large innovations and market stance advances because of this incrementalist approach to business. We help companies unhook by developing an Blueprint. It provides organizations with new methods for bringing sales, marketing, services and product development together in ways they’ve never done before. It also recommends new tools and tactics for driving collaboration, communication and co-innovation through vibrant and non-traditional channels.

Innovation Stuff

Innovation platforms and sparking
Getting your Juice back - we take teams through a series of custom-designed exercises to rediscover their juice -- what made them great to begin with -- and once found, we show them how to tap that juice for projects and efforts.
Developing and following an honest Growth Strategy -- To take you from where your company is now to where it wants to be, Steve Mann 2.0 develops growth strategies and maps out a plan for executing it.

Customer Experience Stuff

Customer Experience Strategy & Design
Customer Experience Management - analysis, software and services
Net Promoter consulting

Client Stuff

We've recently signed Verisign as a client (thank you Karen Snyder) and we're developing a number of things for them. We're working on a social strategy for them. Following that strategy development we'll be doing some category go-to-market and communications work for them. We're super excited about what we're doing and will post regular updates per Verisign's permission.

So there ya have it.... look I don't want to be just another consultant... they're a dime a dozen. Most consultants, feed those corporate machines with information and plans to drive further incrementalist thinking and efficiencies. I don't know how do that. What I do know is what I've done for other organizations. Put in place the plan and execution path to drive fundamental change... to drive some real growth... and to retrieve greatness if it was lost.

Steve Mann 2.0 Open for Business.

Seven Years...

2009-03-14T12:55:28-04:00

On Friday of this week. I sent three emails to SAP. The first note went to Leo Apotheker. I thanked Leo for allowing me to contribute to SAP’s success and his guidance and told him I’d miss my times “sweating [while presenting] to him and the rest of the FLT [Field Leadership Team].” I received a great note back from Leo. Marty Homlish received the second email in which I also thanked him not only for the opportunity to contribute to Marketing's success at SAP but for his mentorship and the many personal learnings I experienced while working for him. The final note went to my fellow colleagues:

Colleagues… Seven years is a long time. I remember my first day at SAP though like it was yesterday -- I actually wore a tie on that first day, and looked so eager and ready to begin… And of course, I had much more hair. Each year has been completely different -- with new challenges and amazing opportunities. I've had my share of failures as well as some spectacular successes….Executive Offline Demos, Rapid Prototyping Tool, The CMI MegaModel and Custom Research Agendas, Risk Management, Competitive Monitoring programs, Services marketing, build out of the Apollo team and great successes with Safe Passage programs, driving design thinking into our experience design methodologies and helping to get SAP on the road with Web 2.0.

But the greatest success and thing that has given me the most pleasure has been the opportunity to work with such a talented and driven group of people. I want to thank you all for allowing me to be part of your professional and in some cases personal lives. Its been fun and its been an honor.

I wish I had some great pearl of wisdom that will leave you saying "wow" but nothing particularly insightful or groundbreaking comes to mind, so I'll just say, stay the course, get outside the box as often as possible, and if you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong.

So what am I going to be doing? Well, the road has a number of very interesting paths in front of me right now… I am weighing some fascinating opportunities. Each of them exciting for different reasons. I'm not sure which path I'll be taking but I'm sure our paths will cross again. As a matter of fact, you won't be getting rid of me that quickly. For the next few months, I will be working with Marketing and other organizations within SAP to move the ball on some of the Social Media efforts that we've already kicked off.

Oh, and I'm sure I've neglected to send this to folks. If you wouldn't mind passing along to your teams, I'd really appreciate that.

My coordinates:

steve.mann@sap.com for the next two months plus:

steve.mann60@gmail.com

+1 917-573-2692 (cell)

+1 646-441-0309 (cell)

Follow Me On Twitter:

http://twitter.com/stevemann

Best of luck and Great Success!!

