Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Data journalism awards shortlist announced
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Not long ago, reporters digging through data set to tell stories, probe trends, and even uncover scandals was a novelty. They are now moving into the mainstream - and changing the field of journalism. One sign of this increased popularity comes from the success of the Google-supported
Data Journalism Awards
.
This year’s contest received 300 applications from all over the world, about 10 percent more than the previous year. The 73 finalists come from 19 different countries, ranging from Argentina to Venezuela. Major media groups as well as small, regional newspapers and research groups are included. Click
here
to get a full list of the shortlisted projects.
An independent jury presided over by former Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief and Pro-Publica founde
r Paul Steiger
will award total of EUR15,000 to eight winning projects. For the first time, the public will chose a special “Public Choice Award.” Visit
datajournalismawards.org
and vote for your avourite data application or visualisation. Take a look below at last year's award ceremonies.
2012 Data Journalism Awards
from
Global Editors Network
on
Vimeo
.
The winners will be announced during the Global Editors Network News Summit in Paris on June 20 at 6:15pm. All finalists are invited to attend the Data Journalism Awards ceremony.
Posted by Peter Barron, Director, External Relations
Here comes the collaborative economy
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
When travelling, have you rented somebody’s flat as an alternative to booking a room in a hotel? Or prefered the car-sharing option to taking the train? These new ways of sharing resources are increasingly becoming common practise and are part of an emerging movement often coined as the “collaborative” or “sharing” economy.
We are proud to support the
“OuiShare Fest”
, the first major European event dedicated to the collaborative economy taking place in Paris from May 2 to May 4. During these three days, more than 600 entrepreneurs, designers, economists, investors, politicians and citizens will come together to reflect about how to build a collaborative future.
European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes
supports the project and even has opened up her blog to a
guest post
from OuiShare’s organizers.
The digital economy has proved a
vector
of economic growth throughout Europe. It has allowed for the emergence of horizontal and networked organizations that offer new opportunities in traditional sectors from health to transportation, education and finance. Online platforms that offer services such as crowdfunding, taxi-sharing or flat-renting are testimony to the rise of new business models which are based on a culture of openness and transparency.
OuiShare will do much to “connect” the actors of this new movement across Europe and we wish them a successful OuiShare Fest.
Posted by Florian Maganza, Policy Analyst, Paris
Peeking into the Science Museum’s “Information Age” gallery
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Last night, we were treated to a glimpse of the construction underway for the London Science Museum’s new gallery about the history of communications -- starting with a new name, “
Information Age
”.
Due to open in September 2014, “Information Age” will show how the history of information is a history of networked communication. It will showcase transformations in the way people have used technology to connect to each other.
Google is among the principal funders
for the gallery, which will be a permanent fixture in the museum and take up a whopping 2,500 square metres.
The gallery will be divided into six sections, corresponding to six different communications technologies: telegraph, broadcast TV and radio, telephone exchanges, satellite, web and mobile. Each section will focus on 3 to 4 significant moments, which will be brought to life by bringing historic objects together with the human stories of how they came about and were used. Inventors and their breakthroughs will be celebrated, but crucially also the influence of everyday users whose experiences shaped the way technologies were embraced and evolved.
Artist impressions c.2013, shown with kind permission of Science Museum, University Design Studio
Top: Cable Network, exploring the impact of the electric telegraph in the 19th century
Middle: The tuning coil from Rugby Radio, positioned at the centre of the gallery
Bottom: A GPS satellite model, viewed from the gallery’s sweeping elevated walkway
Google
strongly endorses the role of museums
in helping adults and children alike to appreciate the wonders of science and inspire the next generation of innovators. We’re excited by the plans revealed for “Information Age”, and can’t want to see them made real.
Posted by Peter Barron, Director, External Relations
European consumers embrace online content
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
The Internet has been disruptive for the media industries - film, television, gaming, music, books and news. But it’s now becoming clear that whilst initially painful, this disruption is proving positive, as three recent studies released by
Booz & Co
,
Floor 64 Research
, and
Boston Consulting Group
show. The digital era is starting to benefit both Europe’s content producers and consumers.
