Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Advisory Council in Paris and Warsaw
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
On 25th September, the
Advisory Council to Google on the Right to be Forgotten
visits Paris for its public consultation with French experts and the general public. On 30th September, the Council will visit Warsaw.
A limited number of seats are available for members of the public at each Council meeting, and we’re opening up the online registration process today. Registration will remain open until five days before the event. There is no charge to attend.
Register to attend the Paris meeting public session
here
. Members of the press can register
here
.
Register to attend the Warsaw meeting public session
here
. Members of the press should register
here
.
After Paris and Warsaw, the Council heads to Berlin (14th October), London (16th October) and Brussels (4th November). Registration for these meetings will start approximately ten days before each event, and we’ll post details on this blog and on the Advisory Council website in due course.
At each meeting, the Council will listen to statements from invited experts, ask questions of the experts and discuss matters of law, technology, and ethics. The public portion of each Advisory Council meeting will last around three hours, with a short intermission. The whole meeting will also be live-streamed on the
Advisory Council’s website
.
During the event, members of the audience can submit questions to the Council and invited experts. The Council also invites members of the public to share their thoughts on the Right to be Forgotten via the form at
google.com/advisorycouncil
- all contributions will be read and discussed. Individuals or organizations with subject matter expertise can submit attachments such as research papers at
google.com/advisorycouncil/comments
on an ongoing basis.
We look forward to seeing you at one of the meetings.
Posted by Betsy Masiello, Google Secretariat to the Advisory Council
Calling women coders - apply for the Ada Awards
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Fewer than
one in ten computer science graduates
in Europe are female. In order to improve on this dismal rate, we are sponsoring the 2014 European Ada Awards.
The Awards, affectionately known as the “Adas,” are named in honor of
Ada Lovelace
, a 19th-century English mathematician, considered by many to be the world’s first computer programmer and
the first to envisage computing’s true potential
.
It’s the second edition of the awards. The European Commission launched the Ada Awards in June, 2013 as part of its pledge to improve Digital Skills and Jobs in Europe. Three awards are given out - the Digital Girl of the Year, the Digital Woman of the Year , and the Digital Impact Organisation of the Year. Nominations are valid from across the European Union and reflect a broad spectrum of digital fields – academia, research, industry, enterprise and creative.
“Tomorrow's world will be driven by digital technology, and having digital skills will
open a goldmine of opportunities. I want women to be in the goldmine,” Neelie Kroes European Commission Vice President responsible for the Digital Agenda, said at last year’s award ceremonies.
Please note the award agenda:
Deadline for Nominations: September 16, 2014
Finalist Announcement: October 6, 2014
Rome Award Ceremony: October 30, 2014
Additional information and nomination forms are available at AdaAwards.com.
Posted by Alison Daniel-Cutler, Pre-University CS Education Outreach Manager
Fighting against hate speech
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
At a time when racism and hate speech is rising, it is urgent to unite and act to preserve it as a space of tolerance.
This week, we joined with leading French anti-racism organizations SOS Racisme, UEJF, LICRA and MRAP to launch
“Pousse Ton Cri”
, an online platform allowing people to voice their opposition to discriminations by recording a short “shout” via video.
The campaign aims to raise awareness amongst young internet users by mobilising them around a symbolic and collective act against the voices of intolerance on the web. Users will also learn more about how to report hate speech online.
Over the next six weeks, we will help organize three Hangouts on Air to debate racism in various fields. On September 17, we will look at racism in sports. The following week, on September 24, will investigate racism in music and the final one, on October 3, will focus on hate speech on the Net.
Each Hangouts will give young people the opportunity to ask their questions to famous figures in these different fields. Among others, French YouTuber
“Jigmé”
, who now has more than half a million subscribers, will share his story of how he uses humor to highlight prejudices.
You can register to participate to one of these debates via this
link
.
Posted by Florian Maganza, Senior Policy Analyst, Google France
We built Google for users, not websites
Saturday, September 6, 2014
This weekend some of Europe’s biggest publishers are running a newspaper ad arguing that Google is too dominant and that we favour our own products - like Maps, YouTube and Google Shopping - in our search results. Given the serious nature of these allegations, I wanted to ensure that people have the facts so they can judge the merits of the case themselves.
