Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Step on stage with the Google Cultural Institute
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
It takes years of practice to perfect the pirouettes. Months of rehearsal to get the crescendos just right. Multiple stories of lights, rigging and machinery to set the scene. At the world’s leading performing arts venues —like Carnegie Hall, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Bolshoi Theatre—artists, costume designers, musicians, stage crews and many more all come together to create the perfect moment on stage.
And now you can join them. In a
new virtual exhibition
from the Google Cultural Institute and more than 60 performing arts organizations, you can experience dance, drama, music and opera alongside some of the world’s leading performers—onstage, backstage and with a 360 degree-view of the action.
The new Performing Arts exhibition gives you a view that’s even closer than the best seat in the house. With 360-degree performance recordings, you you can choose a dancer’s-eye view of the crowd, or look down from the stage into the orchestra pit. At the Paris Opera, you can stand in the middle of the largest stage in Europe, surrounded by dancers performing choreographer Benjamin Millepied’s moves. Sit between the woodwinds and strings at
Carnegie Hall
with a full view of Maestro Nézet-Séguin. Don’t worry if you’re underdressed as you tour the
Berliner Philharmoniker
’s rehearsal performance of Beethoven’s
Symphony No. 9
with conductor Sir Simon Rattle—you’ll see the orchestra is not in black tie either.
Beyond the performance itself, new indoor Street View imagery gives you an all-access backstage pass to each venue. Wander through the wig workshop at
Brussels’ opera house
, look beneath the stage at the
historic underground arches
of the
Fundação Teatro Municipal in São Paulo
, or zoom in on ultra-high resolution Gigapixel
costume images
at France’s National Centre for Stage Costume, before browsing more than a hundred interactive stories about the shows, the stars and the world behind the scenes. If you’re lucky enough to be planning an in-person visit to one of these venues, you can be tour them in Street View first to see where you’ll be sitting, or how the view is from the balcony.
The Google Cultural Institute was founded in 2011 to bring the world’s treasures to anyone with an Internet connection. Starting in partnership with a handful of renowned museums, we’ve since joined forces with 900+ institutions to include
historic archives
,
street art
, and 200
wonders of the world
. Now you can also visit dozens of the world’s stages together in one place—across mobile, tablet and desktop at
g.co/performingarts
and on the
Google Cultural Institute
website.
Curtain-up, and let
Performing Arts
take the stage!
Posted by Amit Sood, Director of the Google Cultural Institute
IMAGE URL
Amit Sood
Director
Google Cultural Institute
Campus Warsaw: Central and Eastern Europe’s Digital Leap
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Last week I was in Warsaw to launch
Campus Warsaw
, a modern space for entrepreneurship, in a town that is postively pulsing with start-up talent. I am thrilled to see how Poland and the broader Central Eastern European region is making a big digital leap and I’m happy that Google can help fuel this growth.
Campus Warsaw
is a place for Poland’s and Central Eastern Europe’s entrepreneurs to gather, build companies, network, learn and share. The site provides everything necessary - from office and event space to training and mentoring programs and more - to help freshly-minted entrepreneurs thrive.
A year ago, Eric Schmidt discussed this project with Poland’s Prime Minister Tusk - as a way to strengthen Poland's and CEE region's innovation economy. Last week I was joined by political leaders and startup community leaders from Poland, thirteen European Member States and the United States, to celebrate the launch of this investment.
Campus Warsaw was opened under the Honorary Patronage of the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda. Mateusz Morawiecki, Deputy Prime Minister of Poland was joined by government officials and startup communities representatives from 15 countries at the inauguration ceremony. Everyone was excited to see how a strong focus on entrepreneurship can fuel economic growth in the CEE region.
Campus Warsaw is joining our similar investments in London, Tel Aviv, Madrid, and Seoul. Other Campus sites, like Campus London, which opened its doors just over three years ago, have been hugely successful, building a community of nearly 50,000 members. Startups there have created more than 1,800 new jobs, raising over US$110 million in funding.
Campus Warsaw is part of our Growth Engine effort for all of Europe -- Europe's entrepreneurship is growing and going global on digital -- strong entrepreneurship spirit (and a Single Digital Market) is what Europe needs the most to boost its economic growth and competitiveness.