Boston Consulting Group’s “
Follow the Surplus
” report (disclosure: commissioned by Google), published this week reveals growing confidence in online content. Three quarters of consumers surveyed in nine European countries judged that online content had improved in quality, and nearly two thirds expect continued improvement.
The report also noted that two-thirds of respondents value the diversity of information and opinions available to them online, and substantial majorities (as high as 75% in some countries) are more excited about the benefits of the Internet than they are worried about any perceived risks.
This optimism is generating a large ‘consumer surplus’ - the theoretical value consumers attribute to a product or service above and beyond what they paid for it - valued at an average of EUR 1,100 per person per year for online media.
It’s clear too that European consumers are increasingly willing to pay for content.
Booz’s
report (disclosure: also commissioned by Google) calculates digital revenues at €30 billion higher in 2011 than in 2001.
Floor 64’s
research shows that in 2007, there were just 11 legal digital music services in Germany, in 2011 there were 68. The British Recorded Music Industry’s recent
annual report
says UK digital music revenues last year overtook sales or records and CDs for the first time. And according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s
Digital Music Report
2013, digital revenues now account for 34% of total global revenues for the recording industry.
These reports all paint a picture of a large digital opportunity for the creative sectors - and of an industry in the process of reorienting itself to the online world. We’re keen to partner with the creative sectors and answer growing consumer demand for quality online media.
Posted by Simon Morrison, Public Policy Manager, Google
Sparking an Internet revolution in Finland’s traditional heartland
Monday, April 29, 2013
Several of Google’s data centres are located in traditional industrial centres, regions that typically have a good combination of industrial infrastructure, developable land and available workforce. In Belgium, our facility in
St. Ghislain
sprouted amid closed or shuttered coal mines. In Finland, we purchased the Summa Paper Mill in
Hamina
in March 2009, from Finnish paper company Stora Enso.
We’re keen to help these regions make the transition from old to new industries, and that’s why today in Finland we’re announcing a new partnership with
Aalto University
and the regional development agency
Cursor
.
The new partnership deepens an already strong Google presence in Eastern Finland. We’ve already converted the 60 year old paper mill into a
data centre
, investing an initial EUR200 million. More than 2,000 individuals working for 50 companies (mostly Finnish and from the local area) contributed to the project. In August 2012, we announced an additional EUR150 million investment to expand the facility which includes the restoration and conversion of an
Alvar Aalto
-designed machine hall. At peak, we expect the conversion to provide work for approximately 500 engineers and construction workers.
With Google's financial support, Aalto University now will help bolster promising local acceleration programs in southeastern Finland, as well as supporting programs to improve the use of the Internet by local SMEs. The university is one of Finland’s most prestigious educational institutions, and has focused strongly on the creation and expansion of business through technological innovation. It has founded several iconic new concepts like the
Aalto Design Factory
, the
Startup Sauna
and the
Aalto Ventures
.
The Economist
recently praised Aalto for its role in spreading "the word that Finland’s future lay with new companies, not old giants.”
Over the next 12 months, southeastern Finland's regional development agency Cursor will work together with Aalto University to bring entrepreneurship programs such as Startup Sauna to southeastern Finland, encouraging entrepreneurship and supporting the creation of new companies. Cursor will also strengthen the
Venture Gym
acceleration program around the growing
Playa Game Industry Hub
, as well as the region's
Kaakko 135 travel
and tourism initiative. Aalto will provide high level speakers at events, mentors and coaches for acceleration programmes, and moderate networking events to strengthen industry ties.
This represents our second large data centre community relations program launched in Europe. In February, we announced a partnership with the
Mundaneum
archives near our Belgian data center. We have been holding a series of presentations and exhibitions about Google Data Centres and hosted a jobs day, explaining what skills are needed to work at a data center. We will use these learnings to offer similar events in Finland. In both Belgium and Finland, our goal is the same: to show the way from our industrial past to our digital future.
