Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Boosting the UK's creative and cultural industries
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
What can a 22 year old on YouTube teach the the
Royal Shakespeare Company
about entertaining audiences? Quite a lot, it turns out, when the YouTubers are stars like
Danisnotonfire
, who has had a 90% growth in traffic in the last year, or
Michael Stevens
, who is fast approaching 500 million views for his channel
VSauce
.
More than 300 British leaders from the arts, creative and cultural sector packed our Central St. Giles office in London to learn from each other - and from some of the new YouTube upstarts - how best to reach and entertain a global audience online. Together with us, the
Arts Council
,
Creative England
,
Culture24
and the
European Creative Industries Alliance
organized the
two day celebration
. On the the first day, we focused on access to finance, and on the second, seizing online opportunities.
Two recurring big themes emerged:
Personality
- Art galleries and museums must engage online in a way that has authenticity, character and even intimacy. One great example was from
Whitechapel Gallery
, where young people at the gallery have set up their own blog,
Duchamp and Sons
, and
twitter feed
to talk about arts and their gallery in their own voice
Collaboration
- The
British Postal Museum
and
Imperial War Museum
explained how our own
Cultural Institute
online exhibitions has helped them not only reach new audiences but enabled collaboration with other institutions.
Every seat was taken for the two-day celebration
All too often, content industries have rushed to blame the Internet for hurting culture. It certainly is bringing change - but as this event shows, it also presents great opportunities for both traditional and new players.
Posted by Theo Bertram, Policy Manager, Google UK
Protecting children from sexual abuse
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Last week 348 people were arrested in Canada – and 386 young kids rescued – in one of the largest child sex investigations ever seen. It defies belief that anyone would sexually abuse children, especially teachers and doctors entrusted with their care.
But this awful case highlights the depths to which humanity can sink.
And while society will never wholly eliminate such depravity, we should do everything in our power to protect children from harm. That's why internet companies like Google and Microsoft have been working with law enforcement for years to stop paedophiles sharing illegal pictures on the web. We actively remove child sexual abuse imagery from our services and immediately report abuse to the authorities. This evidence is regularly used to prosecute and convict criminals.
But as the UK Prime Minister David Cameron said in a speech this summer, there's always more that can be done. We've listened, and in the last three months put more than 200 people to work developing new, state-of-the-art technology to tackle the problem.
Cleaning up search:
We've fine tuned Google Search to prevent links to child sexual abuse material from appearing in our results. While no algorithm is perfect – and Google cannot prevent paedophiles adding new images to the web – these changes have cleaned up the results for over 100,000 queries that might be related to the sexual abuse of kids. As important, we will soon roll out these changes in more than 150 languages, so the impact will be truly global.
Deterrence:
We're now showing warnings – from both Google and charities – at the top of our search results for more than 13,000 queries. These alerts make clear that child sexual abuse is illegal and offer advice on where to get help.
Detection and removal:
There's no quick technical fix when it comes to detecting child sexual abuse imagery. This is because computers can't reliably distinguish between innocent pictures of kids at bathtime and genuine abuse. So we always need to have a person review the images. Once that is done – and we know the pictures are illegal – each image is given a unique digital fingerprint. Microsoft deserves a lot of credit for developing and sharing its picture detection technology. But paedophiles are increasingly filming their crimes. So our engineers at YouTube have created a new technology to identify these videos. We're already testing it at Google, and in the new year we hope to make it available to other internet companies and child safety organisations.
Technical expertise:
There are many organisations working to fight the sexual exploitation of kids online – and we want to ensure they have the best technical support. So Google plans to second computer engineers to both the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) here in Britain and the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). We also plan to fund internships for other engineers at these organisations. This will help the IWF and NCMEC stay one step ahead.
The sexual abuse of children is a global challenge, and success depends on everyone working together – law enforcement, internet companies and charities. We welcome the lead taken by the British Government, and hope that the technologies developed (and shared) by our industry will make a real difference in the fight against this terrible crime.
Posted by Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman
Be inspired, ReCreate
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Edgar Degas
once said, “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” Our
ReCreate with Tate Britain
project allows all art-lovers to show what they see.
The project celebrates the Tate’s 500 year
British Art collection
by asking creative types across the world to ReCreate something of their own from a Tate Britain painting and to share on Google+.
