Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Reaching out to Germany’s Silver Surfers
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
For many senior citizens, the Internet seems overwhelming, and often, downright dangerous. In Germany, privacy concerns have combined with the elderly’s natural reticence to technology to keep many senior citizens offline.
In order to begin changing this perception, we partnered with the Federal Associations of Senior Citizens, which includes 100 organisations and 13 million members, and the “Deutschland sicher im Netz” (Germany Safe Online - our partner in the Good to Know campaign in Germany) to raise awareness among all age groups on online safety and security. At this month's SenNova congress and fair for senior citizens, we hosted a booth with our partners to help inform participants about how to stay safe and get the most out of the Internet.
Of the 20,000 visitors to the fair, we held 800 individual conversations in three days. Many senior citizens appreciated meeting “Google in person.” We handed out more than 4.000 pamphlets including tips and tricks for Search and Social Networks which we especially created with our partners for seniors.
We took away some important lessons. More than their digitally native grandchildren and great-grandchildren, seniors desire face-to-face discussions about the Internet. This includes the importance of printed materials, keeping the information we provide simple and jargon free and presented in a manner that is easy to read. After an intensive discussion with a very active 70 year old lady, who told us she uses only Google as her Internet, she finished the conversation with the words: "You made my day!" She was so thankful that we were there to explain to her basics on search and other tools, as her children don´t have or take the time to explain information she finds too complicated. Another lady told me that she came to the event just to see us, as she needs more information on how to use the Internet.
Our next step of the project is the launch of a competition to find “Germany`s most digital senior citizen” on June 1st. The award winning ceremony will be held on October 29th at the Google offices in Berlin.
Posted by Sabine Frank, Media Literacy Policy Counsel, Berlin
Launching Street View in e-Estonia
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Estonia is an e-leader. The Baltic nation boasts one of the world’s highest broadband penetration rates and has carved out a pioneering role in promoting e-government and online freedom. About 94 per cent of tax returns last year were made online. Estonians
vote on their laptops
and sign legal documents on a smartphone. Cabinet meetings are paperless. It’s all quite impressive in a country where, only two decades ago population, it was difficult to obtain a phone line.
Most important, Estonians know firsthand about the need to keep networks open. The country suffered a massive cyberattack three years ago. Instead of imposing draconian plans to control the net, however, its reaction has been to embrace the Internet has become a symbol of progress and freedom.
For all these reasons, we take particular pleasure today to announce the launch of our popular Google Maps
Street View
feature in Estonia. From now on, anyone, anywhere, will, with the click of a computer mouse, be able to stroll in the cobbled medieval streets of of the capital Tallinn, the university town of Tartu, the colorful wooden houses of Pärnu. Or enjoy Estonia’s pristine nature, strolling down the sandy white beaches of the country’s Baltic coast, deep forests, picturesque lakes and rivers, mysterious swamps and rich flora and fauna.
Grotere kaart weergeven
Our users have told us that this ability to view a location as if they were actually there helps them find information about the places they live and visit. Street View permits us to preview holiday accommodation and look at nearby amenities such as parks, roads, bus stops, shopping areas and parking when planning your move. Can't remember the name of that amazing restaurant or clothes store you visited a few months ago? Walk the streets and find it. And then use the driving directions in Google Maps, with Street View images of intersections and landmarks, to get there.
Grotere kaart weergeven
Street View is educational. It encourages study of the geography, vegetation and landscape of different parts of the world. Teachers can incorporate Street View, Google Maps and Google Earth into geography or history lesson plans or arrange a virtual field trips. StreetView also promotes business, allowing potential customers to view your store or office, and find out how to get there.
We’re delighted to add Estonia to our Street View family and we look forward to working with Estonians as they pursue their bright e-future.
Posted by Simon Meehan, Senior Policy Analyst, Southern and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa
Supporting innovation in the African news industry
Thursday, May 10, 2012
We’re eager to see journalism flourish in the digital age, in all forms and on all continents. Today, with half a dozen other generous sponsors, we’re taking a big step forward with a new $1 million
African News Innovation Challenge
.
This initiative is the latest in a series of projects to spur innovation in African journalism. Since 2010 we’ve been working with newsrooms across the continent to show journalists how the Internet can help them be better reporter. In Ghana we’re helping journalists produce evidence-based reporting on the country’s new oil wealth; in Senegal we gave journalists training on
election reporting
, and in Kenya we helped pioneer Africa’s first data journalism boot camp. Participants produced eight separate data-driven stories or news apps, including a
TV documentary
that exposed the plight of rural schools and an
analysis of government spending at county level
that has been nominated for an international award.
