Friday, June 24, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] Applauding the 2011 Knight News Challenge winners

Posted: 23 Jun 2011 03:09 PM PDT

Google Public Policy Blog: Applauding the 2011 Knight News Challenge winners

Posted by Jim Gerber, Director, Strategic Partnerships, News

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog and the Google News Blog.)

Over the past few months, we've announced $5 million in grants to be distributed by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the International Press Institute—two non-profit organizations developing new approaches to journalism in the digital age—and we're pleased to congratulate the first initiatives that have been selected as part of that funding.

Today at M.I.T., the Knight Foundation showcased 16 projects selected as the winners of the 2011 Knight News Challenge. Now in its fifth year, this media-innovation contest included $1 million in support from Google. As you'll see in the full list of winners, these initiatives come from organizations large and small and are reminders that entrepreneurship can be sparked anywhere. Here are just a few examples of the creative ways the journalism community around the world is merging traditional skills with an online landscape:
  • At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, OpenBlock Rural will use its seed money to work with local governments and community newspapers across the state to collect, aggregate and publish data.
  • In Virginia, the Miller Center Foundation's State Decoded will serve as a platform to display state codes, court decisions and information from legislative tracking services to make government more understandable to the average citizen.
  • The Chicago Tribune will collaborate with the Investigative Editors & Reporters organization and The Spokesman-Review on a set of open-source, web-based tools that make it easier for journalists to use and analyze data.
  • Liverpool, U.K.-based ScraperWiki will bring its experiences with public data to journalism camps in 12 U.S. states.
  • Chile's El Mostrador will develop an editorial and crowdsourced database to bring greater transparency to potential conflicts of interest.
  • Ushahidi will build off its past crisis efforts to improve information-verification across email, Twitter, web feeds and text messages.
Other winning proposals tell rich multimedia stories, bridge the gap between traditional and citizen media and further improve the utility of data to journalists. Our sister program in partnership with the International Press Institute is also well underway. The entries in that competition are now in and the winners will be announced later this summer. We look forward to seeing the impacts these initiatives have on digital journalism and hope they encourage continued experimentation and innovation at the grassroots level.
URL: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2011/06/applauding-2011-knight-news-challenge.html

[G] A great moment for the free flow of information

Posted: 23 Jun 2011 03:09 PM PDT

Google Public Policy Blog: A great moment for the free flow of information

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

International organizations are stepping up in defense of protecting and advancing the free flow of information online.

A high-level United Nations representative has issued a clarion call promoting freedom of expression. In a report released earlier this month in Geneva, the UN's Special Rapporteur Frank La Rue argued that restricting the flow of information via Internet blackouts violates human rights.

For the developing world, the UN's Special Rapporteur sees access to the Internet as a crucial tool for fighting back inequality and spurring economic growth. The Special Rapporteur argues that governments should strive "to make the Internet widely available, accessible and affordable to all." At the same time, he urges resistance to attempts by powerful governments to block Internet access.

In the developed world, the UN report opposes "three strikes" Internet laws, which are designed by governments to discourage Internet file-sharers. For instance, France and the United Kingdom are trying to employ new laws that would allow authorities to get users' Internet unplugged permanently for illegal downloads.

We look forward to approval of the report by the United Nations General Assembly when it meets in September.

The report is already generating positive momentum in Europe and elsewhere. A group of UK Parliamentarians have put forward a motion demanding that the government review its website blocking plans.

The UN Special Rapporteur also has joined with representatives from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Organization of American States, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights to issue a ringing joint declaration in defense of free expression on the Internet. The declaration sets out several important principles, including:
  • Freedom of expression applies to the Internet, as it does to all means of communication. Any restrictions are acceptable only in the rarest of occasions when prescribed by law and if in compliance with international standards.
  • Internet service providers that provide the platform for free expression cannot be held liable for illegal or harmful content generated by third parties.
  • Mandatory blocking of websites or IP addresses represents an extreme measure, analogous to the prohibition of a newspaper, radio, or television station.
  • The "single publication rule" should be respected. It holds that damages can be recovered only once for any single piece of content.
Mr. La Rue toured Europe recently to build support for his report. When he visited The Hague, the Dutch government offered strong support and announced plans to host a global Ministerial Conference on online Freedom of Expression in the Netherlands in the fall. So watch this space for updates on the battle to keep the Internet open for a free and open exchange of ideas and opinions.
URL: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2011/06/great-moment-for-free-flow-of.html

[G] New Google Analytics: Improvements in Mobile Reporting

Posted: 23 Jun 2011 01:11 PM PDT

Google Analytics Blog: New Google Analytics: Improvements in Mobile Reporting

This is part of our series of posts highlighting the new Google Analytics. The new version of Google Analytics is currently available in beta to all Analytics users. And follow Google Analytics on Twitter for the latest updates. This week, we'll discuss some recent improvements to mobile reporting in Google Analytics.

