Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
For Sale: Alan Turing’s Monopoly
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Alan Turing is one of technology’s heroes
—
a mathematician and codebreaker who laid the foundation for today’s computing age. In June, we celebrated his 100th birthday with a
doodle
,
blog post
and the
opening of a major exhibition
sponsored by Google honouring his life and legacy. This week we are delighted to support a more whimsical tribute, in the form of the
Alan Turing edition of Monopoly
.
This special set has been customised to feature locations and interests central to Turing’s life, including never-before-published family photos. With every roll of the dice, players follow in Alan’s footsteps, from
Warrington Crescent
to
Sherborne School
, from
Hut 8
to
Kings College
. And while
Turing isn’t (yet) on the £10 note
, rest assured he’s on all the money in this set!
As a bonus, the set also includes a parchment replica of the
hand-drawn Monopoly board
on which Alan played against William Newman, the young son of his
mathematical mentor Max
—
and unexpectedly lost.
As the box set booklet describes:
“William had drawn the original board to play upon with his brother, basing the squares around important parts of Cambridge. He also added a few unique twists... including a line which went from Go to the Free Parking square, and a ‘turn around’ square which allowed you to change direction…
One afternoon the Newman household phone rang, with Turing on the other end, asking to speak with William. ‘Did he have a Monopoly board?’ Alan asked, and on hearing that he did, raced round. Turing’s mind was fascinated with codes, and there have long been suggestions he thought there were code-based tactics to playing Monopoly to ensure success. Alas, the hand drawn nature of William’s board (not to mention the unique diagonal straight and ‘turn around’ square) proved otherwise, and the great mathematician was beaten”
This unique box set was developed by
Winning Moves
and
Bletchley Park
in collaboration with the Newman and Turing families. Google has paid for the first production run and donated it to Bletchley Park to sell for fundraising. At just £29.99 plus shipping, it would make a superb present for the geek in your life
—
click here to pre-order
.
Posted by Lynette Webb, Senior Manager, External Relations
Ask President Barroso your question on the State of the Union
Friday, September 7, 2012
How will Europe get out of the economic crisis? Will the European Union - and its currency - remain intact? What’s the plan to get young people out of unemployment? These are some of the key questions that
José Manuel Barroso
, President of the European Commission, is likely to address in his State of the Union speech on 12th September.
But if you had the chance, what would you ask him?
On Wednesday 19th September at 19:00 CET, you’ll have that chance. President Barroso will answer your questions in a special, live Euronews / Google+ Hangout interview. Starting today and up to Tuesday 18th September at midday, you can submit your video and text questions - and vote for your favourites - via
youtube.com/eutube
. Euronews will select several top-voted questioners to join President Barroso in the Google+ Hangout and ask him their questions in person.
Video questions are preferred (though text questions are fine too) and they should be about 20 seconds long - further tips on how to make and submit questions are available
here
.
If you need ideas, you can also watch President Barroso’s State of the Union address live on Wednesday 12th September at 9am CET via the
Commission’s website
or you could join the discussion on
Google+
.
The interview will be broadcast live on 19th September on the Euronews cable network and
website
,
on EUtube
, on the Commission’s
Google+ page
, on
Europe by Satellite
, and the
President's website
.
Posted by Al Verney, Communications Manager, Google Brussels
Embracing Internet Freedom in Africa
Friday, September 7, 2012
Update: Nairobi Freedom Online videos are now
online
.
Internet Freedom is not just a concern just for the West - it’s an essential issue for the entire world. The Freedom Online coalition now counts 18 governments from all over the world, including two in Africa, and, underlining this global reach, the Kenyan government this week hosted the second
Freedom Online Summit
in Nairobi. We supported this initiative, which brought together more than 400 stakeholders from governments, business and NGOs.
The Dutch government launched the
Freedom Online coalition
in the Hague last November. We held a
Big Tent
at the event, which featured, among other luminaries, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She used the occasion to make a spirited defense of Internet freedom.
Kenya’s decision to hold the second summit demonstrates its role as a tech pacesetter. “I am proud to be the first African country to host this conference which confirms the country's leading role in adoption of information and communication technology in the region," said
Information and Communications Minister Samuel Poghisio
. More than 17 million Kenyans - a little more than a third of the total population, and the highest figure in sub-Saharan Africa - enjoy Internet access.
At Google, we believe free expression can be a spur for economic and social development. The more a country allows different voices to be heard, on and offline, the more knowledge it encourages citizens to obtain. This knowledge translates into innovation,
economic growth
, education and other signs of social success. During the conference, we showed some research demonstrating a strong correlation between the highest rankings in Internet freedom index and social and economic success.
The Freedom Online coalition continues to grow. On Friday, the Tunisian government joined.
Moez Chakchouk
, CEO of the
Tunisian Internet Agency
, announced the decision and vowed to host the coalition’s next summit in Tunis. We look forward to being present and contributing.
Posted by William Echikson, Head of Free Expression, Europe, Middle East and Africa
Getting social in the Swedish countryside
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Have you heard of a summer camp for the social web? Neither had we. So when Google was invited to join the Sweden Social Web Camp 2012, we couldn’t resist.
