European Public Policy Blog

Big Tent comes home

2012-05-24T13:26:00.000+02:00

How should children stay safe online? When does cracking down on pornography morph into censorship? Has the social media revolution enhanced or diminished our society? How can we reconcile copyright with the split-second creations and sharing of the digital age? Our Big Tent returned to its birthplace to the UK this week to take on these tough issues.

For the debate on pornography and child safety, we invited one of our fiercest critics, the Daily Mail. Columnist Amanda Platell outlined her newspaper’s campaign for government-mandated filters for adult content online while Andrew Heaney of TalkTalk, a UK based Internet Service Provider described his company’s network-based filter. On the other side of the debate, Index on Censorship’s new chief executive Kirsty Hughes and Google’s UK Public Policy director Sarah Hunter warned of the risks - both practical and in principle - of filtering.

From the serious subject of adult content, we took a quirky but informative break to watch Aleks Krotoski demonstrate her Serendipity Engine, an algorithmic contraption of bicycle parts and light bulbs.

Last year, our executive chairman Eric Schmidt urged the UK to reform its computer science education, helping spark a nationwide debate. At this year’s event, he addressed a range of issues from how the next five billion people to come online will shape the web to his concerns about privacy and criminality online. In response a question about the disruptive nature of technology, he answered,“If you thought when you got your job at 20 that it would never change you were misinformed. Retrain yourself to be curious.”

UK Universities and Science Minister David Willetts addressed concern that university debt is threatening aspiring entrepreneurs, speaking of the importance of promoting innovation clusters and how big data and text analysis can fuel growth.

For this year’s Big Tent we partnered with the Music Managers Forum, the world’s largest representative body of artist management. MMF’s Chairman, Brian Message, challenged to Geoff Taylor of the BPI to spend more time thinking about innovation than legislation. TV comedy writer Graham Linehan raised laughs when he said he thought films would get better if people were asked to pay when they leave the cinema.

The day concluded with a debate between two authors whose new books examine the impact of the social web on society and individuals. Andrew Keen and Nick Harkaway debated the question of whether the social revolution has enhanced or diminished our society. While coming from different perspectives, Keen and Harkaway did agree that Internet users should take more active decisions in how they use services online to ensure they protect themselves and their data.

The Big Tent programme heads to Dublin, Cannes and Tel Aviv next and the content from the UK event will be available on our YouTube channel soon.

Posted by Jon Steinberg, External Relations

Internet at Liberty 2012 Conference: Join the discussion

2012-05-21T17:00:00.000+02:00

This week, 300+ Internet activists, policy makers, academics and NGO leaders from over 30 countries, including many from Europe, will gather in Washington, D.C. to discuss the future of free speech online. The event is called Internet at Liberty 2012, and we want you to join the discussion.

The future of free expression is uncertain. According to the Open Net Initiative, more than 620 million Internet users—31% of the world’s total Internet users—live in countries where there is substantial or pervasive filtering of online content. And when free expression is in jeopardy, so are reporters; as the Committee to Protect Journalists found, nearly half of all the writers, editors, and photojournalists imprisoned around the world are online journalists.

Dictatorships and authoritarian regimes are the worst offenders, but democracies around the world are also questioning whether the Internet requires monitoring and supervision. 2012 is a crucial year. As governments are trying to draw the right lines, we are bringing the most challenging and important debates to you via Internet at Liberty 2012.

Join us on May 23 and May 24 by watching our livestream at YouTube.com/citizentube, and feel free to Tweet your questions and comments (@InternetLiberty). If you are in the DC area, consider joining us at the event live. You can register here. Space is limited, but this is a crucial issue and we want you to participate.

For more information, check out the detailed schedule of events.

Posted by Bob Boorstin, Director, Public Policy

Keep the Internet open

2012-05-16T22:32:00.000+02:00

It was a needed wake up call. Vinton Cerf, our Chief Internet Evangelist, recognised as one of "the fathers of the Internet", came to Brussels this week to talk about keeping the Internet open.

At meetings at the European Commission and European Parliament, at a lecture at the University of Leuven, and at other encounters, Vint explained how the Internet stands at a crossroads. Built from the bottom up, powered by the people, it has become a powerful economic engine and a positive social force. But its success has generated a worrying backlash: the number of governments that censor Internet content has grown to 40 today from about four in 2002.

Of course, Vint acknowledged that “like almost every major infrastructure, the Internet can be abused and its users harmed.” But he argued that “we must take great care that the cure for these ills does not do more harm than good.”

In particular, Vint cautioned against a move by governments to seize control of the Net at the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations organisation which counts 193 countries as its members. The ITU is conducting a review of the international agreements governing telecommunications and aims to expand its regulatory authority to the Internet at a summit scheduled for December in Dubai. Vint warned that such a move holds potentially profound implications for the future of the Internet and all of its users.

Last June, then–Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stated the goal of Russia and its allies as “establishing international control over the Internet” through the ITU. And in September 2011, China, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan submitted a proposal for an “International Code of Conduct for Information Security” to the UN General Assembly, with the goal of establishing government-led “international norms and rules standardizing the behavior of countries concerning information and cyberspace.”

The decisions taken in Dubai in December have the potential to put government handcuffs on the Net. To prevent that - and keep the Internet open and free for the next generations - we need to prevent a fundamental shift in how the Internet is governed. I encourage you to take action now: insist that the debate about Internet governance be transparent and open to all stakeholders.

Posted by Posted by Al Verney, Communications Manager, Brussels

Reaching out to Germany’s Silver Surfers

2012-05-16T16:12:00.000+02:00

For many senior citizens, the Internet seems overwhelming, and often, downright dangerous. In Germany, privacy concerns have combined with the elderly’s natural reticence to technology to keep many senior citizens offline.

