Google has been posting a bunch of “Google Ideas” discussions to YouTube this week. One that went live today discusses smartphones and their role in making law enforcement “smarter.”
It’s only seventeen minutes long, so it won’t take too much of your time.
“Commanders are isolated from their officers in the field, and civilian oversight is further removed still,” Google says in the description. “How can the recent spread of smartphones be used to bridge gaps in accountability and ultimately trust?”
Robert Muggah, Research Director at Igarape Institute and Vanessa Coimbra, Pacification Police Units, Military Police of Rio de Janeiro attempt to answer.
In its ongoing mission to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” Google has contributed to the creation of new project from the Comparative Constitutions Project called Constitute. This is a site that digitizes the world’s constitutions, and makes them searchable.
“Google Ideas seeds technology-driven initiatives by connecting users, experts and engineers around critical issues that people face in times of conflict, instability or repression,” Google explains. “We seek to reframe issues and work with partners ranging from technology companies to non-profits and academic institutions. With our partners we aim to build technology-based solutions that can drive positive impact at scale. Often these solutions are open-sourced to enable others to re-purpose them for new markets or different problems.”
The Comparative Constitutions Project aims to “investigate the sources and consequences of constitutional choices,” says its website.
On the Constitute site, users can browse constitutions by tagged topics, such as “Duty to serve in the military” or “Right to form political parties,” or by country. Things can get a lot more specific with search function.
There are 350 pre-tagged themes that can be browsed.
“The process of redesigning and drafting a new constitution can play a critical role in uniting a country, especially following periods of conflict and instability,” says Google Ideas product manager Sara “Scout” Sinclair Brody. “In the past, it’s been difficult to access and compare existing constitutional documents and language—which is critical to drafters—because the texts are locked up in libraries or on the hard drives of constitutional experts. Although the process of drafting constitutions has evolved from chisels and stone tablets to pens and modern computers, there has been little innovation in how their content is sourced and referenced. ”
“Our aim is to arm drafters with a better tool for constitution design and writing,” she says. “We also hope citizens will use Constitute to learn more about their own constitutions, and those of countries around the world.”
This could turn out to be a useful resource for years to come. According to Google, there are about five new constitutions written each year. 20-30 of them, Google says, are amended or revised each year.
A week earlier, and they could’ve launched on Constitution Day here in the U.S.
Google Ideas, Google’s initiative that “convenes unorthodox stakeholders, commissions research, and seeds initiatives to explore the role that technology can play in tackling some of the toughest human challenges,” is now taking on illicit networks.
There are many kinds of “illicit networks” operating around the world, most of which have devastating effects on those involved. Things like organ trafficking, sex trafficking, drug cartels, and forced labor rings generate and estimated $2.1 trillion a year, money that is a direct results from the victimization and brutalization of millions of victims.
Today, Google announced that they are partnering up with the Council on Foreign Relations and the Tribeca Film Festival to gather like-minded individuals and groups for the first ever INFO summit in L.A. “INFO” stands for Illicit Networks: Forces in Opposition.
Too often illicit networks are seen only in the silos of those who study them. This summit aims to break down those silos by bringing together a full-range of stakeholders, from survivors of organ trafficking, sex trafficking and forced labor to government officials, dozens of engineers, tech leaders and product managers from Google and beyond. Through the summit, which lasts until Wednesday, we hope to discover ways that technology can be used to expose and disrupt these networks as a whole—and to put some of these ideas into practice.
Check out this preview video of the event below:
Google launched Google Ideas about a year and a half ago, and up until now its main focus has been counter-radicalization. Last summer, Google held a summit for former gang members, religious extremists, and other radicals. The result of that summit was Against Violent Extremism, “a network of former violent extremists, survivors of violent extremism, NGOs, academics, think tanks, and private sector executives who share a common goal: to prevent youth from committing violence.”
You can track the summit as it happens on the INFO 2012 Youtube channel as well as the Google Ideas Twitter account.
