Official google.org Blog

Responding to Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar (Burma) and Earthquake in China

2008-05-16T16:46:00.000-07:00

Posted by Larry Brilliant, Executive Director, Google.org

We're extremely saddened by the loss of life in both Myanmar (Burma) and China. In the days since the cyclone in Myanmar (Burma), teams across Google have been working to contribute to relief efforts. For disaster relief responders on the ground, the Google Earth and Maps teams created Google Earth layers of storm track and flood analysis, storm cloud animation, and on-the-ground imagery. To increase awareness of how people can support relief, the Google Grants team highlighted grantees working in the region, and there is a public service announcement on Google's advertising content network.

To learn more about how to support disaster relief and recovery efforts, visit this microsite. To match funds generated by the site, we said we'd donate up to $1 million to disaster relief organizations. Our first round of grants, totaling $600,000, went through today via our donor advised fund at Tides Foundation to:

CARE
Doctors Without Borders
Friends of the World Food Program; Emergency Telecommunication Centers Project
Save the Children

Responding to the tragic earthquake in China, many teams at Google developed ways to help people get the most useful and current earthquake information. Examples include public service announcements on Google's Content Network, a targeted forum on Google-Tianya, a search product to help locate missing loved ones, and an earthquake situation map with real-time detailed information on the different geographies, travel and road conditions to/from the region, and the latest disaster relief news and donation channels and contacts. In addition, Googlers across the world have organized relief activities such as blood donation and cash drives. Google.org will donate more than $1.5 million to on-the-ground relief organizations. Finally, tens of thousands of dollars of employee donations to non-profits have been matched by Google's gift matching program.

To learn more about how to support disaster relief and recovery efforts in China, visit this microsite. You can also learn more through Google's China homepage and the Google China Blog.

Evaluating the Right to Information

2008-04-24T12:26:00.000-07:00

Posted by Salimah Samji, Program Manager, Google.org

People in developing countries often lack information that is critical for their well-being. For example, in India, the poor often do not know what they are entitled to and what services are available to them. I recently attended an international conference on the Right to Public Information at the Carter Center and learned that there are approximately 70 RTI (Right to Information) laws in the world. However surprisingly, little has been done to evaluate whether these laws are accomplishing their stated and unstated objectives.

Access to meaningful information is critical to Google.org's Inform and Empower initiative in India. To help us better understand how to make the Right to Information (RTI) more effective in India, we are delighted that Shekhar Singh who is an active member of the people's movement for the right to information has agreed to conduct a study of the use and implementation of the Act across various stakeholders in India (including public authorities, information commissions, media, judiciary, NGOs and corporate sector). The objective of this study is to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the Act, the constraints preventing effective implementation and the ways in which access to information affects people's lives.

By supporting this study, we hope to generate awareness about the Act, explore the possibility of creating tools for Information Commissioners and other government officials to better use the information, and systematize the way RTI requests could made publicly available online or through other channels. We want to help RTI achieve its full potential and hope that this study will be a first step in that direction.

An editorial in yesterday's The Indian Express highlighted the importance the RTI, and the effectiveness of its implementation.

A green collar economy

2008-04-21T23:34:00.000-07:00

Posted by Shannon Oliver, Associate, Google.org

In the spirit of Earth Day, I took a look at how the environmental movement can foster job growth. Here's what I found:

First, what exactly are green jobs and what can they do to spur the U.S. economy and stop climate change? Simply put, green jobs are jobs that are good for the environment, good for our planet, and pay a living wage. In a recent New York Times article entitled, Millions of Jobs of a Different Collar, the Sierra Club’s Carl Pope stated, “A green job has to do something useful for people, and it has to be helpful to, or at least not damaging to, the environment.”

Can the fight against global warming really create millions of these green jobs across America? With worry about the economy on the rise, it is certainly a hopeful scenario. A recent article in the Oakland Tribune suggests that experts envision just such a future: “If global warming is to be slowed, it will take wholesale change in how electricity is generated, how people travel and how they heat and cool their houses. That means installing hundreds of millions of solar panels, building thousands of wind farms and geothermal plants, engineering new ways to derive energy from renewable sources and weatherizing millions of homes. Green companies are rapidly hiring new workers and indications are they will continue.”

