Tweet Your Prayers @TheKotel » prayer

@TheKotel Android app – what’s next?

Alon — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 16:48:12 +0000

Shalom all!

Some background

Last Tuesday our 1 month long campaign on Indiegogo has come to an end (link). For those of you who haven’t been following, it was a campaign to raise funds in order to pay for the development of an Android app for Tweet Your Prayers @TheKotel. Many thousands have installed the iPhone app, and prayers are flying in all the time from its users, so the next logical step is to develop an Android counterpart (for the non-techies reading this: Android is currently the most popular smartphone operating system out there. If you have a smartphone that’s not an iPhone, there’s a good chance it runs Android). Our mission here on Tweet Your Prayers @TheKotel is To Affect Change by Facilitating Prayer, and I believe facilitating prayer for the many millions of Android users is the next ground to conquer.

So the campaign ran for 30 days, and quite a few of you nice people have pledged to help make it happen. We raised $847, and after giving Indiegogo its share, we’re left with around $770, which should cover the fee an east European or Asian freelance developer would charge for a decent app (app development is crazy expensive anywhere else).

Indiegogo is a crowdfunding platform set to help people raise funds for their projects, and part of the game is to offer nifty perks to the people that help your campaign. So, friends who opened their hearts got (or will get in the mail in the next few weeks) nice things such as: a video of their prayer being placed in the Western-Wall, Star of David bracelets from Jerusalem, thank you letters with photos, being credited within the app, and more.

What I adore about the people who helped this campaign is that the vast majority of them don’t even have an Android phone. Some of them own an iPhone and wanted other people to have the same app they have, others don’t have a smartphone at all. All of the kind people who contributed to this campaign, and the aforementioned people in particular, gave to this project not in order to benefit themselves, but in order to help others. That’s kind, noble, and definitely not something you see everyday, in a world consumed with a “what’s in it for me?” attitude. I am humbled by this behavior, and cherish these people. Thank you.

Time frame

Initially I had hoped to have an early version of the app ready for launch by Rosh HaShana (the Jewish new year, coming this Wednesday!), as my gift to you. I don’t know if you remember, but the iPhone app was released as a Passover present a year and a half ago. I found a freelance developer who agreed to be paid only when the campaign ends, and we started working on the app. Alas, things didn’t work out, and we had to call it off. This was, however, a blessing in disguise, as I have gained some important experience from working with him. I believe this experience will help me make the app better than it would have been had that developer and I kept working together.

One of the lessons I learned is that there’s no way to get a fully functional app out there in such a short period of time. So, now that the campaign is over and the funds are waiting, I’m going to set a more realistic time frame: Hanukkah! By then, I sincerely hope to have the app built, bug fixed and tested by users on multiple devices. I would of course be delighted to have it available before then, but I believe it’s a reasonable time frame and want to do things right.

So, what’s coming next?

Well, first of all I have to send people who contributed to the app what they are entitled to. These people should expect nifty things from Jerusalem to hit their mailboxes soon!

Other than that, I’m going to start looking for a new developer to work on the app (interested? Drop me a line).

I’m also going to revise the app description and specifications to see what features I can add to it and how to make it as user-friendly as possible. If you have any ideas for the app, any features you’d like to see, any usability advice, or pretty much anything – drop me a line in the comments below (it will go straight to my mail box, won’t be published) and let me know. This is especially true for the iPhone app users who are reading this – let me know what I can do better for your friends that have Android phones!

After the description is revised and a talented developer is on board – we’ll go into building the app full force!

You can still help this project

See that orange button on the sidebar? It’s up there on the right. It has “Donate” on it. Yea.. that’s the one. Click it .

You can check out the list of perks other people got by looking at the sidebar on the campaign page, and apply for the perks by donating the sum associated with each perk (or more). Drop a line in the donation notes section and ask for the perk.

How to be the first to know

Please go to www.birdofprayer.org and register there to be the first to know when the app is launched! Also, please tell all your friends about it. I’m counting on you .

Anyway, I’ll keep you all posted as things progress and in the meanwhile thank everyone that’s been a part of this campaign and helped in any way.

I’d also like to wish you all a Shana Tova .

Blessings from the Holy Land,

Alon

Share A Prayer

Alon — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 19:31:52 +0000

Shalom everyone!

I write to you today because I need your help. I’m working on a new project (to be revealed reeeaaaaaaly soon), and I need to include within it a few “public prayers”, which means prayers that are not confidential and there’s nothing wrong with sharing them with the world. So… I turn to you.

Please use the comments area below this post to submit prayers you’d like to voice publicly. Just scroll down and submit your public-prayer as a comment. Alternatively, you can email it. Please don’t mention any names, or otherwise share information the world probably doesn’t need to know about, or any information that might compromise your privacy, or the privacy of the people you hold dear.

I promise you will soon know where these prayers will be displayed… and I’m sure you’ll be surprised, as I was when this project was born. Trust me, it’s worth the wait .

I appreciate your help,

Best regards from the Holy Land,

Alon

Bring hope to the sick

Alon — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:48:18 +0000

Shalom everyone!

Please watch this video blog, in which I detail how to bring The Kotel to the sick:

So, if you think it’s a good idea, and would like to take part, contact me.

Here are some photos from the event at Tel-Hashomer Hospital. To respect their privacy, I did not include many of the photos, which showed the sick children’s faces. Please understand.

(Click on any photo to enlarge. You can also click on a photo and slide to the next by clicking on it’s right side).

Some of the above photos were taken by Star Rajuan. Thanks star .

Let me know what you think of my idea.

Best regards from the Holy Land!

Your friend,

Alon

Blessings Upon Your Prayers

Alon — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:36:13 +0000

Shalom all! Have I got a special surprise for you today!

As you may recall, on October 2nd, I took 3,812 prayers to the Western-Wall (see pictures here).

That big box of prayers raised a lot of attention at the Kotel (the Western-Wall), and many people stopped to ask questions and inquire about the operation. Once all the prayers were placed in one of the crevices of the Wall, a Rabbi came to say his special prayer. Here’s the video I took, notice the sea of blue prayers on the right:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_s3MGPyo4U

I have already received tweets, comments and emails from some of you that told me your prayers were answered. Let’s hope that this blessing upon your prayers will help every single prayer to be answered.

I have more exciting photos and videos from Jerusalem to share. Come back soon .

As always,yours with kind regards from the holiest of lands,

Alon

The note I wrote and put in the Wall

Alon — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:58:10 +0000

This past monday I was at the Western Wall. I put in all the prayers received until that morning. I also put in a note I wrote.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Free Gilad.