Posted by Matt Brittin, President, Google EMEA, Business & Operations
Suffragette the movie - and the fight for equality
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Earlier this month, we co-hosted the Brussels premiere of
‘Suffragette’
, a film about female emancipation in the UK starring Helena Bonham Carter, Meryl Streep and Carey Mulligan. The film is directed by Sarah Gavron and is interesting for policy geeks since it is the first film in history to be shot in the UK Houses of Parliament. The film follows the struggles of several women fighting for the right to vote and for greater equality.
Even though we have made great strides in the fight for equality since the 19th century, the film is a reminder that we still have a long way to go. At Google, diversity and equality are big priorities. We think creating product and services for users --all users-- starts with having a workforce that reflects the diversity of people around the world. We’re not there yet, but we’re working on it. That’s why
we publish our data on diversity
-
it’s hard to address these kinds of challenges if you’re not
prepared to discuss them openly
, and with the facts.
Overall only 30% of Google’s workforce are women - a reflection of the picture in the tech sector and STEM education overall. We’re
working hard to improve this
, not only for Google but for our communities. We’re empowering Googlers to confront
unconscious bias
and to celebrate diversity in their teams. We offer internships to young people interested in pursuing a career in tech and programs encouraging girls to learn how to code.
We do all this because we want to move the needle on equality. With more and more
career opportunities in technology
, the fight for equality means encouraging young girls to study STEM subjects, improving representation of women in government and business and demanding equal pay for equal work. You can find out more about Google’s work on diversity
here
.
Posted by: Catherine Williams, Public Affairs Associate Google Brussels
Climate change affects the things we love #OursToLose
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Cross-posted from the
YouTube blog
From seasons to octopuses and chocolate, environmental issues stand to impact the things we love. What if we could help change the way people discuss climate change, so that the issue and its consequences could become more relevant and tangible to people around the world?
Leading up to
COP21
, a conference which will bring leaders from around the world together to develop a global climate agreement, we’re encouraging the YouTube community to join the discussion by uploading their own videos that share their concerns about how environmental issues may impact the things they love. The conversation on YouTube will live through a simple hashtag: #OursToLose.
With the help of YouTube creators from around the world, including
Casey Neistat
(U.S.), https://www.youtube.com/user/JacksGap
(U.K.),
Golden Moustache
(France),
Jamie Curry
(New Zealand) and
Flavia Calina
(Brazil), we’re also encouraging people to
show further support by signing the Avaaz petition
, a campaign aimed at delivering clean energy worldwide by 2050.
Whether you’re questioning how global warming can impact your day-to-day life, curious about new sources of energy, or concerned about the melting Arctic, we hope that you share your ideas through #OursToLose videos to help make the climate conversation more accessible to people around the world.
The YouTube community can empower tremendous collaboration, advocacy, and creativity. Through #OursToLose, we hope to continue helping people to broadcast their message, empower their communities, and even catalyze a global movement to further action on climate change.
Posted by Marc Hertz, Programming Coordinator, and Aaron Taylor, Associate Product Marketing Manager, YouTube. Videos they watched recently include “
Misconceptions about Climate Change
” recently watched “
What’s Possible: The UN Climate Summit Film.
”
From Paris to Berlin: Getting Europe Growing, Digitally
Thursday, November 19, 2015
For us, this year has been all about getting
Europe trained up in terms of digital skills
. The follow-on from that is creating growth when European companies go global. We've been partnering with Politico to host a series of events across the continent exploring the roadmap for Europe's digital growth. Earlier this month we
were in Paris
, and last week
we took the debate to Berlin
, where guests included MEP Eva Paunova, Bundestag member Thomas Jarzombek and Poland's Undersecretary of State for Digital Affairs Jurand Drop.
Alwin Mahler from Google Germany kicked us off with
exciting research
Deloitte did on the German economy. Businesses using Google services generated up to EUR 30 billion in revenue, and support up to 500,000 jobs - in Germany alone. These aren't just the big names either -- Google has helped the small and midsize firms which make up the Mittelstand, the backbone of the German economy, expand into new markets worldwide.
"Let’s use the famous example of Lederhosen,” Alwin explained -- living near Munich, he knows all about the famous leather shorts. Until recently, many producers would only sell to people from their physical store in the Bavarian region. "Today they can advertise for this product in regions as far as Asia or Australia. Because Asians and Australians like “Lederhosen”, even if they only visit “Oktoberfest” once a year!" Given we hosted the event in the Kulturbrauerei, cheers to that!
