Improving Internet access in Africa with 'White Spaces'

White spaces are unused channels in the broadcast TV spectrum. They offer the potential to improve Internet connectivity where they are most needed - in the developing world. This week, we announced the launch of a trial with ten schools in the Cape Town area, which will receive wireless broadband over a white space network.

White space has the advantage that low frequency signals can travel longer distances. The technology is well suited to provide low cost connectivity to rural communities with poor telecommunications infrastructure, and for expanding coverage of wireless broadband in densely populated urban areas.

Google supported its first white space trial in the US in 2010, and Google.org recently launched its spectrum database for 45 day public comment period with the FCC. In October 2011, we hosted a workshop in Johannesburg, along with partners, at which the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) lent support for an industry-led white spaces trial in South Africa. We then worked together with the CSIR Meraka Institute, Tertiary Education and Research Network of South Africa, e-Schools Network, the Wireless Access Providers’ Association, Comsol Wireless Solutions, Carlson Wireless, and Neul to take up the challenge.

The service will be broadcast from three base stations located at Stellenbosch University’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences in Tygerberg, Cape Town. Ten schools in the Cape Town area will receive wireless broadband to test the technology. During the trial, we will attempt to show that broadband can be offered over white spaces without interfering with licensed spectrum holders. To prevent interference with other channels, the network uses Google’s spectrum database to determine white space availability. To confirm results, the CSIR Meraka Institute will take spectrum measurements and frequently report back to ICASA and the local broadcasters.

White Space technology is gaining momentum around the world. In the US, it is already available for licensed exempt uses. In the UK, regulator Ofcom is working on a model regulatory framework based on a licence-exempt or ‘managed access’ use of television white spaces spectrum. We hope the results of the trial will drive similar regulatory developments in South Africa and other African countries.

To read more about the trial background, please visit TENET’s website.

Posted by Fortune Mgwili-Sibanda, Public Policy Manager, Google South Africa

Launching a hunt for innovative UK social entrepreneurs

From cracking the human genome to advancing medical research through computer games, British social entrepreneurs have a proud history of using technology to make the world a better place.

Last year, we launched the Global Impact Awards to support nonprofits using technology to tackle some of the world’s toughest problems. We gave $23 million to seven organizations working on projects ranging from aerial technology that protects wildlife to data algorithms that ensure more girls and minorities get placed in advanced math and science classes.

Today, as the next step in the Impact Awards, we’re kicking off our first Global Impact Challenge in the U.K., inviting British nonprofits to tell us how they would use technology to transform lives. Four nonprofits will each receive a £500,000 Global Impact Award, as well as Chromebooks and technical assistance from Googlers to help make their project a reality.

Applications open today, and registered British nonprofits are invited to apply online at g.co/impactchallenge. We’ll review applications and announce 10 finalists on May 22. At that point, people across the U.K. can learn more about the projects of the top 10 finalists, donate to the ones they like and cast a vote for fan favorite. On June 3, the top 10 finalists will pitch their concepts to a judging panel that includes us (Matt Brittin and Jacquelline Fuller), Sir Richard Branson, Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Jilly Forster. The three awardees and the fan favorite will be revealed at the event, which will take place at Google London.

Technology can help solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges and we’re eager to back innovators who are finding new ways to make an impact. Today we’re starting the hunt in the U.K., but we also know that nonprofits all over the world are using techy approaches to develop new solutions in their sector. Who knows, the Global Impact Challenge might head your way next.

Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, director of Google Giving, and Matt Brittin, VP, sales and operations, Northern and Central Europe

Supporting freedom of expression in all forms

Index on Censorship’s annual awards represent one of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious celebrations of freedom of expression in all forms. Held this year in the hallowed halls of London’s Middle Temple - one of the four Inns of Court, which have the exclusive right to call men and women to the Bar of England and Wales. According to Index’s chairman, Jonathan Dimbleby, the awards celebrate the fundamental right to "write, blog, tweet, speak out, protest and create art and literature and music".