Steve

The outpouring from my colleagues has been overwhelming. I’ve received hundred of emails… here’s a taste:

I am just in complete shock. You are one of the most valuable people I met at SAP, taking us into the 21st century.

I have learned SO MUCH from you. SO MUCH.

Well, let me know if I can be of any assistance in the future. Would love to work together again some time.

Hi Steve,

Gosh, this is a shock! I’m sorry to hear you’re leaving SAP. We’ve been doing some great work together and you’ve been THE leading voice in the marketing team for all things social media.

Stunned. Only word I can think of.

WHAAAAAAT? Wow Steve, I'm gobsmacked. What just happened? :-)

So sorry to see you go, but also excited about what the future may hold for you. I'll look forward to working with you over the next two months, and who knows, maybe we'll have the chance to keep up the communication after that.

I don't know what to say. Or there are so many things I want to say. We've done so much together that I am finding this really hard to comprehend.

Can we please go out, so we can get a chance to really discuss? Drinks, lunch, breakfast -- you choose. But let's just get it on the calendar soon.
Let me know when.
See you next week?

I think my favorite term was "gobsmacked." You get the idea. I have hundreds of these. So thank you SAP. I have to say, I’m on the giddy side this weekend. For a number of reasons. First I’m glad to be parting ways with SAP. I like the company and I have great respect for its employees and leadership but there is so much more that I want to do, that I can’t do at SAP. Secondly, we’re parting on very good terms – terms that reflect the benefits and contributions I’ve made to the company over the last seven years. Finally, SAP is retaining my services to continue to help them formulate, articulate and execute on their Web 2.0 strategy, which I am happy to do.

So. One door is closing and there are some new ones opening up directly in front of me. I’m looking forward to having some news for you in the near future… stay tuned.

Guess I should change my about page and LinkedIn profile eh?

Defining yourself by what you aspire to be, not what happens to you

2009-03-06T17:06:54-05:00

Is what Jeffrey Walker, President of Atlassian is all about. Jeff has cancer, for the second time. And in his usually direct way, he's up for the challenge.

This is my life. I am living with cancer, I have had three major operations — here comes #4, I have had a frightening amount of chemo, and I lost a year of my life right before joining Atlassian. I can struggle or I can embrace it. Those of you who know me understand I have only one option. Not because I consciously choose. I am just innately positive.

Read his inspiring post.

SAP At A Cultural Tipping Point?

2009-03-02T15:28:11-05:00

I wanted to spend a few minutes talking about the use of Social Media at and by SAP. And although this is a post on my personal blog, consider it a motivational speech to my SAP colleagues. This was motivated by a brief conversation on Twitter with Dennis Howlett, a person I respect and consider a friend.

This weekend, Dennis tweeted myself and Chris Horak. Den had an extensive conversation with Chris about SAP's presence on Twitter. (Here's the feed of that conversation) but what Dennis had said to both of us:

Wow. I was surprised. Blatant pimp crap? I thought we were pretty good at having conversations. As you'll see from the feed, I was brought into this conversation at the tail end, the majority of it was between Dennis and Chris. But I appreciate Den including me and it in fact spurred this post.

I can imagine that many of you are wondering to yourself? Am I pimping crap? I don't think so. And I haven't yet spoken to Dennis directly to get his thoughts. But I think its fantastic seeing so many new SAP initiatives which include a Social Media component. I'm so pleased to see it and be a part of helping to create these strategies. But remember, our capabilities as marketers must evolve so that we become Conversationalists and Storytellers.