For those who want to dig a little deeper into the data, please check out my longer post on the potential number of jobs created by a cleaner, greener economy. And have a happy Earth Day!

New uses for Google Earth

2008-04-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

Posted by Christiaan Adams, Google Earth & Maps Specialist, Google.org

Google Earth is a great tool for exploring the world in ways never before possible. Many of the non-profits and other public-benefit organizations that we work with find it especially useful for showing people the remote places where they work and telling their stories in a very compelling way.

Have you ever looked at the amazing high-resolution images in Google Earth and wondered when the photo was taken? Well now you can stop wondering! Google Earth 4.3 was launched this week, and one of the many new features is the "imagery acquisition date."

Simply zoom in on and move your mouse cursor over the high-resolution imagery; the status bar will display the date when the imagery was acquired. This will be especially useful for organizations concerned about changes in the environment.

For anyone interested in learning more about Google Earth, its features, and how to make it useful, Nigel Woof of Map Action has written a great paper (1MB PDF) that you should check out. It looks at Google Earth's differences from and relationship with traditional Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software, and how it can be used in humanitarian relief and other public benefit work.

Information and the developing world

2008-04-11T13:16:00.000-07:00

Posted by Aleem Walji, Head of Global Development Initiatives, Google.org

Two members of our team recently attended an international conference at the Carter Center on the right to information (RTI). I must admit that I didn't have much knowledge in this area and didn't even realize that the US passed the Freedom of Information Act (FOAI) more than 40 years ago. Today, roughly 70 countries have adopted legislation that theoretically gives their citizens the right to ask for and receive from their governments information on any number of issues, including property records, tax files, and identity files.

This may sound rather vague and unimportant. But in some developing countries access to birth certificates can be critical in getting access to basic public services like immunizations, basic education, and land records (important as collateral when seeking loans). For the poor, this access is particularly important, but finding even simple records of identity can be much harder than you might imagine. The ability of bureaucrats to control access to what is "public" puts them in position to make all kinds of demands. For example, getting access to a birth certificate (technically a public record) can take months, involve dozens of steps, and include bribes at every stage. Without basic identify documents, the poor are often left without access to essential public services reserved for "official citizens".

Governments increasingly are putting public information online, even in the developing world. However, "online" doesn't always mean searchable or crawlable. In other words, you have to know where it is to find it. How would you even know where to look? Participants at the conference were captivated by the idea of making high value, high impact public records like land registries and identify documents available online in a format that is easy to search and find. Google's experience in digitizing books and making them available online was cited as the kind of effort that could be useful in helping give people in developing countries access to the public information they need. There is some work already happening at Google on making government records crawlable.

The possibility is exciting. Could poor rural people get access to birth certificates, death certificates or land titles one day through their mobile phones? It's worth thinking about. Even if they have to pay to access them, the cost of getting access to critical data at important times would more than pay for itself. As the penetration of mobile phones in rural areas has shown, people are willing to pay for access to tools and information that give them what they want when they need it most.

World Health Organization highlights climate change - health linkage

2008-04-07T08:41:00.000-07:00

Posted by Amy Luers, Program Manager, Google.org

The World Health Organization (WHO) has dedicated today, World Health Day 2008, to raising awareness of the health risks of global climate change. Health belongs in the climate change discussion, and we're glad WHO and its member countries are using today to bring the linkage to the forefront.

Climate’s effects on health are wide reaching. Climate affects the quality of air we breathe and the quantity and quality of water resources. It affects the productivity of agriculture, distribution of pests and disease, and the severity and frequency of heatwaves, droughts, floods, and wildfires. As a result, climate change is not just an environmental issue but fundamentally a human health and livelihoods issue.

We are already experiencing the impacts of climate change across the globe. In fact, a WHO report concluded the climate changes since the mid-1970s may have caused about 150,000 deaths in 2000. The impacts of climate change are disproportionately felt in the poorest regions of the world.

Change in WHO estimated mortality per year (per million people) attributable to climate change by the year 2000. This map is based on WHO data for climate-sensitive health outcomes including: cardiovascular diseases, diarrhea, malaria, inland and coastal flooding, and malnutrition. Learn more about the link of climate and health.

