Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Become a cartographer: help us improve Europe's maps
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Maps are no longer static paper records, but living, breathing representations of our world. Places around us are constantly changing — while mountains don’t move, roads are rerouted, homes are built, shops open and close. Many times, the best way to keep Google Maps fresh and up to date is by allowing anyone, anywhere with an Internet connection to contribute to the map using their knowledge of the areas they know best. So we’re delighted that
Google Map Maker
is now available for budding cartographers to edit our maps of Greece, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
With Map Maker, everyone can contribute your local expertise to make an even more comprehensive, useful and interesting map. Begin in your town or village and try adding the outlines or ‘footprints’ of local shops, restaurants and other businesses. Then help enrich the maps of national parks, or add leisure facilities and historic landmarks. If you enjoy the great outdoors, try adding campsites, beautiful beaches or your favorite cycling paths.
Whether you add a biking route through Tallinn or a landmark in Vilnius, each improvement to the map will help locals and tourists alike better understand the area and discover new things to do. Once approved, your contributions will appear on
Google Maps
,
Google Earth
and
Google Maps for mobile
.
The map of Korčula, Croatia, often cited as the birthplace of Marco Polo, before and after Map Maker edits
To get started, visit our
Google Map Maker community forum
and see the
Help Centre
for tips and tricks, or watch mapping in real-time with
Map Maker Pulse
. Happy mapping!
Posted by Nicole Drobeck, Map Maker Community Manager
Settlement with the European Commission
Friday, February 14, 2014
Following three rounds of negotiations and significant concessions, we are glad to have now reached an agreement with the European Commission that addresses its competition concerns.
Commissioner Almunia laid out
the details
of that settlement at a press conference last week, including:
Changes to our AdSense terms to make it even easier for publishers to place ads on their sites from multiple providers;
Changes to our AdWords API terms to make it even easier for software providers to build tools for advertisers to manage campaigns across platforms;
New rules regarding how we will use website content in vertical search services; and
Changes to our UI that will give rival services significant prominence (and valuable screen space) on our search results pages. You can see what this looks like
here
.
In addition, our suggested changes have (unusually) been through two separate “market tests” which enabled the Commission to hear directly from a number of our competitors, as well as third parties. In response to their feedback, we made two rounds of significant further changes to our initial proposals. Today, to ensure that everyone understands the wide-ranging nature of this settlement, we are taking the (again unusual) step of publishing the
full text
of the agreement.
While this process has been challenging, we are pleased to have a resolution of these issues and look forward to a continued focus on providing new generations of great services for our users.
Posted by Kent Walker, Senior Vice-President and General Counsel
Working with Spanish Publishers
Friday, February 14, 2014
The cafe in our Madrid office was full with guests, news publishers, members of the
Spanish Association of Publishers of Periodicals
(AEEPP) who had come to learn about how web tools could boost their businesses. Under a recently signed partnership, we are working designed to "increase visibility" of their publications online and seek sustainable business models in the digital world.
AEPP members attended a workshop at Google's Madrid offices
It's no secret that the news industry has been through a period of upheaval. As our chief economist Hal Varian noted last year in a
speech
at the Perugia Journalism Festival, while the Internet has made distribution much easier and cheaper, it has also increased the supply of news and competition for readers, challenging traditional business models. At the same time, media consultancy
Oliver & Ohlbaum
recently published a
study
showing that the net is powering the rise of exciting new voices and small players. YouTube stars are building fame online before securing a record deal or a film contract. Newshounds now discover, share, and comment on stories on platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
Many win-win ways exist for Google and publishers to join forces in the new digital universe. We drive traffic to publishers - ten billion clicks a month around the globe, offering publishers 100,000 business opportunities per minute. In 2013, our
AdSense
program paid out $9 billion a year to web publishers worldwide. Publishers remain free, with the addition of just a few lines of code, to pull out of Google web search and Google News. Publishers also remain free to determine whether to put their articles discovered through Google search behind a paywall.