Winners included South African photographer Zanele Muholi, whose photos of black lesbian life in South Africa provoked fierce opposition, Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai who was shot by the Taliban for militating for education for girls, and Greek editor Kostas Vaxevanis, who was indicted for publishing a list of wealthy Greeks who hold Swiss bank accounts and were accused of evading taxes.


Google supports the event and in particular the prize for Digital Freedom Award, which recognises the original use of new technology to foster debate, argument or dissent. An independent jury chooses the nominees and picks the winner. This year’s award went to imprisoned Palestinian-born Syrian software engineer Bassel Khartabil. A free internet pioneer, Khartabil was arrested on March 15, 2012 in Damascus His family were given no official information about why or where he was detained. Bassel's friend Dana Trometer collected the Index award on his behalf, saying she hoped the award would help him soon win his freedom.

Khartabil is known worldwide for his strong commitment to the open web, teaching others about technology. He is the inventor of an open source software that powers the Open Clip Art Library, an original contributor to the Arabic Wikipedia and the founder of Creative Commons Syria.

Amid the champagne and canapes, in the historic setting, it was inspiring to hear the stories of these brave defenders of freedom. Google is proud to support this important event.

Posted by William Echikson, Head of Free Expression, Europe, Middle East and Africa

Training journalists to meet digital challenges

Much ink has been spilled about the challenges posed to the press by the digital age - but even more ought to be spilled about the opportunities of digital journalism. We are supporting Editors’ Lab Hackdays, a series of international workshops hosted by world-renowned newsrooms, to help fill this gap.

We recently hosted an Editors' Lab in Austria. German-language media groups from Austria, Germany and Switzerland were represented, including Zeit Online, Der Standard, Neue Zurcher Zeitung, ORF, Der Spiegel and Vorarlberg Online.



The theme of the Austrian Editors’ Lab was “Covering International Migration.” Participants were organised into teams and competed for a prize of EUR 5000 for the best new storytelling tools, applications and data journalism projects on international migration. “We want to encourage journalists, developers and designers to collaborate stories, even if they are all from different departments,” said Gerold Riedmann, CEO of Russmedia Digital and GEN Board Member.

Editors’ Lab Austria included presentations and classes. On the opening day, Simon Rogers, Data Blog Editor at the Guardian, gave a keynote address. Adam Thomas, Founder of Hack/Hackers Berlin and Head of Communications of SourceFabric, taught a course on data journalism.

After Austria, there will be further Editors’ Lab Hackdays in Cairo, New York City, New Delhi, and Amsterdam. All the winners receive an invitation to the final GEN News Hackathon at the GEN News Summit in Paris from June 19 to 21, 2013.

Posted by Wolfgang Fasching-Kapfenberger, Communications and Public Affairs Manager

Urban art, zoomorphic whistles and Hungarian poetry

There are few places (if any) in the world where you could find urban art, zoomorphic whistles* and Hungarian poetry in a single place—except, of course, on the Internet.

Today 30 new partners are joining the Google Art Project, contributing nearly 2,000 diverse works including contemporary art from Latin America, ancient art from China, rare Japanese paintings and Palaeolithic flint heads from Spain.

One highlight of the new collection is a project to capture the growing trend of urban art and graffiti in Brazil. More than 100 works from walls, doors and galleries in São Paulo have been photographed and will be included in the Art Project. The pieces were chosen by a group of journalists, artists and graffiti experts and include artists such as Speto, Kobra and Space Invader, as well as images of São Paulo’s most famous building-size murals. You can see the contrast in styles in the Compare tool and image below.

Photography features strongly in the works our partners are bringing online this time around. The Fundacion MAPFRE in Spain showcases one of the largest collections with more than 300 photos from a number of renowned photographers. For example, you can explore Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide’s black and white images of indigenous Mexican culture inspired by themes of ritual, death and feminism.