If global emissions of heat-trapping gases continue, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that global temperatures could rise as much as 4°C more by the end of the century with an associated rise in risks to human health.

The global community is just beginning to understand the impact that continued climate change is likely to have on the distribution of infectious diseases. Check out the post by our mapping specialists where they describe the Google Earth layers they developed with scientists researching the affects climate may have on dengue and malaria transmission. You can also download these Google Earth layers here.

While some climate change impacts on public health and the environment are now unavoidable due to our past emissions of greenhouse gases, the severity of the impacts will depend on actions we take today to both reduce future emissions and prepare for the changes ahead. At Google.org we are working to reduce greenhouse gas emission by developing utility-scale renewable energy cheaper than coal and accelerating the commercialization of plug-in vehicles through the RechargeIT initiative, while the Predict and Prevent initiative team is working to help prepare the world's poor to manage the rising number emerging infectious diseases in our rapidly changing world.

Global warming heats up infectious diseases

2008-04-07T08:32:00.000-07:00

Posted by Christiaan Adams, Google Earth & Maps Specialist, Google.org, and France Lamy, Program Manager, Google.org

With the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Health Day 2008 drawing attention to climate change and health today, we wanted to show you some cool animated Google Earth layers that illustrate how infectious diseases may spread as the earth warms. Warmer climates make good habitats for mosquitoes. Many diseases, such as dengue fever and malaria, are spread by mosquitoes. As the planet continues to get warmer due to greenhouse gas emissions, these diseases are projected to spread and add to the other burdens of climate change, especially in the developing world.

The Google Earth (KML) file linked below will show you projections for the changes in transmission of dengue fever around the globe and of malaria in Africa and specifically Zimbabwe. These layers were created in collaboration with a number of scientists whose studies provided the data, including Simon Hales, Frank Tanser and Kris Ebi. There's also a layer that shows the estimated deaths related to climate change in the year 2000.

To view the layers, download this KML file and open it in Google Earth on your computer. If you do not have the latest version of Google Earth (4.2) installed, you can download it here.

To see the animations, turn on one layer at a time in the Places panel on the left, by clicking the round button next to the layer name. Once the layer is on, you can play the animation by clicking the play arrow on the right side of the time slider (at the top of the screen).

Clicking the "start here" links or layer names will get you to more information and instructions. Be sure to look at all the layers to see how our warming climate will affect health in ways you might not have expected.

Public Heath Heroes

2008-04-03T17:12:00.000-07:00

Posted by Kataneh Sarvian, Coordinator, Google.org

Last night the University of California, Berkeley hosted the 12th Annual Public Health Heroes Awards Ceremony in San Francisco. The goal of the Public Health Heroes honor is to broaden awareness and understanding of the public health field by recognizing individuals and organizations for their contributions to promoting and protecting the health of the human population. Past recipients include our own Dr. Larry Brilliant. Dr. Mark Smolinski, Predict and Prevent Initiative Director, started off the night by handing the first award to Nancy Aossey, who accepted the award on behalf of the International Medical Corps.

International Medical Corps (IMC) is a global, humanitarian, nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and relief and development programs. Mark expressed gratitude to IMC for sharing their wisdom and advice while we were creating InSTEDD (Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases, and Disasters) in the early days of Google.org. The other heroes recognized were Donald P. Francis, for his leadership in the eradication of smallpox, the discovery of HIV, and the control of Ebola hemorrhagic fever; David A. Kessler, for his leadership and courage in challenging the U.S. tobacco industry; and Barbara Staggers for her leadership in promoting adolescent health, particularly among high-risk, urban, and minority youth.

A big thanks and congratulations to this year's dedicated and courageous heroes!

Happy Birthday Google Grants!

2008-04-02T10:31:00.000-07:00

Posted by Katy Bacon, Google.org Team

This week, Google Grants marks its fifth year. The program currently supports more than 4,000 grantees and to date has provided approximately $273.3 million in free AdWords advertising. You can learn more about the history of the program on the recently launched Google Grants Blog.