We have set up a working group to discuss these new digital solutions with the AEEPP members in Spain. Our joint goal, in the association’s own words, is to find tools that new technologies offer publishers to "increase the monetization of their content, give greater visibility to their websites and strengthen their relationship with their own readers." During the recent workshop at our Madrid office, we demoed Webmaster tools, designed to attract readers. We analysed digital advertising solutions. And we explained our fight against spam.
The AEEPP represents Spain’s small and medium-size publishers. They like how all media are equally likely to appear in Google News. Today, more than 25,000 news organizations across the globe make their content available in Google News and other web search engines. We remain open to work with all publishers, big and small, local and national, to help them manage the transition to the new digital age.
Posted by Fran Ruiz Anton, Senior Public Policy Manager, Madrid
Involving French citizens in the 2014 municipal elections
Thursday, February 13, 2014
In March, French citizens will head to the polls to decide who is best fit to manage their cities. Before they vote, they will engage in a heated debate on issues ranging from housing, to urban planning and local taxes. We believe the Internet can play a central role in facilitating this debate and access to information. This is why we have partnered with France’s public TV network France Televisions - its information website
France TV info
and its regional TV channel
France 3
- to allow French internet users to question candidates via Hangout on Air.
Visit
“Mon Débat 2014”
(My debate 2014) and register for these live debates or organise your own. More than 50 Hangouts are set to take place across the country in the weeks to come. Once they have taken place, the playbacks of the debates will be available to watch.
This week, the two main candidates in the race to become the next mayor of Paris,
+Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet
and
+Anne Hidalgo
, will both answer questions from citizens via Hangout on Air. Sign up now to participate. Below, see an example of an already conducted hangout.
The platform also will serve as a news hub. Users will be able to browse electoral news curated just as the rest of the platform by our partner, France TV info, and discover election search trends to get a sense of what fellow French citizens have on their mind.
Posted by the Election Team, Google France
Participating in Safer Internet Day
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
In time for Safer Internet Day this week, we revamped our
Family Safety Centre
. The new version aims to be a one-stop shop that provides step-by-step instructions for using safety tools built into Google products. We attempt to answer questions about specific topics that are most concerning to parents, such as accessing inappropriate content and meeting strangers online.
Throughout Europe, we promoted Safer Internet Day on Google home pages and our teams got into action. In Spain, for example, we participated in a presentation with local partner Protegeles bringing together kids, parents and teachers. In Israel, the Children’s Rights Committee at the Parliament met with our
Web-Rangers
, to discuss how teenagers can promote online safety.
Here in Brussels, we hosted for lunch in our office with the winners of the European Award for
Best Content for Kids
, a European wide contest highlighting content allowing young people online opportunities to learn, play, discover and invent. Winning entries such as the from the UK (see below) touch important topics like the issue of
cyberbullying
.
European Commissioner Neelie Kroes
received the winners later in the day at the Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters and posted its “Let’s Create a Better Internet Together” video on YouTube.
The Internet and social platforms offer tremendous opportunities for youth: self-expression, civil engagement, and collaboration with communities. At the same time, like any tool, the web can be abused. We are proud to build powerful safety tools into our products, ranging from SafeSearch to Safety Mode. In the end, its up to all of us to stand up for for a safe and secure internet, not just on the annual Safer Internet day - but every day!
Posted by Marco Pancini, Senior Policy Manager, Brussels
Promoting Child Safety in Greece
Friday, February 7, 2014
The play takes place on a farm with many animals who love to surf the Internet. Unfortunately, they soon run into trouble. A naughty pig finds how dangerous it is to reveal personal data online. A shy hen runs encounters difficulties after talking to strangers online. Playful geese learn the importance of cross-checking the reliability of information they find online. Thankfully, a wise owl and the two kids living in the farm always come to the rescue.
In Greece, in collaboration with
Saferinternet
, we took this play called
“The Internet Farm”
on tour through ten cities around the country. In addition to the theater, the program included integrated digital workshops for children and informative sessions for teachers and parents.
The project attracted widespread support. Besides the national Ministry of Education, some 30 local and regional organizations offered their support. They included
Western Greece's Education Directorate
, the
IT teachers Association of Evros
, the
municipality of Chania
, the
Region of Crete
, and the
Church of Kalamata
.