Themes include
Cooking,
Comedy
and
Poetry
. Tate Britain invited famous TV chefs The Fabulous Baker Brothers to take inspiration from Hogarth’s ‘O the Roast beef of Old England’ to ReCreate a new recipe as part of the food series.
Watch
how they created a burger recipe inspired by the painting.
This evening, at 8 p.m. GMT, fashion photographer
Miles Aldridge
and our Google+ Photography community will present a special Hangout on Air about photography and art. Be sure to tune in
here
to watch live.
Want to get involved? It's as simple as 1, 2, 3:
Take a look at Tate Britain's
collection
on the Google Art Project and pick something that inspires you
Create something new and share it into the
with Tate Britain Community.
Tag it #Recreate and #TateBritain. Whether it's food, fashion, photography, we'd love to see it
Over the next few months, we will share selected artworks to the Google Art Project and Tate Britain Google+ pages. Upcoming themes include fashion, music and film. Make sure to join the Google+ Community and stay up to date.
Join us and ReCreate.
Posted by Calvin Lau and Kevin Maguire, Product Marketing Managers, EMEA
Moving journalism into the digital age
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
As the news business experiments with new ways of creating and delivering journalism in the digital age, we’re keen to offer support at the grassroots level. Over the past two years, the Google-funded
IPI News Innovation Contest
has awarded $2.7 million in grants to media projects throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
On September 13, we celebrated the fund’s 17 winners at the Guardian in London. The event included a Google+ Hangout on Air to allow contest winners who couldn’t make it to the event in person to participate - and to allow the public to watch.
Grants were given to both non-profit and for-profit organisations working on digital journalism initiatives, including open-source and mobile technology projects created by or for journalists and distributed in the public interest. Winners ranged from the
Guardian’s own experiment with collaborative journalism
to the
World Wide Web Foundation’s Citizen Journalism project
in Africa to
Mediacenter Sarajevo’s data journalism program
in Bosnia. You can find links to all the projects here.
In London, much of the discussion focused on making the winners’ innovations sustainable. IPI plans to host an ongoing online dialogue to keep track on progress. We’re delighted to be part of that conversation.
Posted by Peter Barron, Director, Communications, Europe, Middle East and Africa
The HALO Trust: Helping communities clean up mines
Monday, September 16, 2013
From time to time we invite guests to post about subjects of interest and today we’re pleased to share a post from Guy Willoughby, Executive Director of
the HALO Trust
, a U.K.-based nonprofit dedicated to landmine clearance in post-conflict areas. Hear how HALO is using
Google Maps for Business
to fight the war against mines, clearing more than 1.4 million landmines worldwide.
-Ed.
When conflicts end, making communities safe and livable often means removing dangerous remnants of war. “Getting mines out of the ground, for good,” as we say at the HALO Trust, has been our mission over the last 25 years. We work in more than a dozen countries and regions across the globe, clearing landmines and other explosives, many of which have been buried underground. While we’ve been in operation for almost three decades, there is still more to be done.
In Kosovo, where people are reclaiming their homeland after the conflict in 1999, we’re working in close cooperation with the government and local population to collect and share information about where mines are located. It’s a true community effort—farmers tell us where they’ve seen signs of mines and where accidents have occurred. It’s our job at the HALO Trust to take this data and make it usable, accessible, and visually compelling, so clearance becomes more efficient and happens faster.
One of our biggest challenges is keeping our field teams safe. We need easy-to-use tools that can help us find, map and clear hazardous areas without putting our operations at risk. Over the years, we’ve continuously improved our mine clearance techniques, including the deployment of
Google Earth Pro
.
Google Earth Pro makes it easier for the HALO team to do the dangerous and detailed work of finding and mapping at-risk areas. Because it’s based on the same technology as Google Maps and Earth, it’s easy for our teams to use and create maps without IT or
GIS
expertise. It’s a tool that is familiar to our employees and something they use in their daily lives, so we can start mapping right away.
The information we gather, including GPS references to landmines in the field, is imported into Earth Pro so that we can plot mine locations. We also use the incredibly detailed satellite imagery in Google Earth to identify and map hazardous areas. These high-resolution maps serve many people: from families who live near mines, to crews who clear them, and donors and other organizations that support us. When donors view the vivid interactive maps of our project areas—with mines so close to schools, farms and houses—they understand why the HALO Trust’s work is so critical.