While we’re fortunate to have been very successful in Europe, it’s not the case that Google is “the gateway to the Internet” as the publishers suggest. Think about how people use the web today:
To get news, you’ll probably go direct to your favorite news site. It’s why newspapers like Bild, Le Monde and the Financial Times get most of their online traffic directly (less than 15% comes from Google). Or you might follow what other people are reading on Twitter.
To book a flight or buy a camera for your next holiday, you’re as likely go to a site like Expedia or Amazon as you are Google.
If you’re after reviews for restaurants or local services, chances are you’ll check out Yelp or TripAdvisor
And if you are on a mobile phone -- which most people increasingly are -- you’ll go straight to a dedicated app to check the sports scores, share your photos or look for recommendations. The most downloaded app in Europe is not Google, it is Facebook Messenger.
Nor is it true to say that we are promoting our own products at the expense of the competition. We show the results at the top that answer the user’s queries directly (after all we built Google for users, not websites). Let me give you some real-life examples.
Ask for the weather and we give you the local weather right at the top. This means weather sites rank lower, and get less traffic. But because it’s good for users, we think that’s OK.
It’s the same if you want to buy something (whether it’s shoes or insurance). We try to show you different offers and websites where you can actually purchase stuff -- not links to specialized search engines (which rank lower) where you have to repeat your query.
If you’re after directions to the nearest pharmacy, you get a Google Map with the closest stores and information to get you there. Again we think that’s a great result for users.
In each case we’re trying to get you direct answers to your queries because it’s quicker and less hassle than the ten blue links Google used to show. This is especially important on mobile where screens are smaller and typing is harder. Many specialized search services don't like these improvements because they mean less traffic for them. But as European Commissioner Almunia has said:
“Imposing strict equal treatment … could mean returning to the old world of Google displaying only ten undifferentiated search results - the so-called ten blue links. This would deprive European users of the search innovations that Google has introduced.”
We agree. In fact, the allegations now being made by publishers have been extensively investigated by regulators in Europe and America over more than seven years. To date, no regulator has objected to Google giving people direct answers to their questions for the simple reason that it is better for users.
Finally, it is said that Google’s success reduces our rivals’ incentives to innovate and invest, which is bad for consumers. But as the Financial Times recently
reported
, European media companies – including some of those behind today’s ads -- are investing heavily in specialized search engines. As Axel Springer explained in a press release announcing their most recent investments:
“there’s a lot of innovation on the search market”
. Economists will tell you that innovation is typically the sign of a healthy, competitive marketplace.
Posted by Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google
Connecting schools around the globe with the Pope
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
As a bishop in his native Buenos Aires, Pope Francis founded "Escuela de Vecinos" (Neighbor Schools) and "Escuelas Hermanas" (Sister Schools) to allow students in richer and poorer neighborhoods to share their concerns. Today, at the Vatican, a new project was announced, using the Internet and Google tools, allowing students from around the world to communicate. The Pope himself tomorrow will publicly present the new platform.
The initiative,
Scholas
, seeks to connect schools all over the globe, so that they may learn from one another, share projects and find volunteers to make these projects a reality.
Scholas Occurrentes
integrates Google Apps for Education.
“Technology and Education are key in tackling the roots of violence”, said Jose María del Corral, Scholas's CoFounder at the press conference held this morning. We are helping "take down the physical barriers and prejudices that stand in the way of peace." Google's Managing Director for Spanish-speaking Latin America Adriana Noreña and representatives of Globant and Line64, responsible for the site´s design and programming, joined him at the Vatican launch.
The initiative comes after a Vatican-sponsored education congress and a soccer match for World Peace held earlier this week, for which Pope Francis I personally invited some of the best soccer players.
Posted by Ana Paula Blanco, Head of Communications for Google Latin America
Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Baltic Way
Monday, September 1, 2014
Twenty-five years ago, on this week, two million people in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined hands to form a human chain for freedom. We’re celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Baltic Way with a customized logo our 'doodles made specially for the three countries.