Now, we’re looking for even more innovations aimed at strengthening and transforming African news media. The News Innovation Challenge will provide grants ranging from $12,500 to $100,000 for project proposals falling into four categories: news gathering, storytelling, audience engagement and the business of news. Proposals can include ideas that improve everything from data-based investigative journalism and crowdsourced citizen reporting, to new ways of distributing news on mobile platforms, or new revenue models that help wean media off a reliance on advertising. In addition to cash grants, winners will receive technical, business development and marketing advice.
The
African Media Initiative
, Africa’s largest association of media owners and operators, is running the Challenge. Other partners include
Omidyar Network
, the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
, the
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
, the
U.S. State Department,
the
Konrad Adenhauer Stiftung
and the
World Association of Newspapers & News Producers
.
Entries must be submitted to this
website
by midnight Central African Time on July 10, 2012. While news pioneers from anywhere in the world are welcome, all entries must have an African partner that will help develop and test the innovation. Entries will be judged by an international jury, and finalists will get a chance to refine their proposals during one-on-one mentoring sessions at a “tech camp” in Zanzibar in August 2012.
The winners will be announced at the Africa’s largest gathering of media owners and executives, at the
Africa Media Leaders Forum
, in Ivory Coast in November 2012.
We’re also active in promoting digital journalism outside of Africa, such as supporting the
Nordic News Hacker
, the
Global Editor Network’s data journalism prize
and
International Press Institute media innovation prizes
. As media organizations continue to adapt to the new digital world, we’re committed to working with journalists to help them use technologies to gather and tell important stories.
Posted by Julie Taylor, Head of Communications, Sub Saharan Africa
Launching the Tony Sale Award for Computer Conservation
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Computers are now an everyday part of life for many, yet most people know little about their history. At Google we’re keen to help celebrate and preserve the stories of computing’s past. We’ve
blogged
, made
short films
and
partnered
with
museums
-- now it’s time to shine the spotlight on the efforts of others.
To that end, we are delighted to support this week’s launch of an international award recognising those who have made an outstanding engineering achievement in computing conservation. Named in honour of the late
Tony Sale
, acclaimed for his work
rebuilding Colossus
, the award will be managed by the UK’s
Computing Conservation Society
(CCS).
Tony Sale led the team that rebuilt the Colossus computer. He also helped start the campaign to save Bletchley Park, found The National Museum of Computing and establish the Computer Conservation Society.(Photo thanks to The National Museum of Computing)
Entries are invited from any individual or group worldwide who has made a demonstrable contribution to preserving the world’s computing heritage, and whose work is (or could be put) on public display. Nominations close at end-July. Further details and application forms can be found at the
CCS’s website
.
Posted by Lynette Webb, Senior Manager, External Relations
Championing Free Expression - The Hay Festival in Hungary
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Her father was tortured and her mother was made to kneel on broken glass. Jung Chang, the author of the global sensation
Wild Swans
, which at the last count has sold 13 million copies, talked with passion and humanity about human rights during the Cultural Revolution in China at the first ever
Budapest Hay Festival
this past weekend.
Google has been working with the
Hay Literary Festival
for more than a year, helping it grow from its origins in Wales into an international organisation that now hosts festivals around the globe. This was the first festival ever held in Central Europe.
In Budapest, Chang described how she cornered the late Zairean dictator,
Mobutu Sese Sosuku
, under a hairdryer at a salon in Hong Kong, to persuade him to give details of his friendship with
Mao Tse-tung
. She also revealed how
Imelda Marcos
had a soft spot for
Richard Nixon
.
Another who tackled issues of free speech and technology was rock star turned global activist,
Bob Geldof
. He pointed to strong growth rates in Africa and warned policy makers in Europe and the United States that they ignored the economic potential of Africa, driven in large part by the opening up of the Internet. Other speakers at the two festival included
Tibor Fischer
, the Hungarian-born writer whose parents, both basketball players, fled the country after the Soviet suppression of the 1956 uprising, and Nigerian author
Ben Okri
.