The tour had a strong impact. About 40,000 children and 3,000 parents and teachers attended the play and participated in the activities. Many theaters were fully booked, with some spectators standing or sitting on the steps.
Our hope is that the show’s lessons are carried beyond the theater. Many of the educators who are involved are taking the messages back to their classrooms. So the Internet Farm will live on - and maybe even spawn a sequel.
Posted by Dionisis Kolokotsas, Public Policy Manager, Athens
2014 RISE Awards: Supporting computer science education
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
"We need more kids falling in love with science and math.” Our CEO Larry Page said this at last year's
Google Developers I/O event
, and it's a feeling shared by all of us. We want to inspire young people around the world, and so five years ago we created the
Google RISE (Roots in Science and Engineering) Awards
, which provides funding to organisations around the world that engage girls and underrepresented students in extracurricular computer science programs.
This year, the RISE Awards are providing $1.5 million to 42 organizations in 19 countries that provide students with the resources they need to succeed in the field. Ten winners come from Europe. They range from
Generating Genius
in the U.K. which provides after-school computer science programs and mentoring to prepare high-achieving students from disadvantaged communities for admission into top universities to
Mezon
in Russia, which operates a learning center for educational robotics, developing curriculum for senior school teachers. Visit
our site
for a full list of our RISE Award recipients.
Created in 2007, the Children’s University Foundation has been carrying out educational programs for more than 20,000 children aged 6-13. Click on the photo to learn more about this and other RISE Awardees.
This year we’re also expanding the program with the RISE Partnership Awards. These awards aim to encourage collaboration across organizations in pursuit of a shared goal of increasing global participation in computer science. For example, more than 5,000 girls in sub-Saharan Africa will learn computer science as a result of a partnership between the Harlem based program
ELITE
and the
WAAW Foundation
in Nigeria.
We’re proud to help these organisations inspire the next generation of computer scientists.
Posted by Hai Hong, RISE Program Manager
Inviting you to take a Romanesque journey
Monday, February 3, 2014
More than a millenium before the birth of the European Union, a style of architecture and art spread across the continent. It was called Romanesque and it emerged almost simultaneously in Spain, France, Italy, and Germany with sufficient unity to be considered Europe’s first common international art style.
Celebrating this achievement, our Cultural Institute just has launched launch a new, virtual exhibition, called
“Origins of Romanesque: the Birth of Europe.”
Curated by the
Santa María la Real Foundation
, it presents 26 iconic expressions of Romanesque beauty, explaining their social, political and cultural context. More than 100 guests attended the launch event in Madrid, featuring the president of the Foundation, José María Perez Peridis and the President of National Heritage as speakers.
Monestaries and abbeys led the way in spreading Romanesque constructions. In Spain, Romanesque cathedrals, churches, monasteries, cloisters and chapels mark the famed
Camino de Santiago pilgrammage
route.
Elsewhere in Europe, abbeys in
Fulda,
Lorsch
,
St. Gallen
and
Bobbio
arose in the 11th century and became beacons for the new style, as did Europe’s first universities, beginning with
Bologna
in 1088.
Beside exploring Romanesque buildings, the new online exhibition includes drawings, photographs, films and video about Romanesque Europe.
We hope this present exhibition is only the first of a series, exploring other a series of exhibitions on life and art in Europe from Roman to modern times. Our goal is help everyone learn about and enjoy the beauties from the past.
Posted by Barbara Navarro, Director of Institutional Relations and Public Affairs Google
Driving into our 55th country and updating Russian imagery
Friday, January 31, 2014
With the eyes of winter sports fans turning to Russia, we thought this would be a good time to add more towns, cities and picturesque sights of this sprawling country to Google Maps. From today, Street View is available in Vladivostok, Yakutsk, Irkutsk and, of course,
Sochi
.
Winter lovers also are treated, for the first time, to images of mountainous Slovenia. This gorgeous Central European country becomes our 55th country to launch Street View.
Map of some of the newly available areas to explore in Russia
In Russia, our drivers reached the far away corners of the world's largest country. Users can take a walk around Yakutsk, the city with the greatest seasonal temperature swings on Earth (the lowest recorded winter temperature was −64.4°C with the highest summer peak hitting 38.4°C).
