Eran Ben-Shahar

Eran Ben-Shahar (born 11, March 1969) (pronounced [Shaː.ChaːR] ) is an Israeli author, philosopher, journalist and inventor. Born in Haifa, Israel, after being living and lecturing in the Galilee, Israel he now lives in Australia. Author of the bestseller "Barely-Bear Makes Money" [http://www.Barely-Bear.com] and also of "42 – Personal Empowerment Pocket Guide" and "Ofer the Fawn – The Water Riddle." [http://www.Fawnworld.com] Creator of the "Social-Capitalistic" concept. Inventor of many open-source internet products and publishings. His books are published in Biblical Hebrew in the source, translated to English (2006) and Chinese (2007).

Biography

Eran Ben-Shahar was born in 1969 at Kiryat-Bialik, near Haifa, Israel. Named "Eran" which is the biblical meaning of "An aware person". His father immigrated from Bulgaria and his mother was deported from Egypt, Eran was the second among 3 sons. His father Haim named the family "Ben-Shahar" which has the biblical meaning of "Son of Dawn". He attended Habonim Grammar School in town and then boarded the local Ort high school (1984). As was put out on 2006 by "Channel A" (the national Israeli radio broadcasts), Ben-Shahar was discovered at early childhood as a gifted child and was invited to attend university courses when he was only 10 years old. He began his own writing at the age of 11, while at the age of 13 he started to publish a series of articles in the Israeli journal of "Computer World". It was only revealed in the past few years that "Computer World" agreed to disclose his real age to the public only 2 years after he started his work with them. In 1988 he graduated high-school and had to join the Israeli Defense Forces. After 3 years of mandatory service he left the Army and in 1992 he started his B.S.c in the Physics Faculty of the Technion - Israeli Institute of Technology. He also made 2 years of lecturing in the Technion and at the end he graduated [http://www.graduate.technion.ac.il/Theses/FacultyTheses.asp?Fac=11&Degree=2] M.Sc. in theoretical physics (1999, advisor - Amos Ori) in the field of Einstein's theory of General Relativity.

In 1996 Ben-Shahar invented a multiple database search algorithm working parallel in the languages of English, Russian, Arabic and Hebrew. In 1999 this algorithm, along with some other web products, was sold to the million US$ company "Netvision," to produce the high rating portal "NANA" [http://www.nana.co.il] . Later on Ben-Shahar admitted in a newspaper interview that it was a mistake, by his own words - "My contract to Netvision [http://www.barely-bear.com/dovidov/images/eran_contract_nana.jpg] was my first and last mistake to sell my soul to globalization monsters". Since then he put most his works and inventions, as well as some of his literature works, as an Open Source.In 2005 Ben-Shahar published the book "Barely-Bear Makes Money" (Gala Publishing, 2005). The book was published in a limited edition but very soon became a bestseller due to a new approach on economy being described there. Several months later he published "42 – The Entrepreneurs' Pocket Guide" (Gala Publishing, 2006) but very quickly after that he broke his contract with the publisher and made the book free over the internet in a different name: "42 - Personal Empowerment Pocket Guide." In a radio interview in Channel A [http://www.groundfloorbiz.com/dovidov/tools/Radio-Interview-Reshet-A.mp3] he claimed that "Anyway authors don't make money of their books, so better it be free for everyone", a rare approach in Israel that made several people and organizations angry. In late 2006 he published his 3rd book "Ofer the Fawn – The Water Riddle" (Gala Publishing, 2006), expanding his group of fans as he contracted the publisher to allow him to put a PDF version [http://www.fawnworld.com/fawnworld/download.asp] of the book online for everybody. The book is sold in hard copy and hard cover by the publisher yet Ben-Shahar is still allowing it to be downloaded free. I