In order to begin changing this perception, we partnered with the Federal Associations of Senior Citizens, which includes 100 organisations and 13 million members, and the “Deutschland sicher im Netz” (Germany Safe Online - our partner in the Good to Know campaign in Germany) to raise awareness among all age groups on online safety and security. At this month's SenNova congress and fair for senior citizens, we hosted a booth with our partners to help inform participants about how to stay safe and get the most out of the Internet.

Of the 20,000 visitors to the fair, we held 800 individual conversations in three days. Many senior citizens appreciated meeting “Google in person.” We handed out more than 4.000 pamphlets including tips and tricks for Search and Social Networks which we especially created with our partners for seniors.

We took away some important lessons. More than their digitally native grandchildren and great-grandchildren, seniors desire face-to-face discussions about the Internet. This includes the importance of printed materials, keeping the information we provide simple and jargon free and presented in a manner that is easy to read. After an intensive discussion with a very active 70 year old lady, who told us she uses only Google as her Internet, she finished the conversation with the words: "You made my day!" She was so thankful that we were there to explain to her basics on search and other tools, as her children don´t have or take the time to explain information she finds too complicated. Another lady told me that she came to the event just to see us, as she needs more information on how to use the Internet.

Our next step of the project is the launch of a competition to find “Germany`s most digital senior citizen” on June 1st. The award winning ceremony will be held on October 29th at the Google offices in Berlin.

Posted by Sabine Frank, Media Literacy Policy Counsel, Berlin

Launching Street View in e-Estonia

2012-05-15T17:22:00.000+02:00

Estonia is an e-leader. The Baltic nation boasts one of the world’s highest broadband penetration rates and has carved out a pioneering role in promoting e-government and online freedom. About 94 per cent of tax returns last year were made online. Estonians vote on their laptops and sign legal documents on a smartphone. Cabinet meetings are paperless. It’s all quite impressive in a country where, only two decades ago population, it was difficult to obtain a phone line.

Most important, Estonians know firsthand about the need to keep networks open. The country suffered a massive cyberattack three years ago. Instead of imposing draconian plans to control the net, however, its reaction has been to embrace the Internet has become a symbol of progress and freedom.

For all these reasons, we take particular pleasure today to announce the launch of our popular Google Maps Street View feature in Estonia. From now on, anyone, anywhere, will, with the click of a computer mouse, be able to stroll in the cobbled medieval streets of of the capital Tallinn, the university town of Tartu, the colorful wooden houses of Pärnu. Or enjoy Estonia’s pristine nature, strolling down the sandy white beaches of the country’s Baltic coast, deep forests, picturesque lakes and rivers, mysterious swamps and rich flora and fauna.

Grotere kaart weergeven

Our users have told us that this ability to view a location as if they were actually there helps them find information about the places they live and visit. Street View permits us to preview holiday accommodation and look at nearby amenities such as parks, roads, bus stops, shopping areas and parking when planning your move. Can't remember the name of that amazing restaurant or clothes store you visited a few months ago? Walk the streets and find it. And then use the driving directions in Google Maps, with Street View images of intersections and landmarks, to get there.

Grotere kaart weergeven

Street View is educational. It encourages study of the geography, vegetation and landscape of different parts of the world. Teachers can incorporate Street View, Google Maps and Google Earth into geography or history lesson plans or arrange a virtual field trips. StreetView also promotes business, allowing potential customers to view your store or office, and find out how to get there.

We’re delighted to add Estonia to our Street View family and we look forward to working with Estonians as they pursue their bright e-future.

Posted by Simon Meehan, Senior Policy Analyst, Southern and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa

Supporting innovation in the African news industry

2012-05-10T13:06:00.000+02:00

We’re eager to see journalism flourish in the digital age, in all forms and on all continents. Today, with half a dozen other generous sponsors, we’re taking a big step forward with a new $1 million African News Innovation Challenge.

This initiative is the latest in a series of projects to spur innovation in African journalism. Since 2010 we’ve been working with newsrooms across the continent to show journalists how the Internet can help them be better reporter. In Ghana we’re helping journalists produce evidence-based reporting on the country’s new oil wealth; in Senegal we gave journalists training on election reporting, and in Kenya we helped pioneer Africa’s first data journalism boot camp. Participants produced eight separate data-driven stories or news apps, including a TV documentary that exposed the plight of rural schools and an analysis of government spending at county level that has been nominated for an international award.

Now, we’re looking for even more innovations aimed at strengthening and transforming African news media. The News Innovation Challenge will provide grants ranging from $12,500 to $100,000 for project proposals falling into four categories: news gathering, storytelling, audience engagement and the business of news. Proposals can include ideas that improve everything from data-based investigative journalism and crowdsourced citizen reporting, to new ways of distributing news on mobile platforms, or new revenue models that help wean media off a reliance on advertising. In addition to cash grants, winners will receive technical, business development and marketing advice.

The African Media Initiative, Africa’s largest association of media owners and operators, is running the Challenge. Other partners include Omidyar Network, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the U.S. State Department, the Konrad Adenhauer Stiftung and the World Association of Newspapers & News Producers.

Entries must be submitted to this website by midnight Central African Time on July 10, 2012. While news pioneers from anywhere in the world are welcome, all entries must have an African partner that will help develop and test the innovation. Entries will be judged by an international jury, and finalists will get a chance to refine their proposals during one-on-one mentoring sessions at a “tech camp” in Zanzibar in August 2012.

The winners will be announced at the Africa’s largest gathering of media owners and executives, at the Africa Media Leaders Forum, in Ivory Coast in November 2012.

We’re also active in promoting digital journalism outside of Africa, such as supporting the Nordic News Hacker, the Global Editor Network’s data journalism prize and International Press Institute media innovation prizes. As media organizations continue to adapt to the new digital world, we’re committed to working with journalists to help them use technologies to gather and tell important stories.