View Larger Map
Explore the city center of Yakutsk
In total, Street View cars covered 300,000 kilometers in Russia in 2013, an area housing almost 60 percent of the population. We mapped the biggest Russian island of
Sakhalin
and the
Russkiy Bridge
, the world's longest cable-stayed bridge. While snapping the
M52 highway
, also known as
Chuya Highway
or Chuysky Trakt, Street View drivers met indigenous tribes.
The mapping team faced unusual challenges. When taking imagery of the
Tobolsk monastery
the drivers spent two days praying with the Monastery Abbot. In order to get to some remote spots, Street View cars were transported in containers on tracks and boats. There was even place for romance: while shooting Sakhalin, one driver met his future wife!
View Larger Map
The Tobolsk Monastery in Tyumen Oblast
We also are launching our imagery in Slovenia. Virtual tourists now can explore cities like Ljubljana, Maribor, Celje, Kranj, and Koper, as well as beautiful places like
Bohinj Lake
or the sea town of
Piran
.
View Larger Map
Congress Square, Ljubljana
Enjoy some of these amazing sights on StreetView’s journey eastward through Europe.
Posted by Carlos Reolid, Program Manager for Google Street View
Vote for Digital Defender of the Year
Thursday, January 30, 2014
For the past 14 years the
Index on Censorship Awards
have honoured some of the most remarkable fighters for free expression from around the world - from assassinated Russian journalist
Anna Politkovskaya
to Israeli conductor
Daniel Barenboim
and Syrian cartoonist
Ali Farzat
to education activist
Malala Yousafzai
. Until now, distinguished juries have selected all the winners. But this year, we’re working with Index on an innovation - asking the public to vote for the digital activist award, which honours the person who has done the most to defend online freedom.
Take a look at the nominees and vote here. Voting finishes next Monday, February 3, so please do act fast.
This is the fourth year Google has worked with Index on its annual awards event. Total editorial control remains with Index; they choose the nominees. We are just delighted to support this important organization’s new and important work in defence of online freedom. For a taste of the excitement surrounding the ceremony, watch last year’s highlight video below.
This year’s awards ceremony take place on Thursday March 20, 6.30pm, at the
Barbican Centre
in London. In addition to the digital defender award, three other awards will be given out, one for journalism, one for advocacy and one for arts. Tickets are available, so please do join us to celebrate free-expression champions and shine a light on their ongoing struggle against censorship around the world.
Posted by William Echikson, Head of Free Expression, Europe, Middle East and Africa
The real story behind high-tech jobs
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
We’ve all heard the damning indictment - technology destroys jobs. While it is true that the digital revolution disrupts the workplace - just as the Industrial Revolution swept away many artisan professions such as weavers -
a new report by University of Leuven researchers
tells a fascinating story of how the high tech revolution is, surprisingly, creating an explosion in non-high tech jobs in Europe. Indeed, for every one high-tech job created, more than four additional non-high tech jobs are created in the same region.
That’s not the only good news, either. Across the European economy, the high-tech sector is showing impressive signs of growth. The new research shows that high-tech employment grew 20 percent in the EU-27 between 2000-2011, while total employment increased by just eight percent.
Growth in high-tech jobs also has a positive spillover effect in local economies. The presence of high-tech workers in a region is likely to create additional work for a wide range of occupations - from lawyers, doctors and school teachers to taxi drivers, waiters and technicians.
This spillover is not limited to Europe’s biggest economies. While Germany contributed the most to total high-tech employment in Europe, it is relatively unexpected regions in Europe that saw the fastest growth in high-tech jobs. For example, Bratislava, Slovakia is one of the fastest growing regions for high-tech employment, growing at nearly 56 percent from 2000-2011. This contributes to the region’s high level of per-capita income and contrasts with assumptions that high-tech jobs are only in traditional hubs.
Not only is the high-tech sector outperforming other sectors in total employment growth, but its workers enjoy high rates of employment, a substantial wage premium (over 65% in some countries, like Portugual and Romania) and higher wage growth. With many economies struggling with stagnant wages, a vibrant high-tech sector makes a strong contribution to these countries.
