The online world is at its best when it includes everyone. Currently, three billion of the world's seven billion people are connected to the internet; by 2020 it'll be five billion. If women aren't included as equal partners in this internet revolution, we all stand to lose. That's why this week, we teamed up with Debating Europe to host a Women & Tech event in Brussels with EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Věra Jourová, Google Europe’s President Matt Brittin, and wired women from around the world to highlight the impact of tech on women and of women on tech.

Women are still vastly underrepresented in the tech sector. We only make up only 30% of the workforce in the ICT sector, and 19% of digital entrepreneurs -- compared to over 30% in other sectors. This disparity begins in education, where we have a lower participation rate worldwide in science, technology maths and engineering subjects.
Jourová set the tone, noting that we shouldn’t just talk about change, but make it happen. She told us about the vital work the European Commission is doing in this area, for instance by contributing to the Girls in ICT project. But there’s still a lot of work on the same basic point: we need to increase the number of women working in tech.

To solve a problem, you need data. Google's aim is to organise the world's information, and one of our speakers, Lucy Hurst, had plenty to share. She co-authored The Economist Intelligence Unit's report on the gender gap, which showed that in some countries inequality between men and women is getting worse.

Next, you need enthusiasm, and a will to change. One of the most inspiring speakers we heard from was Hayla Ghazal -- a Dubai-based YouTube star who was recently made a UN Change Ambassador. She mentioned that in one of her videos -- which offer a light-hearted look at everything from pre-exam panic to satirical differences between Arab and Western mothers -- she talked about her love of reading. Soon after, parents were thanking her for encouraging their daughters to read.

She also told us about the importance of having a diverse range of female role models worldwide; about how women can discover economic and educational opportunities online; and that everyone benefits when women around the world are connected, educated, and able to use their capabilities to the full.
From Google, we invited Yvonne Agyei, our Vice President of People Operations.We know the most exciting ideas come from unexplored places: that's why with hiring, we extend our reach beyond traditional universities, helping us discover the talent of underrepresented groups, including women. We also invest in partnerships across the continent to get young people excited about computer science, like Lero’s Summer Computing Camp for Girls in Ireland.

We’re pleased with the results, even though there’s clearly more to do. So far, 37% of Campus London community members are female, and 33% of our Madrid members are female. Our Campus Directors in London and Madrid - Sarah Drinkwater and Sofia Benjumea - are doing an amazing job in supporting greater diversity in local start-up communities. Of all the startups that make up our Campus community, 40% have a woman in the ‘founder’ team.

All of this fits in with our wider goal of training 2 million Europeans in digital skills -- in fact, 43% of participants in our digital workshops, so far, are women. They include Romanian folk blouse retailers and a cat grooming service in The Netherlands.

There's a lot to be optimistic about, but there's a great deal of work to be done as well. Great companies rely on great people -- and if women aren’t included, half the talent pool is absent. We want more stories like Mame Khary Diene, and her start-up BioEssence, more YouTubers like Hayla and her friends sharing their excitement about gender equality, and more coding workshops for girls like the ones run by Cheryl D. Miller of the Digital Leadership Institute. We look forward to training hundreds of thousands of girls and women in digital skills over the next few years.

Posted by: Sara Elnusairi, Public Affairs Manager Google Brussels

We released the Android operating system in 2007.  A free and open-source operating system, supported by numerous hardware partners, the model was unlike any other that had come before it.  The first device didn’t foretell Android’s future success.  It was described as “quirky” …. having “a kind of charming, retro-future look; like a gadget in a 1970's sci-fi movie set in the year 2038.”  But we (and the thousands of other companies working on Android devices and apps) kept at it. Since that time, Android has emerged as an engine for mobile software and hardware innovation.  It has empowered hundreds of manufacturers to build great phones, tablets, and other devices. And it has let developers of all sizes easily reach huge audiences.  The result?  Users enjoy extraordinary choices of apps and devices at ever-lower prices.   The European Commission has been investigating our approach, and today issued a Statement of Objections, raising questions about its impact on competition. We take these concerns seriously, but we also believe that our business model keeps manufacturers’ costs low and their flexibility high, while giving consumers unprecedented control of their mobile devices.  That’s how we designed the model:   