In June 2011, Google Ideas hosted the Summit Against Violent Extremism that brought together a group of over 80 people who were former survivors and perpetrators of radical extremism ranging from gang members, right-wing extremists, 9/11 victims, and jihadists in order to plant the seeds of an effort to combat the global problem of violent extremism. Less than a year later, Google Ideas, in conjunction with several partners, the flowers from those seeds have bloomed as Google Ideas launched a new website dedicated to challenging extremism around the world. The site, Against Violent Extremism, hopes to be what Google Ideas Director Jared Cohen described as a “one-stop shop” for people attempting to take on the challenges of radicalism.
The group is focusing on how to initiate a dialogue with communities, how to prevent young people from being led astray by radical groups, and to de-radicalize those already involved in violent extremism. Google shared the following video that highlights some of the personal stories of AVE members:
Perhaps nobody else in the world can command a level of authority about how to approach and affect the problem of radical violence than former subscribers of radical violence themselves, making AVE all the more compelling of a mission.
The direction of AVE is to enable smaller, local organizations with vital resources necessary in the effort against extremism. Alternately, AVE also marks a novel approach to combating anti-extremism that is not reliant upon government support. Through AVE, groups will be able to get assistance with topics ranging from how to develop marketing campaigns, tips for running an efficient nonprofit, and several tools that will help groups take advantage of online resources.
Currently, AVE’s site has 20 projects currently underway with over 400 connections between members, including former radical militants and survivors of radicalism. Visitors to the site can explore the network of members via a Google Maps-style honeycomb of relationships. By clicking on individual members, you can see their profile, their relationship to radical violence, and the people they’re immediately connected with through AVE.
Ross Frenett, Google Idea’s project manager for AVE, explained the powerful mission of the new organization:
The network is founded on the belief that there are lessons to be learned between groups combating different forms of extremism, from Islamism to the white power movement. For instance, experience shows that the practical measures needed to help an individual leave these groups are similar. They will often require a new social support structure, a change in job, and alternative housing.
[…]
AVE aims to have 500 members of the network by the end of year one and over 1000 by the end of year two. The network already includes, amongst others, former members of the white power movement from the US and former Islamist extremists from Indonesia.
This summer, AVE will join the Illicit Networks: Forces in Opposition Summit in order to welcome activists, survivors, policymakers, and engineers to confer over the best ways in which they can efficiently disrupt the radical extremist networks around the world. Cohen summarized the goal of the summit, “We want to look not only at how technology has been part of the problem, but how it can be part of the solution by empowering those who are adversely affected by illicit networks.”
Burma (or the Republic of the Union of Myanmar) is opening up its doors to the rest of the world and allowing media to take part in chronicling this year’s by-elections. On April 1st, millions will vote, and YouTube has set up an elections channel to cover it.
On Sunday, April 1, millions of voters in Burma will cast a ballot in the parliamentary by-elections. This year, Burma is opening its doors to media and election observers alike to document the election proceedings in real-time. With support from Google Ideas, our friends at the J-School News Lab, a real-time reporting training program for Burmese journalists, will be curating a Burma Elections news channel on YouTube. Here, they will feature original reporting from J-School journalists on the ground, Burmese media outlets, and international broadcasters.
Google Ideas is Google’s “technology-oriented think/do tank” that deals with technology and its influence/purpose around the world. They back technological projects and research, and hope that these “technological developments our insights fuel will scale to help as many people as possible.”
For a long time, the inner-workings of the country were kept behind a wall, and information had a hard time reaching international ears. In 2011, as part of Burma’s democratic reforms, the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest. Her releases was also accompanied by a National Human rights Commission.
This is a key moment in Myanmar’s history and there are real opportunities for positive and meaningful developments to improve the human rights situation and deepen the transition to democracy. The new Government has taken a number of steps towards these ends. Yet, many serious human rights issues remain and they need to be addressed.
YouTube’s Burma Elections page is up and running, and is already populated with two dozen videos.