So what lessons should we take from these findings?
First, that the EU’s pursuit of high-tech and digital job growth is worthwhile. The Europe 2020 strategy and recent agreements at the European Digital Council provide the opportunity to build on the success of the past ten years to support this vibrant part of the economy.
Second, we know that supporting high-tech jobs will benefit the wider economy. The high-tech sector is generating faster, higher-paying job growth across the EU-27, the knock-on effect of which is positive across the economy.
Third, investing in high-tech and digital skills will pay dividends. The difference in wages between STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) jobs and non-STEM jobs is high right across Europe. And with the high-tech jobs multiplier, supporting skills development in high-tech fields should create benefits beyond traditional high-tech industries.
As these jobs spread across the continent, it is clear that supporting high-tech industries will benefit the whole economy and make a substantial contribution to resolving the unemployment crisis facing many economies.
Posted by Jon Steinberg, Google Public Policy team
Life in the fast lane: Street View on the Top Gear test track
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Thanks to Street View, you might have already traversed the elegant
plains
of Botswana, or discovered the serene
fjords
of Norway. But now for something completely different.
One of our brave Street View drivers has been to a
remote airfield
in Surrey, England — filming location of the BBC’s automotive TV show,
Top Gear
. He went to take on the fearless petrolhead that reigns supreme on the iconic show —
The Stig
. While the Stig raced around in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black, we took a tour with our own vehicle. Take a look at the results in this behind the scenes video.
View Larger Map
Crossing the chequered line. The track plays host to regular Top Gear features like the Power Lap and Star in a Reasonably Priced Car.
The Top Gear test track is the latest in a line of special Street View collects designed to delight motorsport fans. Previously, we’ve put online the
Laguna Seca
raceway in California and the
Monza
Formula 1 circuit, host to the Italian Grand Prix, among others. Get behind the “wheel” and enjoy!
Posted by Ulf Spitzer, Street View Program Manager, Google
More Swedish wind power for our Finnish data centre
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
We’re keen to make sure that our data centres around the world use as much renewable energy as possible. By entering into
long-term agreements
with wind farm developers over the past few years, we’ve been able to increase the amount of renewable energy we consume while helping enable the construction of new facilities.
Today we announced that we’ve signed a new power purchase agreement (PPA) in Sweden (our
second such agreement
there in less than 12 months). We will buy the entire electricity output of four as-yet-unbuilt wind farms in southern Sweden, at a fixed price, for the next ten years.
Windfarm developer
Eolus Vind
will build four wind farms, in Alered, Mungseröd, Skalleberg and Ramsnäs, Sweden. The 29-turbine project, with a total combined capacity of 59MW, already has all relevant planning approvals and permits and will become fully operational in early 2015.
Picture: Our seawater-cooled data centre in Hamina, Finland
Once completed, the wind farms will provide Google’s Hamina, Finland, data centre with additional renewable energy as the facility
expands
in coming years.
Buying renewable energy in Sweden and consuming it in Finland is possible thanks to Europe’s increasingly integrated power markets, in particular the Nord Pool spot market. This allows Google to buy renewable energy with Guarantee of Origin certification in Sweden, “retire” the certificates and then consume an equivalent amount of power elsewhere in Europe.
This marks our sixth long-term agreement to purchase renewable energy. We keep signing these contracts for two main reasons: they make great financial sense for us, and increase the amount of renewable energy available in the grid, which is great for the environment too.
Posted by Francois Sterin, Director, Global Infrastructure Team
Made in Italy goes digital
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Italy long has been famed for its quality of life, its fashion, its heritage and its food. We believe the Internet can help promote the Made in Italy lifestyle brand and the
Google Cultural Institute
has worked with the
Italian Agriculture Ministry
,
Union of Chambers of Commerce
, the
University Ca' Foscari
,
the
Symbola Foundation
to launch an online platform designed to help bring Made in Italy online.