Posted by Julie Taylor, Head of Communications, Sub Saharan Africa

Launching the Tony Sale Award for Computer Conservation

2012-05-10T12:53:00.001+02:00

Computers are now an everyday part of life for many, yet most people know little about their history. At Google we’re keen to help celebrate and preserve the stories of computing’s past. We’ve blogged, made short films and partnered with museums -- now it’s time to shine the spotlight on the efforts of others.

To that end, we are delighted to support this week’s launch of an international award recognising those who have made an outstanding engineering achievement in computing conservation. Named in honour of the late Tony Sale, acclaimed for his work rebuilding Colossus, the award will be managed by the UK’s Computing Conservation Society (CCS).

Tony Sale led the team that rebuilt the Colossus computer. He also helped start the campaign to save Bletchley Park, found The National Museum of Computing and establish the Computer Conservation Society.(Photo thanks to The National Museum of Computing)

Entries are invited from any individual or group worldwide who has made a demonstrable contribution to preserving the world’s computing heritage, and whose work is (or could be put) on public display. Nominations close at end-July. Further details and application forms can be found at the CCS’s website.

Posted by Lynette Webb, Senior Manager, External Relations

Championing Free Expression - The Hay Festival in Hungary

2012-05-09T15:31:00.000+02:00

Her father was tortured and her mother was made to kneel on broken glass. Jung Chang, the author of the global sensation Wild Swans, which at the last count has sold 13 million copies, talked with passion and humanity about human rights during the Cultural Revolution in China at the first ever Budapest Hay Festival this past weekend.

Google has been working with the Hay Literary Festival for more than a year, helping it grow from its origins in Wales into an international organisation that now hosts festivals around the globe. This was the first festival ever held in Central Europe.

In Budapest, Chang described how she cornered the late Zairean dictator, Mobutu Sese Sosuku, under a hairdryer at a salon in Hong Kong, to persuade him to give details of his friendship with Mao Tse-tung. She also revealed how Imelda Marcos had a soft spot for Richard Nixon.

Another who tackled issues of free speech and technology was rock star turned global activist, Bob Geldof. He pointed to strong growth rates in Africa and warned policy makers in Europe and the United States that they ignored the economic potential of Africa, driven in large part by the opening up of the Internet. Other speakers at the two festival included Tibor Fischer, the Hungarian-born writer whose parents, both basketball players, fled the country after the Soviet suppression of the 1956 uprising, and Nigerian author Ben Okri.

One of the attractions of the Hay festival is the quality of speakers and the diversity of subject matter. Taking its name from a picturesque village on the border of England and Wales, made famous by its bookshops, the Hay Festival has been described as the "Woodstock of the mind.” It attracts tens of thousands of people per day during the 10 days of readings, speeches and interviews. We will unveil our Big Tent concept to a Hay audience at this year’s event, opening on May 31.

Later in the year, we will participate in four Hay gatherings that come within the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Beirut takes place in early July, while the autumn will see festivals in Istanbul, Nairobi and Segovia, Spain.

Posted by Richard Schuster, Communications Manager, Google, Hungary

Hello from Tunisia

2012-05-08T16:09:00.000+02:00

It was a perfect way to celebrate the Arab Spring. UNESCO last week marked its World Press Day in Tunisia, the country that led the rush for freedom in the Arab world. We sponsored the event, hosting Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki who met with Daniel Calingaert, Freedom House’s Vice President in Washington DC via an On Air Hangout on UNESCO’s Google+ page.

World Press Day marks an appropriate moment to review our progress in the Middle East and North Africa. We’re investing and digging deep roots. Over the past year, we have doubled our regional workforce. We have hosted g|daysreaching an estimated 12,000 entrepreneurs and developers in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Our Google Media Academy has trained nearly 2,000 journalists.

Google products are going Arabic. Only about three percent of the web now is in Arabic, while more than 10 percent of the world’s web population speaks it as a mother tongue. In order to encourage more local content, we have launched eight local YouTube domains and 11 local maps domains. An Egyptian who searches YouTube is no longer directed to Western videos but instead is able to access local content. We have introduced Arabic versions of Voice Search, Driving directions for Maps, and Google+.

Many magic moments have occurred in the past year. We hosted celebrity high profile hangouts with entertainer Myriam Fares and the Arab world’s biggest pop star, Amr Diab. We also launched the Official Google Arabia Google+ page.

Earlier this month, two Qatar museums, Museum of Islamic Art and Mathaf, joined the Google Art Project. Egypt, the first episode of "Inside Google" aired on Al Hayat Al Youm, Egypt's number one Prime Time TV show. Egypt’s very own Amr Mohamed became a global finalist in the YouTube Space Lab. And next week we will crown a national winner for the Ebda2 with Google competition to provide local entrepreneurs seed capital to start their own business kickstarting the internet ecosystem in Egypt to flourish.

This Arabization drive is producing impressive results. Google searches are up by 25 percent year on year in the region. Some 167 million YouTube videos are viewed each day in the Middle East and Africa - the second highest number in the world, behind the U.S. and ahead of Brazil. These daily views represent 112 percent increase since last October - more than double the views in just one year. An hour of YouTube video is uploaded each minute in the Middle East and North Africa. Since the launch of our local map domains, we have seen 50 percent growth in maps usage throughout the region.

Our goal is clear – to become part of the local landscape, giving people around the Middle East and North Africa access to information, preferably in their own language. For us, our contribution to UNESCO’s World Press Day represents yet another strong step towards this goal.

Posted by Maha Abouelenein, Head of Communications, Middle East and North Africa

Fostering a new generation of coders

2012-05-04T16:14:00.000+02:00

Last year, our executive chairman Eric Schmidt urged the UK to take advantage of its “great computer heritage” by increasing the number of students studying computer science. We’ve now teamed up with the Guardian newspaper to encourage a new generation of coders.

As part of our joint initiative, the Guardian hosted a two-day hackathon event for pupils from four UK schools. In each school, 20 pupils - all aged between 13 and 15 - were given the challenge of creating a website in just over 24 hours. Developers from Google and the Guardian were on hand to offer advice.