Aspen Institute Award honors CalCars, Google.org grantee

2008-03-28T11:19:00.000-07:00

Posted by Kirsten Olsen, Program Manager, Google.org

CalCars just received the Aspen Institute's First Annual Energy and Environment Award for its prominent role in promoting PHEVs and the electrification of transportation. The inaugural award is meant to celebrate success and provoke conversations about ways to emulate and expand upon the success stories honored. We are thrilled about this honor for CalCars and not the least bit surprised that their contribution to the field of plug-ins has been recognized by such a prestigious organization. CalCars founder Felix Kramer has been instrumental in evangelizing about the benefits of plug-ins and strategically influencing key decision makers about their potential to dramatically reduce carbon emissions. There is no doubt that CalCars has already made history with their role in promoting this technology and we are proud to be a supporter of the organization.

Congratulations to Felix and the CalCars team!

The Race is on to Develop Ultra Fuel-Efficient Cars

2008-03-26T22:12:00.000-07:00

Posted Niki Fenwick, Google.org

With the price of gas topping $3.75 this week here in California, drivers will be pleased to learn about the official launch of the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE. This is an international competition (with a $10 million purse) designed to inspire a new generation of viable, super fuel-efficient vehicles. Teams are already busy designing, building and working to bring to market 100 MPGe vehicles that people want to buy, and that meet market needs for price, size, capability, safety and performance – and, most importantly, are clean. NBC showcased some concept carsin their Today Show coverage of the competition and the announcement even garnered a shout-out from car enthusiast Jay Leno.

aids2031 Young Leaders Summit

2008-03-24T17:43:00.000-07:00

Posted by Bennet Marks, Google.org volunteer

Google.org recently hosted the aids2031 Young Leaders Summit at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, CA. More than 40 leaders in the fight against HIV/AIDS, most of them between 20 and 40 years of age, traveled to the conference from over 15 nations, including South Africa, Rwanda, Norway, the United Kingdom, China, Thailand, Bolivia, Argentina, the U.S., and Mexico.

aids2031 is a consortium of partners - including doctors, economists, epidemiologists, and biomedical, social, and political scientists - who have joined together to explore what we've learned from the fight against HIV/AIDS during the first quarter-century of the epidemic, and to come up with options and plans for changing the course of the epidemic over the next quarter-century.

According to latest estimates, about 33 million people are living with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), which causes AIDS. The disease has already killed about 25 million people. Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit especially hard, but the disease is spreading rapidly in other regions. AIDS doesn't only have calamitous effects on the health of individuals, but wreaks havoc on the economic and social stability of the countries affected. For more detailed information, see UNAIDS' 2007 AIDS Epidemic Update.

Some of the many topics discussed at the conference included:

Using modern technology, including the 3.3 billion mobile phones currently in use, to educate young people about AIDS prevention and treatment, and involve them in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Identifying and mentoring young leaders in the fight against AIDS, and promoting intergenerational dialogue among AIDS activists.
Creating a Global Health & Development Corps, modeled on the Peace Corps and similar groups, that can organize and support young volunteers to go wherever they are needed to work on local health issues.

Many of the conference participants will be reuniting in August in Mexico City at the XVII International AIDS Conference. We are proud to have supported this convening as a critical part of aids2031 and its efforts to engage young leaders in the prevention of global health threats.

California's ZEV Program

2008-03-20T23:34:00.000-07:00

Posted by Adam Borelli, Team Coordinator, Google.org

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is considering changes to the Zero Emission Vehicle Program (also commonly known as the "ZEV Mandate") on March 27th at its Board meeting in Sacramento. This is big deal.

The ZEV Program, in short, is a regulation that requires major automakers to produce a certain number of ZEVseach model year in order to do business in California. Some of the credits may be met with vehicles that are not pure ZEVs, such as hybrids and plug-in hybrids that include some advanced, low polluting components. The ZEV Program does not treat all vehicles equally; it gives fuel cell vehicles the most credits, then pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, followed by a host of advanced vehicles like hybrids. The ultimate objective is to improve California air quality.