On the new platform, anybody, anywhere can discover hundreds of digital displays, stories, pictures, videos, and historical documents about Italian craftsmanship. Many of Italy’s most famous culinary and handcraft products are represented, from
Parmigiano Reggiano
cheese and
Prosciutto di San Daniele
ham to
Murano glass
and
Montappone Hats
. Little-known gems also can be uncovered such as
Vercelli accordions
and
Ascoli Piceno
lace.
Discover Montappone Hats
Many of the best Italian producers are small and medium sized, family-owned companies. They are homes to craftsmen who produce niche products. By bringing them online, we hope to help them export and reach global markets. Before, an American or Chinese buyer would have found it hard to obtain many of these Italian gems. With the new site, niche products no longer are forced into niche markets.
Online interest is growing in Italian “cultural” products. Google searches in these categories grew by 12 percent last year; fashion is the most searched category, followed by tourism and food. Even so, Made in Italy producers still lag with their digital activities: only 34 percent of Italian SMEs have their own website and only 13 percent use it to do e-commerce.
Media partner
Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso
, excited about the economic potential of the internet, dedicated an entire
section
to the project, focusing on examples of successful Italian entrepreneurs going digital. Savor this new digital platform - and encourage more and more Italian purveyors of the sweet life to benefit from the Internet.
Posted by Luisella Mazza, Program Manager, Cultural Institute and Diego Ciulli, Public Policy Analyst, Rome
Help train the next generation of computer scientists
Monday, January 20, 2014
Developing computer science and STEM skills is something that should start at an early age. That’s why we’ve been supporting efforts like the
RISE Awards
and
Raspberry Pi
to help inspire a new generation of computer scientists who will build the apps and programs of the future. We are passionate about improving the way computer science is taught in schools and believe that every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science.
We are pleased to announce that applications are now open for the
2014 Google CS4HS
(Computer Science for High School) award program. The program funds universities to work with local high schools to give teachers the training and tools they need to bring computer science and computational thinking into the classroom. Apply before midnight GMT, February 17th, 2014 via
www.cs4hs.com
.
Throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa, many high schools have limited access to training and curriculum resources. Teachers often struggle to keep up with fast changing technology and they have difficulty demonstrating that computer science can be a rewarding and “cool” career choice. The Google CS4HS award helps teachers meet those challenges. In 2013, the CS4HS program funded 34 computer science education projects
across 18 countries
in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
We’re excited to have the opportunity to help even more educators learn how to teach computer science and encourage students to take up computer science. Together, we can help inspire the next generation of computer scientists!
Posted by Posted by Michelle Finnegan, University Relations Specialist, UK
Honoring Irish casualties from World War I
Friday, January 10, 2014
During World War I, about 50,000 Irish soldiers died fighting in the British army. Until now, these records were located only in a book released in 1923 and published in a mere 100 copies. Google has worked with the Irish genealogical history and heritage company
Eneclann
and the
In Flanders Fields Museum
in Ypres, Belgium to build a
new Irish memorial website
, bringing a list of Irish war dead available online and making it searchable with
this simple tool
.
Today, Ireland’s Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade
Eamon Gilmore T.D.
, launched the new website with Northern Ireland First Minister
Peter Robinson
and deputy First Minister
Martin McGuinness
at our Dublin headquarters. “While the digitisation and online access to this record will be a rich resource for genealogy, most significant is its value in facilitating the simple and important act of remembering the individuals, Irish men and women, who lost their lives in the First World War,” Tánaiste Gilmore said.
The two Northern Irish leaders spoke movingly about the project. “My presence is a clear indication of the maturity in confronting history on this island. For many years, this as something that people were not prepared to talk about, to face up to, to acknowledge,” said deputy First Minister McGuinness. First Minister Peter Robinson agreed, saying: “As we enter an important decade of commemorations in both our countries, it is my hope that what has been established here today will keep alive the history and the stories of those who did not return from war.”
Deputy First Minister McGuiness
Work on the archive dates back to July 2012 when the Irish ambassador to Belgium, Éamonn Mac Aodha approached Google and In Flanders Fields Museum. During the research, the museum discovered that the records for Irish casualties of the First World War were neither fully correct nor complete. More records simply list France as place of death. Many probably instead died in Flanders - in all some 11,060 out of the 49,000 have now been identified as being killed or commemorated or buried in Belgium.
