TQ, the new home for technology startups in the Netherlands, was officially opened today by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
TQ offers facilities including co-working rooms, offices for new startups, innovation labs, a web development school and a cafe that’s open to the public. Amsterdam entrepreneurs can expect a diversity of tech-related programming, networking and, given the location on the historic Bloemenmarkt, spectacular views of the city. Starting today, interested startups can apply to rent space in the building.
Global network
The goal of TQ is to strengthen the technological community at the city, national, and international levels. Dutch Googlers will offer mentoring to TQ entrepreneurs, who will also have access to programs like Google Demo Day, designed to attract capital investment in new businesses.
We’ve worked closely with TQ from its initial conception and are proud to welcome them into our Google for Entrepreneurs network. Google for Entrepreneurs brings together 40 tech hubs and tech campuses worldwide, including in London, Warsaw and Berlin. This gives the startups access to a strong network across 125 countries, increasing the potential impact for entrepreneurs. Being online is important, but sometimes personal contact and shared experiences can make all the difference.
Vibrant startup scene
Since Google itself started out in a garage, we know the value of encouraging entrepreneurship and strong community ecosystems. The arrival of TQ in Amsterdam is an important step in the development of Amsterdam's vibrant startup scene. There is now a place where the city’s startup community can join forces with startups throughout the Netherlands, where entrepreneurs can learn and connect, and where world-changing businesses can get their start.
TQ, the new home for technology startups in the Netherlands, a creation by The Next Web, was officially opened today by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
TQ offers facilities including co-working rooms, offices for new startups, innovation labs, a web development school and a cafe that’s open to the public. Amsterdam entrepreneurs can expect a diversity of tech-related programming, networking and, given the location on the historic Bloemenmarkt, spectacular views of the city. Starting today, interested startups can apply to rent space in the building.
Global network
The goal of TQ is to strengthen the technological community at the city, national, and international levels. Dutch Googlers will offer mentoring to TQ entrepreneurs, who will also have access to programs like Google Demo Day, designed to attract capital investment in new businesses.
We’ve worked closely with TQ from its initial conception and are proud to welcome them into our Google for Entrepreneurs network. Google for Entrepreneurs brings together 40 tech hubs and tech campuses worldwide, including in London, Warsaw and Berlin. This gives the startups access to a strong network across 125 countries, increasing the potential impact for entrepreneurs. Being online is important, but sometimes personal contact and shared experiences can make all the difference.
Vibrant startup scene
Since Google itself started out in a garage, we know the value of encouraging entrepreneurship and strong community ecosystems. The arrival of TQ in Amsterdam is an important step in the development of Amsterdam's vibrant startup scene. There is now a place where the city’s startup community can join forces with startups throughout the Netherlands, where entrepreneurs can learn and connect, and where world-changing businesses can get their start.
It's been one year since we launched the open source Accelerated Mobile Pages Project (AMP), our initiative to improve content-loading speed to benefit users, businesses, publishers, websites and the mobile web as a whole.
The Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) was founded five years ago with the goal of analyzing and understand the dynamic relationship between the Internet and our society.
To commemorate Vaclav Havel's life and work, Google Arts & Culture has partnered with the Václav Havel Library to present Tribute to Václav Havel, an online exhibition of photographs. This, along with three other existing digital collections, gives anyone the opportunity to learn more about this famous dissident, dramatist and freedom fighter.
Video affects us like no other medium. It can heighten our passions, stoke our fears, awaken us to new experiences and make our hearts ache. It can educate, build understanding and even change the way we see our world. In fact, over half of our millennial subscribers have said a YouTube creator has changed their life.
At a time when the internet is criticized for fueling division and distrust, we want to help demonstrate the incredible power YouTube has to generate a positive social impact. That’s why today, we’re introducing a new global program called YouTube Creators for Change, as well as new resources and grants dedicated to social change work.
YouTube Creators for Change is a new initiative dedicated to amplifying the voices of role models who are tackling difficult social issues with their channels. From combating hate speech, to countering xenophobia and extremism, to simply making the case for greater tolerance and empathy toward others, these creators are helping generate positive social change with their global fan bases.
We'll be introducing other ambassadors soon, and we will be sharing their stories — starting with Humza Arshad whose “Diary of a Badman” series is helping redefine what it means to be a young Muslim today in the U.K. Since video is such a powerful form of expression, watch and learn more about how Humza is using comedy to create change:
Over the next year, program ambassadors will drive greater awareness of social issues and foster productive dialogue around these topics through the videos they create. They’ll also help identify and empower emerging creators who also want to speak out on these crucial topics. To support and amplify these brave voices, we are committing $1M in equipment and production grants as part of the Creators for Change program. We’ll also welcome these creators at new programs at YouTube Spaces throughout the year, so stay tuned for more details soon.
