Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Commemorating D-Day’s 70th anniversary
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
On the 70th day of the momentous
D-Day Normandy landings
, our Cultural Institute is launching two initiatives to commemorate: a
G+ Hangout on Air
with veterans and five new online exhibitions.
The Hangout with D-Day veterans will allow anybody, anywhere to hear direct from veterans on their D-Day experiences. It takes place live from the
Caen War Memorial
at 6 p.m. Central Europe time. French television journalist Gilles Bouleau will host and Caen Memorial historian Christophe Prime will lend his expertise. American, French and British veterans will participate. High school students from both the U.S. and France will join the discussion.
At the same time, we’re publishing online
Normandy landings exhibitions
from the Caen War Memorial and other Cultural Institute partners, including the U.K’s Imperial War Museum and Bletchley Park code breakers center, the George C Marshall Research Foundation and the US National Archives. The exhibitions include exciting, previously unshown
video footage
of the landing,
letters
from soldiers and the original
assault plan
. All told, 470 new documents and images are included.
Take some time to browse - and reflect on the sacrifices made to secure Europe’s freedom.
Posted by Sixtine Fabre, Associate Program Manager, Google Cultural Institute
Chromebooks come to five more European countries - in verse
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Chromebooks are coming to nine more nations
to improve computing for all generations.
So we’d like to say our Hellos
to our new global Chromebook fellows:
Kia ora to our New Zealand mates,
where getting on-line will have shorter waits.
Kumusta to new friends in the Philippines,
a better way of computing is what this means.
Hallo to all the folks in Norway
Speed, simplicity and security are coming your way.
Hej Hej to the people in Denmark
Built-in virus protection will be your new computing benchmark.
To Mexico and Chile, Hola we say
Tons of apps and free automatic updates are starting today.
And in the coming weeks -- very soon, you’ll see --
Chromebooks will be in Belgium, Spain and Italy.
Chromebooks are easy to share, manage and use,
With lots of
shapes, colors and sizes
to choose.
Stay safe with your data stored in the cloud,
A smart pick like Chromebook will make your mom proud.
When Chromebooks in these countries alight,
We hope our new global friends find some computing delight.
Posted by David Shapiro, Director of Chromebook Marketing and Occasional Versifier
Highlighting the value of the Internet in Turkey
Monday, June 2, 2014
In the global battle for the free and open Internet, Turkey stands in the front lines. Web penetration is fast growing and the country’s young population is one of the world’s biggest per capita users of social networks. At the same time, these are challenging days for Internet freedom. In our view, the best way forward is to empower Turkey’s civil society to promote knowledge of how to manage and benefit from the web.
For the last year, we have supported a program called "Google Academy for NGOs." Our aim is to educate NGOs on web issues, cloud computing and Google tools. In the first phase of the program, the academy has run workshops in Istanbul and Ankara, training a total of 77 NGO representatives from 62 NGOs. Participants came from NGOs concentrating on human rights, environment, education, entrepreneurship and women’s rights.
Scenes for the Google Academy in Turkey
Before entering the Academy, only half of the trainees indicated that they have knowledge regarding Internet and cloud applications for civil society. Although some 70% indicated that they know and have enough knowledge on Google Search and Google Chrome, only 12% stated that they know
Google Good to Know
content that provides information on web security and fewer than 10% said that they know about
Google Trends
, which helps analyze search traffic.
Thanks to the program, most of the participants saw how the Internet could benefit their NGO. It will allow them to keep in communication with their volunteers, increase interaction with stakeholders and partners, and facilitate the development of new projects. Instead of having everyone travel for a meeting, many said they plan to use Google Hangouts to meet online.
The NGO Academy’s first “class” recently graduated. Three exemplary NGOs, received scholarships to attend a management program at Harvard Kennedy School of Government. The winning projects came from:
LÖSEV Foundation for Children with Leukemia
is using Google+ Hangouts to allow hospitalized children to follow their school classes.
The Turkish Psychological Association
engages with its volunteers and members via Hangouts.
The TEMA environmental group
launched a “Step Saving the World” to raise awareness about soil erosion and deforestation. More than 100 university students are participating, sending reports on their findings via Google Docs and plan activities with Google Calendar
In June, we are completing a new, second phase of the program. Hopefully, the Google Academy will continue strengthening Turkey’s civil society to recognize the value of the Internet.
Posted by Pelin Kuzey, Policy Manager, Istanbul
Driving Europe’s digital road to economic growth
Friday, May 23, 2014
For the past few years, Europe’s financial crisis has dominated economic debate. The
Lisbon Council
attempted this week to shift the discussion at its Europe 2020 summit to what policies are needed to move beyond the immediate crisis and build the foundation for future prosperity.
Google supports this agenda. We have worked with the Lisbon Council to launch its
Innovation Economics Centre
of excellence committed to shedding light on and providing scientific evidence of the profound impact of the Internet and digital technologies. At the Europe 2020 summit, our European policy head Nicklas Lundblad explained how the Internet represents a core component of any European growth strategy.
Top European officials participated, including
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso
and European Commissioner Neelie Kroes. European startups and innovators including Simon Schaefer, founder and CEO of Germany’s leading startup lab Factory, angel investor Sherry Coutu, and Spotify's Head of Product, Tech, IP and Policy Mark Silverstein urged them to end the continent’s present fragmented regulatory regimes, that forces companies must obtain separate permission to access each of the European Union’s 28 national markets.