More than 100 guests attended today’s launch. These included family members who had researched relatives who died in World War One; members of the diplomatic corps; political representatives and historians and academics, and members of commemorative organisations. Our idea is to engage the public and increase knowledge about these casualties. If you find an ancestor or locate a long-lost relative in the list send, documents, pictures, letters or any other relevant information, email namenlijst@ieper.be. The information will be verified and added to the website.
The new Irish World War I records search tool
This event marks the opening of the ceremonies for the 100th year of the outbreak of World War I. We’re proud to play a part in this project as a sign of our commitment to Ireland, our European headquarters, and to using technology to fill in holes left by history.
Posted by William Echikson, External Relations, Europe, Middle East and Africa
Promoting transparency around Europe
Monday, December 30, 2013
When eight technology companies presented a plan this month to reform government surveillance, a key request concerned transparency. At Google, we were the first company to publish a
transparency report
detailing the requests we receive from governments around the world to bring down content or hand over information on users.
But Google’s report represents only a narrow snapshot. It is limited to a single company. Imagine instead if all the requests for information on Internet users and for takedowns of web content in a country could be published. This would give a much more effective picture of the state of Internet freedom. As the year draws to a close, we’re happy to report that
Panoptykon
, a Polish NGO, published this month a preliminary
Internet transparency report
for Poland and
Fores
, a Stockholm-based think tank, issued a
stud
y in Sweden.
In Poland and Sweden, we helped initiate these transparency efforts and supported them financially. NGOs in six other European countries are working on national transparency reports. Our Estonian-supported transparency coalition already published a
report
last spring. In addition, university researchers in Hong Kong moved ahead over the summer with their own
report
. In Strasbourg, the
Council of Europe
recently held an important conference on the subject and hopefully will move ahead to present a series of recommendations on transparency for its 47 members.
Each transparency campaign takes a different approach - we hope this process of experimentation will help all of us learn. The Estonian effort, titled Project 451, focuses on content removals, not government surveillance, because the authors believe this is the most important issue in their country. The name of Project “451″ refers to HTTP Status Code 451, defined as “unavailable for legal reasons” and the report found that many web platforms were taking legal content down due to fears of legal liability.
The new Polish and Swedish reports attempt to shed light on government requests for information on users. Fores contacted
339 Swedish authorities
and found that more than a third had requested data about users or takedowns of user-uploaded content. Panoptykon uncovered that Polish telcos received 1.76 million requests for user information in 2012, while Internet companies polled received approximately 7,500. In addition, Panoptykon discovered that many Polish government requests for information on users were based on a flawed or unclear legal basis.
Admittedly, both the Swedish and Polish reports remain incomplete. Not all Internet companies participated. Much relevant data must be missing. Like with our own Google report, we hope to continue filling in the holes in the future. Our aim is to see this campaign gather momentum because the bottom line is transparency is essential to a debate over government surveillance powers.
Posted by William Echikson, Head of Free Expression, Europe, Middle East and Africa
Supporting open government in New Europe
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
The “New Europe” countries that joined the European Union over the past decade are moving ahead fast to use the Internet to improve transparency and open government. We recently partnered with
Techsoup Global
to support online projects driving forward good governance in Romania, the Czech Republic, and most recently, in Slovakia.
Techsoup Global, in partnership with the
Slovak Center for Philanthropy
, recently held an exciting social-startups awards ceremony
Restart Slovakia 2013
in Bratislava. Slovakia’s Deputy Minister of Finance and Digital Champion
Peter Pellegrini
delivered keynote promoting Internet and Open Data and announced the winners of this year contest. Ambassadors from U.S., Israel and Romania and several distinguished Slovak NGOs also attended the ceremony.
Winning projects included:
Vzdy a vsade
- Always and Everywhere - a volunteer portal offering online and anonymous psychological advice to internet users via chat.
Nemlcme.sk
- a portal providing counsel for victims of sexual assaults.
