Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Online voters choose Vietnamese blogger Netizen of the Year
Friday, March 8, 2013
Internet users from around the world turned out to vote for people who defend Internet freedom. More than 40,000 visited a
Reporters Without Borders’ YouTube Channel
to choose a “Netizen of the Year” from among nine nominees of bloggers or Internet journalists. The winner,
announced this week
, is Huynh Ngoc Chenh from Vietnam.
This represents the fourth year that we have supported the Netizen of the Year project and the first that Internet users picked the winner. Reporters Without Borders chose the nominees based on reports from its 150 correspondents around the world. According to the Reporters, Chenh’s
blog
attracts about 15,000 visitors per day, even though readers must use software to circumvent censorship to gain access. He focuses on democracy, human rights and the territorial disputes between Vietnam and China.
Today, 42 countries are engaged in some form of Internet filtering, reports the
Open Net Institute
. At Google, our products ‐‐ from search and Blogger to YouTube and Google Docs ‐‐ have been blocked in more than 30 of the approximately 150 countries where we offer our services. We were the first company to publish a
Transparency Report
that shows interruptions to the flow of information from our tools and services. Google also is a founding member of the
Global Network Initiative
, a multi-stakeholder organization -- including human rights and press freedom groups, investors, academics, and companies -- whose members commit to protect online free expression.
We’re proud to support Reporters Without Borders with this important prize that highlights the pressure many governments around the globe are putting on the Internet.
Posted by Florian Maganza, Policy Analyst, Paris
Expanding Street View in Europe
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Cross-posted with the Google Maps Blog
Today we’re announcing a major expansion of Street View to make our maps of Europe more comprehensive and usable. For the first time, people all over the world can see Street View imagery of Bulgaria. They’ll also have access to panoramas of almost 200 new towns and cities in Russia, and thousands of miles of refreshed imagery of the UK.
Bulgaria: from the mountains to the beaches
Nestled in the southeastern corner of Europe, Bulgaria is the 48th country for which immersive, street-level imagery is now available on Google Maps. This Bulgarian launch covers not only major economic centers such as
Sofia,
Plovdiv
and
Varn
a, but also historical and beloved towns like
Veliko Turnovo
and
Koprvishtitsa
.
Vizualizare hartă mărită
Nessebar is one of the most attractive tourist destinations on the Bulgarian seaside
Users around the world can also virtually experience the beautiful ski resorts of
Borovets
,
Bansko
and
Pamporovo,
and the stunning
Architectural and Museum Reserve Tsarevets
that sits on Tsarevets Hill in the old part of of Veliko Tarnovo. And of course, people can check out the
Black Sea coast line
, which is the heart of summer tourism in the country.
Vizualizare hartă mărită
The Architectural and Museum Reserve Tsarevets is a popular tourist site in Bulgaria
From Russia with love
Last February, the first Street View images of Moscow and Saint Petersburg – the major cultural and economic centers in Russia – became available on Google Maps. Now we’re thrilled to add Street View images of nearly 200 more Russian cities to Google Maps. Get familiar with
Sochi
, the venue for the 2014 Winter Olympics, or learn more about Buddhist culture by visiting the
Golden Abode of Buddha Shakyamuni
, the largest Buddhist temple in the Republic of Kalmykia.
Просмотреть увеличенную карту
The Golden Abode of Buddha Shakyamuni is a popular Russian Buddhist destination
Просмотреть увеличенную карту
Sochi: Enjoy the sea and the mountains in one place
Mind the Gap
In the UK we’re refreshing some imagery in major cities like London, Manchester, Glasgow and Cardiff, as well as filling in some of the gaps where we had no Street View coverage. For example, we’ve added brand new images to parts of the Scottish coastline, in pockets of East Anglia and parts of South Wales.
We hope this new and updated imagery makes it easier than ever to explore Europe, and we look forward to more additions in the future. And you can also check out Street View on your mobile device with the Google Maps app for
Android
and
iPhone
.
Posted by Ulf Spitzer, Street View Program Manager
Gaming to fight cancer
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Update, June 20, 2013
: Want to see what a vigilante granny looks like? Check out this short film released today about the Game Jam contest.