Works

* E. Ben-Shahar, "Ofer the Fawn – The Water Riddle", a kids story book, Gala Publishing, 2006. Published in Hebrew and English.
* E. Ben-Shahar, "42 – Personal Empowerment Pocket Guide", Gala Publishing, 2006. Published in English, Mandarin and Hebrew.
* E. Ben-Shahar, "Barely-Bear Makes Money – A Visionary Guide to Ventures", a bestseller in Hebrew now also published in English and Mandarin, 2005.
* E. Ben-Shahar, "Gravitational Bounce of a Charged Dust Sphere", M.Sc Thesis, Technion Publishing, Israel 1999.
* E. Ben-Shahar, "Chaos and Fractal Geometry for Youth", an experimental guide, Technion Publishing, Israel, 1997.
* E. Ben-Shahar, "Mechanics for Manpower Teachers", a handbook for physics teachers, Technion Publishing, Israel, 1993.
* E. Ben-Shahar, "Classical Mechanics and Optics – Experiments", a handbook for physics teachers, Technion Publishing, Israel, 1993.
* A list of essays and articles at "The Israeli People and Computer Magazine", 1982-1984.

Appearances at the press

* [http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=818133&contrassID=2&subContrassID=6&sbSubContrassID=0 "The bears are coming" ] by Nofar Sinay - A research article on Ben-Shahar and the "Social-Capitalism" theory, in Haaretz Daily, Jan 2007 (Hebrew)
* H. Barel, "60 minutes with Eran Ben-Shahar" [http://www.groundfloorbiz.com/dovidov/tools/Radio-Interview-Reshet-A.mp3] , 17 May 2006. Interview at Reshet A ("Channel A") - a national radio channel, Israel.
* U. Shavit, "Why?", Weekend Magazine of Haaretz Daily, 17 Dec, 1999. Interview at "Haaretz" Daily Newspaper (archive article # 577213).
* "Pagaz", a five minutes interview at "RESHET B" ("Channel B"), a national radio station, Feb 1998.
* "New Virtual Community", a five minutes interview at "RESHET B" ("Channel B"), a national radio station, Dec 1998.
* A review of works by Ben-Shahar at "Yedioth", A daily national newspaper, Israel), Jul 1999.
* Several articles about works of Ben-Shahar, at "Maariv [http://www.maariv.co.il] " Daily Newspaper (www.maariv.co.il) : Jan 2001 ; 4/2/2001 ; 11/2/2001
* T. Ritov, "Bypassing Media – about the works of Eran Ben-Shahar", Misgav Voices, Nov 1999.
* Many reviews of Ben-Shahar works at the professional media and local newspapers: Walla [http://www.walla.co.il] , Sivan [http://www.sivan.com] , "Internet Now", "Captain Internet" & more.

External Links

* [http://www.ben-shahar.net Ben-Shahar Family web site]
* [http://www.Barely-Bear.com Homepage of the novel "Barely-Bear Makes Money"]
* [http://www.FawnWorld.com Homepage of the children's book, "Ofer the Fawn - The water Riddle] - A PDF version of the book can be downloaded here.
* [http://www.42tips.com 42 - Personal Empowerment Pocket Guide] - An online version of the book by Ben-Shahar is prsented in English, Mandarin and Hebrew.
* [http://www.Barely-Club.com Homepage for Barely-Bear Fans] - it seems to be mainly active in Hebrew but some English content can be grabed here.
* [http://www.groundfloorbiz.com/dovidov/tools/Radio-Interview-Reshet-A.mp3 60 Minutes Interview with Eran Ben-Shahar] , at the national radio channel B (Hebrew)
* [http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/arch/ArchSearchResults.jhtml?_DARGS=%2Farch%2Fobjects%2Ffunctions%2FSearchInArchion.jhtml Interview with Eran Ben-Shahar] at Haaretz Daily newspaper.
* [http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=818133&contrassID=2&subContrassID=6&sbSubContrassID=0 A research article on Ben-Shahar] and the "Social-Capytalism" theory, in Haaretz Daily, Jan 2007 (Hebrew)