Internet traffic from mobile devices is growing rapidly with smartphones and tablets expected to outsell computers this year. Google Analytics already provides a number of ways to track this growing mobile Internet usage from standard tracking on smartphones to SDKs for embedding Google Analytics into applications in iOS and Android. We're hard at work at delivering more.

Today you'll see small first step along our path to improve mobile reporting inside Google Analytics: a new Mobile section in Visitors reporting.

Inside the Mobile section you'll find two new reports. The first is a Mobile Overview report, which shows the simple breakdown between mobile traffic and non-mobile traffic.

The second report is the Devices report, which provides information about the various mobile devices that visit your site. As part of this report, we've added three new dimensions: Mobile Device Info, Mobile Device Branding, and Mobile Input Selector. Data for all these dimensions is available starting from June 6, 2011.

Mobile Device Info is the actual hardware that visited your site. One of the nice benefits of this report is you can quickly see a picture of any device. While you've probably seen an iPhone in person and have an idea about how your site will look on one, that might not be the case for less common devices like for example, the Nokia E63. Click the camera icon next to any device to see pictures of it.


Mobile Device Branding lets you see the brand associated with the phone. Depending on the device this might be the manufacturer or the carrier. Mobile Input Selector shows the primary input method for the device, whether it's a touch screen, a clickwheel (like you'll find on a Blackberry), or even a stylus.

And if you haven't tried out the improvements to map overlay reports that we talked about last week, give them a try in the Mobile reports to visualize where your mobile traffic is coming from.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Google Analytics Team


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/tRaA/~3/zedjeyncfFA/new-google-analytics-improvements-in_23.html

[G] School’s out for summer, but still open on YouTube

Posted: 23 Jun 2011 10:04 AM PDT

YouTube Blog: School's out for summer, but still open on YouTube

Summer is a time for teachers to get some well-deserved R&R, but it's also an opportunity to develop new methods for the coming school year. One of our YouTube EDU partners, Teaching Channel, shares advice on how teachers can stay busy this summer on YouTube.



June brings dreams of lazy summer days, vacations and the old "no more pencils, no more books." But with the changes in education today, summer's less of a languorous break and more of a brief pause from the pressures of teaching. Year round learning, adjustments to new teaching guidelines and the constant race to keep up with requirements often mean that educators are more likely to be looking for professional development than singing " School's Out For Summer."



To support teachers' professional growth, Teaching Channel captures great teaching on video – sharing knowledge with anyone looking to improve learning for students. On our YouTube channel, you can see everything from using rhythm in teaching reading to explaining the beauty of haikus with fruit. Many of the lessons are aligned with the new Common Core standards being adopted by many states for implementation in the coming school year.







If you have a great idea for a video, know a teacher we should check out or just want to discover some great ideas, subscribe and post feedback in our channel comments. You can also come by and see us at the NEA (June 30-July 1) or AFT (July 13) conferences. Because guess what — we're too busy to take a summer vacation this year, and school's always open on YouTube.



 Guest to The Official YouTube Blog Candice Meyers, Teaching Channel Head of Product Development, recently watched, "Is 'Teach' a Big Word?"


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/T1J9RCm4xTQ/schools-out-for-summer-but-still-open.html

[G] Automatic mobile rendering for Google Sites

Posted: 23 Jun 2011 09:01 AM PDT

Docs Blog: Automatic mobile rendering for Google Sites

As the dramatic growth of the mobile web changes the way people consume content, it's becoming increasingly important for publishers to provide a good mobile experience. With this in mind, we just added automatic mobile rendering in Google Sites for iOS 3.0+ and Android 2.2+ devices, and a mobile version of the Google Sites lists.

By going to General settings under More actions > Manage site and clicking on Automatically adjust site for mobile phones, your Google site will be automatically adjusted whenever it's viewed from an iOS or Android 2.2+ device:

BeforeAfter

The most noticeable automatic adjustments include:
  • Aligning the header layout and top bar
  • Fitting the width of the site to match the device's width
  • Smart handling of sidebars, horizontal navigation, and dropdown links
After you've enabled this feature, you can preview the page from your computer as a mobile viewer using More actions > Preview as viewer (Mobile).

You can also choose to hide some of the links in your site's footer to save vertical space.


It's also important for you to be able to access and search your own sites on the go, which is why we've also added mobile versions of the site list, sites search, and browse sites categories.


Just navigate to http://sites.google.com from any iOS 3.0+ or Android 2.2+ device for quick access to your sites.

As more people unplug from their desks and interact with content on the go, new doors are opening for everyone. We hope these tools will empower you to meet the challenges of publishing in a mobile world using Google Sites.

Posted by: Luciano Cheng, Software Engineer
URL: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2011/06/automatic-mobile-rendering-for-google.html
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