Accurate maps from Google Earth Pro mean safer working conditions for our local teams, and faster progress toward our goals. In Kosovo alone, we’ve removed thousands of landmines, cluster munitions and other explosives. And with the help of Google’s mapping tools and our donors, we’ll be able to declare the country mine-free.
Posted by Guy Willoughby, Executive Director, the HALO Trust
Afternoon tea and a new gallery with computing’s heroines
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Last Saturday saw a special gathering at Bletchley Park to showcase the contributions of women to computing. We were joined in person by some of the UK’s female pioneers—including
Margaret Bullen
who did the wiring and soldering for Colossus, the world’s first electronic computer;
Sophie Wilson
who co-designed the ARM processor, found in almost every mobile phone and tablet; and
Dame Stephanie Shirley
who founded Freelance Programmers, one of the UK’s earliest software startups.
Photos thanks to
Shaun Armstrong
(copyright
Mubsta.com
) and
James Martin
The afternoon got into full swing with a presentation applauding the pioneers present and the
announcement of a new Google sponsored gallery
at The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC). The gallery aims to highlight the achievements and roles played by women as visionaries, engineers, entrepreneurs, programmers and more. It was aptly launched with a
speech by Dame Stephanie Shirley
speaking via hangout from the new Gallery.
Afterwards, people were free to enjoy tours of
Bletchley Park
, guided by some of the original ‘Wrens’ stationed there during the war, and to visit
TNMOC
where they could see the new gallery as well as many other exhibits, and even get hands on and learn to solder!
Photos thanks to
TNMOC
and
James Martin
Bletchley’s Mansion was also decked out for the event with posters highlighting 20 women from the UK and beyond who have made groundbreaking contributions to computing—among them,
Dina St Johnston
,
Grace Hopper
,
Kateryna Yushchenko
,
Karen Sparck Jones
,
Barbara Liskov
,
Sister Mary Kenneth Keller
,
Hedy Lamarr
, and many more, not least
Ada Lovelace
who started it all. Other exhibits included displays by those working to encourage young people to get interested in computing, including
CAS #include
,
Technology Will Save Us
and
Apps For Good
.
Photos thanks to
Shaun Armstrong
(copyright
Mubsta.com
)
Overall, it was a splendid day and a chance to shine a light on some of those whose contributions are often overlooked. And this is just the beginning. Thanks to the
digital touch screens
installed in the new gallery, the displays will evolve and expand as more stories are found.
Do get in touch
if you have an idea or would like to contribute. We’re keen for this to be an inspiring resource for all visitors—especially for girls curious about computing’s opportunities.
Posted by Lynette Webb, Senior Manager, External Relations
Four women share stories from UK computing’s early days
Thursday, September 5, 2013
So far, with
rare
exception
, the focus of our
computing history series
has been on technology—the machines that broke new ground and the people behind them.
This time we’re approaching it from a different angle, with the release of short films highlighting the stories of four women. By luck or design, all found themselves working at the forefront of the UK’s computing industry in its earliest stages, and it was fascinating to hear their diverse experiences.
In three clips from past interviews,
Joyce Wheeler
and
Margaret Marrs
talk about their time using
EDSAC
at Cambridge, and
Mary Coombs
tells of programming
LEO
, the world’s first business computer. And in a fourth brand new film,
Dame Stephanie Shirley
shares her extraordinary tale of founding
Freelance Programmers
, one of the UK’s first software startups.
Launched in 1962, Freelance Programmers wasn’t the UK’s first independent software company—that honour goes to
Vaughan Programming Services
founded by another pioneering woman,
Dina St Johnston
, in 1959.
What made Dame Stephanie’s company stand out however was its unusual business model, dedicated to employing women programmers working part-time from home. In an era when women were routinely expected to leave the workforce upon marriage, this was a bold move. Against all odds, Dame Stephanie—or “Steve” as she signed her business letters—dramatically overcame the glass ceiling by sidestepping it, bringing many others in her wake.
Few entrepreneurs have been as successful as Dame Stephanie; even fewer have done as much to champion the cause of women in computing. We’re delighted to share her inspirational story.