It's not just Germany. Another 439,000 jobs in Europe are directly associated with the development of apps, which we support via Android. And that's a global market for European start-ups. A running app developed in Austria,
Runtastic
, has proven a huge hit in markets as distant as Brazil and China.
Then there's “
Weltweit Wachsen
,” roughly translated as "Growing Worldwide." This export initiative run by Google in partnership with DHL, PayPal and Commerzbank has already helped tens of thousands of German entrepreneurs to expand their horizons.
MEP Eva Paunova in conversation with Politico's Noelle Knox
Back to the European policy agenda. Ms. Paunova said there's a need for legislation to speed up, generally, starting with new legislation to end geoblocking. "For the past year and a half we’ve been saying what we want to see, but still no legislative documents have been passed on the topic,” the member of the Parliament's
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection
told the audience.
We heard a lot of interesting things and people went home optimistically. As did Alwin Mahler, who said, "literally any European business can reach a global market using the Internet, even allowing a solo entrepreneur to become a multinational company."
Posted by: Mark Jansen, Corporate Communications Google Brussels
Friends Of Europe and Google partner to discuss education and skills
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Computers, the internet and smartphones are integrated into our daily lives in a way that was unthinkable a few years ago. How can we ensure the next generation have the skills necessary for working in this digital world? Tech smarts aren't an optional extra: the European Commission
predicts that by 2020
, there will be nearly 900,000 unfilled jobs in Europe because of the digital skills gap.
Friends of Europe and Google
teamed up
this week to discuss this urgent issue. In Brussels, we brought together experts from around the world including Esther Wojcicki, Vice Chair of
Creative Commons
and author of
‘Moonshots in Education’
, Jos Bertemes, Director at Luxembourg's Ministry of National Education and René Tristan Lydiksen, Managing Director of
LEGO Education
Europe.
Before speaking with educators, we did our homework. We commissioned research by the Economist Intelligence Unit, titled "
Driving The Skills Agenda
," which looks into digital skills levels worldwide. (The report definitely gets an A+ grade). They describe how education systems around the world are changing. We kicked off the discussion with the report's author, Irene Mia, telling us about her findings.
The report draws on data from global surveys of senior business executives, teachers and two groups of students, aged 11 to 17 and 18 to 25 -- and is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of education. For example, 51% of executives say a skills gap is hampering their organisational performance and only 34% claim to be satisfied with the level of attainment of young people entering their company.
The research didn’t only look at general skills, but also at digital skills specifically. Teachers know this is an issue -- 85% of teachers say that technological advances have changed the way they teach, but only 27% claim to be very confident in developing digital literacy in their students. Technology could ultimately level the playing field, by giving students access to tools and teaching from around the world and broadening their horizons.
An overview of the ideas discussed at our event, captured by
Somang Lee
Of course, experts and policymakers can discuss these issues for hours -- but what really matters is hearing from young people -- in their own words. That's why we invited
Google Science Fair
European finalists, a global online competition open to young kids interested in science, technology, math and engineering.
Their award-winning projects might one day change the world:
Krtin Nithiyanandam
, from the UK, has worked on a molecular-level 'Trojan Horse' which can be used as a sensitive method for earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease. His fellow global finalist,
Laura Steponavičiūtė
from Lithuania has been experimenting with how nanoparticles affect nature. And
Matthew Reed
is developing a lightweight, cheap open-source satellite standard that will be free for anyone to use and develop.
Google Science Fair finalist Krtin Nithiyanandam and other participants using LEGO to make learning fun
Skills for the future is a topic that’s relevant not only to young people. As a digital company with hundreds of millions of users in the EU, Google is
dedicated
to ensuring Europeans have world-class digital skills. We're working on everything from giving entrepreneurs the tools they need to set up their own business, to
putting Europe's top galleries online
so everyone can enjoy their cultural treasures. And all of
these projects
need digital skills -- which is why it's so important the next generation learn them now.
