European Public Policy Blog

Reigniting the global economy

2012-01-27T14:47:00.000+01:00

In Davos, leaders are attempting to find ways to restart the sputtering global economy. Two new studies released today at the World Economic Forum offer an answer: open up an Internet browser on our laptop, mobile phone or tablet and encourage the Internet.

The Boston Consulting group’s “Digital Manifesto” predicts that the value of the Internet economy in of the world's top 20 economies will boom to $4.2 trillion in 2016—nearly double 2010’s number. One of the biggest drivers will be the huge increase in the number of people accessing the web. In four years, the report predicts three billion people will be using the internet, or nearly 50% of the world's population.

The Internet does not just benefit the developed world, either. It contributes an average of 1.9 percent of GDP across 30 countries in the developing world and generated 1.9 million jobs alone in six countries: Hungary, Malaysia, Mexico, Taiwan, Turkey, and Vietnam, according to the new McKinsey & Co. report, also released today in Davos.

Both the McKinsey and BCG reports are the latest chapter in more than a year of work by the two consultancies and others on the Internet’s growing economic impact. Full disclosure: Google funded this joint research effort, though the reports were conducted independently. Until now, the research focused largely on Europe. For example, the BCG’s “Connected Kingdom” report published in the U.K. in October 2010 found (amongst other things) that the Internet contributed £100bn, or 7.2% of GDP, and forecasted that the figure will rise to 10% of GDP by 2015. You can see the full range of all these country reports on a new website.

Understanding the economic potential of the web is crucial, especially given Europe's current economic challenges. In Brussels this week, on the same day European Finance ministers were meeting to discuss the situation in Greece, we hosted an event to illustrate how countries and companies are able to reap the rewards of the Internet. Google, BCG and McKinsey are well known international businesses, but the the message of all our work is that small businesses going online will drive the majority of growth of the Internet economy in the future.

Posted by William Echikson, External Relations, Brussels

Promoting small businesses and economic growth in Europe

2012-01-24T17:43:00.000+01:00

As European Finance Ministers gathered in Brussels to address the Euro crisis, we wanted to share our belief that small businesses and entrepreneurs can be at the heart of Europe’s strategy for economic growth. In our view, the key that will unlock this much needed growth is the Internet.

In order to demonstrate this important opportunity, we organised an event today in Brussels bringing together small businesses, European Commission officials, European parliamentarians, business associations and others to discuss how the Internet can drive growth and jobs. Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani keynoted the event, and picked up on the themes of an important manifesto, published last week by the Commission, that is designed to build trust in the Digital Single Market.

The Commissioner said Europe must put the Internet at the heart of its economic strategy. “I think of the third industrial revolution – information technologies are at its heart,” he said. Instead of “destroying” jobs, he insisted that it powers employment, saying that for each position displaced, the Internet creates another 2.6 new positions. Companies with websites grow twice as fast as companies that stay offline, he added. “Our goal is to double the amount of commerce online by 2015,” Tajani said. “We need exponential growth” to get Europe out of its present economic crisis.

Our own European Vice President Matt Brittin announced a new collaboration between the Lisbon Council and Google. In some countries, Matt noted, the Internet already generates more than 7% of GDP - a figure that is set to grow rapidly - with much of the growth coming from small companies. “SMEs are the unsung heroes of the economy,” he said. “But the internet can give them a voice.” In order to prove the point, we assembled small business owners from 15 countries, including a Polish butcher, a Swedish sweet shop, a Dutch clog seller, a Spanish baby clothes retailer, and a Greek travel agent. All power their businesses by leveraging the Internet.

The focus of the event then turned to the platforms (generally large companies) that support online commerce. Martin Tidell, Telenor’s Head of Business Management for SMEs, joined by Google+ hangout from Stockholm and said that the Internet is not just for high tech businesses. “I cannot think of one business that wouldn’t benefit by going online,” he said.

Back in Brussels, Frank Jahn, the Managing Director of Parcels at Belgium’s post office said his company was bracing for a transformation. “We are now a mail company with a parcels operation,” he said. “We need to become a parcels company with a mail operation.”

Next up were three small businesses who shared their experiences of growing online and selling in both domestic markets and across the Single Market. Their panel session also highlighted the "Getting business online” initiative, which has helped more than 250,000 businesses get a website over the last two years.

The final panel of the day, hosted by European Voice, focused on the policy conclusions that the European Commission, European Parliament and the key stakeholder - Europe’s consumers - draw from the debate. And all agreed that the Internet opportunity for businesses is big - and growing.

Posted by Al Verney, Communications Manager, Brussels

Supporting a new Oxford free speech initiative

2012-01-24T09:09:00.000+01:00

As the debate over free expression online grows ever louder, Oxford University has launched an innovative interactive forum in 13 languages called freespeechdebate.com. We’re proud to support the initiative with both funds and technology, including Google Translate.

Timothy Garton Ash - a professor and journalist who has analyzed social movements from the rise of the Solidarity free trade union to the tumult of the Arab Spring - is leading the exciting project. At the event’s launch last week in Oxford, Garton Ash interviewed Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. Just the day before, Wikipedia had gone black in protest of two proposed U.S. laws threatening Internet freedom, helping force the U.S. Congress to pull back from a vote on the bills. “On a normal day 25 million people see Wikipedia; yesterday, 162 million saw it and I heard that we even crashed the House of Representatives phone system,” an ebullient Wales said. “Congress saw that there is a passionate community out there ready to defend the Internet.”

The reception afterward took place in Oxford University’s Divinity School library, an appropriate setting where poet John Milton‘s censored writing were saved from being burned almost half a millennium ago. “From yesterday's Wikipedia protest to the role of social media in the Arab Spring, every day brings a free speech controversy to the headlines, Garton Ash said. “Our project aims to contribute structure, depth and detail to this global debate, as well as openness to the views of netizens from different cultures and perspectives.”