Posted by Lynette Webb, Senior Manager, External Relations
Reimagining Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream
Monday, September 2, 2013
For many, visiting Shakespeare’s hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon to watch the
Royal Shakespeare Company
perform is a pilgrimage. For many others, however, the trip is too far or too expensive. In an experiment with Google’s Creative Lab, the RSC extended their stage online, to let the world watch, and even participate in a new kind of production called Midsummer Night’s Dreaming. A video summing up the production just has been released.
This groundbreaking project saw a full RSC company, directed by Artistic Director Gregory Doran, perform Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in real time over three days. A group of commissioned artists created new characters inspired by the activity in the play. The new sub-plots were shared on Google+, allowing audiences to interact and see the story unfold through new eyes on this new online stage.
As a legacy of the experiment, the RSC has created an interactive timeline to accompany an audio recording of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Online audiences can hear the play while seeing the secondary content created by the creative team and audiences. Take a look at the
timeline
at and follow the RSC on
Google+
. We hope you will enjoy this attempt to bring Shakespeare to new audiences.
Posted by Tom Uglow, Project Director and Creative Director of Google’s Creative Lab
Searching in Summer
Friday, August 9, 2013
For much of Europe, August is synonymous with holidays and we’ve been trolling through
Google Trends’s new Hot Searches
tool to see what is amusing, fascinating or titillating Europeans during the summer.
The clear winner - football.
Even before the Premier League kicked off, UK searchers went looking for game scores as lower Championship League swung back into action. Liverpool's Luis Suarez and Manchester United Wayne Rooney’s
transfer sagas
scored high and
Charlotte Green’s appointment
as the first woman announcer of the BBC’s Saturday Football topped the ranking of the August 7 Hot Searches.
In Germany, results of the first round of the DFB Cup, particularly Bayern Munich’s crushing 5-0 victory, led the August 6 results. Russians searched for the fortunes of the
Anzhi team’s
financial issues and St. Petersburg’s Zenit’s
purchase
of two players, full-back "Rubin" and Argentinian Cristian Ansaldi.
Admittedly, some serious issues received serious attention. When Bavarian judges ordered the immediate release of 57-year old
Gustl Mollath
, from an institution for the criminally insane, the legal scandal surrounding the case soared to the top of Germany’s searches.
Severe storms
affecting German train traffic received wide attention, as did Amazon founder
Jeff Bezos’s purchase
of the Washington Post. Russians searched for news about government’s decision to accept American leaker
Edward Snowden’s asylum request
and the
mass protest
against a new Internet anti-piracy law.
Take a look yourself at Google Trends and see for yourself what people, places and issues are making waves.
Posted by William Echikson, External Relations, Europe, Middle East and Africa
Get an All Access music pass on Google Play
Thursday, August 8, 2013
With millions upon millions of songs out there, it can be a daunting task to figure out what to choose. Sometimes you just want to sit back, press play and hear something new. Starting today, you can do just that.
All Access
, our new monthly music subscription service in Google Play, is now available in Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and the UK.
All Access provides an unlimited pass to a huge library of music on all your devices — from all the major record companies, as well as top local and independent labels.
The new service lets you create an ad-free, interactive radio station from any song or artist. You can add, remove or re-order your station and see what’s coming next. Or browse recommendations from our expert music team and explore songs by genre. The “Listen Now” tab puts artists and radio stations we think you’ll like front and center allowing you to start listening the minute you open your library.
When millions of songs just aren’t enough, Google Play Music lets you combine our collection with your own collection. You can store 20,000 songs for free online, and listen to them alongside the All Access catalogue on any Android device, or via the web at
play.google.com
. You can even ‘pin’ specific albums and playlists songs so they’re available offline.
Try it today for free for the first month and -- as a special introductory offer -- pay only EUR7.99 each month after that. Regular pricing for those who sign up after September 15 will be EUR9.99 a month, with a 30-day free trial.
With today’s launch, Google Play moves one step closer to your ultimate digital entertainment destination, where you can find, enjoy and share your favourite apps, games, books, movies, magazines, TV shows and music on your Android phone or tablet. Go ahead and start discovering a whole new world of music.
Posted by Paul Joyce, product manager for Google Play Music
Measuring the UK’s Digital Economy
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
The British mathematician and physicist
Lord Kelvin
famously said “If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.” In 1948, the post-war British Government badly needed to improve the nation’s economy. To help it draw up the right policies for jobs and growth, the Government took a scientific approach - one of which Lord Kelvin would have been proud. Government statisticians were instructed to count, classify and measure the economic activity of every business in the country. They developed a set of Standard Industrial Classification codes and the data they collected was used to shape policy in every aspect of the British economy.