Posted by: Liz Sproat, Google’s Head of Education for Europe, Middle East and Africa
Celebrating Vermeer’s Little Street With Cultural Institute
Thursday, November 19, 2015
The Dutch have always known that Delft is a special city. Now a recent discovery by Frans Grijzenhout, Professor of Art History at the University of Amsterdam, using a unique pairing of seventeenth century records and
Google Street View
technology, has uncovered a new treasure on its streets. A small door, tucked between numbers
40 and 42 on Vlamingstraat
, which marks the alleyway depicted in Johannes
Vermeer
’s world-famous
Little Street
.
"In my endeavours to pinpoint the exact location of
Vermeer
's Little Street, I have been an avid user of Google Maps, particularly in studying the rythmic articulation of the canal walls along Vlamingstraat,” said Professor Grijzenhout this week.
The discovery of the whereabouts of
Vermeer
’s
Little Street
is the subject of
an exhibition
running from
19 November 2015 to 13 March 2016
in the Rijksmuseum. It will then transfer to Museum Prinsenhof Delft.
To commemorate this discovery--including the small part that Google Street View technology has played in it--we’re marking
19 November 2015
Vermeer
Day on the Google Cultural Institute. T
oday
our homepage
will feature 17 works of art by the Dutch master, including Little Street, and the site will feature
a special look
at the present day Little Street in Delft.
The aim of the Google Cultural Institute is twofold, helping users to discover artworks in new ways and helping the cultural sector to make the most of digital opportunities.
We’re thrilled to celebrate the Delft’s own
Vermeer
with our longtime partners at the Rijksmuseum, and to mark the discovery of this little street in that’s been culturally significant--if unknown--since the 17th century.
Posted by Meghan Casserly, Communications Manager Google Netherlands
Young and Digital: Google Signs the European Pact4Youth
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
We’ve said it a lot this year:
every business should be a digital business, because every customer is a digital customer, and that’s a huge economic opportunity. And by extension, that means that everyone coming into the job market should have some digital skills too.
So when we heard about the European Pact4Youth, we were keen to be a part of it.
The agreement is an exciting idea from The European Business Network for Corporate Social Responsibility (
CSR Europe
) which aims to help young people across Europe find work. Together with the European Commission, other businesses, social partners, education and training providers all over Europe, we have committed to developing and consolidating partnerships in support of youth employability and inclusion.
We're not the only ones who are excited. "
Our top priority has been to get Europe growing again and to stimulate good quality job creation,"
said Marianne Thyssen, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility.
"It builds on the successful European Alliance for Apprenticeships.... the Commission, together with business, is moving now towards one quarter million new opportunities for young people across Europe."
While we're looking forward to working with our fellow signatories to create jobs for young people in the same way Erasmus has broadened their educational experience, we can't resist telling you about some of the work we're already doing in this area. We're currently in the middle of training up one million Europeans in essential digital skills -- in time for next year. We've committed over €25 million to build a Europe-wide training hub.
And in Spain -- one of the countries worst hit by youth unemployment -- we've developed a series of massive open online courses (MOOCs), Google
Activate
, together with the
Spanish Ministry of Industry
, through the business school,
EOI
,
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
and
Interactive Advertising Bureau
(IAB). The news from Spain is encouraging: more than 148,000 people have registered for Activate with 13% of participants earning a certificate.
Another example is Italy, where we have the initiative
Crescere in Digitale
, offering free digital skills online training to the 700,000 young Italians currently not in employment, education or training. This program is run in partnership with the Ministry of Labour and the Chamber of Commerce and will provide 3,000 internships in addition to the training.
Improving Europe's skills in everything from data analytics to web design are a key part of tackling youth unemployment -- and we are excited to support the Pact4Youth.
Posted by: Lie Junius, public policy director, Google Brussels
Tackling Urban Mobility with Technology
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Over half the world’s population live in cities and urban areas, and over the next thirty years,
2 billion more people
are expected to become urban residents. Cities are thinking carefully about the challenges associated with such rapid growth - like avoiding over-stressed public transit infrastructure and reducing traffic congestion. We’re interested in these questions too: we’ve been helping people navigate urban areas and route around traffic jams for many years.
So a while ago, we started working with a small group of research partners in the EU and the US to see if we could tackle some of these challenges together, using aggregate, anonymised data about historical traffic patterns to help improve urban mobility for everyone.
Our initial exploration has lead to a series of pilot projects with our partners to find ways to minimize traffic congestion, speed up journeys, improve safety, and reduce the amount of money spent on infrastructure.