Posted by William Echikson, External Relations
Celebrating the new Dutch King
Monday, April 29, 2013
On April 30,
Crown-Prince Willem-Alexander
will become the new Dutch King - and as part of the celebrations, we’re joining forces with the the national committee organising the coronation, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to allow the estimated 750,000 Dutch who are out of the country enjoy the festivities.
Want to send your best wishes to the new King? Go to
wenswereldwijd.nl
and send a photo or short message. Dutch celebrities including
DJ Armin van Buuren
,
cyclist Thomas Dekker
,
sprinter Churandy Martina
and
conductor Jaap van Zweden
have already have participated.
We expect strong interest around the globe with countries in royal families. Non Dutch speakers can post a wish through the English version of the website, available at
wishesworldwide.com
. Dutch public broadcaster NOS has made it possible for us to show a live stream of the festivities through the
Royal YouTube Channel
.
In collaboration with Dutch embassies, we’re also organising a series of
Google+ Hangouts
. which can be viewed online via YouTube and other websites, including
MijnDroomVoorOnsLand.nl
. The Hangouts will also be on display on 13 large television screens in city centers installed by KPN across the Netherlands.
And if you want to enjoy the festivities together with friends and family around the world, you can of course invite them to watch the coronation via
Hangout
.
Posted by Tim van de Rijdt, Google Netherlands
Transparency Report: government removal requests rise
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Three years ago when we
launched
the
Transparency Report
, we said we hoped it would shine some light on the scale and scope of government requests for censorship and data around the globe. Today, for the seventh time, we’re releasing new numbers showing
requests from governments to remove content
from our services. From July to December 2012, we received 2,285 government requests to remove 24,179 pieces of content—an increase from the 1,811 requests to remove 18,070 pieces of content that we received during the first half of 2012.
As we’ve gathered and released more data over time, it’s become increasingly clear that the scope of government attempts to censor content on Google services has grown. In more places than ever, we’ve been asked by governments to remove political content that people post on our services. In this particular time period, we received court orders in several countries to remove blog posts criticizing government officials or their associates.
You can read more about these requests by looking at the
annotations
section of the Transparency Report. Of particular note were three occurrences that took place in the second half of 2012:
There was a sharp increase in requests from
Brazil
, where we received 697 requests to remove content from our platforms (of which 640 were court orders—meaning we received an average of 3.5 court orders per day during this time period), up from 191 during the first half of the year. The big reason for the spike was the
municipal elections
, which took place last fall. Nearly half of the total requests—316 to be exact—called for the removal of 756 pieces of content related to alleged violations of the
Brazilian Electoral Code
, which forbids defamation and commentary that offends candidates. We’re appealing many of these cases, on the basis that the content is protected by freedom of expression under the Brazilian Constitution.
Another place where we saw an increase was from
Russia
, where a
new law took effect
last fall. In the first half of 2012, we received six requests, the most we had ever received in any given six-month period from Russia. But in the second half of the year, we received 114 requests to remove content—107 of them citing this new law.
During this period, we received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos containing clips of the movie “Innocence of Muslims.” While the videos were within our
Community Guidelines
, we restricted videos from view in several countries in accordance with local law after receiving formal legal complaints. We also temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and Libya due to the particularly difficult circumstances there.
We’ve also made a couple of improvements to the Transparency Report since our last update:
We’re now breaking down government requests about YouTube videos to clarify whether we removed videos in response to government requests for violating Community Guidelines, or whether we restricted videos from view due to local laws. You can see the details by scrolling to the bottom of each country-specific page.
We’ve also refreshed the look of the
Traffic
section, making it easier to see where and when disruptions have occurred to Google services. You can see a map where our services are currently disrupted; you can see a map of all known disruptions since 2009; and you can more easily navigate between time periods and regions.
The information we share on the Transparency Report is just a sliver of what happens on the Internet. But as we disclose more data and continue to expand it over time, we hope it helps draw attention to the laws around the world that govern the free flow of information online.
Posted by Susan Infantino, Legal Director
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