Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Supporting open government in New Europe
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
The “New Europe” countries that joined the European Union over the past decade are moving ahead fast to use the Internet to improve transparency and open government. We recently partnered with
Techsoup Global
to support online projects driving forward good governance in Romania, the Czech Republic, and most recently, in Slovakia.
Techsoup Global, in partnership with the
Slovak Center for Philanthropy
, recently held an exciting social-startups awards ceremony
Restart Slovakia 2013
in Bratislava. Slovakia’s Deputy Minister of Finance and Digital Champion
Peter Pellegrini
delivered keynote promoting Internet and Open Data and announced the winners of this year contest. Ambassadors from U.S., Israel and Romania and several distinguished Slovak NGOs also attended the ceremony.
Winning projects included:
Vzdy a vsade
- Always and Everywhere - a volunteer portal offering online and anonymous psychological advice to internet users via chat.
Nemlcme.sk
- a portal providing counsel for victims of sexual assaults.
Co robim
- an educational online library of job careers advising young people how to choose their career paths and dream jobs.
Mapa zlocinu
- an online map displaying various rates of criminality in different neighbourhoods.
Demagog.sk
- a platform focused on analyzing public statements of politicians and releasing information about politicians and truthfulness of their speeches in a user-friendly format.
An award ceremony highlight was a live concert by the
Diplomatic Immunity Band
. The combo (shown above at an earlier gig) includes US Ambassador Theodore Sedgwick on keyboard; Israeli ambassador Alexander Ben-Zvi on conga, Romanian Ambassador Florin Vodita on electric guitar, President of Institute of Public Affairs Grigorij Meseznikov on electro acoustic guitar, and the Banska Bystrica Mayor Peter Gogola on drums. We’re delighted they found the time to make sweet music in favor of open data and data-driven innovation.
Posted by Posted by Ondrej Socuvka, Policy Manager, Bratislava
Transparency Report: Government removal requests rise
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Cross-posted with
Official Google Blog
We
launched
the
Transparency Report
in 2010 to provide hard evidence of how laws and policies affect access to information online. Today, for the eighth time, we’re releasing new numbers showing
requests from governments to remove content
from our services. From January to June 2013, we received 3,846 government requests to remove 24,737 pieces of content—a 68 percent increase over the second half of 2012.
Over the past four years, one worrying trend has remained consistent: governments continue to ask us to remove political content. Judges have asked us to remove information that’s critical of them, police departments want us to take down videos or blogs that shine a light on their conduct, and local institutions like town councils don’t want people to be able to find information about their decision-making processes. These officials often cite defamation, privacy and even copyright laws in attempts to remove political speech from our services. In this particular reporting period, we received 93 requests to take down government criticism and removed content in response to less than one third of them. Four of the requests were submitted as copyright claims.
You can read more about these requests in the
Notes
section of the Transparency Report. In addition, we saw a significant increase in the number of requests we received from two countries in the first half of 2013:
There was a sharp increase in requests from
Turkey
. We received 1,673 requests from Turkish authorities to remove content from our platforms, nearly a tenfold increase over the second half of last year. About two-thirds of the total requests—1,126 to be exact—called for the removal of 1,345 pieces of content related to alleged violations of
law 5651
.
Another place where we saw an increase was
Russia
, where there has been an uptick in requests since a
blacklist law
took effect last fall. We received 257 removal requests during this reporting period, which is more than double the number of requests we received throughout 2012.
While the information we present in our Transparency Report is certainly not a comprehensive view of censorship online, it does demonstrate a worrying upward trend in the number of government requests, and underscores the importance of transparency around the processes governing such requests. As we continue to add data, we hope it will become increasingly useful and informative in policy debates and decisions around the world.
Posted by Susan Infantino, Legal Director
Inspiring students about Poland’s great computing heritage
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Behind every computing breakthrough, there’s a story of the people who made it happen. Earlier this month, the spotlight shone on Poland’s computer pioneers with the launch of the educational project
“XYZ — The history of computing in Poland”
.
Led by the Center for Citizenship Education in collaboration with Google, the project seeks to raise awareness of Poland’s computing heroes among young people, as well as use them to illustrate the value of virtues such as ingenuity, curiosity and cooperation.