In Stockholm, a city with many bridges and tunnels, we’re working with
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
to reduce the number of tunnel closures on the Södra Länken, the second longest urban motorway tunnel in Europe, to improve travel times for citizens.
In the Netherlands, we’re working with the
Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research
(TNO) to see whether it’s possible to reduce their reliance on expensive physical road sensors for information about traffic flows. The aim is to reduce infrastructure costs without compromising on traffic safety. We’re also working with the
Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions
on related questions.
We’re also working with major research institutions and transportation planning groups in Denmark (the
Technical University of Denmark
) and in the US (the
Rudin Center for Transportation
at New York University Wagner School of Public Service,
San Francisco County Transportation Authority
, and the
University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy
).
We only share aggregate, anonymized snapshots of historical traffic statistics with these institutions, including average traffic speed, relative traffic volumes, and traffic trajectory patterns. These statistics are derived from aggregate Location History data that our users have proactively chosen to share with us (and which they can switch off again at any time via
My Account
). This is the same data we use in Google Now to notify users of
disruptions to their commute
due to traffic, and tell them about the
best time to visit
their favourite museum in Google Maps.
To ensure that no individual user’s journey can be identified, we only share representative models of aggregate data employing a technique called
differential privacy
, which intentionally adds “noise” to the data in a way that maintains both users' privacy and the data's accuracy. The technique has also been successfully
tried and tested
in Chrome.
It's still early days, but preliminary results have been positive. In the Netherlands, TNO ran tests on a 10km stretch of highway that regularly faces traffic jams, using our anonymized traffic statistics instead of physical road sensors. They found that they could still accurately detect traffic jams at the right moment and at the correct location on the road without the sensors, potentially saving 50K Euro per year if the redundant sensors were removed. Other pilots are starting to show similarly positive results.
We’re excited by the promise that these initial projects have shown in meeting the challenges of urban mobility, and today, we’re pleased to announce that we’re expanding our pilot programme. We’re seeking to build partnerships with cities and research institutions to evaluate ideas and run experiments, ultimately improving urban mobility for everyone. If you’re working on a project addressing congestion, pollution, safety and similar mobility challenges, and are interested in working with us,
please get in touch
.
Posted by Andrew Eland, Engineering Director
Investing In Growth For Dutch Businesses Online
Monday, November 16, 2015
Last February, we invited entrepreneurs from across Europe, including the Netherlands, to celebrate their online success stories in Brussels. At the same time we made a commitment: to
train 1 million Europeans in crucial digital skills by the end of 2016
. Today we've begun to put those plans into action in the Netherlands
with the launch of the Digitale Werkplaats (Digital Garage) in the city of Eindhoven, a two day training programme. In the Netherlands,
more than 40% of the labor market is made up of small business owners and independent contractors.
Why Eindhoven? Eindhoven is often called the digital capital of the Netherlands, and the region is rich with digital startups that were born there and have grown to international successes. Companies like 3D printing marketplace
Shapeways
, and
Study Portals
, which connects students to international travel opportunities, and which are familiar with the ways that the web can accelerate a business.
With the Digitale Werkplaats we aim to bring the opportunity to use the Internet as a growth engine to the small businesses and independents of the region. And there’s plenty of growth opportunity--in Eindhoven 80% of small businesses have fewer than 20 employees.
We’re not alone in these efforts. All across the country governments and SMB organizations are recognizing the need for digital skills--from online marketing to general proficiency in web tools-- in achieving growth. We’re keen to be playing our part. It's simple: SMEs throughout the country get training in the essential digital skills they need to grow online. We'll partner with Dutch microfinance organization
Qredits
, and both small business associations and local governments to achieve big results: our goal is to train 30,000 people in the Netherlands by the end of 2016 through in-person events like this week's and online trainings.
Dutch minister Henk Kamp together with a number of Dutch SMEs
This morning in Eindhoven the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs Henk Kamp said: "The Netherlands is one of the most innovative countries in the world, in part because of its strong tech infrastructure. To ensure our country remains competitive, the skills needed for using technology have become indispensable for SMEs. These entrepreneurs create a lot of new jobs and play an important role when it comes to developing products and services. By helping SMEs to become better at using technology, we're building a stronger fundament for economic growth, which leads to more jobs. Google's initiative deserves praise, because it enables this development."
