Introducing the 2009 class of Google Policy Fellows

Posted by Jen Marsh, Policy Analyst and Joe Sexton, Fellowship Coordinator

This summer promises to be an exciting time to work on Internet and technology policy issues, and we can't wait to see how our impressive 2009 Google Policy Fellowship class helps shape the debate. The students this year are bloggers, engineers, lawyers, journalists, activists, and web-entrepreneurs representing 14 universities in three countries.

Our host organizations selected the 14 fellows from a stunning applicant pool of over 600 students - that's twice as many applications as last year. If last summer's experience is any indication, the fellows will be out there blogging, meeting with policymakers, publishing papers, and much more. Be sure to look out for their work this summer on the host organizations' websites. Here's the full list of students and the host organizations where they'll be working this summer:

• Sarah T. Roberts, University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Library and Information Studies - American Library Association
  
Stuart Hargreaves, University of Toronto, Faculty of Law - Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC)

BJ Ard, Yale Law School - Center for Democracy and Technology
Kay Nguyen, Osgoode Hall Law School - The Citizen Lab
• Jonathan Hillel, Northwestern University Law School - Competitive Enterprise Institute
Aurelia J. Schultz, Vanderbilt University Law School - Creative Commons
• Marcel Leonardi, University of São Paulo, Faculty of Law - Electronic Frontier Foundation
Shane Wagman, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law - Future of Music Coalition
Vilay Senthep, Brown University - Internet Education Foundation
Bryan Utter, University of Missouri School of Law, Journalism - Media Access Project
Ergin Bayrak, University of Southern California - New America Foundation
Eric Beach, Cornell University, Johnson School of Business - Progress and Freedom Foundation
Brian Rowe, Seattle University School of Law - Public Knowledge
Ayla Bonfiglio, Columbia University - Technology Policy Institute

Congratulations to our fellows, and a hearty thanks to the hundreds of talented individuals who applied.

Introducing our European public policy blog

Posted by Bill Echikson, Senior Manager, Global Communications and Public Affairs

I'm happy to share the news that we recently launched our own continental spinoff of this blog -- the Google European Public Policy Blog. It's edited here in Brussels, the capital of the European Union, but it will draw on Google's public policy resources from across the entire continent.

Though we will continue to cross-post some news from across the Atlantic here on the Google Public Policy Blog, the European policy blog will be the best Google resource for European policymakers and other policy wonks.

Check out the welcome post from Simon Hampton and Susan Pointer, Google's Directors for European Public Policy and Government Affairs. And we hope you'll keep reading.

Google D.C. Talk Friday: A Conversation with Jeff Jarvis

Posted by Adam Kovacevich, Senior Manager, Global Communications and Public Affairs

For those of you in D.C., we hope you'll join us this Friday for our next Google D.C. Talk with author Jeff Jarvis.

In his new book What Would Google Do?, Jeff reverse-engineers Google to discern its core practices, strategies and attitudes. Among his recommendations: make mistakes well, manage abundance, trust the people, and be transparent.

Ultimately, the book isn't really about Google, though. It's a candid assessment of where today’s companies are failing as well as a survival guide for succeeding – in fields as diverse as automobiles, power plants, media companies, and health care.

Google's Bob Boorstin will be talking with Jeff about the book -- and Jeff will be taking questions from you too. We hope you can make it.

Google D.C. Talks presents

A Conversation with Jeff Jarvis, What Would Google Do?

Friday, April 3, 2009

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM ET

Google DC

1101 New York Avenue NW

2nd Floor

Entrance on Eye Street

Washington, DC

RSVP here

Citizen participation that scales: a call to action

Posted by Vic Gundotra, Vice President, Engineering

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

At Google we hold weekly town hall-style meetings with our founders, CEO, and guest speakers, which always feature a Q&A session. Managing Q&A is a unique challenge with an audience of thousands, in offices around the world, who inevitably want to ask more questions than we have time to answer. To help address this challenge, we developed Google Moderator, built on App Engine.

Moderator gives participants a way to submit questions and vote for the ones they want answered. And thanks to the scale that App Engine provides, this application can now support tens of thousands of people at once. This gives everyone the chance to be heard in a way that gives priority to the issues that matter most to the broader group.

As you may have heard, the White House is hosting an online town hall meeting on Thursday and has asked people to submit questions for the president and vote on which ones they think he should answer.

We think technology can be a force for greater accountability and access between citizens and their elected officials. We're excited that the White House has chosen to use the power of cloud-based applications like Google Moderator and App Engine to scale the president's direct dialogue with the American people.

To take part in this experiment in citizen participation, please visit: http://WhiteHouse.gov/OpenForQuestions