One of the attractions of the Hay festival is the quality of speakers and the diversity of subject matter. Taking its name from a picturesque village on the border of England and Wales, made famous by its bookshops, the Hay Festival has been described as the "Woodstock of the mind.” It attracts tens of thousands of people per day during the 10 days of readings, speeches and interviews. We will unveil our
Big Tent
concept to a Hay audience at this year’s
event
, opening on May 31.
Later in the year, we will participate in four Hay gatherings that come within the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Beirut takes place in early July, while the autumn will see festivals in Istanbul, Nairobi and Segovia, Spain.
Posted by Richard Schuster, Communications Manager, Google, Hungary
Hello from Tunisia
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
It was a perfect way to celebrate the Arab Spring.
UNESCO
last week marked its World Press Day in Tunisia, the country that led the rush for freedom in the Arab world. We sponsored the event, hosting Tunisian President
Moncef Marzouki
who met with
Daniel Calingaert
, Freedom House’s Vice President in Washington DC via an On Air Hangout on
UNESCO’s Google+ page
.
World Press Day marks an appropriate moment to review our progress in the Middle East and North Africa. We’re investing and digging deep roots. Over the past year, we have doubled our regional workforce. We have hosted g|daysreaching an estimated 12,000 entrepreneurs and developers in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Our
Google Media Academy
has trained nearly 2,000 journalists.
Google products are going Arabic. Only about three percent of the web now is in Arabic, while more than 10 percent of the world’s web population speaks it as a mother tongue. In order to encourage more local content, we have launched eight local YouTube domains and 11 local maps domains. An Egyptian who searches YouTube is no longer directed to Western videos but instead is able to access local content. We have introduced Arabic versions of Voice Search, Driving directions for Maps, and Google+.
Many magic moments have occurred in the past year. We hosted celebrity high profile hangouts with entertainer
Myriam Fares
and the Arab world’s biggest pop star, Amr Diab. We also launched the Official Google Arabia Google+
page
.
Earlier this month, two Qatar museums,
Museum of Islamic Art
and
Mathaf
, joined the Google Art Project. Egypt, the first episode of "Inside Google" aired on
Al Hayat Al Youm
, Egypt's number one Prime Time TV show. Egypt’s very own Amr Mohamed became a global finalist in the
YouTube Space Lab
. And next week we will crown a national winner for the
Ebda2
with Google competition to provide local entrepreneurs seed capital to start their own business kickstarting the internet ecosystem in Egypt to flourish.
This Arabization drive is producing impressive results. Google searches are up by 25 percent year on year in the region. Some 167 million YouTube videos are viewed each day in the Middle East and Africa - the second highest number in the world, behind the U.S. and ahead of Brazil. These daily views represent 112 percent increase since last October - more than double the views in just one year. An hour of YouTube video is uploaded each minute in the Middle East and North Africa. Since the launch of our local map domains, we have seen 50 percent growth in maps usage throughout the region.
Our goal is clear – to become part of the local landscape, giving people around the Middle East and North Africa access to information, preferably in their own language. For us, our contribution to UNESCO’s World Press Day represents yet another strong step towards this goal.
Posted by Maha Abouelenein, Head of Communications, Middle East and North Africa
Fostering a new generation of coders
Friday, May 4, 2012
Last year, our executive chairman
Eric Schmidt urged the UK
to take advantage of its “great computer heritage” by increasing the number of students studying computer science. We’ve now teamed up with the
Guardian
newspaper to encourage a new generation of coders.
As part of our joint initiative, the Guardian hosted a
two-day hackathon
event for pupils from four UK schools. In each school, 20 pupils - all aged between 13 and 15 - were given the challenge of creating a website in just over 24 hours. Developers from Google and the Guardian were on hand to offer advice.
Photograph: Alys Tomlinson/The Guardian
Seven projects emerged from the hackathons. They ranged from an online community for sharing and editing photos to a collaborative calendar that allows users to upload and share blogs, links and photos. By the end of the event, most students had a working knowledge of programming languages including Java, Python and html.
Much more work is required, but there are encouraging signs. In January the Education Secretary Michael Gove took the bold step of
scrapping the existing ICT curriculum
, freeing schools in the UK to teach a richer mix of programming, computer science and advanced IT rather than simply how to use software.
Most of the students who participated in our hackathon had little experience in computer coding. The promising results suggest that everyone, with a little support, can learn to code and embrace the digital future.
Posted by Peter Barron, Director, External Relations, Europe, Middle East and Africa
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