Sweden Social Web Camp
started out as an online community where people with different backgrounds and experiences shared a passion for the web. After a couple of years they decided to meet face-to-face and ironically chose the most offline spot imaginable - the small island of
Tjaro
in the archipelago of southern Sweden.
This year's event brings together more than 500 Internet evangelists, opinion leaders, social media frontrunners, bloggers, journalists, entrepreneurs and general web lovers. It's all about sharing ideas and initiating discussions on topics ranging from the challenges of the web and the future media landscape to technical developments and hands-on engineering challenges. There are no big keynote speeches or stages. Instead, anyone can invite participants to a presentation, discussion, or creative workshop on any topic related to the web. The sessions take place from early morning by the breakfast in the barn until late night by the campfire.
Besides listening and learning from some great talks and discussions, we took the opportunity to present the
latest features of Google+
and share some of our thoughts on the social web. We also brought the event to all of the people who were not lucky enough to be on site by broadcasting some of the sessions live via Hangouts On Air on the Sweden Social Web Camp website and
Google+
Page. Thanks to everyone who joined in!
We hope Social Web Camps will spread across Europe - bringing the passion of online communities together in the real world!
Posted by Emma Stjernlof, Google Communication Team Nordics
Big Tent expands to Google+
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Big Tent launched 18 months ago as a one-day event near London, bringing together speakers with diverse points of view to debate some of the hot issues relating to the Internet and society. Since then, we’ve taken the idea across the globe, holding events in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and America. We’ve also opened up the discussion to everybody through our
YouTube channel
- and from this week - on
Google+
.
Our new G+ page already features some interesting entries. We’ve posted Kirby Ferguson’s intriguing
“Everything is a Remix” video
, news about a new art book with images combed from Street View and the story of a crowdsourced
homicide reporting platform
from Washington, DC.
Everything is a Remix Part 1
from
Kirby Ferguson
on
Vimeo
.
Google+ will help bring together different voices who might not be able to travel and participate in our regular events. Through the video Hangout tool, we’re planning a series of guest video posts from inspiring thinkers on some of the key issues facing the Internet and society.
Our Big Tent header is "Many points of view, one amazing Internet." Please check it out and consider circling the page and joining in on the conversation.
Posted by Jon Steinberg, External Relations
Geeks gather for Campus Party in Berlin
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Among geeks, the
Campus Party
is the equivalent of Woodstock, a festival celebrating innovators and entrepreneurs. Previous editions took place in Latin and North America. Now the Campus Party is coming for the first time to Europe, this week taking over the recently closed and abandoned Tempelhof Airport in Berlin.
Google is proud to support and participate. Our Google booth will present its new contest for founders,
“Gruender-Garage,”
as well as hosting a
Startup Weekend
where startup enthusiasts work on their ideas for 54 hours supported by coaches and experts.
From August 22 to 24, we will support a Chrome Hackathon, “Your Data, Your Rules!”, aimed at creating new extensions to increase user privacy. Prizes will be announced at the booth on August 24 at 8 pm. The winners will be invited to present their findings to our Munich-based Chrome team and present their innovations at the next edition of our
Big Tent on Privacy
.
Berlin is an appropriate setting for this spirited geek gathering. While the
Economist
recently described in vivid detail the German capital’s thriving startup culture, the magazine also pointed out the factors that continue to hold back German entrepreneurs, such as their difficulty raising risk capital, hiring top flight managers, and overcoming regulation. Simon Hampton, Google’s Director Public Policy for the European Unionm will discuss these issues on Thursday at the Campus Party on a panel titled the
“GeekEconomy”
.
Recent studies show that the Internet represents a giant opportunity for German business. A a Cologne-based research firm
estimated
that German entrepreneurs have founded 28,000 new businesses using online services from Google and other web companies. These new businesses have created nearly 100,000 new jobs and generated EUR8.6 billion in annual sales.
The Berlin Campus Party is set to attract thousands of ambitious digital pioneers for its talks, workshops, competitions and hackathons. We hope it will spark a new generation of European innovators.
Posted by Sandro Gianella, Google Policy Team Berlin
Updating Google's voice in Europe
Monday, August 20, 2012
Today, this blog is making a small but significant change to its name. The Google European Public Policy Blog is becoming the Google Europe Blog.
When we first launched this blog four years ago, the idea was to focus on Brussels-based European Union policy issues. Our horizons and subject matter have since expanded. Instead of dealing just with policy we began blogging on the revival of Internet history projects, free expression, cultural and economic outreach, and other Google and YouTube activities.
We publish on average three posts weekly, with readership averaging around 60,000 a week. Initially, most of our readers came from the United States. Today we have fast-growing numbers of readers in the UK, France, Belgium and Germany.
Our goal has become become a one-shot destination of choice for Google in Europe. The new Google Europe Blog name reflects this ambition.
Posted by William Echikson, External Relations
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16
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17
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18
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6
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3
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1
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2
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8
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7
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24
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6
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25
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49
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30
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9
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18
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5
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7
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7
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16
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24
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39
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6
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2
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36
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38
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1
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13
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11
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11
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4
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1
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12
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4
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3
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3
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94
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2
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2
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42
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