Elwin Groenevelt, the general manager of
Qredits Microfinance
, explained in Eindhoven that they have created 10,000 jobs in the past five years by financing Dutch 7,000 entrepreneurs. By partnering with Google, giving workshops on the topic of microfinance, they want to offer even more opportunities to ambitious entrepreneurs to achieve their growth objectives.
There are many Dutch entrepreneurs who have achieved growth through their smart use of the Internet, and we’re excited to meet thousands more over the next year. What’s inspired us is that these business owners and independents come from
all different backgrounds and levels of tech-savvy -- three that we’ve met in Eindhoven are husband and wife pair
Henk Jan Bruil & Irene, who aspire to scale their new soup and salad bar,
PIT
, nationally; Wendy Govers of
Trimsalon Pet’s Choice
, who has seen her clientele of dogs and cats grow from 20 to over 500, and
Marie-Louise Holl of
Holl
Klompen
, whose 40+ year souvenir business ships “Made in Holland” souvenirs all over the world thanks to the reach of the web.
See
here
for more Dutch success stories.
Posted by: Pim van der Feltz, country director Google Netherlands
The British Museum: a museum for the world
Friday, November 13, 2015
Editor's note:
The Google Cultural Institute creates technologies that make the world’s culture accessible to anyone, anywhere. This week, we announced a new partnership with the British Museum that gives people new ways to access and experience the museum, and new ways to learn and teach. We’ve invited Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum since August 2002, to write a guest post for the Google Europe blog, explaining the partnership.
The British Museum was founded in 1753 by an act of Parliament and is the embodiment of Enlightenment idealism. In a revolutionary move, it was from its inception designed to be the collection of
every citizen of the world
, not a royal possession and not controlled by the state.
Over the succeeding 260 plus years it has gathered and exhibited things from all over the globe – antiquities, coins, sculptures, drawings – and made them freely available to anyone who was able to come and see them. Millions have visited and learned, and have been inspired by what they saw. Today the Museum is probably the most comprehensive survey of the material culture of humanity in existence.
The world today has changed; the way we access information has been revolutionised by digital technology. Sharing knowledge has become easier and we can do extraordinary things with technology which enable us to give new reality to the Enlightenment ideal on which the Museum was founded. It is now possible to make our collection accessible, explorable and enjoyable not just for those who physically visit, but for everybody with a computer or a mobile device.
Yesterday, we announced a partnership with Google that allows us to further our own – extraordinary – mission: to be a Museum
of
and
for
the World, making the knowledge and culture of the whole of humanity open and available to all. This isn’t just about putting the collection ‘online'. Through our partnership with Google, we hope to give people new ways to experience and enjoy the Museum, new ways to learn, new ways to share and new ways to teach.
Thousands of objects from the Museum’s collection will be available to view through the Google Cultural Institute and through a special, dedicated site called ‘The Museum of the World’, which will allow users to explore and make connections between the world’s cultures.
One of the Museum’s most important objects, the Admonitions Scroll, a Chinese scroll dating from the 6th century, has been captured in super high-resolution to give you a closer and more intimate view than you could ever get with the naked eye.
We’ve captured the whole Museum via Street View, meaning that if you can’t get to the Museum in person, you can take a virtual walking tour of every permanent gallery, and its outdoor buildings.
And virtual exhibits allow you to see Celtic objects from across UK museums brought together in a unique tour or a thematic exhibition detailing Egypt’s history after the pharaohs.
None of this is to deny the power of seeing an object in the flesh in a gallery - nothing will replace that experience. But it does allow a far greater public access to the Museum and its unparalleled collection.
And this is just the beginning. We’re in a brave new world of information dissemination. As we are transformed by globalisation, it is more important than ever to understand the past of the
whole
world. The breadth of the British Museum’s collection, the authority of the Museum’s scholarship and the skill with which it is presented and mediated: all these are now ready and available for anyone anywhere on the planet.
The more we can work with partners in the technology sphere, and the more we rise to the challenge of making our world a digital one, the greater will be our impact on community cohesion and understanding, domestically and internationally. Through technology, the Museum’s collection can become the private collection of the entire world. And so our great Enlightenment vision moves into a phase our founders in the 18th century couldn’t even have dreamed of.