The Baltic Way was a remarkable non-violent protest. It brought together almost a third of the three Baltic nations population seeking independence. ’The demonstrators created a 600km long human chain, starting from Tallinn in Estonia, going through Riga in Latvia and finishing in Vilnius in Lithuania.
Baltic Googlers themselves came up with the idea for the Baltic Way doodle. Many have very vivid and strong memories about the Baltic Way. Although Vytautas was only eight years old, he remembers his grandparents bringing him to the human chain near Vilnius Cathedral. "I joined hands with my grandma and a stranger. The real magic moment for me was when the light airplanes flew over the heads and dispersed a huge cloud of flowers - way better than any firework I've seen before! I'm proud I can say "I was also part of it!”
In Latvia, Laura remembers people singing songs, and "many of them, including me and my parents, were crying - all for the freedom of Baltics. Regimantas was six years old and still remembers how "we had to wait for instructions through an old radio on when we should all stand together, holding each other hand.” Gabriele says her parents were in Germany. During the event, they stopped on a freeway near Berlin -and joined their hands and sang the national anthem of Lithuania. "Germans stopped their cars to find out what was happening and joined hands together once they got to know about the Baltic Way. It was a unique sense of brotherhood of nations.”
Many of our Baltic team work from our European headquarters in Dublin. They met up this week to share and enjoy songs, dance performances, sport games and just have a good time together. Together with the Lord Mayor of Dublin and diplomatic and community representatives, they joined hands with participants to form a human chain through the heart of Dublin.
Posted by Google Baltics team
Hacking for EU democracy
Thursday, August 28, 2014
It’s hackathon time in Brussels. Applications are open now
here
for the fourth annual
EUhackathon
. Apply before October 2. This year’s event, scheduled for December 2 and 3, 2014, focuses on increasing democratic participation and how to increase European citizens’ involvement in the European Union policy-making process.
Previous
EUhackathons
also addressed pressing policy issues and built bridges between policymakers and the world of coders. The 2011 edition aimed to enhance transparency around broadband Internet access; the 2012 edition created child safety solutions; and the 2013 edition promoted transparency around government surveillance of online communications.
This year’s Hackathon entrants will be asked to produce apps that increase democratic participation. They might allow citizens to participate in public consultations or in policy-making debates held at EU (and possibly national) level. They might promote transparency, enable the mining and analysis of responses and positions published in the public consultation process or legislative debate.
Selected applicants will be invited to Brussels for the two day event. Sponsors will cover their travel and accommodation costs. The winner will receive EUR 5,000. European Parliamentarians
Eva Paunova
(EPP, Bulgaria),
Julia Reda
(Greens/EFA, Germany) and
Marietje Schaake
(ALDE, Netherlands) will host the award ceremony.
Posted by Marco Pancini, Senior Counsel, Brussels
Gathering advice on the Right to be Forgotten
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
In just under two weeks, the
Advisory Council to Google on the Right to be Forgotten
will start its public consultations in cities across Europe to gather views from a wide spectrum of experts. The first meeting will be in Madrid on September 9, and the Council will then head to Rome on September 10.
A limited number of seats will be available for members of the public at each Council meeting. We’re opening up the online registration process today. Registration will remain open until five days before the event. There is no charge to attend.
Register to attend the Madrid meeting
here
.
Register to attend the Rome meeting
here
.
After Madrid and Rome, the Council heads to Paris (September 25), Warsaw (September 30), Berlin (October 14), London (October 16) and Brussels (November 4). Registration for these meetings will start approximately two weeks before each event, and we’ll post details on this blog and on the
Advisory Council website
in due course.
At each meeting, the Council will listen to statements from invited experts, ask questions of the experts and discuss matters of law, technology, and ethics. The public portion of each Advisory Council meeting will last around two and a half hours, with an intermission and the whole meeting will also be live-streamed on the
Advisory Council’s website
.
During the event, members of the audience can submit questions to the Council and invited experts. The Council invites members of the public to share their thoughts on the Right to be Forgotten via the form at www.google.com/advisorycouncil - all contributions will be read and discussed. Individuals or organizations with subject matter expertise can submit attachments such as research papers at
www.google.com/advisorycouncil/comments
on an ongoing basis.