Google.org has been talking with Board Members, staff, and stakeholder groups to understand their perspectives on the proposed changes to the regulations. After meeting with them, we decided there are five recommendations relating to the proposed changes that we will submit to the Air Resources Board. Our hope is that when approved and implemented, the ZEV Program will accelerate innovation and reduce air pollution by getting large numbers of vehicles into consumers’ hands and on the road.

1. Strengthen the newly proposed "enhanced AT PZEV" category to require a minimum capability to drive in pure electric mode for 25 miles to accommodate the commuting range of a majority of drivers and make the vehicles more useful, profitable, and marketable

2. Require automakers produce at least 10,000 electric or fuel cell vehicles total from 2012 to 2014, not the proposed 2,500 vehicles.

3. Do not allow the electric and fuel cell vehicles sold in other states to count towards the credits for the California requirement; placing vehicles in other states will not result in the necessary net improvements in California air quality.

4. Maintain the credit sunset for less efficient, lower power hybrids; the current proposal asks to extend these credits indefinitely.

5. Do not increase the credits for Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (low speed vehicles similar to electric golf carts); they are not driven like full-function vehicles that are the focus of the ZEV Program.

To learn more about CARB, the ZEV mandate, and what you can do, check out a more detailed post on our new RechargeIT blog.

Introducing the RechargeIT Blog

2008-03-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

Posted by the RechargeIT Team

Power on! Not that we have anything against the sound of exhaust streaming out of a tailpipe, but electrified transportation is, simply, cool and better for our health, the environment, and energy security. Google.org's RechargeIT initiative is launching a blog. This blog will cover an array of plug-in topics, including vehicle technology, battery technology, RechargeIT's projects and data, policy, interviews, and interesting snippets from newspaper articles and current events. Some posts will be very technical, others less so, and some not technical at all. The one binding characteristic is that we hope all posts will be interesting.

We would like to encourage you all to sign up for our discussion list here. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on our posts and the ideas they provoke. We will be signed up to the discussion list and can answer questions you have about our blog posts, but the discussion list is mainly for you to discuss the posts further.

Not familiar with RechargeIT?
The RechargeIT initiative is a project of Google.org in which we converted four Toyota Priuses and two Ford Escape hybrids to plug-in cars using the Hymotion-A123 system. We use these vehicles as a test fleet and track their data to better understand their capabilities (we will discuss the particular data in a future post). We also issued a $10 million RFP for plug-in and component technologies, engage in policy debates as with the ZEV Mandate (we will discuss this in a future post too!), we fund promising nonprofits and researchers to continue their important work, and work with the stakeholders to better understand this space and help them in any way we can.

Two Steps to the Left

2008-03-19T14:35:00.000-07:00

Posted by Joanne Stevens, Associate, Google.org

Undeterred by Atlanta's recent bout of bad weather, 2500 delegates from around the globe arrived on Sunday to participate in the sixth International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases. Practitioners and researchers representing the fields of human health, epidemiology, veterinary medicine, ecosystem science and more, convened to discuss the drivers of emerging infectious diseases and strategies to improve our capacity to detect and respond to threats.

Dr. Larry Brilliant, Google.org's executive director, delivered a plenary address to a packed auditorium on Monday morning. His speech described novel techniques within surveillance and modeling that might allow us to shift our interventions "two steps to the left" of where we are today.

Dr. Brilliant spoke about the use of Internet and mobile technology to improve our digital detection of diseases. He highlighted HealthMap as an example of an organization that is using online data sources to produce a global disease alert map. Dr. Brilliant also noted the importance of using new technologies for genetic detection. We know, for example, that over two-thirds of all new emerging diseases are of animal origin. By collecting and analyzing samples at the human/animal interface, we can begin to discover new viruses and study how they are able to jump species. He also discussed vulnerability mapping, a means to identify hot spots at increased risk. By integrating data on landscape, ecosystem dynamics, climate, and demographics we might be able to identify areas of the world where diseases are most likely to emerge, allowing for more targeted surveillance and preparedness activities.

Through our very own Predict and Prevent initiative, Google.org hopes to work with the public health community to move toward developing and adopting these more proactive approaches.

Google for Non-Profits goes live!