Materials produced so far include a timline,
online videos
, and
posters
highlighting key Poles and their achievements — from
Abraham Stern’s mechanical calculators
in the early 19th century, to
Leon Lukaszewicz’s XYZ computer
in 1958, to the team who built the
K-202, Poland’s first computer with integrated circuits
, in the 1970s. Coming soon are lesson plans and contests to make it easier for Polish educators to use these stories of local innovators to inspire their students.
The project was launched in fitting style at the University of Warsaw, where young innovators showcased their own work surrounded by posters of Polish computing heroes to dignitaries including
Vint Cerf
, one of the “fathers” of the Internet.
Students meet "Father of the Internet" Vint Cerf
We’re proud to support this initiative and hope it helps inspire the next generation of Polish computer scientists to similarly great heights.
Posted by Marta Poslad, Senior Policy Analyst, Central and Eastern Europe
Joining Belgium and Finland around data centres
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
At first glance, it’s hard to think of two cultures more different than Belgium’s southern French speaking
Wallonia
and Finland’s southeastern lake region. Finland is rural, Nordic, and Lutheran, a place of big spaces, big forests, and big lakes. Belgium is urban, Latin and Roman Catholic, a place of crowded industrial landscapes, carefully cultivated fields and man-made canals.
Sunset at our data centre in Belgium
And yet, both are homes to
Google data centres
, and when our Finnish partners recently visited Belgium for two days of workshops, they found many things in common. Both regions built their economies on big traditional industries that are fast disappearing - paper and pulp in Finland, coal and steel in Belgium. Both have big neighbors - Russia and France. And both have a willpower to work with us to help jump, as our partners put it, “from the Industrial Heartland to the Internet age.”
It was a fruitful two day visit. The dozen-person Finnish team, lead by the regional development agency
Cursor
and
Aalto University
, told about their success in spawning video games startups and boosting online local tourism. The Belgian team, led by the local
Mundaneum Museum
spoke about plans to use the net for its upcoming 2015 celebration of the regional capital and hometown Mons as a European capital of culture.
We also compared common challenges - improving the two regions’ level of English and other skills needed to attract international business. Both regions aim to create web incubators and web startups, projects we are aim to support.
Over the past year, we have disbursed more than EUR1 million of grants to local organizations around the data centers. These fund a wide range of activities, from a Popmaton at
Mons’ Andy Warhol exhibit
to measuring water health in southeastern Finland’s rivers to supporting a computer science contest at the
University of Mons,
including exhibitions and talks on Internet issues and opportunities in both countries. It was gratifying to see our partners getting to know each other personally and pledging to work together to common goals. We have dug deep roots in these two different but similar regions and plan to continue planting deep roots in computer science, environment and empowering cultural institution.
Posted by William Echikson, Head of Community Relations, Brussels
Ski with Street View
Friday, December 13, 2013
Europe’s ski season is moving into high gear, making it a perfect moment for us to help you explore some of the continent’s best resorts and runs. We’ve taken our
Street View snowmobile
to the slopes and have launched new imagery of some great pistes in Italy, France, Andorra and Spain.
Italy:
From the western border between Italy and France in
La Thuile
to
Siusi
,
Pusteria
and
Kronplatz
in the eastern Dolomite Stations south of Austria, we are bringing online a total of eight Italian ski resorts. Take a look where the pros will head down the pistes at
Bormio,
which hosts a
World Cup stop
on December 29.
View Larger Map
France:
Val Thorens is one of the highest stations in Europe, while
Les Gets
opens up to the 600 kilometers of slopes on the
Portes du Soleil
.
View Larger Map
Spain:
The Pyrenees boasts some great skiing and we feature
Estació de Esqui de Masella
.
View Larger Map
Andorra:
The small state of Andorra is home to a lot of skiing. We are bringing online two Alpine resorts
Estació Esquí de Grandvalira
and
Estació Esquí de Vallnord
. Together they cover more than 300 kilometers of slopes. You can also explore Nordic skiing facilities at
Estació Esquí de fons de Naturlandia
.
Check out the slopes online, pick up your skis and head to the mountains.