• Our partner agreements are entirely voluntary -- anyone can use Android without Google. Try it—you can download the entire operating system for free, modify it how you want, and build a phone. And major companies like Amazon do just that.  
• Manufacturers who want to participate in the Android ecosystem commit to test and certify that their devices will support Android apps. Without this system, apps wouldn’t work from one Android device to the next.  Imagine how frustrating it would be if an app you downloaded on one Android phone didn’t also work on your replacement Android phone from the same manufacturer.  
• Any manufacturer can then choose to load the suite of Google apps to their device and freely add other apps as well.  For example, phones today come loaded with scores of pre-installed apps (from Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Google, mobile carriers, and more).
• Of course while Android is free for manufacturers to use, it’s costly to develop, improve, keep secure, and defend against patent suits.  We provide Android for free, and offset our costs through the revenue we generate on our Google apps and services we distribute via Android.
• And it’s simple and easy for users to personalize their devices and download apps on their own -- including apps that directly compete with ours.  The popularity of apps like Spotify, WhatsApp, Angry Birds, Instagram, Snapchat and many more show how easy it is for consumers to use new apps they like. Over 50 billion apps have been downloaded on Android.

Our partner agreements have helped foster a remarkable -- and, importantly, sustainable -- ecosystem, based on open-source software and open innovation. We look forward to working with the European Commission to demonstrate the careful way we’ve designed the Android model in a way that’s good for competition and for consumers.
Posted by Kent Walker, Senior Vice President & General Counsel

At Google we know that collaboration has been key to ensuring that our products and services offer families a safe and secure experience online, which is why we regularly work with NGOs, government and industry partners to empower parents and children with the tools and skills they need to make the most of the Internet. In previous years, we’ve held events bringing together NGOs from around Europe to discuss these important issues and explore opportunities for better partnership.  This year, we are hosting our third Child Safety Summit in collaboration with Facebook. On April 14-15 in Dublin NGOs from 18 countries in Europe, Middle East and Africa  will join us to exchange best practices, discuss how we all can better protect children online, and work together to ensure that we anticipate and respond to the ever-changing needs that children have on the web. Since Google believes deeply in technology’s ability to unlock creativity, we work hard to ensure that parents and children have the tools and knowledge they need to make smart and responsible choices on online. Google’s work falls into three distinct areas, all of which will be addressed at this year’s summit: product and feature launches that help ensure we provide offer families a safe and secure experience online, commitment and investment in the fight against child sexual abuse and exploitation online, and partnerships with NGOs on digital literacy in order to help build an informed and responsible generation of digital citizens.
Our ongoing partnerships with NGOs respond to local challenges and aim to have a lasting impact.

• In the UK, we have launched Internet Legends, an interactive, in-school assembly for 8-11 year olds. In partnership with Parentzone, we are aiming to educate 10,000 primary school children from 40 schools across the country on online safety. Using the powerful and memorable Internet Legends code, we are working together to empower children with the tools they need to stay safe and act responsibly online.
• In Spain, we partnered with FAD to launch an interactive game to promote safe and responsible use of the Internet by teens. The game focuses on building skills and fostering deeper understanding around privacy, security, copyright and best practices for safe & responsible behavior online. 12,000 Spanish students have participated so far, and we held an initial awards ceremony in the European Parliament to celebrate winners.
• In France, we worked alongside e-Enfance and YouTube creators Rose Carpet to launch a campaign, #NonAuHarcèlement. The initial video was filmed in our YouTube Space in Paris and aims to facilitate a movement for teens to unite against online bullying and harassment.
• In Italy, we launched a web safety and digital empowerment campaign with Altroconsumo, the largest consumer association in the country. Love the internet, safely offers practical, educational material to encourage users to create stronger passwords, enable features like Google SafeSearch, and take the Google Privacy Checkup.

We believe that companies like Google have a responsibility to not only ensure that our products and services offer the safest and most secure experiences possible, but that we also work alongside a wide range of stakeholders and industry partners to creatively and effectively raise awareness and offer support on these important issues.