2008-03-18T14:27:00.000-07:00

Posted by
Chris Busselle Google.org

Earlier today, we launched Google for Non-Profits, a website tailored to the needs of non-profits where people can learn about products that will help make their important work just a little bit easier.

Check out our site and blog post for more info.

Google 101 for Development NGOs

2008-03-11T15:03:00.000-07:00

Posted by John Lyman, Associate, Google.org

Last month, Google and Google.org gathered a group of development NGOs together in Washington D.C. to discuss and learn about new technology tools. Because non-profits' budgets are tight and available funds usually go towards mission-related programs, many organizations don't prioritize technology. Google's goal was to highlight free or cheap technologies that NGOs can use and let NGOs share experiences on how they have effectively used various technologies.

There were a few lessons learned:

There's a huge hunger in the non-profit sector for more help in this area. Even hands-on sessions for an hour can make a real difference.
Although technology tools are getting easier to use, many NGOs need an initial, gentle push into taking advantage of them.
Development NGOs, like other NGOs or businesses, have different technology needs based on size, mission, and budget. There is no one-size-fits-all model that works for them.

More details of the event are available on the Official Google Blog and videos of the sessions are available on Google.org's YouTube channel.

Google.org Calls on U.S. Congress to Support Renewable Energy

2008-03-05T10:02:00.000-08:00

Posted by Michael Terrell, Program Manager, Google.org

Yesterday Google.org, along with representatives from the business and venture capital community, called on the U.S. Congress and the Bush Administration to work together to quickly approve extensions of the Production Tax Credit (PTC) and Investment Tax Credit (ITC). The PTC and the ITC are tax incentives designed to spur the market for renewable energy and are critical to financing a new renewable energy generation. The credits are currently scheduled to expire on December 31, 2008.

Speaking at a news conference at the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference, Dan Reicher, Google.org's Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives, said: “We are at the dawn of a green energy revolution that could fundamentally reshape the way the world generates energy. It is critical that we get the policy right in order to drive investment in clean energy and push these technologies out of the lab and into the mainstream. Policy makers can make or break this revolution."

The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), TechNet and the National Venture Capital Association sponsored the press conference which also included representatives of GE Energy Financial Services, Credit Suisse, and the venture capital firm Nth Power.

In a recent ACORE letter to Congress, over 350 industry leaders warned that a failure by Congress to immediately pass ITC/PTC extensions could jeopardize U.S. job creation and over 42,000 MW of planned renewable energy projects currently in development in 45 states. (That’s an amount equivalent to 75 base load electricity generation stations and enough to power 16 million homes.)

Investing in the "Missing Middle"

2008-02-19T08:34:00.000-08:00

Posted by John Lyman, Associate, Google.org

Today Google.org, along with the Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF) and the Omidyar Network, announced they are collaborating to create a $17 million enterprise investment company in India. The company is expected to provide capital to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and by doing so, help create jobs.

In many developing countries, large businesses use formal, bank-based credit and capital markets for their financing needs, while households and micro-entrepreneurs have access to micro-loans. SMEs are often stuck in the middle without reliable access to either, and they are largely absent from the formal economies of many of these countries.

The investment company is designed to help address this "missing middle." Most existing SME funds make investments in the $3-$5 million range in India, which leaves out a significant portion of the market. This new company, in contrast, will target equity opportunities between $500,000 and $3.5 million. The company is also expected to work closely with the Base of the Pyramid Lab at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad in order to leverage the school's SME experience.

During a recent trip to India, our Google.org SME team visited a number of businesses and financial organizations and saw firsthand that there is a "missing middle". We hope this investment company will help start to fill it in.

For more detail on our initiative to fuel the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises, watch this:

Update: We'd like to alert you to two job postings envisioned for the investment advisory company described below. The proposed Managing Director would oversee the growth of an expected portfolio of 10-15 investments, with representatives from the investors. Assisting would be an Investments Director who will help with analyzing prospective investments and preparing evaluations and reports. Both positions are planned for Hyderabad, India for Spring 2008, and require a strong understanding of rural Indian business opportunities and investment fundamentals. To apply, qualified applicants may send a cover letter and resume or C.V. to resumes@IndiaSMEs.com.