Google, along with partners, is holding a Summit Against Violent Extremism for three days of debates and workshops with former gang members, right-wing extremists, jihadists, and militants in Dubland. All of these people, Google says, have “rejected violence,” and currently work for groups recognized by governments and law enforcement, that fight extremism.
The project is part of Google Ideas, a think tank developed to “bring experts on global challenges from a variety of sectors, disciplines and experiences, together with people who have a deep understanding of technology.” It is being put on in partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations and the Tribeca Film Festival.
“Extremists have taken advantage of new Internet technologies to spread their message,”says Google Ideas Director Jared Cohen. “We believe technology also can become part of the solution, helping to engineer a turn away from violence.”
With more than 50 percent of the world’s population under the age of thirty and the vast majority of those characterized as “at risk” either socially, economically, or both, an oversupply exists of young people susceptible to recruitment by the extremist religious or ideological group closest to them in identity or proximity.
Approximately fifty former extremists are expected to participate in the Summit, along with more than 200 representatives from civil society organizations, academia, technology companies, victims’ and survivors groups, government, media, and the private sector. They represent a wide spectrum of voices and experiences coming from Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, the United States, and Europe, including Ireland. Victims of violence will also be represented.
Google Ideas tweeted out the following video about “The Formers” today:
Also attending the summit, are survivors of violent extremism and academics.
“Google Ideas seeks to bring the ideas of a wide range of thinkers to bear on the most vexing and intractable challenges of the 21st century,” says Cohen. “Some of these challenges are aligned with our core business and others with our philanthropic mission. Some are hugely important but few have been willing to tackle them because they are controversial. Given that technology has demonstrated it can be part of every problem, we want to make sure it is part of every solution. We hope to tackle the thorniest of issues. Challenges such as violent extremism.”
The summit lasts from today until 06-29. The ideas generated at the summit will be published in a study later this year, Google says. Below are some early tweets from Lindsay and Cohen from the Summit:
@JamesMLindsay James M. LindsaySession 1 of #AVE wraps up. Gill Hicks’ powerful/moving closing thought: living the consequences of violent extremism. No hate in my heart.4 hours ago via Twitter for iPad · powered by @socialditto
@JamesMLindsay James M. LindsayImam Ashafa of Interfatith Mediation Centre in Nigeria: fear of loss of identify powerful driver of radicalization. A common theme. #AVE.26 minutes ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto
While on the topic, why not watch our recent interview with government defense consultant Charles Dodd, who (among other things) talks about how terrorists use social media for recruiting:
Google will reportedly be launching a "global think tank" called Google Ideas at some point. This according to Fortune’s Seth Weintraub. To lead the initiative Google is reportedly hiring none other than Jared Cohen of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning staff.
Cohen is known for is role in last year’s Iran protests and Twitter’s relationship to them. From Wikipedia:
In the midst of the June 2009 post-election protests in Iran, Cohen reached out to Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and urged the company to reschedule its planned maintenance of the website so that Iranians could keep tweeting. Given that all other forms of communication had been blocked or shut down, Twitter was one of the only ways for people inside of Iran to get information to the outside world. It also became an important way for people around the world to join the protests by disseminating proxy and circumvention tools. When the New York Times broke the story, it came at a time when the Obama administration declared that there would be no meddling in Iran. Cohen’s involvement drew international interest not just because at the time it was the most robust action taken by the U.S. government in response to the protests, but also because Cohen had spent time in Iran and written about the possibility of technology being used for social upheaval in his book Children of Jihad.
"We’ve been told that Cohen is busy building a new entity for Google which is tentatively called Google Ideas," writes Weintraub. "Ideas is a global initiatives ‘think tank’ office inside of Google and will be run out of New York. Cohen will be working for Google full time by this fall. His job will be to spearhead initiatives to apply technology solutions to problems faced by the developing world."
Unsurprisingly, no commments on the subject have been offered by Google, but if this is true, and there doesn’t appear to be any reason to doubt it (as other sources informed Weintraub that Hilary Clinton is aware of Cohen’s impending departure), Google will no doubt have an announcement explaining its goals for Google Ideas in time.