We look forward to seeing you at one of the meetings.
Posted by Betsy Masiello, Google Secretariat to the Advisory Council
Honoring Finland’s Famed Architect Alvar Aalto
Monday, August 25, 2014
Alvar Aalto
changed the way we see the world. Finland’s famed architect and designer not only built path-breaking buildings - during his long, fruitful life, he also designed some of the 20th century’s most innovative furniture, textiles and glassware. Today, we’re proud to announce a partnership with the
Alvar Aalto Foundation
to bring much of this genius’s important work online - allowing anyone, anywhere to virtually visit many of his his most important buildings and learn about his design breakthroughs.
This project means something special to many of us at Google. We have built one of our two largest
data centers
in Finland - and the architect of our data center building was none other than Aalto. The Finnish master originally designed our data center in Hamina as a paper mill. The mill closed in 2007. We took over the empty building, transformed and expanded it, investing so far almost a billion euros and creating hundreds of jobs in the region, while attempting to keep intact as much as possible of the Aalto heritage. Take a look. We’re publishing new Street View images of the renovated exterior and interior today on our main data center page.
Aalto designed many other buildings in the area around our data center - including the world-famed Sunila worker housing in Kotka. We long have shown the outsides of these buildings on StreetView. We’re now adding the interiors.
Many of Aalto’s most famous buildings are located hundreds of kilometers apart, making them difficult to visit. We toured the entire country to photograph his most important masterpieces. We went to his hometown Jyvaskyla in central Finland and photographed the
Alvar Aalto Museum
and
Säynätsalo Town Hall
.
View Larger Map
We went to Imatra and are presenting the famed Church of the Three Crosses.
View Larger Map
In the Finnish capital Helsinki, we captured not only Aalto’s own studio but also two important cultural buildings, Finlandia Hall and the House of Culture. At the Restaurant Savoy, Aalto brought Finnish nature into the center of Helsinki, designing still-in-production door knobs, clean-lined lighting fixtures, club chairs, and the famed Savoy vase, mirroring the outlines of a Finnish lake.
View Larger Map
The cooperation with Finland’s Aalto Foundation includes
two new online exhibitions
on our Google Cultural Institute platform. The first focuses on Aalto’s famed
three legged stool 60
. This much imitated model relied on one of Aalto’s most important innovations - a new process for bending wood that he applied to create organic shapes. The stool was designed in 1933 and was first used in two major early works of Aalto: Paimio Sanatorium and Vyborg Library before becoming an iconic piece of modernist furniture for people to furnish their homes with.
A second exhibition describes the renovation of the
Vyborg Library
. The building was immediately considered a modernist chef d’oeuvre, softening and humanizing the hard edges of German Bauhaus strictures into a new original, organic style, replacing steel with wood, and creating a warm, cosy atmosphere for the reader. When the Library was constructed, the city of Viipuri was in Finland. After World War II, Finland was forced to hand it over to the Soviet Union and it became Vyborg. The library survived the war but remained unused for twenty years and fell into disrepair. Finally in 2013 the renovation was completed.
Together, these initiatives demonstrate our commitment and confidence in Finland. This is a hard time for the country, with growth slowing and unemployment rising. At the same time, our Hamina data centre keeps expanding and Internet infrastructure represent an important ray of economic hope. As this project demonstrates, we are committed to the country and are delighted to use the Internet to promote Finnish culture.
Posted by William Echikson, Head of Community Relations, Europe
Inspire kids to create our future: Apply for a 2015 RISE Award
Monday, August 18, 2014
Technology has the power to change the world for the better, but today far too few have access to the education or encouragement they need to become
creators
, not just consumers.
We know
that pre-university exposure to Computer Science education is critically important for inspiring kids to pursue a career in computing.
That’s why Google offers the
RISE Awards
-- grants of $15,000 to $50,000 USD -- to organisations across the globe working to promote access to Computer Science education for girls and underrepresented minorities. Our RISE partners are changemakers: they engage, educate, and excite students about computing through extracurricular outreach.
