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Shai Gluskin's blog

#Torah: Using Twitter to Comment on Torah

Shai Gluskin | 03/18/2009
identity technology trends
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I’m a geek and a rabbi. It’s actually not a particularly common combination. But I like being special:)

With my blog in the doldrums, Twitter surging in popularity, and feeling a bit disconnected from my rabbi persona, I decided to launch a new Twitter account in which I would make comments on the current Torah portion… in 140 characters or less (the size limit of any post on Twitter).

I was recently at Drupalcon in DC where I saw the power of collecting Twitter messages using a form of categorization that was invented by Twitter users themeselves.

The most common way to filter the gazillion messages being relentlessly posted to Twitter is to follow people. But what if I want to follow a lot of people but for a short time? And what if I don’t even know their Twitter names? Or what if I’m more interested in the kind of content being posted than the author who is posting it?

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What Non-Profits Can Learn from an Open Source Software Project

Shai Gluskin | 10/24/2008
technology trends
drupalconboston2008.jpg

My experience working on the development of an open source software project has caused me to think about its success and how it might be applied and adapted in the not-for-profit institutional world.

I’ve been involved with community building for a long time. When I was twelve, my parents sent me to Habonim Camp, a project of the socialist Zionist movement emanating from Israel. I was enamored with the idea of cooperation. Simply put: people do better when they work together and share the fruits of their labor.

Until starting my own business a year ago, I had only worked in non-profit organizations. (I continue to work for JRF part time and most of my clients are non-profits.) One would think that agencies whose missions did not concern themselves with profit would be ripe for the kinds of sharing and collaboration that I first got an inkling of in Habonim. In my experience, however, various fears hold in check the kind of openness that is needed to truly collaborate and share.

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