Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Mapping creates jobs and drives global economic growth
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
Twenty years ago, we used paper maps and printed guides to help us navigate the world. Today, the most advanced digital mapping technologies—satellite imagery, GPS devices, location data and of course
Google Maps
—are much more accessible. This sea change in mapping technology is improving our lives and helping businesses realise untold efficiencies.
The transformation of the maps we use everyday is driven by a growing industry that creates jobs and economic growth globally. To present a clearer picture of the importance of the geo services industry, we commissioned studies from
Boston Consulting Group
(BCG) and
Oxera
. What we found is that maps make a big economic splash around the world.
In summary, the global geo services industry is valued at up to $270 billion per year and pays out $90 billion in wages. In the U.S., it employs more than 500,000 people and is worth $73 billion. The infographic below illustrates some examples of the many benefits of maps, whether it’s improving agriculture irrigation systems or helping emergency response teams save lives.
Click the image for a larger version
1.1 billion hours of travel time saved each year? That’s a lot of time. Also, consider
UPS
, which uses map technology to optimize delivery routes—saving 5.3 million miles and more than 650,000 gallons of fuel in 2011. And every eight seconds, a user hails a taxi with
Hailo
, which used maps and GPS to deliver more than 1 million journeys in London alone last year. Finally,
Zipcar
uses maps to connect more than 760,000 customers to a growing fleet of cars in locations around the world.
Because maps are such an integral part of how we live and do business, the list of examples goes on and on. That’s why it’s important we all understand the need to invest in the geo services industry so it continues to grow and drive the global economy. Investments can come from the public and private sectors in many forms—product innovation, support of open data policies, more geography education programs in schools and more.
We’re proud of the contributions that
Google Maps
and
Earth
, the
Google Maps APIs
and our
Enterprise solutions
have made to the geo services industry and to making maps more widely available, but there’s a long way to go. To learn more about the impact of the maps industry, see the
full reports
.
Posted by Brian McClendon, VP Google Geo
Bringing Italy’s election campaign online
Thursday, January 31, 2013
For the past several years, we’ve worked to engage voters in the electoral process, creating election websites in countries around the globe. A notable recent example was
Kenya
. Now we’re gearing up for the Italian elections scheduled for February 24 and 25.
Our Italian elections project builds on previous
initiatives
in the country to promote dialogue between politicians and the public. We aim to go beyond spreading information about the vote, focusing on promoting the interaction between citizens and politicians through digital tools. Policymakers will be able to use the new electoral platform to reach voters through Google Hangouts and live streaming. Developers will compete in a 1App4democracy contest to improve democratic participation.
This new
Italy Google Elections
campaign was launched at a recent event in Rome. The event featured a debate about “Web and Democracy” between former Minister of Innovation Renato Brunetta, Italia Futura party parliamentarian Andrea Romano, and blogger and parliamentary candidate Giuseppe Civati.
In the coming month, we will work closely with politicians to allow them to discuss directly with voters. Parliament president Gianfranco Fini, Centre-Catholic party leader Pierferdinando Casini and liberal Prime Minister candidate Fare Oscar Giannino already have taken advantage Google tools such as
hangouts
.
This ambitious project is possible thanks to the participation of two important media partners: La7, the second largest private broadcaster, and La Stampa, a leading daily newspaper. We hope this project will help Italians make their choice for their next government.
Posted by Diego Ciulli, Policy Manager, Italy
Free Raspberry Pi’s for aspiring young UK programmers
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
"The success of the BBC Micro in the 1980s shows what's possible. There's no reason why Raspberry Pi shouldn't have the same impact, with the right support."
That was Eric Schmidt
speaking in May
about the opportunity for Raspberry Pi to inspire budding computer scientists.
Today Google is backing the
Raspberry Pi Foundation
with more than words, by providing funding
to allow 15,000 UK kids
enthusiastic about computer science to get a Raspberry Pi for free.
Photo credit: Paul Beech (@guru)
To ensure no Pi is wasted, devices will be doled out with the help of six educational partners:
Codeclub
,
Computing At School
,
Generating Genius
,
Coderdojo
,
Teach First
and
OCR
. Each organisation will have a supply of free Pi’s to give to children they meet who demonstrate an aptitude and passion for computing. As an added bonus, each device handed out will come with a teaching and learning pack, created by OCR, and designed to help kids dig in right away and get the most out of their Pi’s.