This week, a
new report
by the
National Institute for Economic and Social Research
, and supported by Google, updates these SIC codes to include the new, fast growing digital sector. After 65 years, the old codes are out of date. One in ten companies in the UK are now classified vaguely as ‘other’. One in five have no classification at all.
This new report is based on pioneering big data techniques. It draws not just from official tables and accounts but instead is gleaned from more than five billion data points, providing us with a level of detail and insight that statisticians in 1948 could scarcely have imagined.
The scale of the UK’s digital economy that emerges from this research is immense. In June 2013, the Government estimated from SIC codes that there were 120,000 businesses in the digital economy. The most conservative estimate from this new report of the number of digital companies is more than double government estimates - 269,695. In addition, the report found that digital companies employ 15% more, grow 25% faster than non-digital companies.
The digital economy has spread into every part of the United Kingdom, not just in London and the South East but throughout the country, with particularly great intensity in places like Manchester, Middlesbrough and Aberdeen. It has spread into every sector, from architecture firms whose activities have become almost entirely digital to machine tool manufacturers who now use huge online data-processing facilities, such as Hadoop, to monitor every aspect of their processes.
This is a groundbreaking work. For the first time in 65 years - it presents us with a new way of measuring the economy that can only help us to take the right steps to support growth and jobs.
Posted by Hal Varian, Chief Economist
You're changing the world. We want to help.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated the winners of the
Google Global Impact Challenge
in the UK, awarding prizes to nonprofits for some amazing, innovative uses of technology to help their causes. Today we are thrilled to go one step further and launch the
Google for Nonprofits
programme in the UK, starting in England and Wales.
Google for Nonprofits is a one-stop-shop that offers access to our suite of free and discounted products and tools. If you work for a nonprofit, you can
apply to join the program
today. Once your organisation is approved, you get free
Google Apps
to cut IT costs and operate more efficiently; up to $10,000 a month in advertising on
Google Adwords
to reach more donors; and premium features for
YouTube
and our
mapping technologies
to raise awareness of your cause. We’ve also developed other online resources such as
educational videos
,
case studies
and better ways to
connect
with other nonprofits.
Over the years, Google has donated over $1 billon worth of products to nonprofits, and several UK organisations are already using our tools.
BeatBullying
- a charity that fights online bullying - uses Google Apps to enable more sharing and collaboration amongst colleagues. The
Royal National Lifeboat Institution
uses Google AdWords and YouTube to raise awareness and recruit more supporters; and
WaterAid
uses Google mapping technologies to show where their work is making a difference.
We’re inspired and humbled by the amazing ways nonprofits are making the world a better place, and look forward to supporting the work of more UK nonprofits.
Posted by Xiaonan Zhao, Product Manager, Google for Nonprofits
An evening with the UK’s computing pioneers
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
It was fish and chips, ice-cream and popcorn all round as we celebrated the UK’s computing heritage on Monday with a night of film and stories from some of the country’s pioneers.
The evening began with unveiling a new display showcasing the extensive contributions the UK has made to computing—from
Charles Babbage
and
Ada Lovelace
, to
Donald Davies
and
Tim Berners-Lee
. It now has pride of place in the reception of Google’s Central St Giles office in London, and we hope will help make these achievements better known.
Following came more formal sessions, beginning with those who first brought the Internet to the UK. The
pioneering work of the National Physical Laboratory
was described by Roger Scantlebury and Peter Wilkinson, both members of Donald Davies’ team who built the NPL network—the first Internet-like thing in the UK. They were joined
by Peter Kirstein from UCL
and
Vint Cerf
who recounted the story of how the US Arpanet came to be connected to NPL’s network, via Peter’s workaround gateway at UCL.
It was a thrill to have these four pioneers together, reminiscing about their early work and the creative ways they overcame the many challenges, bureaucratic and technological. If you’d like to hear the inside scoop on how the Internet got started in the UK, enjoy this video:
The evening was rounded off with
some film screenings
, interspersed with presentations by Tilly Blyth from the
Science Museum
, and David Hartley from
TNMOC
, describing the great work they’re doing to help preserve and promote the UK’s computing heritage. Finishing with a lively Q&A session with Vint Cerf where we talked about the Internet’s future.