Posted by Neil MacGregor, Director, British Museum
How good is your YouTube?
Friday, November 13, 2015
Nothing ruins the experience of watching an awesome European YouTube video like
Heroes
more than seeing the dreaded buffering wheel, which is why we're always working to make videos play smoothly in the best quality possible. And when you can't see what you want, when you want, it’s helpful to know why.
Starting today, if you’re in
Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden,
or
Iceland
, you can use the
Google Video Quality Report
to see how well YouTube performs for you.
If you’re regularly seeing videos buffer, this report can give you a better idea of why, as well as tips to make YouTube play better. You can also see the video quality in your area, based on these levels:
HD Verified:
If your provider can consistently deliver HD video, a resolution of at least 720p, without buffering or interruptions--it’s HD Verified.
Standard Definition:
If you can watch videos at a resolution of at least 360p, your provider is delivering Standard Definition.
Lower Definition:
If videos load slowly or frequently buffer, even at resolutions lower than 360p, your provider is delivering Lower Definition performance.
The
Google Video Quality Report
is already available in Finland, Norway, Switzerland, the United States and Canada, and we will continue to roll it out to more countries in partnership with ISPs.
Want to see our methodology? Check out the
geeky details
, and learn how videos get from us to you with this video:
Finally, making sure you can watch YouTube in HD from anywhere, anytime is a shared effort between us, your Internet service provider and even you. So, to make sure you're getting the best video quality possible, check out these seven tips you can use right now:
Posted by Jay Akkad, Product Manager, YouTube
Health Matters: Calling Young Professionals to take Europe's Pulse
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Without health, life is nothing, as the saying goes -- and healthcare policy in Europe is at a crossroads. Young professionals who want to to shape what the continent's systems for health and wellbeing will look like in the future can join the
European Health Parliament
-- and the
deadline to apply
is November 22.
The European Health Parliament is an initiative of the young MEPs' action group
EU40
, news site
Politico
, the
College of Europe
, Johnson & Johnson and Google. Europe needs to confront its numerous health problems, as the costs, both human and financial, are shared by us all.
Because new challenges require new thinking, the European Health Parliament will bring together 50 young professionals in Brussels between December 2015 and June 2016 to discuss what the issues are and how we can deal with them. The results from the sessions will be wrapped into a series of academic papers to share with policymakers and social media.
The first edition of the European Health Parliament was a huge success, with many participants hailing it as a "once-in-a-lifetime experience." There were debates on everything from how sharing patient records across borders can help
prevent the spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis
, to
how telemedicine systems
empower patients. The final result was these
seven recommendations
on how to make Europe's healthcare system fit for the future.
Participants discussed burning issues with key figures in the European Parliament including Giovanni La Via, Philippe De Backer and Eva Kaili. Afterwards, they shared their recommendations with EU Commissioner for Health Vytenis Andriukaitis and Belgian Minister of Social Affairs and Health Maggie de Block.
The upcoming edition isn't just a repeat of the same exercise. As healthcare becomes increasingly digitized -- think everything from
fitness apps on your phone
to operations via videolink and sharing patient records electronically -- it's time for the European Health Parliament to get online as well. Google is keen to make digital skills a theme this year, so candidates with an ICT background are especially welcome. Innovation, creativity and fearless thinking are what Europe's healthcare systems need at this point!
The deadline for applications is November 22. If you are under 35, have a degree, and are available for several meetings in Brussels during coming months -- and, most importantly, want to share your views on how to best shape European healthcare in the future --
apply here now
.
Posted by Marco Pancini, Senior Policy Council Google
Discover Europe’s hidden gems with Google Maps and the Financial Times
Friday, October 30, 2015
We’re always trying to build technology that helps people access and explore the world around them, from the
Liwa desert
to a
tucked-away restaurant
in Playa Carmen. That’s why today, we’re excited to announce a partnership with the Financial Times called Hidden Cities. Hidden Cities is a FT Weekend series that combines Google technology with FT journalism. It allows readers to discover places to eat, drink, and shop in the world’s political and cultural capitals, and easily explore them using Google Maps.
We’re kicking off the series by showcasing gems off the beaten path in Brussels. Readers can expect lots of beer and chocolate recommendations from local tastemakers and FT journalists alike - including picks from master chocolatier
Pierre Marcolini
, brewery chief
Jean Van Roy
, and the
FT Bureau staff past and present
.