Freespeechdebate.com brings together a team of more than 30 graduate students and researchers. It publishes interviews with prominent personalities and case studies from around the globe illustrating the complexity of free speech in the Internet age. At the inauguration, the web site already presented case studies and interviews with a diverse range of free speech defenders. Nobel Peace Prize 2003 winner Shirin Ebadi said that criticism of Islam should be permitted in Iran, while arguing that insults to the religion should be prohibited. Arundhati Roy, the award-winning Indian novelist, spoke about the limits to free speech in India, including government censorship through the media and "goon squads.”

The site's editorial content is translated into Arabic, Chinese, English, Farsi, French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Urdu. “Freespeechdebate.com will continue producing material for the coming six months, and everyone is encouraged to participate. Members of the public are invited to register online to join the debate. Details on how to participate are found here. The debate will be digitally archived by Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries and become an online educational resource.

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

News Innovation contest opens for applications

2012-01-23T18:03:00.001+01:00

We are eager to see journalism flourish in the digital age. Last week, we announced our support of the Global Editor Network’s data journalism prize. Today, we’re happy to see that the International Press Institute has begun accepting applications for the second round of Google-funded media innovation prizes.

Click here for more information and to enter. Applicants are eligible from anywhere in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

The Vienna-based International Press Institute is our European partner for Google’s ambitious $5 million global program announced in 2010 to help journalism create new ways of reaching readers online. As media organizations globally continue to broaden their presence online, we’re eager to play our part on the technology side—experimenting with new ways of presenting news online; providing tools like Google Maps and YouTube Direct to make websites more engaging for readers. But while we’re mostly focused on working with news organizations to develop better products for users, we also believe it’s crucial to encourage innovation at the grassroots level. Our grants to non-profit organizations are designed to benefit news publishers of all sizes.

More than 300 applications were received for the first round of International Press Institute-run Google-sponsored prizes last year; three winners were named at the end of last year.

This year’s News Innovation Contest offers prizes in two categories:

News Platforms: The International Press Institute is looking for projects that leverage online tools to enhance news gathering and delivery. It aims to encourage the creation of new online news platforms that offer new revenue models for supporting high quality journalism.

Training: Little proper training in online media exists. The Press Institute is looking for initiatives that help traditional journalists transition into online media, by improving their technology skills and familiarising them with online news models.

The contest deadline is February 23 at 15:00 Central European Time. Winners can be announced at the beginning of April.

Posted by Simon Morrison, Copyright Communications and Policy Manager.

Figuring out the value of the web

2012-01-20T14:28:00.000+01:00

Today we’re launching a website called Value of the Web to collect research that sheds new light on the economic impact of the Internet. It’s available in English, French, German, Russian and Spanish and currently features a range of studies focusing on (amongst other things) the value of cloud computing in Europe, the value of search around the world, and the Internet’s contribution to GDP - a theme highlighted just last week by the European Commission in its new strategy to build trust in the Digital Single Market.

The value of the web is also the theme of a special event we’re hosting in Brussels on Tuesday 24th January called The Single Market Opportunity - Getting Europe’s SMEs Online. European Commission Vice President Tajani, other prestigious guests and small business from 15 EU countries will join us at the event to discuss how the Internet can help drive economic growth and jobs and help lift Europe out of the economic crisis.

Even though industrial metrics like GDP can’t fully capture the Web’s contributions to our information society, these reports represent the best efforts so far to quantify the Internet’s contributions to the economy and society. The new website will highlight the broad range of value generated by the internet, including in areas such as the contribution of the firms who provide the essential hardware and software to power the Internet and the jobs

In other studies, the findings project exponential growth for economies that are already engaging in e-commerce online. The Boston Consulting Group predicts that by 2015, at least 10% of the British economy will be Internet-based. Universal broadband access and creating innovative business models that capture consumer surplus could increase the value added by the Internet by roughly £43 billion, which is just less than half what the British government spends on education today.

The reports draw on work by globally renowned economic analysts such as the Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte Access Economics, McKinsey Global Institute, Nomura Research Institute, the Sogang University Market Economy Research Institute and academic economist Federico Etro at the University of Venice.

In time, we hope the site will become a central repository for insight derived from new measurements and data that move toward a more complete understanding of the Web’s impact. We’ll continue developing the site by adding more improvements, including more languages and content. Check back frequently for updates or choose to subscribe for alerts via email.

And if you’d like to participate in Tuesday's discussion about how the Internet can help get Europe’s economy back on track, please register now to secure one of the final places available at the Single Market Opportunity event.

Posted by Patricia Wruuck, Policy Analyst, Brussels

Data Journalism Awards Now Accepting Submissions

2012-01-19T13:24:00.003+01:00

Last November, we announced our support for a new Data Journalism competition, organized by the Global Editors Network. The competition is now open to submissions and today we hosted an event at our offices in London to share details on how to compete and win a total of six prizes worth EUR 45,000. The European Journalism Centre is running the contest and Google is sponsoring.

Journalism is going through an exciting—if sometimes wrenching—transition from off to online. Google is keen to help. We see exciting possibilities of leveraging data to produce award-winning journalism. “Data journalism is a new, exciting part of the media industry, with at present only a small number of practitioners,” said Peter Barron, Google’s Director of External Relations. “We hope to see the number grow.”

In data journalism, reporters leverage numerical data and databases to gather, organize and produce news. Bertrand Pecquerie, the Global Editor Network’s CEO, believes the use of data will, in particular, revolutionize investigative reporting. “We are convinced that there is a bright future for journalism,” he said at the London event. “This is not just about developing new hardware like tablets. It is above all about producing exciting new content.”

The European Journalism Centre, a non-profit based in Maastricht, has been running data training workshops for several years. It is producing the Data Journalism Awards website and administering the prize. “This new initiative should help convince editors around the world that data journalism is not a crazy idea, but a viable part of the industry,” says Wilfried Ruetten, Director of the center.

Projects should be submitted to http://www.datajournalismawards.org. The deadline is April 10, 2012. Entries should have been published or aired between April 11, 2011 and April 10, 2012. Media companies, non-profit organisations, freelancers and individuals are eligible.

Submissions are welcomed in three categories: data-driven investigative journalism, data-driven applications and data visualisation and storytelling. National and international projects will be judged separately from local and regional ones. “We wanted to encourage not only the New York Times’s of the world to participate, but media outlets of all sizes,” says Pecquerie. “Journalism students are also invited to enter, provided their work has been published.”