The Art Project is also becoming a home to rare and precious items which move beyond paintings. Petőfi Literary Museum in Hungary has contributed the Nemzeti Dal or “National Song,” a Hungarian poem which is said to have been the inspiration for the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. The original document has rarely been seen in public to prevent humidity and light fading the script further. Online now for the first time, it can be explored by anyone in the world.

With 40,000+ artworks to explore from more than 200 museums in more than 40 countries, we look forward to seeing these new works feature in hundreds of thousands of user galleries you have created to date. Keep an eye on our Google+ page for more details about the new collections.

*ceramic whistles in the shape of animals!

Posted by Shahina Rahman, Google Art Project

Making the web work for Germany

When our Vice President Matt Brittin first visited Berlin it was 1985 and he was a competitor in the Rowing World Championships. The city, then divided, is now reunited as the capital of one of the world’s most prosperous countries and Matt was delighted to return to give a keynote speech today in front of 700 distinguished guests at an exciting conference called Kompetenzzentrum Wirtschaftsrat.

This year’s conference focuses on the significant economic opportunities offered by the Internet. If Germany is going to keep up with its remarkable economic record, Matt told the audience that the country will need to win on the Internet. The good news, he added, is that German business has already started to use the web well, in fact a 2011 study by Bitkom found that 11% of German GDP and jobs depended on businesses using the web.

Matt Brittin speaks in Berlin

Matt greets German Minister of Economics and Technology Philipp Rosler

Small businesses are leading the way. a bakery from Dresden that sells Christmas cakes, has used web advertising to expand beyond its one local shop - and export to Japan, Mexico, Canada and more. Large industrial businesses are also waking up to the opportunity. Matt spoke about how he recently visited Wolfsburg, home to Volkswagen, where 2.1 million people visited its showroom last year. Around the world people searched Google for VW and their models over five billion times, and viewed the company’s videos on YouTube more than 170 million times.

German industry is also proving adept at experimenting with new business models that take advantage of digital possibilities. A good illustration is “Drive Now”, the car-sharing business that’s a partnership between BMW and Sixt. Berlin is now considered to be home to among the world’s most vibrant and fastest growing startup scenes, and no wonder when you look at some of the businesses emerging: SoundCloud, launched in 2008, now claims to be world’s largest online community of artists, bands, podcasters and anyone creating music and audio content.

The potential for making the web work for growth, innovation and culture are tremendous and the Internet would be a poorer place if Germany were not to take up these opportunities. We at Google have recently called for more moonshot thinking - proposals that address huge problems by suggesting radical solutions that use breakthrough technology to make it happen. With a rich history of innovation from renowned carmaker Karl Benz to telecommunications pioneer Werner von Siemens it is about time for the next moonshot made in Germany, powered by the web.

Posted by Sandro Gianella, Public Policy & Government Relations Analyst, Berlin

Transforming Turkey’s economy through the Internet

Turkey represents a dramatic economic success story. While much of the rest of the world struggled with recession in 2011, its GDP expanded by 8.5 percent. Growth continued last year, with the OECD estimated at 2.9 percent, more than twice the OECD average. Within a decade, Turkey aims to become one of world’s the ten biggest economies.

To achieve this ambitious goal, we’re convinced that the country needs to embrace the Internet. The Turkish Minister of Development Cevdet Yilmaz, the US Ambassador to Turkey Francis J. Ricciardone, and a wide representation from the Turkish business and civil society recently joined us to launch Boston Consulting Group's report Turkey Online: How the Internet Is Transforming The Turkish Economy.

The study contained both promising news about the Internet’s impact in Turkey - and, crucially, recommendations on how to improve.

First the good news: the share of Turkish households with online access soared to 47.2 percent in 2012, up from 19.7 percent in 2007. Turkey’s Internet economy is expected to grow by 19 percent annually through 2017.

Much remains to be done. The Internet contributes an estimated 22 billion Turkish Lira to GDP - a mere 1.7% of Turkey’s overall GDP. A deep digital divide exists, with Istanbul and Ankara ahead in adopting the Internet while eastern Anatolia lags.