In 2014, 42 organisations
received
RISE Awards—with projects ranging from coding clubs in Europe to web development camps in Sub-Saharan Africa. In April, we brought all of our partners together for a Global Summit that sparked resource sharing and collaboration amongst organisations.
We’re looking for more partners in 2015. Submit your application by September 30, 2014 in English, French, Japanese, Russian or Spanish. All eligibility information is listed on our website.
Posted by Roxana Shirkhoda, K12/Pre-University Education Outreach
Launching Code for Germany
Monday, August 11, 2014
At Google, we like to experiment. Today we are experimenting with a guest blogpost from the Germany’s
Open Knowledge Foundation
.
Many in Europe believe that computer science and the Internet is an American invention. This summer, we decided to prove this idea wrong, launching our program, launching our program
Code for Germany.
The feedback so far has been amazing. In the past few months, fourteen labs have sprouted up all across the country, bringing together more than 150 people on a regular basis to work on civic tech, use open data, and make the most of their skills to better their cities.
All told, more than 4000 hours of civic hacking has produced multiple apps and projects. The
OK Lab in Hamburg
has a strong focus on urban development, and have created a map which shows the distribution of playgrounds in the city. An app from the
OK Lab Heilbronn
depicts the quality of
tap water
according to the region, and another from the
OK Lab Cologne
helps users find the closest defibrillator in their area. One of my favourite developments is called
“Kleiner Spatz”
, which translates to “Little Sparrow” and helps parents find available child care spaces in their city. Check out the
list
for yourself to see what amazing things can be built with technology.
This is just the beginning. In the coming months we want to strengthen the various communities and establish ties with officials, governments and administrations. We want to foster innovation in the field of Open Data, Civic Innovation and Public Services and create fertile collaborations between citizens and governments. Our OK Labs offer this possibility.
So far, Code for Germany has been a blast! Let me express my most heartfelt gratitude towards the community of developers and designers who have contributed so much already. Let’s rock and stay awesome!
Posted by
Fiona Krakenbürger
, Code for Germany
Change the world: the 2014 Google Science Fair Global Finalists
Friday, August 8, 2014
Samuel Burrow, 16,from the U.K., wants to improve the environment by reducing pollution. Taking inspiration from the chemical used in sunscreen, Samuel created a
special coating
that reduces waste chemicals in the air when subjected to ambient light. Guillaume Rolland,17, from France, aims to revolutionize mornings by creating a scent which will wake you up with maximum energy at a prescribed time.
These are just a few of the European examples of the 15 incredible projects we’ve named as the global finalists for 2014 Google Science Fair. This is our fourth time hosting the competition as a way to encourage the next generation of scientists and engineers. From Russia to Australia, India to Canada, this year’s finalists (ages 13-18) are already well on their way to greatness. Europe accounts for a full third of the finalists. Read about them - and about all 15 finalist projects - on the
Google Science Fair website
.
What’s next for our young scientists? Well, next month, they’ll be California-bound to compete at Google HQ for the three
Age Category Awards
(ages 13-14, 15-16, 17-18) and of course, the overall Google
Science Fair Grand Prize Award
. The competition will end in style with an awards ceremony, which will be live streamed on the
Science Fair YouTube channel
and on our website. Tune in to be one of the first to find out this year’s winners!
But first, you get to have your say! We need you to pick your favorite project for the 2014 Voter’s Choice Award. Show your support for the finalists and cast a vote on the Google Science Fair website beginning September 1. Every year, we are blown away by the projects and ideas these young people come up with, and you will be too.
Posted by Clare Conway, Google Science Fair Team
Teaming up with Europeana to bring Europe’s culture online
Friday, August 1, 2014
It was a natural marriage. Our
Google Cultural Institute
based in Paris is devoted to partnering with institutions around the world to allow online access to art, archives and other, often previously hard-to-find culture.
Europeana
, launched in 2009, represents a bold European project bringing together more than 2,000 museums, archives, and other institutions, with their rich collections of millions of books, paintings, films and other objects.