An all-star jury has been assembled of journalists from prestigious international media companies including the New York Times, the Guardian, and Les Echos. Paul Steiger, the former editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal and founder of the Pulitzer Prize-winning ProPublica, will serve as president.

Winners will be announced at the Global News Network’s World Summit in Paris on May 31, 2012.

Posted by William Echikson, External Relations

A Computer Star Visits Zurich

2012-01-18T16:11:00.001+01:00

For Google engineers, Donald Knuth is a true hero. The 74-year old Knuth, a professor emeritis at Stanford, is one of the pioneers of computer science, best known for his multi-volumed work “The Art of Computer Programming.” He is also recognized as the “father” of the field of analysis of algorithms, and of course, algorithms are central to much of what we do here at Google.

When the professor visited our offices in Zurich recently, more than 350 engineers packed the conference hall for a question and answer session. While many of the queries were technical, many were pertinent to all of us.

In Europe, Google has made a priority of promoting science education, so naturally a number of questions focused on this subject. How should a beginner programming get started? A bottom-up education is best, Knuth suggested, explaining that in his analogue era, some people became interested in science in order to build radios by themselves. In the Internet age, he said it was crucial to give aspiring programmers simple tools to learn coding from the ground up.

Another question was whether “programming is more of an art than a science?” Could programming progress in the same way as, say medieval Christians progressed the building of their soaring Gothic cathedrals from a try-and-see art to a mature engineering discipline?” It is only a matter of time that computing takes the same path, Knuth agreed. Many things start as art (even cathedral building), and systematic, scientific methods evolve. In this way, art feeds science and science nurtures art in a virtuous circle.

Knuth signed books that engineers had brought with them, inscribing each book with the message suggested by each engineer. One engineer brought their copy of “The Art of Computing Programming” in Russian to be signed. Before leaving, we presented him with a plaque showing a fragment of the code describing the Google Search page including “I’m feeling lucky!” We felt the same way about his visit.

Posted by David Harper, Head University Relations, Europe, Middle East and Africa

Ask your question in the 2012 Google Science Fair

2012-01-15T12:25:00.000+01:00

Are human beings born curious, or can curiosity be nurtured through environment, competition or a good teacher? Everyone’s got a question—that’s ours. But we’re sure you’ve got tons of questions, too. Today, we’re inviting students around the world to pose their most pressing questions about the world around them and answer those questions through scientific inquiry.

Along with our partners CERN, The LEGO Group, National Geographic and Scientific American, today we’re launching the second annual Google Science Fair, the largest online science competition in the world, open globally to students ages 13-18. Either individually or in teams of up to three people, students pose a question, develop a hypothesis and conduct science experiments to test it. The entire process is detailed and submitted online, via a website template participants fill out themselves, so all you need to participate is curiosity, an Internet connection and a browser.

Last year, we received entries that strove to solve a wide variety of needs, from “How can I cure cancer?” to “Can I teach a robot to learn English?” to “Can I build a faster sailboat?” The breadth and depth of these projects was incredibly impressive, and this year we hope to see even more entries from the next generation of brilliant young scientists.

This year’s fair will be even more global than the last: We’re now accepting submissions in 13 languages (Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Spanish and Russia). We will also be recognizing 90 regional finalists (30 from the Americas, 30 from the Asia Pacific and 30 from Europe/Middle East/Africa). From these 90, to be announced in May, our judges will select the top 15 finalists, who will be flown to Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. for our live Google Science Fair final event on July 23, 2012. At the finals, a panel of distinguished international judges (like Vint Cerf, Sylvia Earle and Nobel Laureates David Gross and Ada Yonath) will select top winners in each age category (13-14, 15-16, 17-18).

We’re also introducing a new category for this year’s competition—the Scientific American Science in Action award. We were so inspired by 2011 finalist Harine Ravichandran’s project, which attempted to solve energy surges in rural villages, that we decided to recognize an outstanding project that addresses a social, environmental or health need to make a difference in the lives of a group or community, as Harine’s project did for her grandparents’ village in India. The winner will also be flown to Mountain View for the finalist event in July.

The Google Science Fair opens today, January 12, worldwide, and we’ll accept submissions until Sunday, April 1 at 11:59pm GMT (or 6:59pm ET/3:59pm PT). In addition to satisfying your curious mind, your brilliant project can also help to win you some pretty cool prizes, like a $50,000 college scholarship from Google, a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands with a National Geographic Explorer or an internship at Google or any one of our partners. Our Scientific American Science in Action award winner will earn $50,000 and year-long mentorship to make their project goal a reality.

The winners of last year’s inaugural Google Science Fair became something like scientific rock stars. Shree Bose, Naomi Shah and Lauren Hodge met with President Obama, were invited to speak at big events like TEDx Women and were featured in Wired magazine. Shree, our grand prize winner, was named one of Glamour magazine’s 21 Amazing Young Women of the Year. White House visits and Glamour aside, every student in the Google Science Fair has the chance to do hands-on research that can truly change the world.

Visit google.com/sciencefair and ask your most burning questions at the top of your voice for the world to hear. Google itself was founded through experimentation and with the Google Science Fair, we hope to inspire scientific exploration among the next generation of scientists and engineers, celebrate scientific talent, create scientific role models and unite students around the world in the quest for learning.

Posted by Cristin Frodella, Google Education Team

The Single Market Opportunity - Getting Europe's SMEs Online

2012-01-12T15:04:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, the European Commission announced its strategy to build trust in the Digital Single Market. On Tuesday 24th January, we’re hosting a special event - The Single Market Opportunity: Getting Europe’s SMEs Online - right here in Brussels’ European district.

We’d like to invite you to to register for this event and join us, Commission Vice President Tajani and other prestigious guests to discuss how to realise the potential of the Internet as a driver of growth and jobs across Europe’s entire economy. You’ll also hear from entrepreneurs from 15 European countries, who will showcase how they are building successful online businesses that reach far beyond their national borders.