Posted by Ulf Spitzer, Street View Program Manager, Zurich
Boosting Tourism in Southern Europe
Thursday, December 12, 2013
If Southern Europe is to recover from the euro crisis, the region will need to boost its traditionally strong tourism industry - and one of the best ways to sell its sun, beauty, and history is through the Internet. This is the conclusion of new
Oxford Economics
study titled
“The Impact of Online Content on European Tourism.”
The research, supported by us, found that Greece, Italy and Spain could improve their performance with online bookings. On average, some 49 percent of hotel bookings in the European Union,are made on the web. In Greece, by contrast, online bookings account for only 10 percent. In Spain, it is 26 percent, and in Italy, 43 percent.
In addition, the three countries enjoy great opportunities to market their rich cultural heritage. Culture-related searches account for 45 percent of all tourism-related searches on Greece, 31 percent for Italy, and 44 percent for Spain. Greek Italian and Spanish museums, art galleries, historical sites and cultural events will be able to move more traffic online.
If full advantage is taken of the Internet, Oxford calculates that Greece could see a 20 percent expansion in its tourism business, boosting GDP growth by an astounding 3.2 percent. Italy’s GDP would increase by 1 percent, and Spain’s by 0.5 percent. Some 50,000 jobs would be created in Spain, 100,000 in Greece, and 250,000 in Italy.
Specific recommendations to achieve these goals include:
Encourage tourist businesses to build websites in multiple languages across multiple online platforms - travel apps, travel apps, search, sales portals, travel reviews, travel guides.
Update the content frequently - and given the significant role that culture plays in tourism in Europe, pay special attention to online cultural content.
Motivate government agencies to work with the private sector to provide complementary destination and cultural online content.
Use social media and encourage feedback from customers. This will allow businesses to build relationships with their customers as well as improve service offerings over time.
Fortunately, we’re seeing signs that the Mediterranean tourist industry is embracing these opportunities. At the report's recent launch in Athens, the president of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises,
Andreas Andreadis
, pointed to the
Discovergreece.com
website that serves as a platform for online reservations. Tourism Minister
Olga Kefalogianni
said the
VisitGreece.gr
had attracted 7.3 million unique visitors and reported that her Ministry has launched a web-based communication campaign to promote Greece. Carlos Romero, from Spain’s government tourist innovation agency
Seggitur
, spoke of the success of
spainisculture.com
.
Let’s hope that the research will encourage additional investments in online tourism.
Posted by Dionisis Kolokotsas, Public Policy Manager, Athens
Modernising Amnesty International letter writing marathons
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
For many years,
Amnesty International
and its 3.2 million members have stood up for human rights by organizing
Write for Rights
- an annual global letter-writing marathon. People from over 80 countries come together to support individuals and communities suffering human rights abuses. Today, with our support,
Amnesty
will mark the
International Human Rights Da
y by building a
new digital platform
for this year’s Write for Rights Marathon.
Amnesty’s marathon website will focus on three cases: that of a community leader imprisoned because he tried to stop clashes between religious groups, that of a community that is living in makeshift shelters after their houses were demolished and that of a man brutally attacked by the police. The new website will link to YouTube to show videos of individuals and communities suffering human rights abuses.
This launch represents what we hope is just a beginning. Over the coming months, we will support Amnesty to build a platform that will help Amnesty to respond in a rapid and reactive way to human rights violations.
Amnesty has a unique way of humanising the often abstract issues around free expression. This new website represents not just a modernisation of its letter writing techniques; it also demonstrates an acknowledgement that the future of free expression depends much on the future of the open and free Internet, which anyone with a connection, anywhere in the world, can use to reach a global audience.
For the individual cases featured in Amnesty’s appeal, the impact of letter writing is often life changing, restoring their freedom. As
Julio de Peña Valdez
, a released prisoner of conscience from the Dominican Republic said after his release, “The letters kept coming and coming: three thousand of them. The president was informed. The letters still kept arriving, and the president called the prison and told them to let me go. After I was released, the president called me to his office. He said: 'How is it that a trade union leader like you has so many friends from all over the world?' He showed me an enormous box full of letters he had received and, when we parted, he gave them to me.”
We have always believed in the liberating power of technology: more information means more discussion, better choices and eventually more freedom. Our goal with Amnesty is to raise awareness of the critical human rights issues around the world, including free expression, creating international pressure for their resolution.
Posted by William Echikson, Head of Free Expression, Europe, Middle East and Africa.
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