Given these complementary missions, it is with great pleasure that we just have launched Europeana’s first
exhibit
on our Cultural Institute. Curated by the
Austrian National Library
, the new virtual exhibition is part of
Europeana’s 1914-1918 projec
t and represents the first Austrian contribution to our own Cultural Institute’s
First World War channel
.
The Austrian library exhibition guides visitors through the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph’s manifestos, from announcements for mobilisation, to administering shortages, to dealing with prisoners of war and refugees. “Putting the content online ensures that all of this history is preserved for future generations,” said Wiebe de Jager of Europeana. “Partnerships with prestigious platforms such as the Google Cultural Institute is one way to effectively share with people our common history that defined who we are and what we do.”
Online exhibition “To My Peoples!”, by Europeana in association with Austrian National Library
It’s a tremendous undertaking to bring Europe’s rich cultural heritage online, one that can only be achieved by both private and public effort. As this collaboration shows, both Europeana and Google share similar visions - allowing people around the world to explore Europe's cultural and scientific heritage from prehistory to the modern day.
Posted by Simon Rein, Google Cultural Institute, Program Manage
Responding to Article 29 Working Party’s Questions
Thursday, July 31, 2014
The group of European data protection agencies in the
Article 29 Working Party
last week invited three US-based search engines - Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!- to discuss
“the practical implementation”
of the Right to be Forgotten. Before the meeting, the working party sent us a
questionnaire
.
Today, in a move to support the working party’s goal of transparency, we are publishing our
answers
.
The European Court of Justice ruling has sparked a debate about privacy and access to information. We are actively complying with it. Our answers also make clear that many questions raised by the ruling remain unresolved - and will be the subject of a welcome public discussion over coming months.
Posted by William Echikson, Senior Manager Communications and Public Affairs, Brussels
Seeking advice on the Right to be Forgotten
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Earlier this summer we announced the formation of an
Advisory Council
on the Right to be Forgotten. As the Council begins its work, it is seeking
comment
from experts on the issues raised by the CJEU ruling. Experts will be considered for selection to present to the Council in-person during public consultations held this fall, in the following cities:
September 9 in Madrid, Spain
September 10 in Rome, Italy
September 25 in Paris, France
September 30 in Warsaw, Poland
October 14 in Berlin, Germany
October 16 in London, UK
November 4 in Brussels, Belgium
The Council welcomes position papers, research, and surveys in addition to other comments. We accept submissions in any official EU language. Though the Council will review comments on a rolling basis throughout the fall, it may not be possible to invite authors who submit after August 11 to present evidence at the public consultations.
Stay tuned for details on the Council’s activity.
Posted by Betsy Masiello, Google Secretariat to the Council
Launching new features for bicyclists
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
While the Tour de France may just have completed its final lap around the Champs Elysees, our Maps team continues to pedal ahead at top speed. Want to avoid that brutal Mountain Stage while you’re cycling to work? The latest version of Google Maps for Android update puts elevations in bike directions, so you can arrive with leg muscles intact.
We first added biking directions three years ago to our maps for a
number of countries in Europe
, from Austria to the United Kingdom. It proved to be a popular feature among cycling amateurs and enthusiasts and we’ve expanded the product to cover almost the entire continent. Enthusiastic users have added hundreds of kilometers of biking paths through Google Mapmaker.
We’re also innovating before you hop onto the bicycle. Do you sometimes get a sudden urge for a pizza or a banana split? The improved GoogleMaps for desktop lets you click and drag to measure your next road trip, bike ride or run—even if you’re taking a few sharp turns.
Oh, and what about the Tour de France? With the race over, you might want to relive its high moments, visiting the routes the riders took up the same mountains with
StreetView
, starting in Saint-Étienne and
climbing into the Alps to finish at Chamrousse
. And if you want to say au revoir to Le Tour de France, look below, or click on an
EarthView on the Champs Élysées
.
Posted by Gareth Evans, Communications Manager, London
Bletchley Park’s rebirth and why it matters
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Twenty five years ago, the historic World War II codebreaking center
Bletchley Park
faced demolition. We have supported its restoration, culminating in
last month’s opening
of Block C by the Duchess of Cambridge. Her grandmother Valerie Glassborow worked as a duty officer and managed the interception of enemy signals for decryption at Bletchley.