Over the last two years, we've worked with partners in ten European countries to stimulate economic activity and the creation of jobs via the Getting Business Online initiative. By providing training, tools and resources, this initiative has helped more than 250,000 small and medium enterprises - from donkey farmers and butchers to magicians, beauticians and wedding planners - to go online for the first time.

The Internet already accounts for more than 6% of GDP in some European countries, according to research from McKinsey and the Boston Consulting Group, but did you know:

That businesses that use the Internet intensively grow twice as fast as those that don't?
That the web fuels net job creation with more than two jobs created for every one lost in a traditional sector?
That more than 20% of global GDP growth over the last five years can be directly attributed to the burgeoning Internet economy?
That over the next five years, many EU member states will see double digit growth in economic activity enabled by the Internet, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs across Europe in the process?

Secure your place at the Single Market Opportunity on Tuesday, January 24th, 2012, by registering here today.

Posted by Antoine Aubert, Head of Brussels Policy team

Europe looks to the Internet for growth and jobs

2012-01-11T13:04:00.000+01:00

Kicking off the year in which the Single Market turns twenty, the European Commission announced today its strategy to build trust in the Digital Single Market. We think this is an important announcement, because the Commission confirms the immense potential of the Internet as a driver of growth and jobs, not just in the tech sector, but throughout the entire economy. It also issues a rallying call for Europe to redouble its efforts to enact concrete, positive reforms.

The figures speak for themselves. As today’s Commission report notes (referencing work by McKinsey), “in the G8 countries plus South Korea and Sweden, the internet economy has brought about 21% of the growth in GDP in the last five years. It also generates 2.6 jobs for every job cut, and at times accounts for 25% of net employment creation.”

If Europe fails to grasp the opportunity of a true Digital Single Market, however, the Commission warns of an expensive mistake that could cost the continent “at least 4.1% of GDP between now and 2020 - EUR500 billlion or EUR1000 per citizen.”

The Commission’s communication sets out concrete plans for how it intends to help millions of European businesses - particularly small and medium enterprises - foster cross-border e-commerce.

SMEs and policy makers will be talking about these challenges and opportunities at an event we’re running on January 24, here in Brussels at the Concert Noble. Small businesses from 18 countries will present how they have succeeded in taking their businesses online. For more on this initiative, check out our blog tomorrow.

Posted by Antoine Aubert, Head of Brussels Policy Team

Israeli Web-Rangers promote online safety

2012-01-09T01:55:00.000+01:00

Rangers traditionally guard parks and other areas of natural beauty. In Israel, some modern day rangers - call them Web-Rangers - aim instead to keep the Internet safe. Since last July when Google Israel launched its Family Safety Centre, we have encouraged some 200 Israeli teenage Web-Rangers between the age of 15 and 18 to promote online child protection.

The results have been remarkable. More than 80 innovative and creative social campaigns have been launched, ranging from educational videos to tv-style quiz shows. Some Web-Rangers produced creative videos and posted them on a dedicated YouTube channel. Others have cooperated with schools, youth movements, and local municipalities to hold seminars for teenagers about online safety.

Our “Web-Rangers” project is run in partnership with two NGOs working for online safety, the Israel Internet Association and Eran. All the Web-Rangers also have participated in seminars held at Google Israel offices. These included lectures by Google representatives and our partners on digital citizenship, free speech on the net, Google online safety tools and YouTube content policies.

We recently held the graduation for our inaugural Web-Rangers "class." The Israel Ministry of Education’s Head of the Online Child Safety Division participated. She invited the Web-Rangers to take part in the Ministry’s “National Safe Internet Day” and present their projects in schools around the country.

While the Web Rangers started as a Google initiative, the young adults brought the project to life, developed it, and made it their own. The two Web-Rangers who presented the best work, Elad Yam and Yosi Klein, (both from 11th grade) will soon travel to Google’s offices in London to present their work. We look forward to continuing to learn from these creative teenagers about how to create a safe Internet.

Posted by Doron Avni, Policy Manager, Israel

Happy holidays from our Brussels policy team

2011-12-28T14:24:00.000+01:00

It has been an exciting and eventful year, even by the Internet’s own exacting standards. Arab activists inaugurated 2011 by revealing the web’s power to help bring freedom to their countries. All too many governments have responded by pressing for controls to throttle the Internet’s liberating power.

Yet we have seen policy makers here in Brussels taking a strong stance in support of an open Internet. After the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur Frank La Rue published a manifesto for Internet freedom, the European Parliament and Commission extended him a warm welcome. E.U. officials were intrigued to meet the creators of our Transparency Report that details government requests for content removals and information on users. The European Parliament even hosted part of our “hackathon” in support of Open Data.

In other areas, too, appreciation of the Internet advanced in Brussels. A significant shift was visible measuring and understanding the Internet’s economic impact. At the beginning of the year we commissioned a series of studies that demonstrated that the Internet has become the most important single driver of growth in the E.U.. Instead of destroying jobs, the net is creating millions of them. Crucially, small businesses benefit disproportionately from the web’s power to reach the entire world with a few keyboard strokes. A contest we sponsored even crowned Europe's leading eTowns.

Instead of threatening culture, technology provides new and innovative ways to preserve history and heritage. Our Art Project brings online masterpieces from great museums across Europe. Our book project is digitizing and bringing online public domain books from more than a dozen European libraries. At the end of the year, StreetView came to Belgium, allowing anyone in the globe to stroll along the streets hosting European institutions. As the Internet becomes a significant force for policymakers to converse with citizens, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, shown above, appeared live on Euronews and YouTube World View.

The European Union is heading towards the 20th anniversary of the creation of the single market, and the Internet will play an important in realizing its full potential. Just like the European Union, the Internet represents a major shift towards openness and collaboration. While Europe faces undeniable challenges on the economic and social fronts, the Internet’s progress is an optimistic story that we believe Europe can demonstrate pride in the coming year.

Posted by Antoine Aubert, Head of Brussels Policy Team

Remembering a remarkable Soviet computing pioneer

2011-12-25T16:15:00.000+01:00

Cross-posted with the Official Google Blog

In many parts of the world, today is Christmas—but in Russia and Eastern Europe, which use the Orthodox calendar, December 25 is just an ordinary day. Little known to most, however, it’s also a day that marks the anniversary of a key development in European computer history.