So back to Dennis' reaction. My guess? (and it is a guess) Dennis is reacting to the fact that there has been a tremendous influx of SAPers into Social Media channels. This is all goodness. And we're kinda swarming about trying new things, some of it more uni-directional than true conversation and some of it which may or may not belong in these channels. Also some of us have not yet used Social Media in support of a business brand before. That's why we've been doing the training and immersion that many of you have attended. And some may be using it in more traditional ways, more as a one-way communication channel, rather than using it as an opportunity to have value-based conversations. If you're not saying something of interest -- how do you know its interesting? Someone is talking back or at least listening... if you're not doing that then stop. Re-think why you are here and if you have questions... go to the experts on SCN or come talk to me or Mike Prosceno or many other folks designated as responsible for Social Media and ask their advice.

You can't really serve offers thru these channels unless a channel has been designated as such (a la @delloutlet ) or you have the permission of those you are conversing with to do so. That's why we are so keen to understand who is following us on these social channels and what type of information they are interested in seeing. We did this on Facebook and here's a link to the Survey Data we collected. We now know what's an acceptable framework for conversation on Facebook...

Customers want to be able to research solutions
They want to connect with other customers
They want to understand what their peers in their industry are doing to weather the economic crisis.

You need to do the same -- you need to understand what the folks who are following you on Twitter or who are Fans on Facebook want to talk about. You do this in the same way you have a real time face to face conversation... you ask..."So what do you do? What's happening these days? What's new?"

Look, I told Dennis I think we're witnessing a shift in SAP's corporate culture. And I think we're approaching a Tipping Point. We're getting out onto Social channels, en masse and we're beginning to integrate those channels into our overall development, services and go-to-market strategies. But, some of us have evolved into the conversationalists, and some of us are still on the journey. I think we're moving in the right direction and I encourage you to keep evolving. And if you want our assistance. Please ask!

Twitter for Business: Managing The SAP RFP Process

2009-02-26T22:58:04-05:00

If you're following me on Twitter, you might have noticed that I've been talking about our Social Media RFP for our Services Marketing team.

The majority of the RFP solicitation, requests for engagement and questions and our notifications back to vendors was done thru Twitter.

We initially started with a list of 4 vendors... not a lot. And it was a very inside-out list. We generated a list based on folks we knew and had worked with previously. That wasn't good enough. So we put it out on Twitter and simply told folks we were issuing an RFP and would they want to receive it.

12 Social Media teams stepped to the plate and asked for the RFP. Contact info was sent to our procurement team, who, using email (hey we're working on it) issued NDAs and the RFP. 2 vendors contacted me via Twitter to say that after review they decided not to pursue the project.

RFPs were received on Feb. 20, 2009 and the team took this past week to read and develop a short list. We are in the process of notifying vendors who made the short list via Twitter.

Ok so that's what we did. But from an engagement perspective, I'm finding the use of Twitter to manage the RFP process to be as, if not a more efficient way to drive this process forward. Notifications of our intent were instantaneous as was feedback and requests to participate. When vendors needed us, they primarily contacted us thru Twitter.

What insight did we uncover from managing this business process via Twitter? Well, during our conversation today, one of the team members asked me what are some of the criteria I would use to make a final decision on a vendor. My response? In addition to all the standard criteria organizations use to evaluate vendors, Vendors have to be eating their own dog food - they've got to be using Social Media to market and engage with their customers. They need to be using Social Media to manage their own business. This is one instance where you can't just be a teacher.

If you want to follow updates on this process you can subscribe to this feed.

Evolution, Enterprise 2.0 and Integrating Conversations with Processes

2009-02-05T12:13:42-05:00

Enterprise 2.0 is spurring the evolution of us business professionals. Its enabling employees, no matter their role in an organization to engage directly on behalf of their brand - to advocate for their brand, products and services. We all know the market talks about our brands - with or without us being present. By integrating conversations with business processes, brands can not only tell their story with convication and passion but they can act on those conversations.

Now, the ZDnet crowd as well as many of the Enterprise Irregulars and many others have weighed in on the SAP Business Suite launch and the Enterprise 2.0 functionality now found in the Suite. As I've been lucky enough to be included in some of the discussions around this type of integration, I thought it'd be helpful to share a bit more of our thinking and perspective as we approached this new wave of functionality.