Photos copyright
Shaun Armstrong
Now reborn as one of England’s most evocative museums, Bletchley Park is a fitting place of pilgrimage for both history and technology fans alike. The extraordinary code-breaking feats that took place in its spartan wooden huts were crucial to the Allied victory, and helped lay the foundations for the computer age. We were honoured to have been invited to create this new film for the visitors centre:
Bletchley Park is where Alan Turing’s theories were first put into practice, in the Bombe machines used to break Enigma, operated by women like 93 year old veteran and grandmother of one of our colleagues in Google London,
Jean Valentine
. It was also home to
Colossus
, the world’s first electronic programmable computer.
As important as what was achieved at Bletchley Park are the lessons we can learn from the way it was done.
Bletchley Park was a melting pot of brilliant minds set free by an atmosphere of tolerance. Societal norms were swept aside because of extreme need and circumstances. What mattered was what a person could do — not their gender, sexual orientation, religion, national origin or any supposed eccentricity. By removing these artificial constraints, Bletchley Park brought out the best in the fullest range of talent.
In this sense, Bletchley’s codebreaking success came not in spite of people’s differences, but because of them. It’s a compelling role model for the power of diversity that resonates still today.
Overall, at Bletchley Park thousands of talented people, more than half women, made heroic contributions that were kept secret until the 1970s. To borrow Keira Knightley’s line playing code breaker
Joan Clarke
in
upcoming movie “The Imitation Game”
:
“Sometimes it’s the people who no one imagines anything of, who do the things no one can imagine.”
Google has long championed saving Bletchley Park together with Dr. Sue Black, Stephen Fry, Sir John Scarlett and many others. We’ve donated money, hosted events, created videos to help preserve and promote its story, including this . But nothing beats the experience of visiting this hallowed place in person — it’s just 45 minutes
by train from London Euston
— do go if you can. We promise you will be inspired by these technical heroes and early founders of our industry.
Posted by Lynette Webb and Megan Smith, Google
Celebrating Czech culture online
Monday, July 21, 2014
Václav Havel
was a playwright, essayist, poet, philosopher - and also a politician, first a leading anti-communist dissident and then president of Czechoslovakia. A new exhibit on this remarkable man just has been launched on our Cultural Institute. It shows the interior of his
quirky, personalised office
, full of brightly colored furniture and modern art, and recounts the trajectory of his
remarkable life
.
Vaclav Havel's quirky office
The new Havel exhibit is only one of a slew of new exhibitions celebrating Czech culture. Until now, the Culture Institute featured only two Czech galleries, the Kampa Museum and the National Gallery. Nine new Czech museums and organizations from all around the country have joined, bringing together up to 500 art works. Two new high definition gigapixel pictures are featured, including Jiri Sopko’s spectacular
Dance
. In addition to Havel, the life of the first Czechoslovak President
Tomas Garrigue Masaryk
is featured.
Tomas Garrigue Masaryk
Enjoy the exhibitions from the other Czech partner museums:
Museum of Decorative Arts
Jewish Museum in Prague
Egon Schiele Art Centrum
Museum of Eastern Bohemia in Hradec Králové
Moravian Gallery in Brno
Olomouc Museum of Art
Along with the new Czech museum exhibits, we also launched new Street View imagery, including interiors of museums. Our launch event took place in the Decorative Arts Museum’s library.
The entrance to the Decorative Arts Museum Library
Launching the new exhibits
The venue will be closed soon due to reconstruction of its historical building - but it will remain visible and visitable online.
Posted by Martina Ondrusova, Communications Manager, Prague
Showcasing tolerance From Berlin to Budapest
Thursday, July 17, 2014
At a time when racism is on the
rise in Europe
, reportedly reaching its worst level since the 1980s, it is more more important than ever to stand up against scapegoating of migrants and minorities. Two initiatives highlight our commitment to tolerance.