Sixty years ago today, in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, the Soviet Academy of Sciences finally granted formal recognition to Sergey Lebedev’s pioneering MESM project. MESM, a Russian abbreviation for “Small Electronic Calculating Machine,” is regarded as the earliest, fully operational electronic computer in the Soviet Union—and indeed continental Europe.

Recently we were privileged to get a first-hand account of Lebedev’s achievements from Boris Malinovsky, who worked on MESM and is now a leading expert on Soviet-era computing.

Turn on captions for the English translation.

Described by some as the “Soviet Alan Turing,” Sergey Lebedev had been thinking about computing as far back as the 1930’s, until interrupted by war. In 1946 he was made director of Kyiv’s Institute of Electrical Engineering. Soon after, stories of “electronic brains” in the West began to circulate and his interest in computing revived.

Sergey Lebedev*

Initially, Lebedev’s superiors were skeptical, and some in his team felt working on a “calculator”—how they thought of a computer—was a step backward compared to electrical and space systems research. Lebedev pressed on regardless, eventually finding funding from the Rocketry department and space to work in a derelict former monastery in Feofania, on the outskirts of Kyiv.

Work on MESM got going properly at the end of 1948 and, considering the challenges, the rate of progress was remarkable. Ukraine was still struggling to recover from the devastation of its occupation during WWII, and many of Kyiv’s buildings lay in ruins. The monastery in Feofania was among the buildings destroyed during the war, so the MESM team had to build their working quarters from scratch—the laboratory, metalworking shop, even the power station that would provide electricity. Although small—just 20 people—the team was extraordinarily committed. They worked in shifts 24 hours a day, and many lived in rooms above the laboratory. (You can listen to a lively account of this time in programme 3 of the BBC’s ”Electronic brains” series.)

MESM and team members in 1951. From left to right: Lev Dashevsky, Zoya Zorina-Rapota, Lidiya Abalyshnikova, Tamara Petsukh, Evgeniy Dedeshko

MESM ran its first program on November 6, 1950, and went into full-time operation in 1951. In 1952, MESM was used for top-secret calculations relating to rocketry and nuclear bombs, and continued to aid the Institute’s research right up to 1957. By then, Lebedev had moved to Moscow to lead the construction of the next generation of Soviet supercomputers, cementing his place as a giant of European computing. As for MESM, it met a more prosaic fate—broken into parts and studied by engineering students in the labs at Kyiv’s Polytechnic Institute.

*All photos thanks to ukrainiancomputing.org.

Posted by Marina Tarasova, Communications Associate, Ukraine

New exhibitions at London’s Science Museum

2011-12-15T17:33:00.001+01:00

At Google, we’re passionate about finding ways to inspire the next generation of technologists and engineers, and we think museums are a great way to do it. Earlier this year, and again this week we announced how we are supporting science museums internationally through charitable gifts.

Today, one of those museums, the Science Museum in London, gave details of two forthcoming exhibitions supported by their Google grants.

A new temporary exhibition celebrating the centenary of the birth of English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist Alan Turing will open in June 2012. Turing formalized the concepts of "algorithm" and "computation" with the Turing machine. The Science Museum’s biographical exhibition will examine Turing’s inspirational (and tragic) story, using objects (including some which have never been on public display), archive material, interactive exhibits, photographs and quotations.

The second is a new permanent exhibition which opens in summer 2014. Situated at the heart of the Museum, Making Modern Communications will explore the history of information and communication technologies. It will tell powerful stories about how these technologies have shaped our world over the last 200 years, showcasing never-before-seen objects and the most advanced multimedia and interpretive techniques.

We’re delighted to be able to support these new exhibitions which will help explain both the birth of modern computing and how that revolution touches all our lives today.

And we’re thrilled that Alan Turing, widely regarded as the father of modern computing and a hero to many of the engineers who work at Google, is finally getting the recognition that his work deserves. This week we also announced support for educational activities at Bletchley Park, where Turing’s code-breaking genius helped shorten the second World War and saved thousands of lives.

We look forward to seeing how these exhibitions will inspire tomorrow’s technologists.

Posted by Peter Barron, Director, External Relations, EMEA

Protecting intermediaries - and copyright

2011-12-14T19:50:00.000+01:00

Earlier today the Court of Rome issued an important decision around ISP liability limitation, copyright and video hosting. It reaffirmed that web platforms are not liable for content uploaded by their users and found - referring to the ECJ ruling in the SABAM case, and the European Union’s E-Commerce Directive - that web platforms do not have to monitor user uploads for copyright-infringing material, nor prevent future infringements by users.

The background to this ruling is a case brought last summer against Google by RTI, a subsidiary of the Mediaset Group. RTI sued Google for copyright infringement because a web portal, hosted on Blogger, was allegedly streaming football matches broadcast on RTI's TV channels.

Today, the Court of Rome rejected RTI’s claim because - following notification to Google - the allegedly infringing content was removed from Blogger. The Court found that any other interpretation would be contrary to the European Union’s E-Commerce Directive.

Today’s ruling is important because it further clarifies the rules on liability online. But it’s also clear that copyright infringement is a serious matter - and its something we take very seriously. We invest heavily in technology to fight piracy; earlier this year we launched four new initiatives to tackle copyright infringement online, including a range of tools to make it easier and faster for rightsholders to report infringing material - and get it removed from our platforms quickly.

It’s important that right holders and intermediaries work together. Without rightsholder cooperation it is impossible for a platform like Blogger to know whether an item has been uploaded with or without a rightsholder’s permission. Today’s decision re-affirms this principle.

Posted by Marilù Capparelli, Italian Senior Legal Counsel

Giving back in 2011

2011-12-14T12:58:00.000+01:00

Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog

As the holiday season approaches we thought it was a good moment to update you on some grants we're making to support education, technology and the fight against modern day slavery.