Lets start with a couple of assumptions:

1. Social Media is a HOUSE OF CARDS

Easy to Build and Easy to fall apart unless you tie it directly to your business objectives and hence the processes of your organization and use it to enrich the experience ca customer has with your organization

2. Conversations Can Impact Top and Bottom line Revenue Growth

When a customer or prospect has an experience with your brand-- "marketing" in any form (product experience, service experience or Big M marketing, conversation begins. Those conversations may be with the brand or with other customers. If customers find value in those convesations, they begin to develop not only an affinity for those value driven exhanges but relationships develop. Out of those relationships and value exchanges eventually the customer not only comes to appreciate the intrinsic value of the conversation but affinity for the brand develops. At this point, a buying cycle is likely to proceed to everyone's satisfaction.

You can think about people engaged in conversations as a non-linear process. In any conversational dynamic, individuals take away nuggets of information and pass that information onto other groups and other individuals.

What we've done is integrate conversations into enterprise processes so that they are actionable on behalf of the enterprise. These take 2 forms. Conversation -> Process integration and Process -> Conversation.

A good example of Conversation -> Process integration was demonstrated yesterday briefly but to elaborate, by pulling Tweets into the SAP Business Suite and applying a sentiment engine to those tweets, a customer service rep can make those conversations actionable by identifying and emerging customer or brand issue. Someone may be complaining about your product or service. With Sentiment analysis not only can an organization proactively address a looming customer crisis but they can initate corporate processes such as raising a Customer Service Ticket to initiate a problem resolution process.

Once done, SAP can then issue the results of those trouble tickets on Twitter itself!

Going the other way, a super example of Process->conversation integration is the deployment of Marketing Campaigns using Social Channels. Using Business Suite functionality, users can now design and deploy marketing campaigns which can execute over a variety of social environments, including Twitter.

And there ya go...

Enterprise 2.0 is the latest evolutionary pressure on businesses. Those of us that adapt will survive this pressure and thrive as the new ecosystem comes to dominate our business dealings. Those that don't will find themselves facing extinction pressures that will be hard to avoid.

People Are Happy

2009-01-19T22:21:48-05:00

For the first time in what is it, 8 years? People are happy. No, its not just happiness, its jubilation, a sense of renewal, a sense of purpose, a sense of commitment to something greater than themselves. We went to dinner tonite... sat at the bar... folks to left and the right (physically, not politically) were talking about.... Barack..."did you see Barack at the shelter today? yeah, he rolled up his sleeves and painted a shelter..." or "what an amazing transition of power this will be... I wish I was in Washington."

And even tho we're facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, people are renewed, America feels like its holding its head just a little higher since November 4... folks are feeling pretty good. And this is despite the fact that when President Bush entered office, the unemployment rate was 4 and change.. now its 7 and change. The multi-trillion dollar surplus that the Clinton administration created evaporated under the weight of Tax cuts. Its clear we're facing a challenge.. a challenge to rebuild. A challenge to retain our dignity and respect. To be able to look our loved ones in the eye and be proud of the honest efforts we have made.

Its time to be happy (and proud) again.

More things you didnt want to know about me

2009-01-14T11:48:58-05:00

Charlie Wood tagged me. I'm so glad this happens just once a year. The parameters for this tag are:

Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
Share seven facts about yourself in the post - some random, some weird.
Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

OK 7 things you didn't want to know about me:

I'm the son of an orthodontist AND I now need braces (cobbler's children syndrome)
I have a fascination with the people who love Multi-level Marketing schemes.
I'm a "time Nazi"... I strive to ALWAYS be on time and hold others to the same ridiculous standard.
I should have gone into the media business -- i'm a news junkie
I thought I didn't want any more children but now I can't imagine my life without our triplets
I want to retire to Mustique (if you don't know, don't ask)
I actively work to slow my aging (except when I'm drinking, over eating or forgoing sleep in the name of hedonism).