Thanks to everyone who came, and all who shared their stories, making it such a memorable night.
Posted by Lynette Webb, Senior Manager, External Relations
From Sutton Hoo to the soccer pitch: culture with a click
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Museums, libraries and galleries are a tourist staple of the summer holiday season. Often they’re the first place we head to when visiting a new city or town in order to learn about the heritage of that country. Though only a lucky few have the chance to travel to see these treasures first-hand, the Internet is helping to bring access to culture even when you can’t visit in person.
At the
Google Cultural Institute
, we’ve been busy working with our
partners
to add a range of new online exhibitions to our existing collection. With more than 6 million photos, videos and documents, the diversity and range of subject matter is large—a reflection of the fact that culture means different things to different people. What the exhibitions have in common is that they tell stories; objects are one thing but it’s the people and places they link to that make them fascinating.
The British Museum
is the U.K.’s most popular visitor attraction and the 4th most visited museum in the world. It’s well known for housing one of the most spectacular archaeological discoveries ever made—the 1,400 year old Anglo-Saxon burial from Sutton Hoo, untouched until its discovery in 1939. Their online exhibition “
Sutton Hoo: Anglo-Saxon ship burial
” explores the discovery of the ship, featuring videos of the excavation and photos of the
iconic helmet
and a solid gold
belt buckle
. All this tells the story of how the burial and its contents changed our understanding of what Anglo-Saxon society was like.
From archaeology we take you to sport, which is integral to the culture of many nations, including Brazil. In the lead-up to Brazil's hosting of the 2014 World Cup, the
Museu do Futebol
has told the story of how the “beautiful game” came to Brazil. The photos, videos and posters in “
The Game and the People
” track the social impact of the sport and its transition from a past time for the wealthy (with their pleated pants and satin belts) to the modern game.
Science remains a perennially fascinating topic and the
Museo Galileo
in Italy has put together a series of three exhibitions looking at the link between art and science.
The Medici Collections
,
the Lorraine Collections
and the
Library Collections
examine the beginnings of science and technology 500 years ago and chart developments from the discovery of the sun dial to the Google Maps of today. As well as being informative, the exhibitions include beautiful objects such as the
Jovilabe
, which was used to calculate the periods of Jupiter’s moons.
So if broadening your cultural horizons through travel isn’t in the cards this summer, settle down in your armchair and browse through through some of the world’s heritage and history online. Keep up to date with new material on the
Cultural Institute Google+ page
.
Posted by James Davis, program manager, Google Cultural Institute
“You’ve come a long way, Baby”: recalling a special computer
Friday, June 21, 2013
Sixty-five years ago today, the
Manchester Small Scale Experimental Machine
—nicknamed “Baby”—became the earliest computer in the world to run a program electronically stored in its memory. This was a flagship moment: the first implementation of the
stored program concept
that underpins modern computing.
Earlier computers had their instructions hardwired into their physical design or held externally on
punched paper tape
or
cards
. Reprogramming them to do a different task entailed internal rewiring or altering the physical storage media. The Baby marked a new computing era, described by some as the “
birth of software
,” in which swapping programs was far simpler—requiring only an update to the electronic memory. Both instructions and data were held in the Baby’s memory and the contents could be altered automatically at electronic speeds during the course of computation.
Developed at Manchester University by
“Freddie” Williams
,
Tom Kilburn
and
Geoff Tootill
, in size the Baby was anything but:
more than 5m long and weighing a tonne
(PDF). Its moniker was due to its role as a testbed for the experimental
Williams-Kilburn tube
, a means of storing binary digits (“bits”) using a cathode ray tube. This was a big deal because up until this point, computers had no cost-effective means of storing and flexibly accessing information in electronic form.
In technical terms, the Williams-Kilburn tube was the earliest form of
random access memory
, or RAM. The Baby’s memory consisted of one of these tubes, able to store up to
1,024 bits
—equivalent to just 128 bytes. In contrast, the average computer today has RAM in multiples of gigabytes, more than a billion times bigger.
The Baby was only ever intended to be a proof-of-concept rather than to serve as a useful calculation tool. So once it had shown the new memory was reliable, attention shifted to building a more powerful and practical machine using the same concepts. This resulted in the
Manchester Mark 1
, which in turn was the model for the Ferranti Mark 1, the world’s
first computer to be sold commercially
, in February 1951.