You can check out the online experience at
ft.com/hiddencities
and this weekend’s FT Weekend Magazine. Look out for the next Hidden Cities installment in November, which will take users under the surface of another European capital - London.
Posted by Molly Welch, Product Marketing Manager
Opening the Biennale Arte 2015 online
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Editor’s note:
La Biennale di Venezia has for over a century been one of the most prestigious cultural institutions in the world, showcasing contemporary art from around the world. For the first time, the Google Cultural Institute had the privilege of partnering with La Biennale and bringing the renowned art exhibition Biennale Arte 2015 online for everyone to see. Users can browse over 80 digital exhibitions
and
explore 360 degree Street View images of 71 pavilions of La Biennale at
g.co/biennalearte2015
and
through a dedicated
mobile app
. We hope to see many of you in Venice for La Biennale, and are sure you will continue to discover new and delightful aspects of the art long after you return home.
We’ve invited Paolo Baratta, President of La Biennale di Venezia, to share his thoughts.
***
Our collaboration with Google started a few months ago, when la Biennale shared
an overview
of La Biennale Arte 1999 curated by Harald Szeemann on the Google Cultural Institute website. That edition of La Biennale was the first to use the spaces of the Arsenale, a historic area of Venice, which in turn gave grounds to the development of the two dimensions of the exhibit: one entrusted to the Curator nominated by La Biennale, and the other formed by the National Pavilions.
Today, after that experiment, we continue the collaboration with Google, bringing online a selection of artworks and pavilions from
Biennale Arte 2015
,
All The World’s Futures
, curated by Okwui Enwezor.
La Biennale has a specific role: to research and share the understanding of contemporary art. Access to the results of our research is achieved, for the most part, through our exhibitions, so encouraging access is certainly our key responsibility. Committing to new technologies that can facilitate the sharing of our work in art and architecture, and also in music and cinema, with a wider audience is therefore fundamental to our mission.
This collaboration with Google is the first, and a very important experiment, which I believe can be developed further in the future in a variety of possible if yet still unknown ways. We’ll do our best!
Combining these digital tools with a stronger editorial ability, our goal is to enhance the experience for our audience and to better the document the exhibit.
The bet we’re placing on new technology is most definitely not one that replaces the direct experience with a virtual or indirect one, but, on the contrary, one where virtual viewing is used to help enhance the in-person experience.
Posted by Paolo Baratta,
President of la Biennale di Venezia
Supporting Europe Code Week
Friday, October 23, 2015
The European Commission estimates that more than 900,000 high tech jobs will go unfilled in 2020. We want to do something about that. As part of our on-going efforts to encourage more school students to learn about computing, and to ensure that all of them have an opportunity to get the right skills, we participated in the EC initiative
Europe Code Week 2015
which took place Oct 10-18.
To kick things off we supported the ‘
EU Dojo
’ event at the European Parliament, where students introduced coding to Members of European Parliament. We also ran office events in Brussels and Amsterdam and sent Googlers out to visit students in Ireland and Greece.
Furthermore, we provided small grants and resources to organizations running computer science outreach events: from Belgium to Bulgaria, France to Finland, and Spain to Slovakia. In Ljubljana we supported the University of Ljubljana’s “Programming for Fun” series of events, which featured opportunities for over 200 students of all ages.
School kids receive a certificate after participating in a workshop with Hackidemia Bulgaria
In Bulgaria, the Vratsa Software Development Community ran two days of workshops to inspire youth about the potentials of a career in technology. Other cool initiatives included coding
workshops
for 200 students during Coders’ Picnic by
Fundacja Nowoczesna Polska, the ‘
KAS.juniorEXPERTS
’ initiative in Germany,
educational robotics workshops
in Greece and the
CodeSevilla
event by Programamos.
You can read more about the grantees
here
. In all, we supported over 60 organizations in 24 countries to reach almost 20,000 students in just one week.
Ultimately, during Europe Code Week 2015 over 7000 events took place inspiring hundreds of thousands of students - an amazing effort! Let’s keep the momentum going. See
Code Week’s
events page to see all the different activities still happening, and learn more about Google’s effort in computer science education at
g.co/csedu
.
Posted by Marielena Ivory, Pre-university Education Specialist, Europe
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