Tagging...

Still Ghostwriting Executive Blogs??? You're Still Missing the Point

2009-01-12T17:34:49-05:00

I swapped some email with a Board Member of a company recently commenting to them that an internal blog would be a great way to engage the employee base and open up a true dialog with the employees.

The response I got was:

Thanks for the hint. And yes we have.

This is great...First time that this company's Sr. Execs thought to use a blog to converse with the employee base.

Well, I was invited to take a look at the blog... (never saw a blog platform like this btw, I think they hacked their forums for user-friendly comment posting but I don't think its a true blogging platform). Good content though. I was really pleased to see the company moving in this direction. So I had to ask.... I emailed a colleague familiar with this blog and asked, "who wrote this?" and they told me that "I am ghostwriting" but "we work on his messages together"

I responded back that I didn't think this was the best strategy, that blogs are conversations and if you are writing it for him, its you having the conversation not him. It'd be like me sending someone else to a party that I was invited to and told that person to pretend its me... would the other guests ever really get to talk to ME? Obviously not.

So... great first step on the internal blogs.. don't get me wrong, there are plenty of Execs at this company that are blogging internally.... but if you don't have the time to blog, don't do it... it won't come off as authentic and people will see thru it... I did after reading one post and I'm not the brightest bulb in the pack... If you're looking to engender credibility and transparency, then you have to write it yourself. If you're doing it because "blogs" are on your communication checklist, then stop. There are better ways to communicate internally than to have someone ghostwrite your blog.

Didn't this meme burn thru the blogosphere 2 years ago????

A Hamas Primer

2009-01-05T22:12:16-05:00

There's a lot of mis-information out in the world, which makes reasoned argument all the more difficult. So, with a hope of laying some sound groundwork for discussion, please read the following, written by a mentor of mine, Professor Ken Stein. Ken was my Middle Eastern History Prof @ Emory. But if that doesn't give you cred with him, here's why you should at least read and consider what he has to say...

About Professor Stein:

In Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Kenneth W. Stein is a Professor of Contemporary Middle Eastern History, Political Science and Israeli Studies and Director of the Institute for the Study of Modern Israel. The Institute engages in upgrading Israel Studies on the Emory campus. He is also president of the Center for Israel Education which writes curriclum provides workshops for Jewish and non-Jewish professionals interested in upgrading their knowledge about the modern Middle East and modern Israeli society, history, culture, politics,and international relations. For more information about the objectives accomplishments of both organizations, please see

www.ismi.emory.edu and www.israeled.org

Ok.. so there has been a lot of outpouring of sympathy for Hamas and the Palestinians. For sure, its horrible. War is horrible especially when innocent civilians are hurt or killed. But I think many of us forget just what Israel is dealing with. So with Ken's permission, I am reposting a piece he had originally written for Encarta

Hamas: a Palestinian group seeking to create a single, Islamic state in historic Palestine, which is now largely divided between Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Hamas:, meaning zeal or fervor in Arabic, is an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya, or Islamic Resistance Movement.

The Hamas charter calls for Israel's destruction, and Hamas has engaged in terrorist activities [to meet these aims]. It entered the political arena for the first time in 2005 by participating in municipal elections in Gaza and the West Bank. In the 2006 legislative elections for the Palestinian National Authority, Hamas found significant support among Palestinian Arabs residing in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.

Hamas leadership grew up in the late 1940s, mostly as impoverished offspring of Palestinian refugees. Many of Hamas leaders were educated in Cairo during the rule of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Present members include religious leaders, sheikhs (Arab chiefs), intellectuals, technocrats, businessmen, young activists, and paramilitary fighters.