Photograph: Alys Tomlinson/The Guardian

Seven projects emerged from the hackathons. They ranged from an online community for sharing and editing photos to a collaborative calendar that allows users to upload and share blogs, links and photos. By the end of the event, most students had a working knowledge of programming languages including Java, Python and html.

Much more work is required, but there are encouraging signs. In January the Education Secretary Michael Gove took the bold step of scrapping the existing ICT curriculum, freeing schools in the UK to teach a richer mix of programming, computer science and advanced IT rather than simply how to use software.

Most of the students who participated in our hackathon had little experience in computer coding. The promising results suggest that everyone, with a little support, can learn to code and embrace the digital future.

Posted by Peter Barron, Director, External Relations, Europe, Middle East and Africa

Celebrating World Press Freedom Day

2012-05-02T16:53:00.000+02:00

Update from Tunis: UNESCO kicked off its World Press Freedom celebrations here at a ceremony at the presidential palace conducted via Google Hangout. Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki spoke with Freedom House Vice President Daniel Calingaert in Washington DC. The President said that his country's revolution last year "was done in the defense of freedom of expression," vowing that "Tunisia will never give up the freedom of expression is has won." A full two day program on press freedom continues Friday and Saturday under the theme “Media Freedom Helping to Transform Societies: New Voices, Youth and Social Media.”

The United Nations designates every May 3 as World Press Freedom Day. The day is designed to raise awareness about of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their commitment to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This year, UNESCO is marking the day in Tunisia. The choice of setting honours the North African country’s recent uprising in favor freedom of expression, one in which the Internet played an important role. On Thursday afternoon, Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki will host the ceremony conferring the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize on a deserving individual, organisation or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence of press freedom.

We’re proud to be sponsoring the celebrations. President Marzouki announced the event through his official Google page and we’re organising a Google Hangout from the presidential palace, allowing guests from Amsterdam, Tripoli and Washington, D.C. to speak with the Tunisian President.

Thursday’s ceremony will be followed by a two-day conference bringing journalists, NGOs and officials from all over the world to Tunisia. They will discuss how to improve the safety of journalists, deal with defamation, develop opublic service broadcasting, and the issue of media ownership in a changing media landscape. Throughout, the impact of the Internet and social media will be on the agenda.

We’re involved here as well. Maha Abouelenein, our head of communications in MENA, will participate in a session about new media in the afternoon of May 4. Khaled Koubaa, our policy manager for North Africa, will appear on the same day on a panel titled “Innovation in Gathering and Sharing News. Finally, I will speak on May 5 about freedom of expression.

Please stay with us to follow UNESCO’s Tunis World Press Freedom celebrations.

Posted by William Echikson, Head of Free Expression, Europe, Middle East and Africa

Big Data, Part II: Mining gold in public data

2012-05-02T09:01:00.001+02:00

European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes, calls it a “goldmine.” Better yet, Europe enjoys plenty of the resource. What is so potentially valuable? The data collected by governments.

Under Mrs. Kroes’s lead, the Commission is taking important steps to open access to public data. It is creating a European Open Data Portal making the Commission’s data accessible and easy to use. The Commission would like other public administrations to follow suit.

Public data could boost Europe’s economies without requiring new public spending. Estimates suggest that the European Union could add EUR 40 billion per year in the continent’s economic activity if it fully opened up access to public data. Another recent study finds that direct and indirect economic impact of public data amount to about EUR140 billion annually. Individuals and firms can use this information to develop new business ideas.

Another benefit is increased accountability of public services. Openness in public administration helps to nurture trust in institutions -which is particularly needed in times of economic crisis. Empowered and informed citizens may feel more confident to explore new ideas and create new businesses.

France has taken a strong step forward in this field. Etalab, the French governement initiative launched the data.gouv.fr site late last year. Journalists, researchers, and all French citizens now can analyze line by line the budget of the French government, or know what books are held by public libraries.

Etalab encourages the public to develop apps with the information. Citizens are able to build applications such as where does my money go. Along with other companies, we are sponsoring a service called Dataconnexions, which aims to boost the reuse of public data in general and especially those of the portal data.gouv.fr. Data Connxtions is organising a number of events throughout the year 2012, including four contests application development. We are holding Google Open Data Workshop, the first of which was held on March 14. Excerpts are visible below.

Bravo! We look forward to seeing more initiatives like Etalab in the future.

Patricia Wruuck, Policy Analyst, Brussels and Elisabeth Bargès, Public Policy and Government Affairs, Google France

2012: The Year of Big Data

2012-05-01T07:20:00.000+02:00

“Big Data” looks set to become one of this year’s big business trends, and to our delight, Europe is taking a new, positive view on this long overlooked resource. European Commission officials recently have outlined ambitious EU plans to benefit from the increasingly large and complex datasets that permeate the information economy.”

We’re excited about the promise of Big Data. This week, we hosted at a policy colloquium in Mountain View, titled “Empowering Data-driven Innovation." Our RSVP list included the United Nations, White House, and Census Bureau; scholars like UC Berkeley’s Marti Hearst; and representatives from companies such as Salesforce and General Electric.

A decade ago, researchers estimated that around five exabytes of data was produced each year. Today, more than five exabytes of data were stored online every day. We recently announced that 60 hours of video is uploaded each minute on YouTube and Facebook users generated an average of 3.2 billion Likes and Comments per day during the first quarter of 2012. From Fusion Tables and Public Data Explorer to Flu Trends and Translate, Google’s data innovations and initiatives have produced robust tools for making sense of data.

Recent research from MIT professor Erik Brynjolfsson suggests that data-guided management provides private companies with a crucial competitive edge and that companies making good use of data can have five to six percent higher productivity. Professor Brynjolfsson is coming to Brussels and speaking at the Bruegel Think Tank on May 7. Retailers such as Zara analyze data of sales and inventory to speed up the fashion cycle; instead of launching new collections each six months, Zara has new ideas on the shelves within weeks. By sharing data and using controlled experimentation, Fiat and Nissan have cut new model development time by 30 to 50 percent.