Gaming is not always just for fun. We’ve teamed up with the charity
Cancer Research UK
and other technology companies to help design and develop a mobile game to accelerate cures for cancer. Our goal is ambitious: to allow anyone with a smart phone and five minutes to spare to play an enjoyable game that will simultaneously investigate vital scientific data.
More than 50 ‘hackers’ – computer programmers, gamers, graphic designers and other specialists – joined with six Cancer Research Scientists last weekend in a ‘GameJam’ to turn Cancer Research UK’s raw gene data into a game format, and to identify new, engaging and scientifically robust ways for the public to help analyse gene data. An agency will use the hackathon’s results to build the game, tentatively titled GeneRun, for launch in the summer of 2013.
Cancer Research UK is investing in studies to discover the genetic faults driving cancer. This research produces colossal amounts of data. We believe the collective power of hundreds of thousands of people across the globe helping our scientists to analyse this data could drastically speed up research – hopefully saving lives faster. Citizen science is a new way of including the public in scientific research outside the laboratory.
This is the charity’s second collaboration with the Citizen Science Alliance. The first game,
Cell Slider,
launched as a Beta test in October 2012 to analyse archived cancer tissue samples.
It's encouraging to see how technology and the collective power of people across the globe can help to find new ways to accelerate cures for cancer. Let’s hope GeneRun provides a lot of fun - and inspiring treatments.
Posted by Theo Bertram, Policy Manager, UK
Promoting tolerance on YouTube in Germany
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The Internet often is criticized for allowing violent, intolerant views to be heard, but it also can be used to teach tolerance. In just one example, we recently launched a campaign in Germany called
361° Respekt
, an online video competition in Germany that asks students 13 years old or over to create and upload YouTube videos that show what tolerance means to them.
YouTube long has promoted safety and respect on its site. Our
Safety Center
features tips, tools and advice for users, parents and educators. Viewers are encouraged to report inappropriate content by
flagging videos
that they believe are not in line with our
Community Guidelines
or that should be
age-restricted
. In addition to flagging, channels and/or comments can be reported using our
Help and Safety Tool
and last year we launched the
YouTube Digital Citizenship Curriculu
m designed for educators and students.
Many new partners have joined us in promoting this message through 361° Respekt. They range from international organizations such as
Unesco
, to youth groups such as
Jugendschutz.net
and the health insurer
Techniker Krankenkasse.
Dr. Kristina Schröder
, the Federal Minister for Youth and Family Affairs, is serving as patron for the project and posted a video on her YouTube Channel in support.
A jury will now be assembled and choose a winner at the beginning of April. The project will continue with the creation of a 361° news platform. It will publicise and report on initiatives in Germany designed to foster tolerance and respect.
Posted by Mounira Latrache, Communications and Public Affairs, Hamburg
Introducing Art Talks on Google +
Monday, March 4, 2013
Cross-posted with the
Official Google Blog
An excellent guide often best brings an art gallery or museum’s collections to life. Starting this week, we’re hoping to bring this experience online with “Art Talks,” a series of Hangouts on Air on our Google Art Project
Google+ page
. Each month, curators, museum directors, historians and educators from some of the world’s most renowned cultural institutions will reveal the hidden stories behind particular works, examine the curation process and provide insights into particular masterpieces or artists.
The first guided visit will be held this Wednesday, March 6 at 8pm ET from
The Museum of Modern Art
. Deborah Howes, Director of Digital Learning, along with a panel of artists and students, will discuss how to teach art online. To post a question, visit the
event page
. If this talk falls too late for you to tune in live, you can watch afterward on our Google Art Project
YouTube channel
.
The next talk is from London. On March 20, Caroline Campbell and Arnika Schmidt from the
National Gallery
will discuss depictions of the female nude. Details are available on the Art Project’s
event page
. In April we’ll host a panel examining one of the Google Art Project’s popular gigapixel works,
Bruegel’s “Tower of Babel,”
featuring Peter Parshall, curator at the
National Gallery of Art
in Washington.
Additional talks are planned by curators from high-profile institutions such as
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
, the
Museum of Contemporary Art
in Los Angeles, the
Museo Nacional de Arte
in Mexico and the
Museum of Islamic Art
in Qatar.