While today nothing remains of the original Baby, a
working replica is on display
at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Manchester. It’s well worth a visit to reflect on just how far computing has come.
Posted by Lynette Webb, Senior Manager, External Relations
Looking to the future at the UK’s Big Tent
Thursday, May 23, 2013
We spend a lot of time at
Big Tent events
discussing the opportunities and challenges of today’s Internet. At our third UK Big Tent this week we took a broader view, exploring how the innovation of today is poised to reshape the world in 10 years time.
The astonishing advances in robotics were one recurring theme.
Bertolt Meyer
, fitted with a bionic hand, introduced us to his even more
cutting edge counterpart
. But after the wow of the gadgets came a serious discussion of the practical challenges in embracing AI. For instance, when does assistance become augmentation, and how far is it ethical to go? If implants are connected and controllable remotely—
like Bertolt’s hand
—what are the security risks?
A similarly cautious note was struck in discussions around data. We heard stories of the great good that can arise from the clever application of data, from
advances in cancer research
to
making local government services more effective
; but there were also
those who warned
of potential dangers.
There were perspectives from Google too. Astro Teller shared his thoughts on moonshots—
what they are, why they matter
, and why companies and governments shouldn’t shy away from them. Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen spoke about how the next 5 billion people to come online will usher in a ‘
new digital age
’.
Of course, given recent controversy, the issue of corporate taxation also drew much comment throughout the day. Ed Miliband MP, Leader of the Opposition voiced strong opinions about the
importance of ‘responsible capitalism’
, rhetorically asking: “Do the responsibilities of a company simply lie in obeying the letter of the law? My answer to that is no”. In a later session, Eric Schmidt faced with
robust questioning on the same topic
, emphasised “I don’t think companies should decide what tax policy should be, I think governments should”.
A day of lively debate and diverse points of view—exactly what the Big Tent is for.
Posted by Jon Steinberg, External Relations
Vote in Britain’s Global Impact Challenge
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
A couple weeks ago, we launched our first
Global Impact Challenge in the UK
, inviting British non-profits to tell us how they would change the world using technology. Hundreds of non-profits submitted entries, and over the past few weeks we’ve narrowed the pool to 10 stellar finalists. Today we’re unveiling the list and asking for your help in determining which non-profits will receive the £500,000 Global Impact Award.
Drum roll, please! We’re lifting the curtain for the 10 finalists: Age UK, Amnesty International, CDI Apps for Good, Integrity Action, MAKLab, Pennies, SolarAid, vInspired, War Child, and The Zoological Society of London.
These organisations submitted innovative projects that use technology to make a big impact, from tackling unemployment to protecting freedom of speech to scaling solar energy and much more. Take a look for yourself and see the project list
here
.
Cast your vote
for the four projects that inspire you most. Four organisations will be awarded a £500,000 Global Impact Award to deliver their project, and one will be decided by you the public. The ballot box closes on Friday 31st May at 11:59 p.m. BST.
The three additional Global Impact Award recipients will be chosen by a panel featuring Sir Richard Branson, Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Jilly Forster, as well as Google’s Matt Brittin and Jacquelline Fuller on Monday 3rd June. We’ll also reveal the public’s fan favourite at that time.
Join us in congratulating these inspiring non-profits and don’t forget to vote.
Posted by Dan Cobley, Managing Director of Google UK
Marking a cultural shift in computing with EDSAC
Monday, May 6, 2013
Computing’s early days are
full
of
stories
about great technical leaps forward. But sometimes what matters most isn’t a shift in technology so much as a change in the way it is used. The “
Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator
” (EDSAC)—64 years old today—is a stellar example.
Entry from log book marking the first day that EDSAC was in operation: “May 6th 1949. Machine in operation for first time. Printed a table of squares (0-99), time for programme 2 mins, 35 sec. Four tanks of battery 1 in operation”. Reproduced with kind permission of Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge
EDSAC is noteworthy for marking the transition from “
test to tool
” in civilian computing.
Maurice Wilkes
, EDSAC’s designer, sought to build a multi-purpose, reliable workhorse that would bring unrivalled calculating power to University of Cambridge researchers. His aim wasn’t to be at the cutting edge of engineering; rather to be at the forefront of delivering a computer-powered general calculation service. Above all else, Wilkes wanted EDSAC to be a
practical computer
, useful and accessible to a wide range of researchers.