Data provides the raw material to uncover patterns. Digital technologies also facilitate experimentation. These insights can be used to create new products and services and keep improving them. At Google, we use data to test new services and algorithms. At any one time, we are running 100-200 experiments, analyzing patterns in the results and seeing which versions produce the best feedback. Our own chief economist Hal Varian has predicted that the skills needed to make sense of this data will turn the job of a statistician into something sexy.

Public administration, not just the private sector, can gain from data innovation. During his recent visit to Brussels, our executive chairman Eric Schmidt recounted how the Germany’s federal labour agency managed to save about EUR10 billion - all while speeding up placing people in jobs. Data based innovation similarly can help address societal problems, reducing, for example, traffic congestion and emissions through providing real-time traffic information.

Like all good things, data can be misused so we need sensible approaches to deal with privacy issues. Yet the gains from data-driven innovation far outweigh any risks. One particular area of interest here in Brussels is opening access to the reams of data collected by governments. We’ll discuss this topic tomorrow.

Patricia Wruuck, Policy Analyst, Brussels

Supporting innovation in journalism

2012-04-30T16:21:00.000+02:00

The digital age generates reams of raw data. Much of that data is interesting or important, but since there’s a lot of it out there it’s often hard to find and analyze. This is where journalists can help. Journalists are experts at delving into complex issues and writing stories that make them accessible—essential skills for dealing with the data deluge of the digital age. In order to support and encourage innovative data journalism, we’re sponsoring a series of prizes all across Europe.

Let’s start in the Nordics, where we recently partnered with Danish newspaper Dagbladet Information and Southern Denmark University’s Center for Journalism to sponsor the Nordic News Hacker 2012 contest. Contestants were asked to create and submit a piece of data journalism—anything from a data mash-up to a new mobile app.

This year’s winner is Anders Pedersen. Ander’s project, Doctors for Sale, inspired by Pro Publica’s Docs for Dollars investigation in the United States, used raw data to uncover doctors who receive money from the pharmaceutical industry. He wins a $20,000 scholarship to work with the Guardian Data Blog in London for one month to further his investigative skills.

Several thousand kilometers south of Denmark at the International Journalism Festival, the Global Editors Network announced the 60 shortlisted projects for the Google-sponsored Data Journalism Awards. Some 320 projects were submitted from a diverse group of applicants including major media groups, regional newspapers, press associations, and entrepreneurial journalists from more than 60 countries. Six winners will be announced during the News World Summit, on May 31, 2012 in Paris.

In Vienna, the International Press Institute recently announced the winners of their News Innovation contest, sponsored by Google. Fourteen projects were selected, including digital training in the Middle East, corruption chasing in the Balkans, and citizen photojournalism in the UK. All use digital data and new technologies to tell stories or reach new audiences. The winners received a total of more than $1.7 million.

Congratulations to all the journalists and publications who are embracing the digital world!

Posted by Peter Barron, Director, External Relations Europe Middle East and Africa

Opening the Big Tent in Moscow

2012-04-27T11:04:00.000+02:00

Russians are embracing the Internet and the government is encouraging the move online - some 18 million Russians already have broadband access. Right now the Internet economy contributes less than 2% to Russia’s GDP, but small businesses, start-ups and tech powerhouses are growing so fast that’s expected to rise to around 5% of GDP by 2015.

With that as a backdrop, we held our first Big Tent event in Moscow to debate some of the hot issues facing the Internet and society. We had speakers and guests from across Russian government, business and media, alongside well-known international web gurus.

Arkady Dvorkovich, aide to the Russian President, kicked off the day by describing how the Internet is playing an important role in building a new level of democracy in Russia.

A lively debate followed on the role the Internet plays, and can play, in Russian civil society. Author Jeff Jarvis, data pioneer Jon Gosier, Transparency International’s Elena Paniflova and head of Bigovernment.ru Raf Shakirov discussed whether Russia’s burgeoning online activism can make itself heard offline. Will government-hosted services protect whistle blowers, can crowd sourcing tools put pressure on government for everything from fixing potholes to political change, and what are the prospects of increased government censorship?

The issue of online piracy is a hot one in Russia and an international panel of artistic types debated whether the Internet is an instrument for creating or for copying. Artemy Troitsky, a celebrated Russian rock critic, drew gasps, tweets and applause when he said intellectual property belongs to everyone - like love or air - and showed no sympathy for the intermediaries who complain of lost revenues. Marc Sands of London’s Tate Gallery spoke of his organisation’s decision to put every single work they have online, including through Google’s Art Project.

Another key area of conversation centered on the economic impact of the Internet, specifically how to encourage innovation in fast-developing economies such as Russia, Brazil, India and China (the so-called BRICs). Why have global Internet companies generally failed to emerge from outside the US or Western Europe? Should Russia and other BRIC countries aim to create copycats of the global leaders, or entirely new business models? Jacques Bughin of McKinsey, Leonid Boguslavksy, one of Russia’s most successful Internet investors, and the digital trends author Mike Walsh didn’t agree on all the answers, but they were optimistic about the potential for growth in Russia.

Google has a big presence in Russia, with engineering offices in both Moscow and St. Petersburg. David Drummond, Google’s Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal officer, came from our Mountain View headquarters to take part. He fielded questions on a range of topics, from our new computer-aided glasses to his opinion on what regulatory regime is most conducive for Internet innovation and growth.

You’ll be able to watch videos of all the sessions on our YouTube channel soon, alongside previous discussions and details of upcoming events. Next stop for the Big Tent is in London in May.