Posted by Brittany Smith, Online Safety Lead, Public Policy, EMEA

It’s an unfortunate truth that five million French residents are both economically disadvantaged and lack the skills needed to find work and access information in today’s digital world. At Google.org we see everyday how new technologies can transform lives and generate new opportunities for people. That’s why we support projects around the globe that leverage technology to address social challenges--and why this week we’re supporting a new initiative in France with Emmaüs to meet these increasing needs. Some time ago, a small entrepreneurial team within the large and historic NGO Emmaüs came to us with an idea, and we were inspired by their vision. They asked us: ‘What if we could help a million French citizens to find jobs and gain crucial skills needed in a digital world?’ This week, with a €1M Google.org grant and technical expertise from Google volunteers, Emmanaus is launching WeTechCare. This social startup will teach the basics of looking for a job online and help people to access social benefits on the web with an ambitious goal of supporting one million French citizens by 2020.
Two key platforms supporting the WeTechCare mission will be launched in the coming months. The first, called “Clic’n’Job” will coach young unemployed people through the process of finding a job. The second, called “Les Bons Clics” will help people lacking basic digital skills to access government social rights and benefits which will soon, in France, will be exclusively accessible online--a significant barrier to entry.

WeTechCare is committed to making sure everyone can participate in and benefit from the digital future and the team at Google France and Google.org look forward working with them on this ambitious new project. From startups to enterprises, creators to underserved communities, Google continues to work towards ensuring that the opportunities of the Internet benefit everyone in society and towards our goal of training Europeans in digital skills.
Posted by Florian Maganza, Google.org

Last spring we kicked off our Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities with an open call to global nonprofits building transformative technologies for the billion people around the world with disabilities. In the past year, we’ve been amazed by the innovative ideas submitted by over 1,000+ organisations spanning 88 countries. Throughout this work, the Google.org team has had the opportunity to meet some incredible people who are working hard to create a world that works for everyone.
Through this Impact Challenge, we committed $20 Million in Google.org grants. We’ve shared a handful of the organisations we’re supporting already—and today we’re excited to share the full list of 30 winners. From employment to education, communication to mobility, each of our grantees is pushing innovation for people with disabilities forward. The organisations we’re supporting all have big ideas for how technology can help create new solutions and each of their ideas has the potential to scale. Each organisation has also committed to open sourcing their technology—which helps encourage and speed up innovation in a sector that has historically been siloed.Meet some of our incredible grantees, from among the 12 EMEA winners, below. You can learn more about all 30 organisations working to improve mobility, communication, and independence for people living with disabilities at g.co/disabilities.
For more than half of wheelchair users, postural support devices (PSDs) are necessary to ensure their health and safety, while also making it easier for them to get around. In developing countries, low-income individuals in need of a wheelchair often don't have access to PSDs, which can severely impact their health and lead to a less independent lifestyle. With a $866,813 grant from Google.org, British organisation Motivation is using 3D printing to test designs for customizable PSDs—sharing designs that perform well with other service providers through an an open database.
The ProPortion Foundation, based in The Netherlands, is working with a $1 million grant from Google.org to expand the development and distribution of Majicast, a fully automated, easy-to-use device that produces high-quality prosthetic sockets in developing countries where access to prosthetics can be an enormous challenge.
Despite efforts to rate the accessibility of the world’s public places, barriers in data collection have made it difficult to map, making planning even the simplest of outings a challenge for people with disabilities. With a $939,262 grant, Germany’s Wheelmap, a project of Sozialhelden, is developing the common standards and technology backend needed to bring this data together and make it available for use by the many apps and websites that help people with disabilities route, plan, and enjoy exploring the world.
The range of accessibility challenges people face around the world make it nearly impossible to build cost-effective, customized solutions for each one—meaning many go unaddressed. With $700,000 from Google.org, Israeli organisation Beit Issie Shapiro is partnering with TOM to empower a growing army of makers to help their communities. Their “Makeathon-in-a-box” is a template for community Makeathons that bring makers and people with disabilities together to prototype new solutions for “orphan” accessibility challenges. 
In Sub-Saharan Africa, it’s estimated that 85-95% of people with disabilities who need assistive technology do not have access to it--largely because they don’t know of its existence. With a $717,728 grant from Google.org, the Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled (SAFOD) is working with with the University of Washington and AfriNEAD to establish AT-Info-Map, a system that will map the location and availability of assistive technology in Sub-Saharan Africa—providing critical information and increasing access to life-changing technology.
With a mission that is to make the world’s information accessible to everyone, accessibility is something we care deeply about at Google. The Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities set out to accelerate the use of technology to create meaningful change in the lives of the one billion people in the world with a disability. We’re eager to watch as all of the fund’s grantees, selected from over 1,000 submissions from around the world, build new solutions that will transform lives and make the world more accessible for all.