STEM and girls’ education
Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) open up great opportunities for young people so we've decided to fund 16 great programs in this area. These include Boston-based Citizen Schools and Generating Genius in the U.K., both of which work to help to expand the horizons of underprivileged youngsters. In total, our grants will provide enhanced STEM education for more than 3 million students.

In addition, we're supporting girls’ education in the developing world. By giving a girl an education, you not only improve her opportunities, but those of her whole family. The African Leadership Academy provides merit scholarships to promising young women across the continent, and the Afghan Institute of Learning offers literacy classes to women and girls in rural Afghanistan. Groups like these will use our funds to educate more than 10,000 girls in developing countries.

Empowerment through technology
We've all been wowed by the entrepreneurial spirit behind the 15 awards in this category, all of whom are using the web, open source programming and other technology platforms to connect communities and improve access to information. Vittana, for instance, helps lenders offer loans to students in the developing world who have have a 99 percent repayment rate—potentially doubling or tripling a recipient's earning power. Code for America enables the web industry to share its skills with the public sector by developing projects that improve transparency and encourage civic engagement on a mass scale. And Switchboard is working with local mobile providers to help African health care workers create networks and communicate for free.

Fighting slavery and human trafficking
Modern day slavery is a multi-billion dollar industry that ruins the lives of around 27 million people. So we're funding a number of groups that are working to tackle the problem. For instance, in India, International Justice Mission (IJM), along with The BBC World Service Trust, Action Aid and Aide et Action, are forming a new coalition. It will work on the ground with governments to stop slave labor by identifying the ring masters, documenting abuse, freeing individuals and providing them with therapy as well as job training. Our support will also help expand the reach of tools like the powerful Slavery Footprint calculator and Polaris Project’s National Trafficking Hotline.

To learn more about these organizations and how you can get involved, visit our Google Gives Back 2011 site and take a look at this video:

These grants, which total $40 million, are only part of our annual philanthropic efforts. Over the course of the year, Google provided more than $115 million in funding to various nonprofit organizations and academic institutions around the world; our in-kind support (programs like Google Grants and Google Apps for Education that offer free products and services to eligible organizations) came to more than $1 billion, and our annual company-wide GoogleServe event and related programs enabled individual Googlers to donate more than 40,000 hours of their own volunteer time.

As 2011 draws to a close, I’m inspired by this year’s grantees and look forward to seeing their world-changing work in 2012.

Posted by Shona Brown, SVP, Google.org

A Big Tent for free expression in The Hague

2011-12-08T21:41:00.002+01:00

Google has long worked hard to raise the issue of Internet freedom in Europe. So when the Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal took the initiative to host a meeting bringing together foreign ministers from more than 16 countries to the Netherlands, we wondered what could we do to support it.

Our answer was to hook up with the Dutch NGO Free Press Unlimited and host one of our Big Tent events, which aim to bring together corporations, civil society and politicians. We were delighted when both U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and minister Rosenthal agreed to take part. Our Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt welcomed them to the Fokker Terminal in The Hague. “We are joined in a spirit to fight people who want to shut down free speech," he said. "It makes easy sense for a government to say: 'We don't like that...we're going to censor it'.” The conference, he said, was organised "to make the point that this is not right."

Secretary of State Clinton called on companies to protect Internet freedoms and stop selling technology which allows repressive governments to censor the net or spy on Internet users. She urged corporations to join Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and others in the Global Network Initiative to resist government efforts to impose filtering or censoring requirements. And she called on governments to fight attempts to impose national controls on the net. Any such attempt would contain people in a “series of digital bubbles rather than connecting them,” she said. "It is most urgent, of course, for those around the world whose words are now censored, who are imprisoned because of what they or others have written online, who are blocked from accessing entire categories of Internet content, or who are being tracked by governments seeking to keep them from connecting with one another.”

Minister Uri Rosenthal called for legislation against exports of Internet surveillance material and promised 6 million euros to help Internet activists in repressive regimes. High-powered contributions came from the European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes, the Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, and European parliamentarian Marietje Schaake.

A panel brought together business leaders and prominent human rights activists, including the Thai webmaster Chiranuch Premchaiporn, better known as Jiew, who faces trial over comments posted on her site that were deemed insulting to the monarchy.

The Hague is our third Big Tent (see highlights here), a place where we bring together various viewpoints to discuss essential topics to the future of the Internet. The format seems to be a hit, and we plan to hold more around the world in the coming months.

Posted by Rogier Klimbie, Policy Manager, Amsterdam

Saluting Europe’s eTowns

2011-12-07T19:31:00.000+01:00

It’s often assumed that big cities benefit the most from the Internet, but we believe the net offers giant opportunities to everyone from urbanites to small town residents, farmers and nature lovers in the far-flung countryside. We recently tested this thesis in our first-ever European Google eTown awards, which recognize those areas that had most embraced the web’s potential over the last year.

The results were fascinating—and surprising. Smaller, quirky and plucky towns came out ahead. Scunthorpe, a steel town in the north of England, topped the U.K.’s list. Caen, a town in rural Normandy not far from the D-Day beaches and famed as the home of camembert cheese, came first in France. Salerno, nestled between the Amalfi and the Cilento Coast led the way in Italy and Elbląg, a remote northern town located in the region of 1,000 lakes won in Poland. In all four participating countries, eTown lists included towns of all sizes.

How did we determine our eTown awards? We broke down the U.K., France, Italy and Poland into all of their thousands of towns and then ranked local areas according to the growth in small businesses using AdWords over the last year. The top towns in each country won Google eTown awards.

The results back up recent research identifying the Internet as a main force driving growth throughout Europe. For example, a recent McKinsey report Internet Matters states that 2.6 Internet jobs are created globally for every job destroyed. Separately, the Boston Consulting Group estimates that by 2015 the web will account for 7.3 percent of Denmark’s GDP, 10 percent of the U.K.’s GDP and 5.5 percent of France’s GDP. The net drives growth of both big and small businesses—indeed another BCG report called “Turning Local” (PDF) makes clear that small businesses with a website grow faster than businesses without a web presence.