To cultivate support, Hamas has provided social services to the needy in the 11 refugee camps in Gaza. Providing social welfare and education through clinics, kindergartens, summer camps, medical services, sports programs, and job programs tied the Hamas leadership to its supporters. Mosques and Islamic religious organizations have been Hamass most important vehicles for spreading its message and providing its services. Partly funded by its members, most funds come from sympathizers abroad. Because the European Union (EU) and the United States have labeled Hamas a terrorist organization, funds raised for Hamas in Europe and the United States have been seized, and the organizations fundraising ability has been curtailed.

History

The group was founded in 1988 as a militant segment of the Palestinian Arab national movement and was connected ideologically to the Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt 60 years earlier. The Muslim Brotherhood rejected the influence of Western culture and called for the increased role of Islam in government and society. Hamas was created after the 1987 outbreak of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It emphasized the destruction of Israel, the gradual return to Islamic values, and the rejection of secularization. Hamas firmly opposed the 1993 Oslo Accords, in which the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel engaged in mutual recognition for the purpose of Israel's gradual transfer of power, land, and limited self-rule to the PLO.

Led by Ahmed Yassin, a charismatic Gaza leader, who was a religious leader by study but not formal theological training, Hamas catalyzed physical confrontation against Israelis and Israeli institutions. It sought to change the secular nature of the PLO. Meanwhile, leadership of the PLO viewed Hamas, as well as the much more militant Islamic Jihad organization, as significant threats to the PLOs dominance and position as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

During the first intifada Hamas urged Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to confront Israeli authorities. It coordinated labor strikes against Israel and conducted a campaign to try to make Muslims adhere to a strict Islamic code. In 1989 Hamas members kidnapped and murdered two Israeli soldiers in a direct attack on Israel. In response, Israel declared Hamas an illegal organization, and arrested Yassin. Yassin was later exiled to Jordan but returned to the Gaza Strip in the late 1990s. After several more terrorist attacks, in December 1992 Israel expelled more than 400 Hamas members and supporters to a remote area inside the Lebanese border, where they were left for a year.

After denouncing the September 1993 Oslo Accords, Hamas increased its strikes against Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as in Israel proper. It boycotted the January 1996 Palestinian presidential and legislative council elections. The elections were won by Fatah, headed by PLO leader Yasir Arafat. The boycott was in part because Hamas knew its showing would not be impressive, but also Hamas wanted to avoid giving legitimacy to the PLOs recognition of Israel and to the secular nationalist camp that the PLO represented. Under the accord, Israel, the United States, and Western European nations asked the newly created Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to suppress Hamass attacks. Arafat periodically restrained Hamas terrorist actions against Israel but he did not suppress them altogether.

Hamas activists were pleased when the PLO and the PNA vaguely agreed to end armed struggle in its confrontation with Israel. For those Palestinians who did not want a political solution to their differences with Israel and only wanted to use violence against the Jewish state, Hamas was a political umbrella under which these Palestinians could continue their armed struggle against Israel. Hamas was also pleased that the U.S.-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian summit in the summer of 2000 failed. It welcomed and participated in the outbreak of the second intifada against Israel in September 2000.

The renewed uprising led to a significant increase in support for Hamas views among the regions Muslim Arab population. For Hamas, the second intifada reaffirmed Palestinians steadfastness against Israel, the failure of diplomatic negotiations, and its policy of studied patience in seeking to broaden the groups appeal in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. During the intifada, Hamas sponsored and organized actions that were responsible for the killing of more than 350 Israeli men, women, and children, and the wounding of many others. From 2000 to 2004, Israel responded by building a fence around Gaza and attacking perpetrators and planners of the suicideattacks.