In Germany, we kicked off a new edition this month of the
YouTube 361 Grad Respekt
combating social exclusion and (cyber-)bullying. This YouTube youth competition runs five video camps across the country, helping students script and shoot videos. You can also participate from home using a webcam or make a video with your smartphone or tablet. Tell us all what makes you strong, talk about your experiences, give others courage, and inspire and motivate them to submit their own statement about showing more respect. Share the video and upload
here
.
Submissions from the five video camps will be presented one by one on
www.youtube.de/361grad
until September. Keep checking the channel. After only two days live, the site had received more than 500,000 views!
In Hungary, we’re well into our second year of an exciting program called
WeAreOpen
. It’s rallying cry is: "Being open is not only the right thing to do, but it's also worth it." To date, more than
750 companies, communities and organisations
, big and small, have signed up in support. This year’s version launched in March with a social media campaign to counter hate speech. Musicians, actors, celebrities, and Internet users (including students, doctors and teachers) shared their own experiences, taking a stand against prejudice, showing support for Roma, lesbians, gays, Jews and handicapped. Their videos have received more than 200,000 views on YouTube.
At July’s
Budapest Pride
march, WeAreOpen supplied an
army of colorful balloons
and invited everyone to join. The march was live streamed the on YouTube and more than 20,000 watched it live.
This year's WeAreOpen 2014 features
research
from the
Gemius consulting firm
about diversity and tolerance at the workplace. It found that more than half of Hungarian employees have already encountered negative discrimination.
The virus of hatred, unfortunately, will not vanish. 361 Grad Respekt, WeAreOpen and many more initiatives promoting tolerance are urgently needed.
Posted by Richard Schuster and Mounira Latrache, Communications managers
Germany's World Cup victory comes alive through search
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
On Sunday, Germany won their fourth world championship, and, over the course of the last month, the world watched them do it—in Brazil, in bars and living rooms around the world, on their phones and laptops and tablets. This World Cup was the most digital, most connected, and most searched global event we've seen to date. There were more than 2.1 billion tournament-related searches on Google, many of which we shared on our
trends hub
.
Looking at the trends from each match, you’ll see some topics that you’d expect to catch the world’s attention, such as top players and highly-anticipated matches. But who would have guessed that there were
10x more searches
in the U.S. for the World Cup than for the NBA Playoffs? Or that
Clint Dempsey
, American soccer star who also has a rap single, had 2x more search interest than Jay-Z? Or that after
Ángel di María's
divine goal against Switzerland, he netted 4x more global searches than his fellow countryman, Pope Francis?
Mexico’s Guillermo Ochoa was the most searched goalie in the tournament, but
Tim Howard’s heroics
could hardly be forgotten. German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer not only snagged third place in search, but took home the 2014 Golden Glove award and a World Cup championship to boot.
The
Germany vs. Brazil
semifinal was the most searched match throughout the tournament, leaving many people around the world asking, “What is the biggest win in World Cup history?” Meanwhile, some countries were ready to move on to the next opportunity: after the third place game, Brazilians
searched more
for “World Cup 2018” than for the final game between Argentina and Germany.
No World Cup would be complete without a few surprises—and the creative people of the web were ready to weigh in. Uruguay's Luis Suarez was the most searched player meme, and at the time of the Uruguay-Italy game, there were 20x more searches globally for “Suarez Bite” than for snake, spider, tick, fly, dog and mosquito bites combined.
And if a search Dream Team was created, you’d see these 11 players strutting their stuff on the field. While German star
Mario Götze
didn’t make this list, he was a favorite on search. Even before his goal won it all in the final, he attracted 4x more search attention than Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen, who presented Germany with the championship trophy.
Beyond the impressive stats on the field, we’ve got some numbers of our own to share:
Our team watched 107+ hours of football (we didn’t even need a water break!) and spent 250+ hours bringing you regular insights from our first ever World Cup trends hub. We hope you enjoyed the excitement of the tournament as much as we did, and for more trends, visit
google.com/worldcup
or check out our
Google+ album
.
Posted by
Roya Soleimani
, Communications Manager, who searched for [
iran vs. argentina
], [
brazil’s 12th player
], and of course [
world cup schedule
] throughout the tournament<
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