Posted by Peter Barron, Director, External Relations Europe Middle East and AfricaSoAndSo Team

Meeting a royal leader in Belgium

2012-04-26T16:31:00.000+02:00

It’s not everyday that you meet a crown prince to discuss the future of the Internet. We had the privilege this week to address Belgium’s Prince Philippe.

Each year, the Prince’s foundation invites 16 aspiring young journalists between the age of 20 and 25 to compete in a journalism contest called Belgodyssee - Belgian Odyssey.
Winners are picked in December. Importantly, the contestants come from all the Belgian’s three (French, Dutch and German) language communities and they are obliged to work together.

Before the competition begins, the contestants attend series of master class courses on journalism. Google was invited to speak about freedom of speech, alongside Belgium's top-notch journalists Alain Gerlache of French-speaking RTBF and Luc Rademakers, the editor in chief of Flemish national television VRT. In addition to this year’s contestants, more than 100 participants in previous years attended the event at the Residence Palace in Brussels.

All three lectures focused on journalistic responsibility in dealing with new social media and on freedom of expression on the net. We presented our approach to these issues. The debate was animated and the Prince himself intervened with a question about the limits of free expression. As a company with the explicit mission to “make all the world’s information universally accessible and useful” - we explained how we protect our users’ privacy in the face of government demands for information and how we grapple with the tough question of how much speech is too much speech.

Right now we are standing at a critical crossroads in ensuring human rights and civil liberties for people around the world. Its good to know that royal leaders are taking note and the next generation of journalists is taking interest.

Posted by Tineke Meijerman, Communications, Benelux

Celebrating Exceptional Young Minds

2012-04-26T15:13:00.000+02:00

Its time to celebrate the ten winners of our ‘Zeitgeist Young Minds’ online competition.

All are aged between 18 and 24 and have done something exceptional through science, the arts, education and innovation. They will attend Google’s annual Zeitgeist event near London on May 21 and 22, alongside some of today's greatest minds and innovators. While in London, they will participate in masterclasses and have their voices heard.

A panel of prestigious judges chose the winners. It included UK Digital Champion Martha Lane Fox, social entrepreneur and hip-hop artist Akala, award winning inventor Emily Cummins, software developer and founder of metaLayer.com Jonathan Gosier, and Channel 4 news presenter and correspondent Jon Snow.

The winners are:

Ada Umeofia, 19 from Nigeria: WeBuilt: Africa is a design-centered social enterprise that redesigns and constructs market stalls for poverty-stricken Africans by recycling found building materials in slums. View the entr
Alex Leboucher, 21 from France: The Schoolbag (NGO) connects young people to education and a sustainable future by enabling children to pursue an education by providing eco-friendly school supplies. View the entry
Elliott Verreault, 23 from Sweden: It'sOneHumanity: The Humanitarian Social Network is inspiring a new humanitarian culture by leveraging the stories of humanitarian workers with the help of social media. View the entry
James Boon, 23 from the UK: Socially responsible enterprise ElephantBranded.com, sends a school bag to a child in Asia and Africa for each product sold on the website. View the entry
Joel Mwale, 19 from Kenya: Skydrop Enterprise Inc has brought safe drinking water to a community of 5,000 and has become a profitable enterprise from selling bottled water across Kenya and Uganda. View the entry
Jordan Ridge, 23 from South Africa: Made by Mosaic is a job creation project fro women in South Africa addressing the challenges of economic development in the townships. View the entry
Maaike Veenkamp, 23 from the UK: Off The Bench is a project with a core aim to empower young people through positive activities. View the entry
Sibusiso Tshabalala, 20 from South Africa: Developed reading clubs and a library renovation programme in South Africa to encourage critical thinking and thoughtful debate within local high schools. View the entry
Simeon Oriko, 23 from Kenya: The Kuyu Project trains school children on how to use social media for social change and promotes digital literacy. View the entry
Simon Straetker, 19 from Germany: An independent filmmaker, promoting conservational and social projects around the world making videos that engage young people with their natural environments. View the entry

Congratulations! We're looking forward to hosting these talents here in the UK.

Posted by Elizabeth Dupuy, Event Manager, External Relations

Launching an Internet lecture program

2012-04-24T11:49:00.000+02:00

In March, Belgium’s Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo visited our Brussels headquarters to celebrate our partnership with the Mundaneum, a pioneering 1920's Belgian project that we see as, in many ways, an ancestor of Google.

This month marked the launch of our joint lecture series, with an evening exploring linguistic diversity on the Web.The Mundaneum’s headquarters in the southern Belgian city of Mons was packed for the first Google-sponsored lecture. I was privileged to introduce the main speaker Louis Pouzin, the inventor of the datagram and designer of an early packet communications network.

From Google’s perspective, the Net offers fantastic possibilities to promote local languages. Our Google Translate now serves 53 languages, from Afrikaans to Yiddish, including Basque, Gujarati, and Swahili. At the click of a computer mouse, web pages can be instantaneously translated, allowing anybody, anywhere, to understand a web page.

In other ways, too, Google is committed to reviving and promoting local culture. Our partnership with Mundaneum is part of a larger project to revive the memory of Europe’s computing pioneers. The next lecture at the Mundaneum is scheduled for this autumn. Robert Cailliau, a Belgian computer scientist who, together with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, developed the World Wide Web. We look forward to seeing you in Mons.

Posted by Thierry Geerts, Managing Director, Belgium

Informing France’s voters for their presidential choice

2012-04-23T16:39:00.000+02:00

Update, May 6, 20112: Socialist candidate Francois Hollande captured the presidency in the second and decisive round of the French Presidential elections. Internauts followed the results live on Sunday evening from 8pm CET on www.google.fr/elections."

The Internet plays a central role in citizens’ search for information about elections. Polling company Opinionway published a study at the end of last year that showed 52% of French citizens follow the electoral campaign online compared to 38% for the written press and 27% for the radio.