Our efforts don’t stop here — we’ll also continue working with NGOs, schools, and media companies around the world to launch more local programs as part of Creators for Change. We recently introduced a program in France that brought together more than 700 participants who created 140 videos under the theme of fraternité. In Germany, YouTube creators joined forces under #NichtEgal, a movement dedicated to unite Germans in countering online hate.
We’re also pleased to announce that Google.org, our philanthropic arm, is establishing a $2M charitable fund to support nonprofits working on innovative solutions that promote inclusion and cross-cultural understanding.
We hope these new programs and resources will continue making YouTube a place where anyone can have a voice and where anyone can use the power of video to help generate positive social change.
Posted by Juniper Downs, Head of YouTube Public Policy
It’s a sunny afternoon on a school playground, and a class is having a science lesson. There are a few dozen children, some birdcages, a few sparrows...and an observation camera controlled by a nano-computer that the children are using to collect and share data with scientists.
This is XperiBIRD.be, an initiative of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. It will provide small modular computers to schoolchildren between the ages of 10 and 14 throughout Belgium. Pupils will learn to build and install simple Raspberry Pi computers and infrared cameras in birdcages, then use them to collect information and actively contribute to scientific research. Along the way, XperiBIRD.be will be giving the children an introduction to computer science and other STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.
STEM subjects are increasingly important for our economy — the number of technology-related jobs continues to grow. But these vacancies are proving difficult to fill, which is why we’re excited to support XperiBIRD.be in its entirety with a Google.org grant of over €650,000. Since it makes programming less abstract (and more fun), XperiBIRD.be is an ideal way to spark children’s interest in digital skills — an interest that might inspire them to become technologists and scientists. It’s one more way that we’re working to be a Growth Engine for digital skills, unlocking people’s digital potential through computer science programs.
Posted by Florian Maganza, Program Manager, Google.org
The world is facing the largest refugee crisis since World War II. Last September, we invited people around the world to help us in supporting organizations on the ground — with Google.org matching every dollar. Since that time, Google.org has committed more than $16.5 million to refugee relief efforts, focused on immediate humanitarian assistance, information and connectivity, and education.
The Clooney Foundation for Justice is teaming up with SABIS, a global education network that has already taught many refugee children in Lebanon. SABIS is taking its accredited teaching methodology and making it accessible to more refugees in Lebanon by setting up semi-permanent schools in areas with a high concentration of refugee children. This grant will support expanding their efforts to develop a new school model, using digital tools, for up to 10,000 out-of-school children in Lebanon. Through our employee volunteering program, we’ll also provide technical expertise to help with everything from connectivity to cloud storage by having Googlers helping both on the ground and remotely.
This grant builds on our work with organizations who also support refugees in Germany, France, Turkey and Greece with access to education and learning opportunities. Collectively, our efforts across humanitarian assistance, connectivity and access to information and education will help more than 1 million refugees.
Information and Connectivity
In October 2015, we granted NetHope $900,000, and our employees from around the world helped set up WiFi hotspots and charging kits at key transit points along the refugee route in Europe. So far, more than 300,000 refugees have been able to access NetHope’s WiFi to access vital information. Googlers also helped build the site RefugeeInfo.eu with the International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, and others. The site is now accessible in 18 locations in Greece, Italy, Germany, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia, and is being used more than 1,000 times a day.
We’re also working to help refugees in the United States get mobile connectivity by partnering with the International Rescue Committee to donate 1,000 Nexus devices and Project Fi wireless service to refugees in 24 cities across the country.
Education
In January, together with NetHope, we launched “Project Reconnect” — an effort to to equip German NGOs with 25,000 Chromebooks that help refugees learn more about local languages, resources, and job opportunities. To date, more than half of them have been delivered and used by nonprofits in Germany. Last year, we also gave a grant to Libraries without Borders to send their Ideas Boxes to create safe learning and playing spaces for children in refugee camps. These Ideas Boxes have been visited thousands of times in camps from Lesbos and Athens in Greece to the refugee camp of Grande Synthe in France and in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Discovering the resources of the Ideas Box in the Eleonas refugee camp, in Athens, Greece A White House call to action
In June, we signed on as a founding partner of the White House’s Private Sector Call to Action for Refugees, an effort by the administration to bring together a cross-section of businesses to help make significant commitments that will have a measurable impact on refugees both in the United States and around the world. We’re participating in the conversation at the White House Summit on Refugees today in New York, and will continue to build on our efforts.
You can learn more about grantees and their work at google.org/refugees, and you can donate directly on our site and via the White House’s AidRefugees.gov.
Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Director, Google.org https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ortc2qBz65s/V-CCwQEjH5I/AAAAAAAATA4/0hCOAPdRescymVIMl8Lf7bCM6qQPq_BcQCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-09-19%2Bat%2B5.28.26%2BPM.pngJacquelline FullerDirectorGoogle.org