There’s no magic solution to the UK’s computer science education woes, but real progress is being made thanks to the combined efforts of many. Google is proud to lend our support and, we hope, a little Pi will go a long way.
Posted by Theo Bertram, Public Policy Manager, UK
Partnering with Le Monde to train journalism's next generation
Monday, January 28, 2013
For journalism to thrive in the Internet era, it needs people who can build on the important lessons from the world's great newspapers while embracing a new digital friendly form. Today, to help nurture this new generation of talent, we agreed to
partner
with one of the gold standards of French journalism -
Le Monde
with its
Monde Académie
.
Le Monde is opening up its newsrooms to 68 apprentice journalists aged 18 to 25. No journalism degree is required. Each day, the newspaper will publish one of their stories, or one of their photos, drawings or video. In France, Le Monde says journalism is “perceived as one of the professions most closed to young people.” Le Monde Académie aims to change that perception.
While at Le Monde, each trainee will be accompanied by a full time journalist or editor, but the trainees are allowed to pick the subjects for their stories they submit to the paper and online editions.
Blogs
follow the progression of the youngsters as they report and file their stories, as well as the difficulties they face and their attempts to become full-fledged professional journalists. At the end of the program this June, Le Monde will hire three of the youngsters.
Google is partnering in the entire process. The trainees will visit our Paris headquarters for courses in digital literacy. Specialists will demonstrate how journalists may benefit from Google products ranging from Youtube to Blogger, and Drive to Docs, both to uncover information and share it. Round tables are being organized to discuss issues facing the transition of journalism from paper to the web.
At Google, we are aware of the need to work with publishers to smooth the transition not only from oppression to freedom, but from analogue to digital distribution. We are sponsoring a series of digital journalism prizes with
Institut de Sciences Politiques
, the
International Press Institute
in Vienna and the
Global Editors Network
in Paris. We also are the proud backer of
Reporters Without Borders’
annual Netizen of the Year award.
This isn’t Google’s first project with Le Monde, either. We brought
six Tunisian journalists
to the paper last year to work for three months in the newsroom. Its great to see that adventure expanded to promote young French journalists.
Posted by Anne-Gabrielle Dauba-Pantanacce, Head of Communications, France
Google's approach to government requests for users
Monday, January 28, 2013
Cross-posted with the
Official Google Blog
Today, January 28, is Data Privacy Day, when the world recognizes the importance of preserving your online privacy and security.
If it’s like most other days, Google—like many companies that provide online services to users—will receive dozens of letters, faxes and emails from government agencies and courts around the world requesting access to our users’ private account information. Typically this happens in connection with government investigations.
It’s important for law enforcement agencies to pursue illegal activity and keep the public safe. We’re a law-abiding company, and we don’t want our services to be used in harmful ways. But it’s just as important that laws protect you against overly broad requests for your personal information.
To strike this balance, we’re focused on three initiatives that I’d like to share, so you know what Google is doing to protect your privacy and security.
First, for several years we have advocated for updating laws like the U.S. Electronic Communications Privacy Act, so the same protections that apply to your personal documents that you keep in your home also apply to your email and online documents. We’ll continue this effort strongly in 2013 through our membership in the
Digital Due Process coalition
and other initiatives.
Second, we’ll continue our long-standing strict process for handling these kinds of requests. When government agencies ask for our users’ personal information—like what you provide when you sign up for a Google Account, or the contents of an email—our team does several things:
We scrutinize the request carefully to make sure it satisfies the law and our policies. For us to consider complying, it generally must be made in writing, signed by an authorized official of the requesting agency and issued under an appropriate law.
We evaluate the scope of the request. If it’s overly broad, we may refuse to provide the information or seek to
narrow the request
. We do this frequently.
We notify users about legal demands when appropriate so that they can contact the entity requesting it or consult a lawyer. Sometimes we can’t, either because we’re legally prohibited (in which case we sometimes seek to lift gag orders or unseal search warrants) or we don’t have their verified contact information.