Google Art Project aims to make art more accessible to all. We hope that Art Talks is the next step in bringing art to your armchair, wherever you are in the world, with just a click of a button. Stay tuned to the
Art Project
and
Cultural Institute
Google+ pages for more information on dates and times of these online lectures.
Posted by Lucy Schwartz, Google Cultural Institute
Tracing the birth of Italian computer science
Friday, March 1, 2013
Tuscany is renowned as the birthplace of the
cultural Renaissance
. Less widely known is its role in another revolution, as the spiritual home of Italian computing.
The story begins in the 1950’s, when the
University of Pisa
received a large grant from local authorities to put towards a scientific project. Eventually, with the endorsement of famed physicist
Enrico Fermi
, they decided to use it to build a computer. In mid-1955, the funding was formally passed to the university’s new Center for Studies on Electronic Computers (CSCE) and work could begin.
The
CSCE’s design team
was made up of physicists and engineers. In the early stages, there were even a few engineers seconded from commercial firm Olivetti, who set up their own laboratory in Pisa and provided some extra funding for the CSCE project.
As no-one on the team had experience in building a computer, it was decided to test their design with a smaller but complete machine first, before progressing to building a fully-fledged device. By mid-1956 they had an initial design on paper, and on July 24th 1957 came the
formal announcement
the smaller machine was complete.
Called “Macchina Ridotta” which translated means “reduced machine”, nonetheless it was a computer in its own right and, at the time, the most advanced machine in Italy.
After lengthy testing, in February 1958 it was ready to start work helping scientists with calculations. An
instruction manual
prepared by Dr Elisabetta Abate (one of Italy’s very first female programmers) was published on 1st March 1958—55 years ago today.
Photos courtesy of the Archive of the University of Pisa,
made available via the HMR project
Top: The Macchina Ridotta installed in the Institute of Physics
Bottom: Front view of the original control panel, alongside
one of the simulators
developed by the
HMR project
of the Department of Computer Science of the University of Pisa
Within just a few months, the Macchina Ridotta had performed over 150 machine hours of
calculations for other departments
-- everything from helping study crystalline structures for the Institute of Mineralogy, to determining eigenfunctions of atomic systems for the National Institute of Nuclear Physics.
The Macchina Ridotta continued operating until the end of 1958, when it was dismantled so the materials could be re-used in the larger fully-fledged machine, which came to be known as the “Calcolatrice Elettronica Pisana” (CEP). This was eventually completed in mid 1961 and served the Italian scientific community well for the rest of the decade.
As importantly, the CEP project helped make Pisa a hub for computer science research and education in Italy. Researchers on the CSCE team gave seminars in 1955, followed by formal programming classes in 1956, in which the work-in-progress Macchina Ridotta was used as a theoretical teaching example. Later, in 1969, the first full Italian degree course in computer science was offered by the University of Pisa.
Until recently
, the Macchina Ridotta’s importance was overlooked. It was not the earliest computer in Italy; that honour goes to two imported machines -- the
CRC 102A
at Milan Polytechnic, followed by the
Ferranti Mark 1 at the INAC
in Rome. Nor did it seek to be the first Italian commercially available computer; that honour goes to
Olivetti’s ELEA 9003
.
But the Macchina Ridotta was the first computer to be built in Italy, to an original design, and thus marks the cornerstone of Italian computer science. We’re delighted to pay tribute to it today.
Posted by Lynette Webb, Senior Manager, External Relations
For further information:
Rediscovering the Very First Italian Digital Computer
(PDF) by Giovanni Cignoni and Fabio Gadducci, 2012
Hacking the Reduced Machine
contains links to original papers and tells the story of the machine’s rediscovery
A Brief History of CEP
(PDF in Italian) by Piero Maestrini, 2011
Support free expression: vote for the Netizen of the Year
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
One in three Internet users suffers from restricted access to the web due to government censorship, filtering or online surveillance, according to the free expression advocacy group
Reporters Without Borders
. Around the world, bloggers and cyber-dissidents are jailed for expressing their views. Reporters Without Borders makes sure their struggles are not forgotten.
