Put 100 talented and enthusiastic people in a room for a weekend, and you’ve got the perfect ingredients for innovation, according to Startup Weekend. This was the principle behind a recent gathering in Copenhagen, which sought to inject fresh thinking to the media industry in Denmark, with closer integration between content, technology and business models.

The Copenhagen Media Startup Weekend was staged by a dedicated group of Danish entrepreneurs and journalists, with backing from a wide range of Danish universities from Århus, Aalborg and the Danish School of Media and Journalism. Google also provided sponsorship and outreach support, including a Google+ page with a live-stream from the event, allowing anyone to follow the great ideas taking shape.

On the opening Friday evening more than 40 ideas were pitched and narrowed down to 13 cross functional teams of both journalists, media entrepreneurs, coders and business people.



Photos thanks to Ernst Poulsen via Pinterest

Teams worked day and night until Sunday when a jury of established entrepreneurs selected the winning ideas. Among the winners were Edify which provides a student to student education, local platform GOKOKO re-connecting communities in hyperlocal contexts and Newsfix, a flat-rate subscription service for the news industry, like spotify for music or Netflix for movies. Read more about all 13 ideas here.

At Google we’re excited to see the outcomes of these amazing ideas. Well done to everyone who took part.

Posted by Christine Sørensen, Communications and Public Affairs Manager

How can digital media communicate critical sexual health messages? That’s the challenge undertaken by this year’s winner of the Google-supported One World Media Awards Digital Media Award winner, Jongo Love.



Jongo Love tells the stories of residents of Jongo, a fictional Nairobi slum, the complex relationships that they form and the family planning choices they make. Created by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs’ Tupange Project, and produced by Well Told Story, a Tupange partner and previous International Digital Emmy Award winner, Jongo Love has fast won fans among urban Kenyan radio listeners.

In addition to a radio show, the project includes a Facebook campaign, YouTube videos, comic books and a Twitter feed. The characters host online live chats to give listeners and viewers the chance to ask their own questions about sexual health and safety. As the show’s makers put it, “Ni hot, ni sexy, ni idialala...ni radio show ita-blow mind Yako!! Every week on Ghetto Radio, Pwani.FM, Radio Lake Victoria, Radio Umoja na many more!”

The award citation praises the show because it “entertains but also passes on crucial information to inspire people to think about the decisions they make around relationships, sex and their future.”

Google is an ongoing supporter of the One World Media Awards, which recognize and showcase the best media content from the developing world.

Posted by Jon Steinberg, External Relations Manager, EMEA

Children love the web. Parents want to make sure their children surf safely. Enter a new online platform launched yesterday - juki.

Juki combines a video community, interactive lessons, an encyclopedia, and an animation studio, all designed with child safety in mind. It invites children from eight to 12-years-old to explore and participate. They can watch videos contributed by other kids and create and upload their own videos. The animation studio allows children to create their own animated short films. Children learn how to safely navigate the web, how to be creative while still taking care of copyright, and enjoy interactive lessons with quiz and games.



Juki is the latest initiative supported by Google in Germany to promote child safety and positive content for kids on the web. We helped the child-friendly search-engine fragFINN since its 2007 launch.

The juki project is part of the German government’s initiative Ein Netz für Kinder (A Net for Children) and is supported by the Federal Ministry for Families and Youth and the Federal Ministry Culture and Media. Other partners include the German child welfare association DKHW, and voluntary self-regulation organisation`s FSF and FSM.

The new platform builds in strong safety controls. Parents get involved in the registration process and are required to activate the accounts for their kids. We hope this will encourage both parents and kids to discuss and share online activities, while exploring, creating and learning on the web.

Posted by Sabine Frank, Policy Counsel, Germany

The European Union Hackathon is back. For the third straight year, Google is supporting two days of serious fun in September for programmers to code an application that shines a light on an important policy issue. This year’s theme is privacy - and contestants are being asked to work on products that visualize government government access to citizens’ private communications online.

Entries are now being accepted via this online application unti June 15, 2013 at noon CET. Complete information about the event is available on this website. Help us spread the word to attract talented applicants, or apply yourself!



The hackathon will take place on September 24th-25th, with programming sessions held in the Google Brussels office. MEP Petru Luhan is hosting the event’s awards ceremony on WednesdaySeptember 25th from 16.15 to 18.00 at the European Parliament. European Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding is scheduled to join the ceremonies.

In addition to Google’s support, a broad network of civil society groups are working on the event. They include Access Now, the Center for Democracy & Technology, Digitale Gesellschaft, the European Digital Rights initiative, the Electronic Frontier Foundation , Google, the Net Users’ Rights Protection Association, the Open Knowledge Foundation, quintessenz, Transparency International, and visualizing.org.

EUHackathon participants will build data visualizations using data sets from network analysis, corporate transparency reports and Freedom of Information Act requests. Greater transparency and awareness are critical to ensuring government surveillance is only used when necessary and proportionate.

Selected applicants will have their travel and accommodation costs covered and the winner or winning team will be awarded EUR5,000, courtesy of our sponsors. Not to forget, there will also be free food and WiFi.

We look forward to seeing you in September.

Posted by Marco Pancini, Senior Policy Manager, Brussels

Computing’s early days are full of stories about great technical leaps forward.  But sometimes what matters most isn’t a shift in technology so much as a change in the way it is used.  The “Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator” (EDSAC)—64 years old today—is a stellar example.

Entry from log book marking the first day that EDSAC was in operation: “May 6th 1949.  Machine in operation for first time. Printed a table of squares (0-99), time for programme 2 mins, 35 sec. Four tanks of battery 1 in operation”. Reproduced with kind permission of Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge

EDSAC is noteworthy for marking the transition from “test to tool” in civilian computing.  Maurice Wilkes, EDSAC’s designer, sought to build a multi-purpose, reliable workhorse that would bring unrivalled calculating power to University of Cambridge researchers.  His aim wasn’t to be at the cutting edge of engineering; rather to be at the forefront of delivering a computer-powered general calculation service.  Above all else, Wilkes wanted EDSAC to be a practical computer, useful and accessible to a wide range of researchers.   

Short film celebrating the work of EDSAC’s team, led by Maurice Wilkes, produced by Google

In May 1949 EDSAC became the world’s first general purpose stored program computer to enter regular service, transforming scientific research at the University of Cambridge by making it possible to speedily tackle analyses of previously impractical scale, across disciplines as varied as astronomy, economics, biology and more.

But EDSAC’s legacy stretches far further. Subroutines—a central tenet of programming today—were invented by David Wheeler to make it easier to program EDSAC by re-using lines of existing code. The world’s first computer science diploma had EDSAC as its foundation. The world’s first business computer was built with EDSAC as a prototype.

Sadly, little remains physically of EDSAC today. That’s why a team of U.K. volunteers have embarked on an ambitious project to construct a working replica of the original EDSAC, in partnership with The National Museum of Computing. We’re delighted to support the EDSAC Rebuild Project, and we look forward to welcoming it back to regular service—as a reminder of the U.K.’s illustrious computing past.

Posted by Lynette Webb, Senior Manager, External Relations

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 founder 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

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