Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Marking the birth of the modern-day Internet
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Today is the 30th birthday of the modern-day Internet. Five years ago we marked the occasion with
a doodle
. This year we invited Vint Cerf to tell the story. Vint is widely regarded as one of the fathers of the Internet for his contributions to shaping the Internet’s architecture, including co-designing the TCP/IP protocol. Today he works with Google to promote and protect the Internet. -Ed.
A long time ago, my colleagues and I became part of a great adventure, teamed with a small band of scientists and technologists in the U.S. and elsewhere. For me, it began in 1969, when the potential of
packet switching
communication was operationally tested in the grand
ARPANET
experiment by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Other kinds of packet switched networks were also pioneered by DARPA, including mobile packet radio and packet satellite, but there was a big problem. There was no common language. Each network had its own
communications protocol
using different conventions and formatting standards to send and receive packets, so there was no way to transmit anything between networks.
In an attempt to solve this, Robert Kahn and I developed a new computer communication protocol designed specifically to support connection among different packet-switched networks. We called it TCP, short for “Transmission Control Protocol,” and in 1974 we published a paper about it in IEEE Transactions on Communications: “
A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication
.” Later, to better handle the transmission of real-time data, including voice, we split TCP into two parts, one of which we called “Internet Protocol,” or IP for short. The two protocols combined were nicknamed TCP/IP.
TCP/IP was tested across the three types of networks developed by DARPA, and eventually was anointed as their new standard. In 1981, Jon Postel published
a transition plan
to migrate the 400 hosts of the ARPANET from the older NCP protocol to TCP/IP, including a deadline of January 1, 1983, after which point all hosts not switched would be cut off.
From left to right: Vint Cerf in 1973, Robert Kahn in the 1970’s, Jon Postel
When the day came, it’s fair to say the main emotion was relief, especially amongst those system administrators racing against the clock. There were no grand celebrations—I can’t even find a photograph. The only visible mementos were the “I survived the TCP/IP switchover” pins proudly worn by those who went through the ordeal!
Yet, with hindsight, it’s obvious it was a momentous occasion. On that day, the operational Internet was born. TCP/IP went on to be embraced as an international standard, and now underpins the entire Internet.
It’s been almost 40 years since Bob and I wrote our paper, and I can assure you while we had high hopes, we did not dare to assume that the Internet would turn into the worldwide platform it’s become. I feel immensely privileged to have played a part and, like any proud parent, have delighted in watching it grow. I continue to
do what I can
to protect its future. I hope you’ll join me today in raising a toast to the Internet—may it continue to connect us for years to come.
Posted by Vint Cerf, VP and Chief Internet Evangelist
Explore Spain's Jewish heritage online
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
More than a year ago, I spoke at a literary festival in
Segovia
, a charming, historic city located north of Madrid and was surprised to see many signs pointing to a "Jewish neighborhood," complete with a cemetery, former shops and restored synagogue-turned-museum. This was strong evidence of how, under democracy, Spain is doing much to rediscover its long neglected Jewish past.
Today, in a ceremony at Madrid's sparkling new
Centro Sefarad-Israel
, we are partnering with
Red de Juderías de España
,the Network of Jewish neighborhoods, a non-profit association founded in 1995, to bring online the Jewish heritage of 24 Spanish cities, from Avila to Tudela. The project, stemming from the inspiration in Segovia, is called
Caminos de Sefarad
- Spain's Jewish Streets. By clicking to the group’s
website
, users from all over the world may visit and tour the cities discover Spain’s Jewish past.
Red de Juderías has implemented
Google Maps
technology so that people can explore the main landmarks online. Clicking on a landmark reveals historical information about each site - and enables a 360º view of the different locations, thanks to Google’s
Street View technology
. An intuitive search panel presents Jewish heritage sites by category, type, geographic zone and date. In total, 523 sites, 910 dates, and 1,667 pictures are displayed.
Interactive map showing the Santa Maria La Blanca Synagogue
Chronology of the Jewish history in Spain
This project represents only one of our latest efforts to bring the Jewish culture online. A little over a year ago, we helped put online
five manuscripts
of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This week, the Leon Levy
Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library
, an online collection of more than 5,000 scroll fragments, were uploaded in high definition. The texts include the
Ten Commandments
and part of the
Book of Genesis
, which describes the creation of the world.