We’ve seen this ourselves, in the businesses of all shapes and sizes that we encountered as part of our eTown awards. An entrepreneur in Hartlepool in the U.K. sells golf balls online. A Polish programmer runs a data recovery business from Piaseczno. An plumber directs a heating systems company from Vicenza, Italy and a French retailer has reached new scooter customers online in Reims. Online advertising has helped them grow and reach more customers than ever before. When it comes to the Internet, our eTown awards show that anybody, almost anywhere, can boost a business by going online.

Posted by Ben Novick, European Communications Manager

Measuring Internet network speeds with the OECD

2011-12-07T12:18:00.001+01:00

Whether it’s the nutritional value of food, the fuel economy of a new car - or the real performance of your broadband connection - good, standardised data and transparency is the key to understanding this important information. Our executive chairman Eric Schmidt outlined our views on the importance of measurement in a speech this week in Brussels.

Yesterday, as part of Measurement Lab (M-Lab), we presented important data on Internet network speed to a committee at the Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation in Paris. M-Lab is a collaborative effort led by researchers in partnership with companies and other institutions, as part of a drive to help ISPs, regulators and consumers improve Internet services across the continent. Some regulators such as the UK’s Ofcom are also running their own comparable measurement projects.

At the OECD, we outlined several recent developments. SamKnows, an M-Lab partner, is running a project for the European Commission designed to map network performance in all EU Member States. In Greece, the country’s telecom regulator, the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission, has launched a new consumer-focused broadband measurement portal, using M-Lab’s Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT) and data. Greek consumers now have real-time, useful information about their broadband performance. The portal uses M-Lab’s NDT to detail average speed, latency, packet loss, and other performance metrics for different areas of Greece. Interactive features allow consumers to compare the results from their tests with averages.

In the future, the Greek regulator hopes to expand the portal to allow consumers to compare speeds across Internet service providers, and to run M-Lab’s Glasnost test to determine the occurrence of application-specific traffic blocking. We encourage other governments and consumer advocates to take a look at M-Lab, and to consider the possibility of using this open-source code. Everyone - ISPs, regulators and consumers - will benefit from solid data about Internet network speeds.

Posted by Meredith Whittaker, Program Manager, Google Research

Inaugurating our new French headquarters

2011-12-06T15:47:00.002+01:00

Last year, our Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt promised to open a research and development and culture centre in France. Today, Eric returned to Paris to inaugurate our new 10,000-square meter office in a refurbished 19th century Second Empire building near the St. Lazare Train Station. It will be our headquarters not just for France, but our entire Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa operations.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy honored us with his presence. “Why as President, do I make this symbolic move and come to Google?" he asked rhetorically to a packed courtyard auditorium. “I love the United States, and its motto that everything is possible whatever your origins.” President Sarkozy also officially launched the Elysee Palace’s YouTube channel and his visit was shown on YouTube Live, the section of the site where we list all live streamed events.

The President participated in a Google+ Hangout, taking questions from French-speaking Google employees around the world. (“What time is it there?” he asked someone dialing in from California.) On a serious note, he expressed his gratification for how Google has moved to dig deep roots in France. “When I first met Eric, we had a frank conversation,” he recalled, saying his message was clear. “I asked him how long Google was preparing to make money in France without investing here. I told him that Google must have its feet in France.”

Our new Paris headquarters is emblematic of our commitment to one of Europe’s fastest-growing Internet economies. According to a recent McKinsey study that we helped sponsor, the web contributed to 3,2% of the French GDP in 2009 and created more than 700,000 jobs during the past 15 years. Between now and 2015, McKinsey estimates that the digital contribution will grow to 5.5% of GDP, and 450,000 additional jobs will be created. In order to help accelerate the French digital engine, we’ve launched a Startup Café, an online platform offering information and tools.

Our investment plan for France is ambitious, and extends far beyond buildings. We’re expanding our engineering presence to take advantage of France’s strong engineering talent pool and are making significant academic investments, including a partnership with the French national research center CNRS.

France is a global cultural leader and we’re working hard to partner with French writers, filmmakers and musicians. Over the past year, we've reached an agreement with the biggest French publisher Hachette to scan and sell digital versions of out-of-print books and are providing payment systems for French news publishers from Hachette. YouTube has signed royalty-collection agreements with music copyright societies and our new Cultural Institute will be located in the Paris headquarters. It will aim at driving innovation in cultural preservation, creation and access, not just in France, but across the world.

Just before the President left, he asked to say a few final words. He praised our “dynamism” and wished well our expanded operations, before making a parting promise. “I hope this inauguration is one of a long series,” he said. “If you invite me to another building opening, I will come.”

Posted by Anne-Gabrielle Dauba Pantanacce, Head of Communications, France

Supporting innovation in Europe’s capital

2011-12-05T18:50:00.001+01:00

In these challenging economic times, it's important to focus not just on today's immediate problems, but on innovating for the future and for growth. European Commission President José-Manuel Barroso and Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn are to be commended for tackling this long-term challenges by hosting an Innovation Summit today in Brussels.

We were delighted that our Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, was invited to give one of the keynote speeches. Eric outlined a pro-innovation agenda, focusing on how governments can identify “smart problems” and steer entrepreneurial energy in a productive direction.

Data is key, Eric said. Today’s computing power, including on mobile phones, makes it possible to address problems in new ways by taking advantage of the vast datasets available and in so doing identify big opportunities. And decisions driven by data need to measured carefully: "GDP measures, for example, may not be enough, as the productivity benefits of IT adoption in the workplace and the uncounted consumer benefits from online services are not included in such estimates.(for details, see the McKinsey Study for IAB Europe).."

Eric set out an agenda designed to take advantage of data-driven innovation:

Education: “We need to invest in training a new generation of smart problem-solvers, and encourage innovative methods for teaching and learning.”
Copyright and other Internet issues: Eric called on Europe to implement a regulatory framework which fosters cloud computing and other innovations.
Patents: Europe should avoid following the U.S. lead on patents. “I don’t want to get too far into the intricacies of the various debates underway on patent legislation, but here is my top advice - don’t copy the US. You’re still light years ahead of us!,” Eric said.
Culture of entrepreneurship: Governments should provide support and investment for world-class clusters of innovation, like the UK government’s Tech City initiative in East London. We’re a sponsor and active participant in Tech City - and in France, we’re backers of the Startup Cafe resources center for entrepreneurs, as well as the Le Camping incubator.