At Google, we believe in a free and open Internet where everyone can express their opinions and learn from others. For this reason, for the past several years we’ve partnered with Reporters Without Borders to organize their annual Netizen of the Year Award, which honors an Internet user, blogger or cyber-dissident who has made a notable contribution in defense of online freedom of expression. Last year the award went to a
Syrian journalist
. In 2011 it went to
Nawaat
, a group blog run by independent Tunisian bloggers. In 2010, the Netizen Award was awarded to
Iranian cyber-feminists
.
This year for the first time, Reporters Without Borders is asking you to help decide who will win the award. Nine “netizens”—from Bulgaria, Egypt, Honduras, Iran, Kazakhstan, Mali, Russia, Senegal and Vietnam—have been nominated for consideration. Watch the videos showing their stories and then vote at
youtube.com/netizen2013
.
We hope you’ll be as inspired as we have been by these brave people. The winner, based on votes from people like you around the world, will be announced on March 7. He or she will be invited to the award ceremony taking place at Google’s Paris office on March 12—the World Day Against Cyber Censorship.
2013 Netizen Award Nominees
Bulgaria
Assen Yordanov: Founder of the investigative journalism website
Bivol.bg
, Assen has published exclusives about corruption, flaws in the judicial system, and links between politicians and organized crime.
Egypt
Mosireen: Founded and run by a group of citizen-journalists and activists to document the 2011 revolution, the
Mosireen collective
traces its origins to the “explosion of citizen journalism and cultural activism in Egypt during the revolution.” Its contributors collected photos, videos and eyewitness accounts of the 18 days of demonstrations that led to Hosni Mubarak’s fall. Their YouTube channel at first just showed video footage shot by demonstrators. But they now also produce videos and video news reports.
Honduras
Itsmania Pineda Platero: This independent journalist, blogger and human rights defender reports on the “maras,” the gangs of extremely violent young criminals that have spread throughout Central America. A vocal critic of her country’s June 2009 coup d’état and its impact on freedom of information – 23 journalists have been murdered since the military took power – she led a peaceful demonstration in front of the presidential palace, which police repressed with violence. After receiving repeated death threats, Reporters Without Borders has helped her to obtain personal protection.
Iran
Shiva Nazar Ahari: A 27-year-old human rights activist and cyber-dissident, Shiva is serving a four-year jail sentence for her activities as editor the Azad Zan (Women’s Liberation) website, She also has been sentenced to 74 lashes. Seventeen other netizens are currently detained in Iran, where the Islamic Republic’s authorities treat independent news and information providers, especially women cyber-dissidents, as unwanted witnesses.
Kazakhstan
Murat Tungishbayev: An opposition activist, Murat created the election monitoring coalition “
Saylau
,” producing an interactive map to register fraud during the January 2012 legislative elections. The National Security Committee summoned him for questioning about his links with labour activists and opposition politicians. When investigators tried to force him to testify against two detainees, he fled the country.
Mali
Oumarou Mohamed Lamine: This reporter and programme host on Radio AADAR FM (Adar Koima - “Joy of the Hill”), was one of the few who provided information to the outside world from northern Mali during its occupation by Islamic jihadists. For his efforts the jihadists harassed and vandalised his radio equipment. Oumarou resisted by posting his articles online. His blog is found at
oumaroubah.afronaute.info
.
Russia
Suren Gazaryan: An environmentalist and opposition activist, this popular blogger distinguished himself by his coverage of environmental issues and corruption linked to the preparation of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. His
LiveJournal blog
revealed that Sochi’s regional government has built a dacha in the middle of a protected forest. After he was given three-year suspended jail sentences, he fled Russia and sought asylum in Estonia.
Senegal
Cheikh Fall: Website project leader, blogger and voracious Twitter poster, Cheikh Fall is the founder of
Sunu2012
, a participative website that was created to monitor Senegal’s 2012 presidential election. The website provided information about the candidates, their programmes, their positions on key issues and how they or their campaign staff could be contacted.
Vietnam
Huynh Ngoc Chenh: This blogger
challenges
his communist leaders by writing about democracy, human rights and anti-Chinese demonstrations over the territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Censors often block his site, forcing Vietnamese internet readers to resort to VPN connections. Police keep him under constant surveillance and tap his phone.
We are proud to work with Reporters Without Borders. Above all, we salute the courage of men and women around the globe who fight every day for a fundamental right: freedom of information.
Posted by Florian Maganza, Policy Analyst, Paris
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