In March 2004 Israel Defense Forces assassinated the Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin in a helicopter gunship attack as Yassin left a mosque in the Gaza Strip. The next month Israel assassinated his successor Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, a cofounder of Hamas. In both cases Israel claimed that these two men had collective responsibility for killing Israeli civilians. Israel announced a willingness to continue such targeted assassinations as part of its war on terrorism. The assassinations occurred as Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon said he was ready to unilaterally evacuate some 9,500 Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

Succession in Hamas devolved to Mahmoud Zahar, another founder of the organization, and Ismail Haniyeh, who resided in the Gaza Strip. Hamas organized itself under a disciplined collective leadership, which also included Khaled Mashaal, who headed its political wing in Damascus, the capital of Syria. In March 2005 Hamas announced its readiness to participate in the upcoming July elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), a reversal of its stance in 1996. When the July elections were postponed to January 2006, Hamas opposed the delay, but gained extra time to secure its popularity. Meanwhile, Hamas successfully contested municipal elections held in 2005 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In virtually every city, Fatah and Hamas shared local control of politics, with Hamas taking credit for streamlining budgets and eliminating corruption. Political observers viewed Hamass successes at the local town and village levels not as an endorsement of Hamass political or ideological views but as revenge against the laxity and corruption of the Fatah movement in the PNA.

Also in March 2005 Hamas agreed to a cease-fire with Israel. Known as the Cairo Declaration because it was mediated by the Egyptians, Hamas and 12 other Palestinian factions agreed to a stipulated calm or cease-fire. It was an informal response to Israels withdrawal from the cities of Jericho and Tulkarm in the West Bank. Hamas leaders made clear that their indirect cease-fire or hudna with Israel was tactical; the organizations primary goal remained the liberation of all of Palestine and the imposition of stricter Islamic rule. As Hamas leader Zahar declared in March 2005, Hamas is ready to accept a long-term truce, keep the conflict open if our generation cannot act, it must not make concessions we can establish a state on any inch without ceding the other inches. With periodic flare-ups as exceptions, the calm held through the 2006 PLC elections. Noticeably there were no attacks against Israel prior to or immediately after Israels August 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. At the local political level, Palestinian municipalities quietly made arrangements with Israeli officials where electricity and other services were dependent upon Israeli supply.

In the January 2006 parliamentary elections for the PLC, Hamas won 76 of the 132 seats, emerging as the dominant political force among Palestinians. Fatah won 43 seats. Under Palestinian law, Hamas obtained the right to name the prime minister and Cabinet and run the daily affairs of the PNA. It soon named Haniyeh as the prime minister. The presidency, however, remained in the hands of Mahmoud Abbas, leader of Fatah. Seven out of ten eligible Palestinian voters in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem cast ballots, a comparatively high turnout for any democratically held election.

Hamas' overwhelming victory was attributed to dismay with the cronyism, corruption, and mismanagement of the ruling Fatah party. Hamas polling strength was also aided by political fragmentation in Fatah, which was divided between the old guard leadership that had surrounded Arafat and Abbas and younger party stalwarts. Unlike the last parliamentary elections held in 1996, Hamas engaged in disciplined electoral politics this time because it had a chance to control the politics and administration of the Gaza Strip, evacuated by Israel in 2005. With Arafat gone, Gaza as a prize for rule, and international financial assistance waiting to pour into the PNA, Hamas had every incentive to participate in these elections. With its unexpected success, Hamas was faced with reconciling rhetoric with reality. Its rhetoric still called for Israels elimination. But realistically its objective was to govern and to control education, social welfare, health care, and religious affairs. To receive the external funds the majority of Palestinians so desperately needed, Hamas sought to find a formula that did not drop its political objectives, but was sufficiently moderate in tone and actions to open the cash flow.

United States and European Union (EU) officials, however, would not accept a Hamas-led government unless Hamas recognized Israels right to exist and renounced violence. They cut off aid to the Hamas-led government soon after the election. Israels newly installed government of Ehud Olmert also decided to withhold tax and customs revenues owed to the PNA. As part of the Oslo Accords, Israel retained the authority to collect tax and customs receipts in Gaza and the West Bank. Unwilling to meet the demands of Israel, the EU, and the United States, Hamas sought funding from Iran, which it was successful in securing but unsuccessful at delivering. When PNA prime minister Haniyeh returned to Gaza in December 2006 from a trip to Iran, the Israeli authorities denied him entry. He was eventually allowed in but without the millions in aid that he had obtained from Iran. Meanwhile serious outbreaks of armed conflict erupted between Hamas and Fatah security forces, including reported assassination attempts on both Haniyeh and Abbas.