We hope this new project will inspire you to learn more about Spain’s Jewish history, and perhaps to visit these cities in person.
Posted by William Echikson, Google External Relations, Europe, Middle East and Africa
Introducing the Wonders of the Web
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Today we’re excited to announce a one-stop shop that
explains how the Internet works
and how policymakers can put it to use. Along with
Coadec
,
Decoded
and the
Enso Collaborative
, we’ve produced a series of short videos and text that provide a critical understanding of how the Internet functions in day-to-day language.
We’ve also developed a
section
that shows government officials how to use very basic code and take advantage of the Internet’s speed, scale and reach to let people know who they are and what they stand for. For example, anyone can use our site to copy and paste a snippet of code to add a +1, “like” or “tweet” button to their web page. Adding this social element allows constituents to see different issue platforms and spread news to their friends.
By getting to know the system that underpins the Web, policymakers can also figure out what matters to their constituents and use that data to tailor campaigns that resonate with voters. In fact, the Internet makes it possible to gather and use real-time information, plot the information across a map and even point individuals toward the nearest polling station, policy meeting or political rally.
Protecting a free and open Internet in the long term requires knowing how it operates. As the Web enables more creativity, information exchange and economic growth than ever before, we hope that this site will become a useful resource for people to become familiar with how it came to be.
Posted by Marco Pancini, Senior Policy Counsel, Google
Genesis and the 10 Commandments scrolls now online
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
A little over a year ago, we
helped put online
five manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls - ancient documents that include the oldest known biblical manuscripts in existence. Written more than 2,000 years ago on pieces of parchment and papyrus, they were preserved by the hot, dry desert climate and the darkness of the caves in which they were hidden. The Scrolls are possibly the most important archaeological discovery of the 20th century.
Today, we’re helping put more of these ancient treasures online. The Israel Antiquities Authority is launching the
Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library
, an online collection of some 5,000 images of scroll fragments in a quality never seen before. The texts include one of the earliest known copies of the Book of Deuteronomy, which includes
the Ten Commandments
; part of Chapter 1 of the
Book of Genesis
, which describes the creation of the world; and hundreds more 2,000-year-old texts, shedding light on the time when Jesus lived and preached, and on the history of Judaism.
The Ten Commandments. Photo credit Shai Halevi, courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority
Millions of users and scholars can discover and decipher details invisible to the naked eye, at 1215 dpi resolution. The site displays infrared and color images that are equal in quality to the Scrolls themselves. There’s a database containing information for about 900 of the manuscripts, as well as interactive content pages. We’re thrilled to have been able to help this project through hosting on Google Storage and App Engine, and use of Maps, YouTube and Google image technology.
Genesis Chapter 1. Photo credit Shai Halevi, courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority
This partnership with the Israel Antiquities Authority is part of our ongoing work to bring important cultural and historical materials online, to make them accessible and help preserve them for future generations. Other examples include the
Yad Vashem Holocaust photo collection
,
Google Art Project
,
World Wonders
and the
Google Cultural Institute
.
We hope you enjoy visiting the Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library, or any of these other projects, and interacting with history.
Posted by Eyal Miller, New Business Development, and Yossi Matias, Head of Israel Research and Development Center
Calling for entries for a data journalism competition
Friday, December 14, 2012
Technology and the Internet offer many new opportunities for journalists, including the opportunities to use data to tell stories. For the second year, Google is supporting the
Data Journalism Awards
organized by the
Global Editors Network
.
Entries open today until April 5, 2013 at
datajournalismawards.org
.The competition is open to professional publishers, nonprofit organizations, and freelancers. A total of EUR15,000 euros will be awarded to eight winning projects in four categories:
Data-driven investigative journalism
Data-driven applications
Storytelling with data
Data journalism website or section
A short-list of candidates will be announced during the
Perugia International Journalism Festival 2013
on April 27. After being chosen by prestigious jury of data experts, the eight winners of the 2013 will be announced on June 20 at the GEN News Summit in Paris. This year, the public will vote on their favorite data projects, and a special prize will be given for the “Public Choice Award”.