In order to help satisfy this growing demand, we developed www.google.fr/elections, an information hub to study, watch, discuss and participate in the French presidential campaign. Google tools such as Google News, Google+ YouTube and Google Maps were integrated to present information from a variety of sources on the campaign and its results.

This French presidential site is the latest edition of our Google election websites. After being rolled out in the United States to cover the Republican primaries, they now have expanded internationally to include presidential elections in Senegal, Egypt and Mexico.

When the polls closed last night at 8 p.m. in France, French internet users discovered the election results in real-time on Google Maps. Viewers could see each candidate’s performance for each of France’s 106 departments as well as for each of the country’s 33,844 towns.

By clicking on a candidate on the side-bar, users were able to visualize the nuances in a candidate's performance. The brighter the colour, the more votes a candidate obtained.

Socialist candidate Francois Hollande and incumbent president Nicolas Sarkozy finished first and second respectively. The two front-runners now face off for the next two weeks until French voters again go to the polls. Google will be there to five the results in real time - and in great detail. See you on May 6th for the 2nd and decisive round!

Posted by Florian Maganza, Policy Analyst, Paris

How the Internet powers German small businesses

2012-04-20T18:56:00.000+02:00

In Germany, we’ve long believed that the Internet helps create innovative new small businesses - and that SMEs that go online, grow faster, export more and create more jobs than their offline competitors. But to prove it, we needed solid evidence. So we commissioned the Institute of the German Economy in Cologne (IW Cologne) to find out how the Internet has benefited SMEs - and the German economy.

The findings, released this week, are startling. Since 2007, they estimate that German entrepreneurs have founded 28,000 new businesses using online services from Google and other web companies. These new businesses have created nearly 100,000 new jobs and in 2010 generated EUR 8.6 billion in sales.

As part of the research, the consultants more than 11,000 Google customers in Germany. About two-thirds of them already sell their products online, a much higher proportion than the German average (a quarter of German businesses engage in ecommerce). Our customers report that selling online has kept them nimble and able to react quickly to new opportunities, reaching new customers (78%) or even new markets (35%).

The new study suggests that online business is particularly effective for small companies with up to nine employees. On average, these small businesses generate 42% of their sales via online advertising, while companies with more than 50 employees tend to generate only around 15% of their revenues via online.

Small, Internet-savvy businesses are also more innovative than the German average. In 2010, 20% of Google customers had their own research and development operations - nearly twice as many as at the average German company. Those same companies achieve 36% of their turnover with new products and services that they developed themselves, compared to only 23% for companies for whom the Internet plays a minor role.

“Of course there is no app for business success. But it is clear that savvy Internet use has massive advantages”, says Rene Arnold of the IW Cologne. “The internet is the steam engine of the 21st century.”

Posted by Ralf Bremer, Senior Communications Manager, Berlin

Checking in with the Global Network Initiative

2012-04-19T15:59:00.000+02:00

Cross-posted with the Google Public Policy Blog

No matter who or what you are, opening up to outside scrutiny isn’t an easy or comfortable process. But that's what we agreed to do a few years ago when we helped found the Global Network Initiative (GNI), an amalgam of companies, human rights activists, socially responsible investors and academics formed in response to actions by governments that endanger free expression on the global Internet.

The objectives of GNI are both simple and incredibly complex: promote and support free expression and privacy online; subscribe to principles and follow guidelines supported by measures of transparency and accountability; and educate people and engage policymakers around the world in an effort to create a more open and free Internet.

In starting GNI, the founding companies — Google, Microsoft and Yahoo — agreed to bring in outside assessors to review how we were doing against GNI principles. Our agreement to conduct these assessments is an important part of the organization's credibility.

Now these first assessments are finished and the results have been released as part of GNI's annual report released yesterday at the Stockholm Internet Forum. After reviewing them, the non-company members of GNI have told us that while we're by no means perfect, the assessments are credible and rigorous and demonstrate that companies are making progress — a concrete step in our efforts to build trust not only with our GNI partners but with all our users. The GNI presented its findings at a workshop at the Sweden free expression summit, which brought together more than 350 diplomats, activists, academics, and private sector actors from around the world.

The activities of Google to promote free expression and privacy around the world extend well beyond GNI. However, being a part of this group is a compelling opportunity, since it brings together diverse stakeholders and provides a unique forum to address the risks to a free and open internet. Along with the GNI, we welcome other companies and groups to join this effort.

Posted by Bob Boorstin, Director, Public Policy and Lewis Segall, Senior Ethics and Compliance Counsel

Leveraging the Internet to revive the Greek economy

2012-04-17T14:38:00.000+02:00

Greece is suffering from a dramatic economic crisis, and its heavily indebted government cannot fuel a recovery through public spending. One cost-free way to encourage growth would be to encourage more business to leverage the Internet.

In order to underline this opportunity, we recently launched an Economic Impact Study in Athens to measure the size of Greece’s Internet economy. The Boston Consulting Group produced the report independently. Our launch event attracted over 200 participants, including numerous ministers, members of parliament, business leaders and the media.

The study showed that Greece has not yet embraced the Internet as fully as most other European countries. ONly 49% of Greeks using the Internet and only 12% of them make purchases online. Almost half of Greek SMEs have either a low presence or no Internet presence. In 2010, the Internet directly contributed an estimated EUR2.7 billion to the Greek economy, or 1.2% of total Greek GDP. Without any policy incentives, this is expected to reach EUR3.6 billion by 2015, with realistic policy measures, it can even reach EUR6.5 billion by 2015.

The study offered concrete recommendations to build an "online culture” and grow Greece’s Internet economy. “Policymakers can encourage multinationals like Amazon and eBay to establish their presence in Greece by cutting the red tapes that inhibits foreign companies and startups,” BCG says. “They should also consider offering temporary tax exemptions for new online businesses.”

In addition, the government should require online completion of government forms companies with government contracts to conduct all bidding, invoicing, online. Tlecom companies “should be given incentives through lower broadband fees, public-private infrastructure partnerships, and tax exemptions to spend on infrastructure upgrades,” bringing broadband speeds throughout the country.