In February 2007 Saudi Arabia sought to mediate the conflict between Hamas and Fatah. At a meeting in Mecca the two sides agreed to form a unity government. Hamas made a concession by saying it would respect past agreements reached between the PLO and the PNA with Israel, agreements that explicitly recognized Israel's right to exist and that called for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Saudi Arabia also sought to revive its 2002 peace proposal, which called for Arab countries pledge peaceful and normal relations with Israel in exchange for an end to the occupation. The Saudis also tried to involve the United States in a renewed peace process. In March the unity government was formally created. Key positions in the Cabinet were given to Fatah supporters so that no representatives of Israel, the EU, or the United States would have to meet with members of Hamas. International attention to the situation in Palestine, however, was largely overshadowed by the continuing U.S. occupation of Iraq, which threatened to spill over into conflict with Iran. U.S.-Iraq War.

The unity government failed to take hold, however, as Israel and the United States continued to withhold aid from the PNA. In early June 2007 renewed conflict between Hamas and Fatah led to Fatahs ouster from Gaza in heavy street fighting. In retaliation Abbas in mid-June swore in an emergency, caretaker government in the West Bank, where Fatah has a stronger base of popular support. Abbas appointed the Palestinian economist Salam Fayyad, who is well regarded in Western countries, as prime minister, foreign minister, and finance minister of the PNA. Abbas suspended a provision in the Palestinian Basic Law, which functions as the PNAs constitution, that required parliamentary approval of Fayyad and Abbas other Cabinet appointments. The leadership of Hamas denounced the suspension and called the new government illegitimate.

Almost immediately after the appointment of the emergency government, the EU, Israel, and the United States signaled that aid and tax revenue would resume to the PNA. In the meantime, however, the cease-fire that had been observed between Hamas and Israel broke down. Hamas guerrillas resumed firing rockets into Israel, especially toward the Israeli border town of Sederot. Israel responded with air strikes and military incursions. Human rights groups accused Israel of a disproportionate response, while also condemning Hamas rocket attacks. Israel also tightened control of its borders with the Gaza Strip and used its supervision of Gazas electricity and food deliveries to cut off both in retaliation for the attacks, a practice that human rights organizations condemned as collective punishment of the entire Gaza population.

In June 2008 talks brokered by Egyptian officials resulted in another informal cease-fire. Israel warned Hamas that it would be held responsible for any violations of the cease-fire, including attacks by the militant group known as Islamic Jihad.

So go now. Have a reasoned discussion if you can. But keep in mind just who Hamas is and what they believe should be done with the State of Israel (ok, so you know where my allegiance lies, but I'm happy to debate!).

Links for 2008-11-20 [del.icio.us]

2008-11-21T00:00:00-08:00

SAP - SAP Report on Sustainability
great report on SAPs stance on sustainability. Number 1 Software company on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index

Links for 2008-09-19 [del.icio.us]

2008-09-20T00:00:00-07:00

Barack Obama Fires Back Against McCain's 'Sad' Attacks
an intelligent, cogent response to his adversary

Links for 2008-09-13 [del.icio.us]

2008-09-14T00:00:00-07:00

McCain: It's easy for me to be out of touch
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2008-09-09T00:00:00-07:00

"No Maverick" Ad

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2008-08-27T00:00:00-07:00

Dennis Howlett on ESME
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2008-08-19T00:00:00-07:00

QuickBooks Community - The Official QuickBooks Community of Users and Experts

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2008-08-02T00:00:00-07:00

1984
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