Europe’s future need not be one of crisis - but one of innovation, Eric concluded. Europe has the talent. It has the human potential. Now the task is to summon new thinking and leadership at every level in society to ensure that the full promise of technology is unlocked.

Posted by Simon Hampton, Director, European Public Policy and Government Affairs

Honoring innovative digital journalism in Paris

2011-12-02T17:38:00.000+01:00

Journalism is is in the midst of moving onto the Internet and Google is committed to helping ease this transition. We drive millions of readers to media sites every day and we split billions of dollars each year in advertising with publishers. We also aim to reward journalism that takes advantage of new digital tools.

A sign of the commitment is our partnership with the School of Journalism at Sciences Po in Paris. We created an award to showcase student projects, as well as professionals. A panel of prestigious journalists was recruited as judges: Jean-Marie Colombani, the founder of Slate.fr, Jean-Marc Manach, author of the blog Bug Brother, Thibaud Vuitton, deputy editor of the platform of continuous information France Television, Pascale Robert-Diard, author of the blog world Chronicles Judicieres and Alice Antheaume, deputy director of the journalism school at Sciences Po and author of the blog Work In Progress.

The awards were delivered at an event today at Sciences Po. Villeneuve 5/5, led by a group of students from the Grenoble School of Journalism, won the student award for a project that uses the video, sound, text and images to bring readers into the heart of violent riots which shook the district of Villeneuve in 2010. In the professional category, the jury praised the innovation of two journalists Slate.fr, who seized the tools used on social networks to investigate the murky finances of France’s richest woman Liliane Bettencourt.

Prix Google de l'innovation en journalisme from Sciences Po on Vimeo.

This initiative is part of a comprehensive partnership with Science Po's School of Journalism, announced in May 2011. We look forward to pursuing it - and continuing to support online journalism.

Posted by Elisabeth Bargès, Institutional Relations, Google France

Making Internet a safer place in Russia

2011-12-02T14:37:00.001+01:00

As in the real world, keeping kids safe online is a challenge. Children move fast with an insatiable curiosity which drives the questions and answers, sparks innovation, and can ultimately lead to a brighter future. At Google, we believe in empowering families with technologies and resources to help kids grow -- as well as tools to protect them online. Google SafeSearch, YouTube Safety Mode and other safety features are built into our products help our users make their own choices about what minors do and see online.

These controls need to be adapted to local concerns in order to be effective. We have launched more than 50 Family Safety Centres across the world in national languages, with more countries joining all the time. Last week, the Russian Ministry of Telecommunications awarded a national Internet award. the Runet Prize, to our Russian Family Safety Center. This award signals government recognition of our efforts to build transparency, choice, and security into our products.

Online child safety is emerging as a major issue in Russia. A recent Law on Protection of Children from Harmful Information will enter into force in September. It stipulates several Internet-challenging issues, namely mandatory content filtering at the level of access providers. We are concerned that such an approach may not eradicate illegal content from the web and could instead impact Internet freedoms.

In less than three decades of existence, the Internet has grown into an exciting world of e-books, digitised culture and connected communities. Kids are naturals to this environment. While we have much to teach children about staying smart online, they, in course, have much to teach us. Harsh regulation will not solve the problem. Instead, we all should work together to develop tools that promote online responsibility and user choice. We’re glad that the Russian Ministry of Telecommunications recognizes our work in this direction.

Posted by Ksenia Karyakina, Policy Analyst for Russia

Luvvies and Boffins embrace in London

2011-12-01T16:28:00.011+01:00

When Eric Schmidt delivered his MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival this summer he spoke of the importance of bringing the worlds of art and science back together if Britain’s creative industries are to succeed in the digital era. Luvvies and boffins, he said, need to work together.

That call seems to have struck a chord with industry, the arts and government, so this week we gathered a group of more than a hundred prominent figures from both worlds at our London offices for our first Luvvies and Boffins event.

The Rambert Dance company’s artistic director Mark Baldwin and resident scientist Professor Nicola Clayton explained how they worked together to create Comedy of Change, a ballet based on Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Ian Livingstone, founder of the video game pioneers Eidos and author of Next Gen, a new report on the future of our creative industries, made a passionate plea to the Government to include computer science in the schools curriculum.

The Science and Universities Minister David Willetts dropped in and showed he’s listening. This week the government responded positively to Ian Livingstone’s report, Prime Minister David Cameron agreeing that “we're not doing enough to teach the next generation of programmers.”

It was an evening of intense conversation, inspiring demonstrations and scientifically prepared cocktails. We plan to continue to meet as a group to promote the aims of what’s now being called STEAM education - Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths.

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

Working together to make the web a better place for kids

2011-12-01T12:46:00.001+01:00

We’re strong believers in the benefits of the Internet for young people, whether in the classroom, at home, or out and about. But we also know that like all technologies, the value of the Net is what you make of it. If you’re a parent (and many of us here at Google are), then you want to ensure that your kids can navigate the web smartly and safely.

That’s why today we’re pleased to become a founding member of European Commissioner Neelie Kroes’ Better Internet for Kids coalition. The new coalition brings together a wide range of technology companies with diverse experience in protecting children online. We’ve committed to working together and sharing our expertise to achieve a better Internet for kids.

Over the years, we’ve dedicated significant engineering and educational resources to providing families with choice, transparency, and security. Our SafeSearch Lock enables parents to block offensive content; our flagging system and Safety Center on YouTube provide an easy way to report abuse and find support from professionals. We also regularly run pragmatic digital literacy campaigns - the most recent being our “Good to Know” initiative (in English and German), in partnership with citizens’ advice organisations.

We’ve learned a lot in the process - but know that on the ever changing web, it's important to work with others to keep on top of the challenges. We’re looking forward to getting started with this new initiative, and we encourage other companies across the spectrum of the technology business to get involved too.

Posted by Simon Hampton, Director of European Public Policy