From Bellagio to Bangkok and beyond!

2008-02-13T12:59:00.000-08:00

Posted by Corrie Conrad, Associate, Google.org Predict and Prevent Initiative

This past December, the Rockefeller Foundation hosted a gathering of 23 leading experts and representatives of networks on infectious disease surveillance from around the world. Acting in their personal capacities at this meeting in Bellagio, Italy, the group agreed on a Call To Action to advance global capacity for public health surveillance.

Terry Taylor, Director of the Global Health and Security Initiative (one of the Predict and Prevent initiative's initial grantees), announced the Call to Action at the Prince Mahidol Award Conference in Bangkok, Thailand. Over 300 players in global public health—including WHO officials, diplomats, donors, and Ministers of Health—were at the conference (with Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn!).

The group committed themselves to address coordination and resource concerns for infectious disease surveillance by:

Strengthening national capacity and regional networks through electronic means and joint public-private projects.
Connecting regional networks into a global cooperative activity.
Encouraging collaboration of the human, animal and agricultural sectors for a holistic approach to infectious disease surveillance.
Promoting the development of national capacities and regional networks.

Such commitments will help countries meet their obligations under the World Health Organization’s new International Health Regulations, which came into place last June and require committed countries to improve public health security by strengthening disease surveillance and response systems. Since it is international law, enforcement of the IHR will depend upon the political will of each country.

From Bellagio to Bangkok and beyond, we’ve heard the call to action and are excited to get involved. Others ready to respond with additional expertise, resources and commitment are invited to email globalhealthandsecurity@nti.org to join the effort.

Google.org at World Economic Forum, Davos

2008-01-30T16:40:00.000-08:00

Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Head of Advocacy and Communications, Google.org

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Larry Brilliant held a spirited Conversation on Climate Change and Google.org which was moderated by Tom Friedman. During the question and answer session, audience members Al Gore and Van Jones spoke on the need for a strategic persuasion campaign and green collar jobs. You can view both videos here:

Introducing our initiatives

2008-01-17T08:04:00.000-08:00

Posted by Dr. Larry Brilliant, Executive Director, Google.org

Today Google.org announced five initiatives that we will focus on in the coming years. Predict and Prevent will seek to identify hot spots and enable rapid response to emerging threats, beginning in the area of infectious diseases. The other two efforts, Fuel the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Inform and Empower to Improve Public Services focus on building jobs and improving the delivery of basic services, such as education and clean water, in the developing world.

These efforts join our climate change-related initiatives announced in 2007: to Develop Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal (RE-C) and Accelerate the Commercialization of Plug-In Vehicles (RechargeIT).

There is so much good work to be done around the world, we've had to make some tough choices about our strategy and our focus. We spent more than a year building a diverse team, researching, and learning from others in the field. With Google's skills in information and technology in mind, we looked for areas where we could make the biggest potential impact by helping find scalable solutions. We are relative newcomers to these efforts and are enormously grateful for the guidance we've received from experienced partners as we've considered where we could best lean our shoulder against these global challenges side by side with local communities and the broader philanthropic community.

And now it is time to dive deep! Please visit the initiative pages for more specific information about the approaches we're taking.

Entrepreneurs pitch their businesses

2008-01-16T15:56:00.000-08:00

Posted by Rachel Payne, Program Manager, Google.org

Last fall, a dozen Google employees served as lecturers, one-on-one consultants, and business plan evaluators for entrepreneurs participating in the Believe Begin Become business plan competition in Tanzania and Ghana. They were very impressed by the participants and winners, and they recognized that entrepreneurs in developing countries rarely get the chance to directly interact with investors to get the funding and support they need for their businesses. Together with TechnoServe, and using FlipVideo cameras, the volunteers filmed the entrepreneurs. Our video production team helped us quickly assemble the videos that now appear on the recently launched Believe Begin Become TechnoServe Channel on You Tube.