At the summit, a new Digital Single Market study
“Productivity and Digitalisation in Europe: Paving the Road to Faster Growth”
was released. Written by Bart van Ark, chief economist of the research association called
The Conference Board
, it argues that Europe’s productivity, which is key to growth,is falling far behind America because it lags in intangible investments (see chart below) and adoption of digital technology across all sectors of the economy. As van Ark stressed “ the potential of digitisation to accelerate growth will come primarily from the use of these technologies by industries in non-ICT sector.” This should be a vision for the next European Commission.
In the addition, Dirk Pilat of the OECD, presented new evidence on contribution of young companies to the economy. 42% of new jobs come from startups and high-growth firms, which shows that policymakers in Europe should focus on enabling entrepreneurship and experimentation, rather than focusing only on SMEs and incumbents.
The event underlined how Europe enjoys a giant opportunity for the Internet to support economic growth and employment in Europe - as well as the risks of Europe being left behind related to lack of the digital single market and global scale, digital skills gap, excessive regulation or risks of emerging digital protectionism in Europe.
Google is committed to doing its part. We’re supporting a range of initiatives that help Europeans -- entrepreneurs, startups, and youth -- tap the potential of the net to start a business, reach global markets, and learn new skills and become employable. In
Germany
, we’re helping the country’s famed exporters find new customers, grow their businesses and maximize their online presence through a suite of digital tools. In
Italy
, we’re bring Italy’s famous artisan producers online. In
Spain
, we’re working with partners to create a 21st century workforce by helping people of all ages acquire new digital skills including coding and computer science. All the efforts are meant to send a single important message: in order to prosper, Europe needs to embrace the internet.
Posted by Sylwia Giepmans-Stepien, Senior Policy Analyst, Brussels
Tennish champ Federer takes to the court with Glass
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Right in time for the
French Tennis Open
, which opens in Paris on May 25, two of the greatest tennis players of all time, Roger Federer and Stefan Edberg, recently took Glass for a swing. It’s safe to say that their combined 23 Grand Slam titles will be the most that ever step foot on Google’s tennis courts at our headquarters in Mountain View.
"It was really fun shooting this video through Glass,” said Roger. “It's not often you get to explore new angles of watching tennis. I hope fans enjoy this new perspective.”
As our Glass Explorer community has grown, we've heard time and time again that Glass is a great companion for sports. Glass has been a hit with several pro athletes from Indiana Pacer
Roy Hibbert
and PGA player
Billy Horschel
. Take a look and swing away.
Posted by Chelsea Maughan, Communications Manager
GEN 2014: challenging journalism’s status quo
Monday, May 19, 2014
The countdown has begun. The
Global Editors Network
has announced its shortlist of 75 finalists for the
Data Journalism Awards
, supported by Google and the Knight Foundation. Winners will be named at GEN’s upcoming summit in Barcelona on June 12.
The young field of data journalism--analyzing large datasets to unearth news stories and information--is growing tremendously. The 2014 Data Journalism Awards received a record 520 submissions, 200 more than last year. A total of 65 countries were represented. While some newsrooms around have installed dedicated specialists to focus on reporting based on data, Mirko Lorenz, Director of the 2014 Data Journalism Awards, said solo journalists accounted for the vast majority of submissions. “Journalists are taking it on themselves to use data for projects, for experimentation,” Lorenz said.
GEN champions journalistic innovation, demonstrating how the online world offers great opportunities for the future of journalism. Its summit this year in Barcelona is entitled “Mobile. Video. Data. Challenge the Status Quo.” Sessions and keynotes will revolve around the idea that these three things must be top-of-mind in the modern newsroom.
Speakers
range from the Guardian’s lead digital strategist Wolfgang Blau to Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersch.
This is GEN’s fourth annual summit - take a look below at highlights from last year’s event in Paris.
This year’s summit promises to be three days of hard work and learning - and also a treat. One of the featured speakers will be Ferran Adria, the famed Catalan chef and founder of the restaurant El Bulli. See you in Barcelona.
Posted by Peter Barron, Director, Communications, Europe, Middle East and Africa
Bringing the Father of the Internet to Finland
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Back in the 1970s, Vint Cerf played a decisive role developing what became the backbone of the future Internet - TCP/IP protocol that allowed computers to communicate with each other over an arbitrarily large number of networks. This “father of the Internet” recently visited Finland, home to our EUR850 million data centre in Eastern Finland and addressed an audience of 300 students at the beautiful new
Vellamo Museum
.
Many of our data centres are located in traditional industrial areas where one might not immediately think of being the home for a Google facility. In Finland, the region around our data center is struggling with the decline of its traditional economic motor - the paper industry. In March 2009, we purchased Summa Mill from Finnish paper company Stora Enso and converted the 60 year old paper mill. The first phase of the facility became operational in September 2011 and serves Google users across Europe and around the world.
During the recent event with Vint, the local data center directors Arni Jonsson and Herman Arsaelsson demystified the data center. They talke about how our investment is about more than just bricks, mortar and servers. Its about jobs. In Hamina, we’re providing work for (at peak) approximately 800 engineering and construction workers. In addition, the data center provides full time jobs for people who come from diverse backgrounds and skills. All of our open positions can be found on
Google Jobs page
.
Our economic and academic partners in Finland told about how we are helping the region to fly into the flourishing 21rst century digital economy. In the spring of 2013, we announced a new partnership with
Aalto University
and the regional development agency
Cursor
. With Google's financial support, Aalto University is strengthening the Venture Gym acceleration program around the growing Playa Game Industry Hub, as well as the region's Kaakko 135 travel and tourism initiative.
Vint continued by wowing everyone with a lecture about the past and future of the net. Take a look above at some of the highlights and enjoy a few minutes of news from the north of Europe.
Posted by William Echikson, Head of Community Relations, Europe
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