Posted by Peter Barron, Director of External Relations
Partnering with Belgian news publishers
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Six years ago, Belgium’s French-language news publishers and authors sued Google. They argued that we violated their copyright by displaying snippets in Google News and linking to cached copies of their pages in Google search. Today, we’re delighted to turn the page.
From left to right: Thierry Geerts, Managing Director, Google Belgium; Frans Wauter, representative of the authors' associations; Francois leHodey, representative of the Belgian French language news publishers at the Google office in Brussels.
We have reached an agreement that ends all litigation and represents great news for both us and the newspapers. We continue to believe that our services respect newspaper copyrights and it is important to note that we are not paying the Belgian publishers or authors to include their content in our services. From now on, Google and Belgian French-language publishers will partner on a broad range of business initiatives, in order to:
Promote both the publishers’ and Google’s services
- Google will advertise its services on the publishers’ media, while the publishers will optimise their use of Google’s advertising solutions, in particular
AdWords
to attract new readers.
Increase publishers’ revenue
- by collaborating on making money with content, both via premium models (paywalls, subscriptions), and via advertising solutions such as the
AdSense
platform and the
AdExchange
marketplace;
Increase reader engagement
- by implementing
Google+
social tools, including video
Hangouts
, on news sites, and launching official YouTube channels;
Increase the accessibility of the publishers’ content
- by collaborating on the distribution of the publishers original content on mobile platforms, in particular smartphones and tablets;
This agreement comes at an important moment, in the midst of a debate how best the newspaper industry should adapt to the new digital age. As the Economist recently reported under the enticing headline,
Letting the Baby Dance
, many governments including Ireland, the Netherlands, Australia, UK and Canada are considering or have gone ahead with Internet-friendly copyright reforms. At the same time, some European countries including Germany and France are considering an extension of
copyright protection
to excerpts of newspaper articles appearing in search engines’ results. The European Journalism Centre recently outlined why both Google and newspapers would be best off cooperating and
The Reach Group
published independent research reaching a similar conclusion.
We agree. Many win-win ways exist for Google and publishers to join forces in the new digital universe. We drive traffic to publishers - four billion clicks a month around the globe, offering publishers 100,000 business opportunities per minute. Our AdSense program pays out $7 billion a year to web publishers worldwide. Publishers remain free, with the addition of just a few lines of code, to pull out of Google web search and Google News. Publishers also remain free to determine whether to put their articles discovered through Google search behind a paywall.
Instead of continuing to argue over legal interpretations, we have agreed on the need to set aside past grievances in favour of collaboration. This is the same message we would like to send to other publishers around the world - its much more beneficial for us to work together than to fight.
Posted by Thierry Geerts, Managing Director, Google Belgium
Introducing Google’s “Computer Science on Air” initiative
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
There’s an old joke: “The secret of teaching is to appear to have known all your life what you just learned this morning”. Like many such sayings it has a grain of truth. As teachers know better than most, education is a lifelong pursuit and there’s always more you can learn—especially in fast-changing and relatively young fields like computer science.
It’s in this spirit that Google’s European Education team have embarked on their latest initiative:
CS on Air
. Making use of the broadcast feature in G+ Hangouts, it consist of a series of video discussions on topics related to teaching computer science, which you can join in live on the
Google in Education G+ page
or watch later on YouTube.
So far there have been three sessions:
Professor Peter McOwen
illustrating how card magic tricks can be a fun introduction to computer science topics such as data compression and image recognition
Professor Paul Curzon
talking about how the challenge of helping someone with locked-in syndrome to communicate can serve as a bridge to computational concepts like the efficiency of algorithms and frequency analysis
Lynette Webb
sharing some of her favourite stories from the earliest days of computing, and ideas for how they could be used to inspire and engage in a classroom setting
More sessions are planned for the coming months, including speakers from elsewhere in Europe and beyond. As new sessions are scheduled
you’ll be able to see them here
, or sign up to follow the
Google In Education G+ page
for alerts to upcoming events. Suggestions for future sessions are welcome, so
let us know
if you’ve got any special requests or ideas for topics.
Posted by Alison Daniel-Cutler, Pre-University Education Outreach
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