How could Turkey do better? Boston Consulting urges swift government action to bring the entire country online, by encouraging private-public partnerships and increasing school programs that teach digital literacy. Efficient e-government services should be built. Such initiatives will encourage entrepreneurs to improve productivity by using e-procurement and other web-based services.

As Turkey’s economy grows and mature, it needs to move from a manufacturing-based to an information-oriented society. Policy makers have a key part to play in creating an environment that unleashes the Internet’s growth opportunities.

Posted by Pelin Kuzey, Public Policy & Government Relations Manager Turkey

Help French startups flourish - and keep them at home

For three years now, we have been supporting an exciting project in France called Le Camping. Each six months, 12 new startups are chosen to “camp” in what used to be the offices of the French Stock Exchange. Mentors, entrepreneurs and engineers, coach the “campers,” teaching them how to develop their business and find start-up funds.



We just have launched Season Four and this seemed a good time to take stock. In Season One, Two, and Three, a total of 36 startups have created about 160 jobs and raised EUR5 million. About half the campers succeed in obtaining funding to get off the ground.

But we noticed one disturbing trend. More and more of these startups are leaving France. Onefeat, a social game, has moved to San Francisco, and Oleapark, a networking tool, is based in Berlin. We fear many others will also leave because, among other reasons, they find elsewhere other locations offer cheaper facilities, lower taxes or more easily obtained VC funding.

How to get them to stay? One requirement is to improve access to office space in Paris. The French government recently announced plans to create a Parisian neighborhood dedicated to startups. A public consultation has been called to decide what facilities will be offered. Google supports this project and has already invested almost EUR1 million in a new building similar to our London Campus.

Enthusiasm in France for startups seems to be growing. More than 180 candidates showed up for Season Four's launch. They presented ideas for new products and services. Let’s hope that they find an environment for creating their own companies - and seeing them flourish in France.

Posted by Elisabeth Bargès, Public Policy Manager Innovation, France

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Debating public safety while preserving personal freedom

It’s a tricky balance. Governments need to be effective in fighting crime, and while theft, trafficking and terrorism have existed for centuries, the Internet has accelerated the speed and volume at which crime can be conducted. At the same time, the Internet has become a powerful force in promoting free speech and personal freedom. What is the right balance between public safety and personal freedom? How much access should police have to user emails and other information on the Net?

We’ve asked a number of experts to debate this theme of freedom and security on the Internet today at the Big Tent in Stockholm. Along with the Civil Rights Defenders, Europol,
Privacy International, and Transparency International, we’ll be hosting members of the intelligence and research communities, law enforcement and civil society. All will share their observations and thoughts about how governments and companies should prosecute crime and guarantee rights to free expression and privacy in the information age.

We’re especially pleased that Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt will be joining us for this conversation. Sweden has one of the world’s oldest traditions of freedom of speech, and its government is a leader in using Internet tools to support democracy and freedom.

Every government has a responsibility to keep its citizens safe. Without data and analysis, it’s hard to tell if officials have the right tools to effectively investigate and stop crime online. We hope that this discussion will present hard facts on issues such as expanding lawful access provisions, prioritizing funds to keep up with rapidly advancing technology, and greater government transparency so that citizens can hold officials accountable for how they exercise policing powers.

For a preview of Thursday’s conversation, check out this Google+ Hangout that I did yesterday with former Index on Censorship chairman John Kampfner.



Posted by Ross LaJeunesse, Global Head of Free Expression and International Relations

Sharing stories of Bletchley Park: home of the code-breakers

For decades, the World War II codebreaking centre at Bletchley Park was one of the U.K.’s most closely guarded secrets. Today, it’s a poignant place to visit and reflect on the achievements of those who worked there. Their outstanding feats of intellect, coupled with breakthrough engineering and dogged determination, were crucial to the Allied victory—and in parallel, helped kickstart the computing age.

