Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Supporting innovation in journalism
Monday, April 30, 2012
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
Friday, April 27, 2012
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
Thursday, April 26, 2012
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
Thursday, April 26, 2012
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
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
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
Monday, April 23, 2012
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
Friday, April 20, 2012
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
Thursday, April 19, 2012
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
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
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
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
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
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
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
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Supporting innovation in journalism
Opening the Big Tent in Moscow
Meeting a royal leader in Belgium
Celebrating Exceptional Young Minds
Launching an Internet lecture program
Informing France’s voters for their presidential c...
How the Internet powers German small businesses
Checking in with the Global Network Initiative
Leveraging the Internet to revive the Greek economy
German Supreme Court: Google Image Search in line ...
Going global in search of great art
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