We require that government agencies conducting criminal investigations use a search warrant to compel us to provide a user’s search query information and private content stored in a Google Account—such as Gmail messages, documents, photos and YouTube videos. We believe a warrant is required by the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable search and seizure and overrides conflicting provisions in ECPA.
And third, we work hard to provide you with information about government requests. Today, for example, we’ve added a
new section
to our Transparency Report that answers many questions you might have. And last week we released
data
showing that government requests continue to rise, along with additional details on the U.S. legal processes—such as subpoenas, court orders and warrants—that government use to compel us to provide this information.
We’re proud of our approach, and we believe it’s the right way to make sure governments can pursue legitimate investigations while we do our best to protect your privacy and security.
Posted by David Drummond, Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer
Hanging out with women engineers at Google
Friday, January 25, 2013
One of the problems girls face when considering a career in computing is the lack of female role models. It’s hard to aspire to be what you can’t see.
To help redress this, the
CS on Air
team in partnership with
Women Techmakers
have started an informal series of hangouts with women engineers across Google.
Each tells the story of how they discovered their passion for computing, and gives advice for others considering pursuing it as a career. We learn about the kind of projects they’ve worked on and why they’ve personally found computing to be such an exciting field of study and work.
So far we’ve recorded three of these short conversations, featuring engineers from across Europe:
Beryl Nelson, Software Engineering Manager
in Krakow, Poland came late to computer science, as an extension of her Masters degree in genetic biochemistry. She’s since had a long programming career, spanning India, Japan and Poland, while also raising a family.
Mandy Waite, Developer Advocate
in London, UK studied radio and TV mechanics and transitioned to computing early in her career, creating software for printing imagery. At Google she works with startups, supporting them in using Google’s cloud platform and API’s.
Ania Marszalek, Software Engineer
in Zurich, Switzerland discovered her love of programming at high school. She now makes software tools that monitor the performance of Google Maps, allowing the team to pinpoint any areas that need improving and fix them fast.
Over the coming months we plan to continue the series and extend it to other regions, so it can be a resource for teachers, career counselors, and women everywhere considering a career in computing. Check out the
CS on Air listings
to see upcoming episodes.
Posted by Alison Cutler, Pre-University Education Outreach
Freedom burns bright in Prague
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Only two decades ago, the Czech Republic shook off the shackles of authoritarianism and planted the seeds of a vibrant democracy. The Velvet Revolution’s leader
Vaclav Havel
spoke of the “power of the powerless,” explaining how, in a society ruled by lies, truth gains a "singular, explosive, incalculable political power." Although Havel recently passed away, his powerful memory lives on, strong and steady, as made clear at a recent Google-and
Open Society Fund
sponsored event in Prague. A group of top ranking Czech editors met in the cozy Bar and Books to discuss the topic, “The End of Free Media.”
For the past two years, we have partnered with the Open Society Fund on a Journalism Award honoring innovative civic journalism. Our Google Digital Innovation Award celebrates the best online entry. Authors, editors, readers, viewers and listeners are encouraged to nominate interesting articles by February 2013. More info can be found
here
.
Our goal at Bar and Books was to share ideas about the current state of media freedom, potential threats, and steps to protect from government censorship and control. I represented Google on the panel and came away confident that the Czech Republic is a strong ally in the fight for Internet freedom. The Czech government is a founder member with the Netherlands’, Sweden, Estonia, the United States and others of the
Freedom Online alliance
. This December, Prague joined other European allies, in rejecting an
International Telecommunications Union treaty
that could open the door to authoritarian control of the Net.
The Czech capital is also home to a dedicated and broad network of freedom-loving NGOs. It was inspiring to hear from former Czech parliamentarian Oldrich Kuzilek how he has set up an association called
Otevrete
to encourage the government to allow access to taxpayer-funded data. Other organizations such as
Transitions
monitors regional trends in press freedom, while the
Pasos
think tank regroups 56 organizations around the region, united to promote democracy and human rights. Apologies to the NGOs omitted here for reasons of space.
We look forward to cooperating with both the Czech government and Czech civil society in order to promote Internet freedom.
Posted by William Echikson, Head of Free Expression, Europe, Middle East and Africa
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