Posted by Brigitte Hoyer Gosselink, Google Impact Challenge Disabilities Project Lead for Google.org

Bruegel the Elder's vibrant, detailed paintings are instantly recognisable, and attract visitors to museums worldwide. But Bruegel fans have to travel, because the pictures can’t: his centuries-old oil paintings on wooden panels are fragile. Now, however, at the initiative of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels, and together with eight major museums around the world, we’ve blended art, virtual reality and our newest technologies to create the Bruegel / Unseen Masterpieces project.

The project brings together a wealth of previously unexplored material online, an exhibition in Brussels, and fascinating new details for audiences worldwide to discover:



Since we started the Google Cultural Institute five years ago, Bruegel has been a star amongst the millions of artefacts available. The lively scenes of everything from rural life to the book of revelation contain many details invisible to the naked eye, which is why you see crowds leaning in towards his paintings in museums. We’re thrilled to be part of a international, collaborative effort with some of the world’s top museums, showing these artworks together, in unprecedented detail, for the first time.


Many of these works haven’t travelled for over 100 years. This collaboration was an opportunity to work with museums from Budapest to New York including galleries in Berlin, London and Copenhagen. Working with them to create ultra-high resolution gigapixel images of their Bruegel paintings has effectively created a new, online gallery dedicated to the Flemish master.

On top of that, when Bruegel died in 1569, he left countless playful, almost-hidden scenes in his works. Every composition depicts a whole host of characters - some familiar, others new - and narrative vignettes that provide a fascinating footnote to history. Think of them as masterpieces within a masterpiece. From today, you can explore them in just a few clicks, with a personal art historian guide by your side.

Expert curators from the participating museums have created 19 online exhibitions exploring Bruegel's life and work, which are available to all on the Google Cultural Institute website. It's a new way to experience them -- through their computer or smartphone, users are transported to a Flemish wedding feast, a skating party, or a harvest festival five centuries ago.

Users can also be plunged into a 360-degree virtual reality universe. Google Cardboard is an affordable virtual reality viewer made of cardboard. For the project, we developed a virtual reality experience, where the Bruegel's Fall of the Rebel Angels comes to life and where viewers can step into the world of its creatures. It's also available on the YouTube channel and mobile application of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.



Together with the Royal Museums of Fine Arts, this project is also an experiment to explore how modern technology can supercharge the museum experience. The virtual exhibitions can be viewed through special terminals, and the museum is also hosting the immersive Bruegel Box. With state of the art projectors, gigapixel renderings of three iconic Bruegel images, and support from energy company Engie, one room of the museum has been transformed. Spectators walk in to find themselves literally in the picture, shoulder-to-shoulder with villagers, preachers and mystical creatures.

The cutting-edge technology we've used in the Bruegel / Unseen Masterpieces / project means our partner museums can share the Flemish master's paintings worldwide. While there's no substitute for seeing the original, with works as old and fragile as these, moving them is not an option. Digital technology offers new solutions to tackle this. It preserves this irreplaceable heritage, provides a new way of seeing the works and give everyone access to culture. The works in the Bruegel Box are physically on display in Brussels, Berlin and Budapest: we're proud to be a part of showing them in one place, in a new way. We’re absolutely delighted that they’re also online, available to view everywhere, at any time -- and we hope you'll enjoy them too.

Posted by: Pierre Caessa, program manager at Google Cultural Institute

For the fifth consecutive year, as a part of our commitment to supporting innovative journalism both in Europe and around the world, Google is proud to support the 2016 Data Journalism Awards. The deadline is fast approaching for the only global awards recognising work that brings together data, visualisation and storytelling to produce some of the most innovative journalism out in the world today. Past winners of the €1,000 prizes include the New York Times, ProPublica, The Guardian and Argentina’s La Nación. 2016 hopefuls don’t have long: the deadline for the 2016 Awards is April 10, 2016 at midnight GMT.