Short film
celebrating the work of EDSAC’s team, led by Maurice Wilkes, produced by Google
In May 1949 EDSAC became the world’s first general purpose stored program computer to enter regular service, transforming scientific research at the University of Cambridge by making it possible to speedily tackle analyses of previously impractical scale, across disciplines as varied as astronomy, economics, biology and more.
But EDSAC’s legacy stretches far further.
Subroutines
—a central tenet of programming today—were invented by
David Wheeler
to make it easier to program EDSAC by re-using lines of existing code. The
world’s first computer science diploma
had EDSAC as its foundation. The
world’s first business computer
was built with EDSAC as a prototype.
Sadly, little remains physically of EDSAC today. That’s why a team of U.K. volunteers have embarked on
an ambitious project
to construct a working replica of the original EDSAC, in partnership with
The National Museum of Computing
. We’re
delighted to support
the EDSAC Rebuild Project, and we look forward to welcoming it back to regular service—as a reminder of the U.K.’s illustrious computing past.
Posted by Lynette Webb, Senior Manager, External Relations
Peeking into the Science Museum’s “Information Age” gallery
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Last night, we were treated to a glimpse of the construction underway for the London Science Museum’s new gallery about the history of communications -- starting with a new name, “
Information Age
”.
Due to open in September 2014, “Information Age” will show how the history of information is a history of networked communication. It will showcase transformations in the way people have used technology to connect to each other.
Google is among the principal funders
for the gallery, which will be a permanent fixture in the museum and take up a whopping 2,500 square metres.
The gallery will be divided into six sections, corresponding to six different communications technologies: telegraph, broadcast TV and radio, telephone exchanges, satellite, web and mobile. Each section will focus on 3 to 4 significant moments, which will be brought to life by bringing historic objects together with the human stories of how they came about and were used. Inventors and their breakthroughs will be celebrated, but crucially also the influence of everyday users whose experiences shaped the way technologies were embraced and evolved.
Artist impressions c.2013, shown with kind permission of Science Museum, University Design Studio
Top: Cable Network, exploring the impact of the electric telegraph in the 19th century
Middle: The tuning coil from Rugby Radio, positioned at the centre of the gallery
Bottom: A GPS satellite model, viewed from the gallery’s sweeping elevated walkway
Google
strongly endorses the role of museums
in helping adults and children alike to appreciate the wonders of science and inspire the next generation of innovators. We’re excited by the plans revealed for “Information Age”, and can’t want to see them made real.
Posted by Peter Barron, Director, External Relations
Happy birthday Campus London. You’ve grown up so fast.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Just over 12 months ago,
Campus London
opened its doors to the young, upcoming London tech startup community. I’d like to think we always knew it would succeed, but I don’t think any of us expected the level of engagement and enthusiasm we’ve seen in year one.
In just 365 days of operation, Campus now has more than 10,000 members, permanently houses more than 100 young companies and has hosted more than 850 events, attracting more than 60,000 guests through the door. From individual entrepreneurs looking to explore their back-of-a-napkin idea to global venture fund managers, there’s something for everyone in the London tech scene at Campus, and the vibe is electric.
We asked Campus members to provide their feedback and outlook on year one, and their
response
has been overwhelmingly positive. Campus-based companies are growing and creating jobs. One in four are already looking to find bigger office spaces to house their growing teams. We’ve also seen that the success of the London technology startup community as a whole has mirrored that of Campus.
Campus members are younger than the average Tech City entrepreneur, and with initiatives like Women@Campus, increasingly more female entrepreneurs are signing up. Campus is also truly international, with 22 nationalities working, interacting and attending the many mentoring sessions and classes we and our Google volunteers run every day.
Looking ahead to the next year and beyond, we’re offering even more: more globally-acclaimed speakers, a new Campus EDU education programme offering mentorship from Googlers, inspirational talks from thought leaders like Guy Kawasaki, Eric Schmidt and Jimmy Wales, and a curriculum of classes to develop the skills young startups need to build successful businesses.
Google started as a two-person startup in a garage in California. We’re looking to provide the best possible garage to our 10,000 members every day. And so far, all indicators show that Campus is one of the most exciting places in the world for technological innovation.
Posted by Eze Vidra, Head of Campus
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