Co robim
- an educational online library of job careers advising young people how to choose their career paths and dream jobs.
Mapa zlocinu
- an online map displaying various rates of criminality in different neighbourhoods.
Demagog.sk
- a platform focused on analyzing public statements of politicians and releasing information about politicians and truthfulness of their speeches in a user-friendly format.
An award ceremony highlight was a live concert by the
Diplomatic Immunity Band
. The combo (shown above at an earlier gig) includes US Ambassador Theodore Sedgwick on keyboard; Israeli ambassador Alexander Ben-Zvi on conga, Romanian Ambassador Florin Vodita on electric guitar, President of Institute of Public Affairs Grigorij Meseznikov on electro acoustic guitar, and the Banska Bystrica Mayor Peter Gogola on drums. We’re delighted they found the time to make sweet music in favor of open data and data-driven innovation.
Posted by Posted by Ondrej Socuvka, Policy Manager, Bratislava
Transparency Report: Government removal requests rise
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Cross-posted with
Official Google Blog
We
launched
the
Transparency Report
in 2010 to provide hard evidence of how laws and policies affect access to information online. Today, for the eighth time, we’re releasing new numbers showing
requests from governments to remove content
from our services. From January to June 2013, we received 3,846 government requests to remove 24,737 pieces of content—a 68 percent increase over the second half of 2012.
Over the past four years, one worrying trend has remained consistent: governments continue to ask us to remove political content. Judges have asked us to remove information that’s critical of them, police departments want us to take down videos or blogs that shine a light on their conduct, and local institutions like town councils don’t want people to be able to find information about their decision-making processes. These officials often cite defamation, privacy and even copyright laws in attempts to remove political speech from our services. In this particular reporting period, we received 93 requests to take down government criticism and removed content in response to less than one third of them. Four of the requests were submitted as copyright claims.
You can read more about these requests in the
Notes
section of the Transparency Report. In addition, we saw a significant increase in the number of requests we received from two countries in the first half of 2013:
There was a sharp increase in requests from
Turkey
. We received 1,673 requests from Turkish authorities to remove content from our platforms, nearly a tenfold increase over the second half of last year. About two-thirds of the total requests—1,126 to be exact—called for the removal of 1,345 pieces of content related to alleged violations of
law 5651
.
Another place where we saw an increase was
Russia
, where there has been an uptick in requests since a
blacklist law
took effect last fall. We received 257 removal requests during this reporting period, which is more than double the number of requests we received throughout 2012.
While the information we present in our Transparency Report is certainly not a comprehensive view of censorship online, it does demonstrate a worrying upward trend in the number of government requests, and underscores the importance of transparency around the processes governing such requests. As we continue to add data, we hope it will become increasingly useful and informative in policy debates and decisions around the world.
Posted by Susan Infantino, Legal Director
Inspiring students about Poland’s great computing heritage
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Behind every computing breakthrough, there’s a story of the people who made it happen. Earlier this month, the spotlight shone on Poland’s computer pioneers with the launch of the educational project
“XYZ — The history of computing in Poland”
.
Led by the Center for Citizenship Education in collaboration with Google, the project seeks to raise awareness of Poland’s computing heroes among young people, as well as use them to illustrate the value of virtues such as ingenuity, curiosity and cooperation.
Materials produced so far include a timline,
online videos
, and
posters
highlighting key Poles and their achievements — from
Abraham Stern’s mechanical calculators
in the early 19th century, to
Leon Lukaszewicz’s XYZ computer
in 1958, to the team who built the
K-202, Poland’s first computer with integrated circuits
, in the 1970s. Coming soon are lesson plans and contests to make it easier for Polish educators to use these stories of local innovators to inspire their students.
The project was launched in fitting style at the University of Warsaw, where young innovators showcased their own work surrounded by posters of Polish computing heroes to dignitaries including
Vint Cerf
, one of the “fathers” of the Internet.
Students meet "Father of the Internet" Vint Cerf
We’re proud to support this initiative and hope it helps inspire the next generation of Polish computer scientists to similarly great heights.
Posted by Marta Poslad, Senior Policy Analyst, Central and Eastern Europe
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