We’ve long been keen to help preserve and promote the importance of Bletchley Park. Today we’re announcing two new initiatives that we hope will bring its story to a wider online audience.

First, we’re welcoming the Bletchley Park Trust as the latest partner to join Google’s Cultural Institute. Their digital exhibit features material from Bletchley’s archives, providing a vivid snapshot of the work that went on cracking secret messages and the role this played in shortening the war. Included are images of the Bombe machines that helped crack the Enigma code; and of Colossus, the world’s first programmable electronic computer, used to crack the German High Command code—including this message showing the Germans had been successfully duped about the location for the D-Day invasion.

Second, as a followup to our film about Colossus, we’re pleased to share a personal story of the Bombe, as told by one of its original operators, Jean Valentine. Women like Jean made up the majority of Bletchley Park’s personnel—ranging from cryptographers, to machine operators, to clerks. In her role operating the Bombe, Jean directly helped to decipher messages encoded by Enigma. In this film Jean gives us a firsthand account of life at Bletchley Park during the war, and demonstrates how the Bombe worked using a replica machine now on show at the museum.



We hope you enjoy learning more about Bletchley Park and its fundamental wartime role and legacy. For more glimpses of history, explore the Cultural Institute’s other exhibitions on www.google.com/culturalinstitute.

Posted by Marzia Niccolai, Technical Program Manager, Google Cultural Institute

Final call for summer policy fellowship applications

This Friday is the last day to apply for the 2013 Google Policy Fellowship -- all applications must be submitted by March 15, 2013 at midnight Pacific Standard Time. Please visit the website for application and program details. Available positions in Europe and Africa were described in this previous blogpost.

The Google Policy Fellowship supports students and organizations working on the critical technology policy issues of our time. Fellows will have the opportunity to work at public interest organizations at the forefront of debates on broadband and access policy, content regulation, copyright and trademark reform, consumer privacy, open government, and more. The Google Policy Fellowship is open to students of all levels and disciplines.

Good luck on your application!

Posted by Kate Sheerin, Policy Analyst

A new free expression dialogue with European telecoms

We wake up every day at Google asking ourselves: how can we get more information to more people around the world? Unfortunately, officials in too many governments wake up every day asking themselves: how can we stop our people from getting more information?

Those opposing questions lay at the heart of our decision back in 2008 to be a founding member company of the Global Network Initiative (GNI). The GNI is a group of companies, human rights groups and NGOs, socially responsible investors and academics that works to protect and advance freedom of expression and privacy in the ICT sector.

From the beginning, we hoped that the GNI would find common ground with other companies and groups around the world. And today we’re happy to report that the GNI is entering into a two-year collaboration with a group of eight European telecommunications firms to “find a shared and practical approach to promoting freedom of expression and privacy rights around the world.”

The eight firms — Alcatel-Lucent, France Telecom-Orange, Millicom, Nokia Siemens Networks, Telefonica, Telenor, TeliaSonera, and Vodafone — provide services and equipment in scores of countries.

The firms, known collectively as the Telecommunications Industry Dialogue, have been meeting among themselves since 2011 to discuss freedom of expression and privacy rights in their sector, and have developed a set of guiding principles. Under the new partnership, they are not joining GNI — but the GNI will house the Industry Dialogue’s work and provide a place where members of both groups can learn from each other, develop new ideas, and collaborate in protecting and advancing user privacy and freedom of expression.

For the Industry Dialogue, we hope the arrangement will give the eight companies the chance to see the advantages we’ve found in an alliance that goes beyond industry and includes NGOs and others. For the GNI — a group born of the conviction that there is strength in numbers and a diverse membership — the arrangement marks a concrete step to building a broader and more global platform to help protect user rights.

Posted by Bob Boorstin, Director, Public Policy, and Lewis Segall, Senior Ethics and Compliance Counsel

Online voters choose Vietnamese blogger Netizen of the Year

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

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 Varna, 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

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

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 Curriculum 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 +

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

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