On the channel, you will find an inspiring group of entrepreneurs talking about the opportunities and challenges they face running their businesses. In Tanzania, the enterprises that we work with range from selling carbon credits to rebuilding a local high school and running a radio station -- businesses that you will have the opportunity to view firsthand on the channel. Perhaps you will be as inspired as we are. People who want to do more to support these small and medium-sized (SME) businesses in Africa and elsewhere, can contribute directly from the You Tube Channel by using the Google Checkout payment option. We hope that sharing these stories will raise awareness of SMEs, provide firsthand accounts of the experiences of entrepreneurs in Africa, and create a direct channel for helping these businesses grow and thrive.

Googleplex struck by the Volt!

2007-12-18T13:41:00.000-08:00

Posted by Adam Borelli, Team Coordinator, Google.org

Google.org's RechargeIT initiative welcomed the Chevy Volt concept-car to our Mountain View campus yesterday. The Chevy Volt is a plug-in extended-range electric vehicle that operates on a combination of gasoline (biodiesel, E85, and gasoline fuels) and electricity. Its large lithium-ion battery pack allows it to run only on electricity for up to 40 miles. Since 78% of U.S. commuters drive 40 miles or less from work, charging overnight can provide enough energy for most daily commutes. On longer trips, the car uses its combustion engine as a "range extender" but GM still expects it to get about 150 miles per gallon. According to GM, the Volt is expected to save drivers 570 gallons (or $1368 per year, electricity included) in fuel cost.

Googlers were invited to check out the Volt and ask GM representatives questions about the vehicle as part an effort to showcase different green technologies and educate employees about their potential benefits. Many major auto-makers are exploring the production of plug-ins in the coming years, and we look forward to checking out other models on our campus as they become available. However, we also hope to see commitments to a schedule of production from the auto-makers so that cars like the Volt will be more than just displays on our campus. Plug-in vehicles are an important solution for reducing emissions produced by the transportation sector. Of course, by reducing emissions, we reduce our dependence on oil. We are happy to see auto-makers working to make this solution a reality.

Putting the Bali roadmap in context

2007-12-17T08:25:00.000-08:00

Posted by Michael Terrell, Team Member, Google.org

It came down to the 11th hour, and then dragged on for an extra day -- but after two weeks of negotiations, delegates at the UN climate change conference in Bali settled on a plan for reaching a new international agreement to fight climate change. The Bali action plan provides a roadmap for negotiating an expanded and strengthened international emissions reduction pact by the end of 2009.

The deal leaves many contentious issues unresolved. It does not include any explicit emissions reductions goals or targets; in fact the scientific recommendations on the emissions reductions needed to halt climate change are relegated to a footnote. The plan simply lays out a process to negotiate the emissions targets to succeed the limits set by Kyoto Protocol, which expire in 2012. It also provides a platform to begin talks to address growing concerns about adaption, deforestation and facilitating transfer of clean technologies to developing countries.

At the outset of this conference, we noted that the scale and complexity of the climate crisis demands collective action by the world's governments. The Bali roadmap, while leaving much to be desired, represents an important step in this process. All the parties are still at the table and are now committed to spending the next two years crafting a more comprehensive global solution to fighting climate change. Many were hopeful that the outcome of the U.S. Presidential election in 2008 will help breathe new life into this process, regardless of whether the President-elect is a Republican or Democrat.

But given how difficult it was to reach an agreement in Bali and how acrimonious the negotiations were, the rest of us can't afford to wait for the world to negotiate a new climate agreement. We need to take action now. Fortunately, many people around the world are doing just that. The numerous panels and side events at Bali were filled with examples of concrete actions people are taking now to build a cleaner future. We wrote on how the world's local governments are launching their own initiatives to fight global warming and how others are working to ensure that any solutions take into account equity and justice considerations. Another hot topic of conversation here was the growing efforts of many companies to reduce their carbon footprints and take a leadership role in promoting smart energy policies.

The flurry of activity among all of these groups is encouraging. The result at Bali and the tough road ahead suggests that the international treaty process will not be sufficient to confront this challenge with the speed and scope with which it demands, at least in the short term. To stop climate change, we all must take responsibility and act, whether by making choices to reduce our personal carbon footprint, engaging with family and friends in our communities, or elevating the climate crisis to the top of the political agenda. For the Google.org team, it means a renewed commitment to putting our own resources to work.