Last but not least, improving Internet literacy for adults and school students will create more confident online users and consumers. If Greece manages to bring these Internet-fueling reforms into place, it will help improve productivity and competitiveness of its overall economy.

You can read the full report here.

Posted by Dionisis Kolokotsas, Public Policy Manager, Greece

German Supreme Court: Google Image Search in line with copyright law

2012-04-11T10:53:00.002+02:00

Billions of users across the globe, millions of websites and companies benefit from services that make information available - be it text, video, audio or visual information. Our aim has always been to help users discover this kind of information as quickly and relevantly as possible. Earlier today the German Supreme Court - the Bundesgerichtshof (BGH) - issued the written grounds for an important decision (“Vorschaubilder II”) around image search and copyright, encouraging us in our approach.

The court carefully balanced the interests of the copyright holder and users to find content online and it confirmed the right of the author to demand the removal of its copyrighted work from any infringing website. The court also made clear that a search engine is allowed to crawl and to index thumbnails of images that are either made available by the copyright holder himself or by anyone else who was granted a license to make them available

This legal position is in line with the decision introduced in a former case from April 2010 ("Vorschaubilder I" - original here): a copyright holder who makes its work available online without implementing any technical protections against the copying of the work as a thumbnail (e.g. by applying robots exclusion standards) gives its consent to search engines to display the work in the form of a thumbnail. The court expressly broadened its previous jurisdiction now: if a copyright holder has allowed a licensee to display protected works online, the search engine can also rely on the consent of that licensee. With this decision the court has confirmed Google’s long standing position that providing thumbnails in its search results is in line with copyright law.

It is encouraging to see that the five year long period of legal proceedings and legal uncertainty came to an end with a promising outlook: for copyright holders who can control the access to their works, for search engines who are legally allowed to link to third party content and, ultimately, for internet users who can still find the content they are looking for.

Posted by Dr. Arnd Haller, Legal Director, North- and Central Europe

Going global in search of great art

2012-04-03T10:05:00.010+02:00

South African rock designs. Brazilian street graffiti. Australian aboriginal art. Today we’re announcing a major expansion of the Google Art Project. From now on, with a few simple clicks of a finger, art lovers around the world will be able to discover not just paintings, but also sculpture, street art and photographs from 151 museums in 40 countries.

Since we introduced the Art Project last year, curators, artists and viewers from all over the globe have offered exciting ideas about how to enhance the experience of collecting, sharing and discovering art. Institutions worldwide asked to join the project, urging us to increase the diversity of artworks displayed. We listened.

The original Art Project counted 17 museums in nine countries and 1,000 images, almost all paintings from Western masters. Today, the Art Project includes more than 30,000 high-resolution artworks, with Street View images for 46 museums, with more on the way. In other words, the Art Project is no longer just about the Indian student wanting to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It is now also about the American student wanting to visit the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi.

The expanded Art Project embraces all sizes of institutions, specializing in art or in other types of culture. For example, you can take a look at the White House in Washington, D.C., explore the collection of the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar, and continue the journey to the Santiniketan Triptych in the halls of the National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi. In the United States alone, some 29 partners in 16 cities are participating, ranging from excellent regional museums like the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina to top notch university galleries such as the SCAD museum of art in Savannah, Georgia.

Here are a few other new things in the expanded Art Project that you might enjoy:

Using completely new tools, called Explore and Discover, you can find artworks by period, artist or type of artwork, displaying works from different museums around the world.
Google+ and Hangouts are integrated on the site, enabling you to create even more engaging personal galleries.
Street View images are now displayed in finer quality. A specially designed Street View “trolley” took 360-degree images of the interior of selected galleries which were then stitched together, enabling smooth navigation of more than 385 rooms within the museums. You can also explore the gallery interiors directly from within Street View in Google Maps
We now have 46 artworks available with our “gigapixel” photo capturing technology, photographed in extraordinary detail using super high resolution so you can study details of the brushwork and patina that would be impossible to see with the naked eye.
An enhanced My Gallery feature lets you select any of the 30,000 artworks—along with your favorite details—to build your own personalised gallery. You can add comments to each painting and share the whole collection with friends and family. (It’s an ideal tool for students.)

The Art Project is part of our efforts to bringing culture online and making it accessible the widest possible audience. Under the auspices of the Google Cultural Institute, we’re presenting high-resolution images of the Dead Sea Scrolls, digitizing the archives of famous figures such as Nelson Mandela, and creating 3D models of 18th century French cities. Our launch ceremony was held this morning at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, featured in the following slideshow.

For more information and future developments, follow the Art Project on Google+. Together with the fantastic input from our partners from around the world, we’re delighted to have created a convenient, fun way to interact with art—a platform that we hope appeals to students, aspiring artists and connoisseurs alike.

Posted by Amit Sood, Art Project

Watch the Big Tent on YouTube

2012-03-30T17:17:00.005+02:00

Our programme of Big Tent events aims to bring together digital businesses, policymakers and advocacy groups to debate some of the hot issues facing the Internet and society.

Now, with the launch of our new Big Tent YouTube channel , everyone can engage with these debates online.

The channel includes videos from our sessions so far in London , The Hague, Berlin and Madrid. You can filter by topic, speaker and event, so whether you’re interested in privacy or child safety, Hillary Clinton on Internet freedom or Wael Ghonim on the role of the Internet in Egypt’s revolution, it’s all available under the Big Tent.

The launch of our new channel coincides with our first Big Tent in the US--an event on Digital Citizenship held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. Over the course of the day, we discussed child safety online, the most effective ways to incorporate technology with educationa and what governments and civil society can do to maintain a responsible and innovative web.

Stay tuned for videos from that and future Big Tents as the programme continues to roll out across the world.

Posted by Peter Barron, Director of External Relations EMEA