• Data visualisation of the year
• Investigation of the year
• News data app of the year
• Data journalism website of the year
• Best individual portfolio
• Best use of data in a breaking news story
• Open data award
• General excellence (jurors’ choice and public choice).

The competition is organised by the Global Editors Network: a cross-platform community of editors-in-chief and media innovators committed to high-quality journalism, with the support of Google and the Knight Foundation. For Google, the Data Journalism Awards offer another way for foster innovation through partnership with the news industry, in addition to our efforts through the Digital News Initiative and the work of the Google News Lab teams around the world. Data journalists, editors and publishers are encouraged to submit their work for consideration by joining the GEN community via this form by 10 April at midnight GMT. A jury of peers from the publishing community, including new jury members Wolfgang Blau from Condé Nast International and Kenneth Cukier from The Economist, will choose the winners, which will be announced during a gala dinner at the Global Editors Network Summit in Vienna on June 16. We wish you all the best of luck!


Posted by Simon Rogers, Data Editor, News Lab at Google and Director of the Data Journalism Awards

One normally doesn't think about small business when it comes to Luxembourg. Yet, SMEs in this country contribute with an overwhelming majority to the economy. Still, despite digital growth in the region there are a host of smaller, home-grown companies which haven’t taken advantage of the opportunities offered online. Although 93% of the population uses the internet -- one of the highest rates in Europe -- just 7% of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) market their products online. Over the past year, Google has partnered with local organizations all over Europe to create courses and train more than one million people, especially entrepreneurs, in digital skills. This week we showcased our latest project in Luxembourg at an event with Prime Minister Xavier Bettel. "The digital revolution is an opportunity if we seize it, and a catastrophe if we let it pass," he told an audience of business owners, IT professionals and civil servants. "We have to be present online -- if you're not, someone else will take that place." Luxembourg's shoppers aren't shy about going online. As Thierry Geerts, Google's Country Director for Belgium and Luxembourg explained at the event, they frequently search for goods and services online. But, out of 100 search queries, only 13% of links led to companies in Luxembourg -- meaning 87% of those opportunities are going to businesses elsewhere. With e-commerce one of the few sectors consistently growing, that's something Luxembourg's SMEs simply can't afford. Mr. Bettel and his colleagues understand that. Digital Luxembourg is a project launched by the government to provide training specially targeted for SMEs, and Luxembourg's Chamber of Commerce set up a training programme together with a number of banking associations known as House of Training. Google is proud to collaborate with House of Training on the Digital Workshop, offering a range of free courses which combine online and offline aspects of building and promoting a business in the digital age. Letzebuergisch entrepreneurs can up their game with seminars, including "Getting your business online," "International exporting" and "How to attract visitors to your website." At the conference, entrepreneurs were inspired by local success stories. Flibco.lu will be familiar to many in Brussels -- they provide coach transport from major cities to out-of-town airports like Charleroi and Frankfurt-Hahn. The cheapest and easiest way to book them? Online. Guests also heard from Luxcaddy.lu, which sells local product and specialities, and Abitare.lu which delivers stylish furniture all over the Grand Duchy. "We have to be prepared for the jobs of tomorrow, and give young people appropriate training," Mr. Bettel told delegates. When it comes to the business of online commerce, "we are standing on the platform, but we need to get on the train," he concluded. Hopefully, it will be full speed ahead for SMEs with Digital Luxembourg -- especially with free training courses for essential digital skills.

This week at the European Parliament, together with the European Disability Forum and our host MEP Evelyne Gebhardt, we explored the many ways that technology can assist people with disabilities to live more independently. European nonprofit innovators from France, Germany, Austria and the UK presented their inspiring projects and wowed the audience. At Google we believe technology can enable independence for people with disabilities. Launched in May of last year, the Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities is putting $20 million in Google.org grants behind nonprofits using emerging technologies to realize that potential, and we were proud to spotlight four of their projects in the EU capital. We hope their work will spark continued innovation for people with disabilities. Here are a few examples of the European projects that attended the event: