listEntries({"version":"1.0","encoding":"UTF-8","feed":{"xmlns":"http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom","xmlns$openSearch":"http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/","xmlns$georss":"http://www.georss.org/georss","id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-11-20T15:42:26.825-08:00"},"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Official google.org Blog"},"subtitle":{"type":"html","$t":""},"link":[{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://blog.google.org/feeds/posts/default"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default?alt\u003djson-in-script"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/"},{"rel":"hub","href":"http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/"},{"rel":"next","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default?alt\u003djson-in-script\u0026start-index\u003d26\u0026max-results\u003d25"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"A Googler"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"}}],"generator":{"version":"7.00","uri":"http://www.blogger.com","$t":"Blogger"},"openSearch$totalResults":{"$t":"131"},"openSearch$startIndex":{"$t":"1"},"openSearch$itemsPerPage":{"$t":"25"},"entry":[{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-6931362740533640124"},"published":{"$t":"2009-11-20T13:02:00.001-08:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-11-20T15:42:26.835-08:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Green"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Energy R\u0026D funding from \"Lightbulbs to Lightbulbs\""},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-size:85%;\"\u003e\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-family: Arial;\"\u003e\u003ci\u003e(Condensed Remarks from the \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.cleantechopen.com/app.cgi/content/home/index\" id\u003d\"hppa\" title\u003d\"2009 California Cleantech Open\"\u003e2009 California Cleantech Open\u003c/a\u003e)\u003c/i\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e \u003c/span\u003e \u003c/span\u003e \u003cp class\u003d\"MsoNormal\" style\u003d\"font-family: Arial;\"\u003e\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-family: georgia;\"\u003eThere are still power plants operating today that Thomas Edison could have seen with his own eyes. If he were to tour our electrical grid, he would recognize that too. As former Secretary of State George Shultz says, in energy \"the past must not be prologue.\"  Can we reinvent our energy system in only ten years?  I think we can -- but we need to have a clear mission, we need to aim high, and we need substantial and sustained R\u0026amp;D funding.\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-family: georgia;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp class\u003d\"MsoNormal\" style\u003d\"font-family: Arial;\"\u003e\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-family: georgia;\"\u003eThis funding, coupled with tax incentives, loan guarantees, and other market mechanisms, is needed to drive innovation across the entire R\u0026amp;D pipeline -- from research, to development, to demonstration, to deployment, to full-scale commercialization. At Google we like to say, “from lightbulbs to lightbulbs\" -- from the initial idea to real products. However you phrase it, investment is needed across that entire pipeline, especially from the government in the early stages where the energy industry often does not invest the large amounts needed to generate technological breakthroughs.\u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-family: georgia;\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp class\u003d\"MsoNormal\" style\u003d\"font-family: Arial;\"\u003e\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-family: georgia;\"\u003eSince 1980 U.S. federal investment in energy R\u0026amp;D has dropped by 58 percent. Back then, 10 percent of the total government R\u0026amp;D investment was in energy. Today, the percentage has shrunk to only two percent. Recent signs in Washington are definitely positive.  Earlier this year, President Obama added over $5.7 billion in 2-year stimulus funding for energy research, development, and demonstration.  But this isn't enough, and it's not sustained. We're still on a 2-lane innovation road, not a superhighway -- and the road we're currently on is headed for a big cliff.  Unless something changes, we're going to lose this significant funding after next year. \u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-family: georgia;\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp class\u003d\"MsoNormal\" style\u003d\"font-family: Arial;\"\u003e\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-family: georgia;\"\u003ePresident Obama has called for $150 billion over 10 years for energy R\u0026amp;D.  Some experts go even further -- Professors Dan Kammen and Gregory Nemet at UC Berkeley propose that annual energy R\u0026amp;D levels on the order of $30 billion will be necessary to address the climate challenge. And I was delighted to see recently that ARPA-E -- the new Department of Energy agency chartered to fund breakthrough ideas -- has made its first set of grants of $151 million for 37 projects.  This is a great start, but it is only a start.  We all need do our part to help convince our leaders in Washington to follow up on this down payment with substantial and sustained investment.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Bill Weihl, Green Energy Czar\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-6931362740533640124?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/6931362740533640124"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/6931362740533640124"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/11/energy-r-funding-from-lightbulbs-to.html","title":"Energy R\u0026D funding from \"Lightbulbs to Lightbulbs\""}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Niki Fenwick"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/13881152948934232359"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"01841543334805306329"}}]},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-564868812144764085"},"published":{"$t":"2009-11-10T09:46:00.000-08:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-11-10T09:52:38.527-08:00"},"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Finding flu vaccine information in one easy place"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-size:85%;\"\u003e(cross-posted from the \u003ca href\u003d\"http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/finding-flu-vaccine-information-in-one.html\"\u003eOfficial Google Blog\u003c/a\u003e)\u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eThis year, it's especially important to have clear information on what you can do to prepare for the flu season. With this in mind, we are happy to share a new feature for the U.S. which allows you to more easily find locations near you for getting both the seasonal and H1N1 flu vaccine. After \u003ca href\u003d\"http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/google-flu-trends-expands-to-16.html\"\u003eexpanding\u003c/a\u003e \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.org/flutrends/\"\u003eGoogle Flu Trends\u003c/a\u003e to a total of 20 countries and 38 languages, allowing more people to see near real-time estimates of flu activity, we began brainstorming with the \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.hhs.gov/\"\u003eU.S. Department for Health and Human Services\u003c/a\u003e (HHS), their flu.gov collaborators and the American Lung Association on the flu shot finder and other ways Google can be helpful to people this flu season.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eYou can check out the flu shot finder at \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.com/flushot\"\u003ewww.google.com/flushot\u003c/a\u003e. The same tool will also be available shortly on \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.flu.gov/\"\u003ewww.flu.gov\u003c/a\u003e and the \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.flucliniclocator.org/\"\u003eAmerican Lung Association\u003c/a\u003e websites. It's important to note that this project is just beginning and we have not yet received information about flu shot clinics for many locations. In addition, many locations that are shown are currently out of stock. We launched this service now in order to help disseminate information about locations where vaccines are available, and also to make more vaccine providers aware of the project so that they can contribute.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003ca onblur\u003d\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href\u003d\"http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/SvmoDa2muMI/AAAAAAAABAM/p277URHBkwY/s1600-h/Pittsburgh_example.png\"\u003e\u003cimg style\u003d\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 223px;\" src\u003d\"http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/SvmoDa2muMI/AAAAAAAABAM/p277URHBkwY/s400/Pittsburgh_example.png\" alt\u003d\"\" id\u003d\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402534004709046466\" border\u003d\"0\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eEspecially given \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.nytimes.com/info/swine-flu-h1n1-vaccine/?scp\u003d1-spot\u0026amp;sq\u003dh1n1%20vaccine\u0026amp;st\u003dcse\"\u003eslower than expected vaccine production\u003c/a\u003e, we think it's important to bring together flu shot information in a coherent manner. We've been working with HHS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state and local health agencies to gather information on flu vaccine locations across the country, particularly for the H1N1 flu vaccine (both the nasal-spray vaccine and the shot). At the moment we have data for locations of flu vaccine directly from 20 states and counting. We are also continuing to add information from chain pharmacies and other providers in all 50 states; today, you'll find results from chains such as Walgreens, CVS and PDX participants, such as Kmart, Duane Reade, WinnDixie and Giant Eagle.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eOf course you should still call flu vaccine providers ahead of time to find out more about availability and eligibility for the two vaccines.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eWe hope to continue providing you with relevant information to help keep you and your loved ones healthy.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Roni Zeiger, M.D., Product Manager and Jennifer Haroon, Product Marketing Manager\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-564868812144764085?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/564868812144764085"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/564868812144764085"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/11/finding-flu-vaccine-information-in-one.html","title":"Finding flu vaccine information in one easy place"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Jamie Yood"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/00055778979957613057"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"14118214607831869425"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/SvmoDa2muMI/AAAAAAAABAM/p277URHBkwY/s72-c/Pittsburgh_example.png","height":"72","width":"72"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-4654398903820827161"},"published":{"$t":"2009-10-27T20:08:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-10-27T21:34:25.912-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"PowerMeter"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Green"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Empowering the UK with Google PowerMeter"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"Electricity consumers in the United Kingdom can now access \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.org/powermeter\"\u003eGoogle PowerMeter\u003c/a\u003e, a free software tool that provides consumers with information on how much energy their home is using. The software receives information from utility smart meters and in-home energy management devices and visualizes this information on a personalized \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.com/ig\"\u003eiGoogle\u003c/a\u003e homepage. Today we're announcing both our very first UK utility partnership and our very first UK device partner.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eOur utility partner, \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.first-utility.com/\"\u003efirst:utility\u003c/a\u003e, is the only energy supplier in the United Kingdom to provide free smart meters to its customers, and is currently in the process of rolling them out across the country. To date, first:utility has over 30,000 customers signed up to its service. Starting in early November, all first:utility customers with smart meters will be able to sign up to use Google PowerMeter, empowering them with greater information about their home electricity use. According to Mark Daeche, first:utility’s Chief Executive, \"At the end of the day, if you can’t measure and view your energy use, it’s very difficult to make savings.”\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eGoogle is also partnering with \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.alertme.com/\"\u003eAlertMe\u003c/a\u003e, a self-install consumer device manufacturer and our first partner with a \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.alertme.com/go/shop/energy\"\u003eproduct available\u003c/a\u003e in the United Kingdom. Starting today, AlertMe customers in the UK can access their home’s data through Google PowerMeter on their iGoogle homepage. In just a few minutes consumers can access their home energy data from anywhere they can access the Internet. Pilgrim Beart, founder and CEO of AlertMe noted, “Our partnership with Google PowerMeter puts your home energy consumption right in front of you every time you go online.”  Check out \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v\u003dkhL19_VvQe8\"\u003ethis video\u003c/a\u003e to learn more about how you can start monitoring your home energy use today.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eWith today's announcement, we've now signed up two device partners and ten utility partners serving five countries!\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003ePosted by  Ka-Ping Yee, Software Engineer and Jens Redmer, Business Development\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-4654398903820827161?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/4654398903820827161"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/4654398903820827161"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/10/empowering-uk-with-google-powermeter.html","title":"Empowering the UK with Google PowerMeter"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Niki Fenwick"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/13881152948934232359"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"01841543334805306329"}}]},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-5957082980475007648"},"published":{"$t":"2009-10-26T09:11:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-10-26T09:31:42.236-07:00"},"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Will genomics help prevent the next pandemic?"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"The first outbreak of the new \"swine flu\" strain, now known as H1N1, earlier this year in Mexico caught the world by surprise. Public health officials around the world tried to stop the virus at the borders but were largely helpless. Shortly after, on the other side of the world from Mexico, I saw the health check posts in Cambodia at the airport and at a borderpost with Vietnam, right when the country found its first H1N1 cases which were flown in by US exchange students. The weapons used by the health officials to combat the spread of the virus were primarily paper survey forms and thermometers; the virus won, very quickly. Genomics is rapidly changing both the way diseases are diagnosed and the way medications and vaccines are developed - but will it give us the tools to prevent the next pandemic?\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003e    What if countries where emerging infections originate, from Cameroon to Cambodia, could rapidly sequence suspect samples and discover new pathogens when only a few people have become sick?\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003eWhat if all such sequence data were immediately shared in a single global open access database?\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003eWhat if you could search for a string of sequence data and all associated data, annotations or publications as easily and effectively as a Google search?\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003eWhat if markers discovered for a new disease would quickly be incorporated into affordable hand held multi-pathogen diagnostic tests widely available at the point of care?\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003eWhat if the results of those tests were uploaded to a database where surveillance tools like \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.org/flutrends\"\u003eGoogle Flu Trends\u003c/a\u003e could discover outbreaks?\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ul\u003eToday the \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.plos.org/\"\u003ePublic Library of Science\u003c/a\u003e, a mission driven, non-profit and open access publisher, presents \"\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.ploscollections.org/emerginginfectiousdisease\"\u003eThe Genomics of Infectious Disease\u003c/a\u003e\" a collection of essays, perspectives and reviews that explores how genomics—with all its associated tools and techniques—can provide insights into our understanding of emerging infectious disease. This collection was produced with financial support from Google.org with the editorial independence and rigor of PLoS and the expert opinion of leading researchers.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eIn \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1000219\"\u003eone piece\u003c/a\u003e Rajesh Gupta, Mark Michalski (of Stanford, but at Google.org last year) and I provide Google.org’s perspective and vision for how systematic application of genomics, proteomics, and bioinformatics to infectious diseases could predict and prevent the next pandemic. To realize this vision, however, we feel that a focused, coordinated and scaled-up effort would be required. We urge the community to unite under an “Infectious Disease Genomics Project,” analogous to the Human Genome Project, to accelerate today's impressive progress as reviewed by this cross-journal open access collection.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eYou can read more in \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.plos.org/cms/node/490\"\u003ethis blog from PLoS\u003c/a\u003e and listen to a \u003ca href\u003d\"http://ploscollections.org/downloads/emerginginfectiousdisease.mp3\"\u003efascinating audio interview debate\u003c/a\u003e with with Jonathan Eisen, Siv Andersson, and Raj Gupta, led by Kirsten Sanford.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003ca onblur\u003d\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href\u003d\"http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/SuXMVEtwovI/AAAAAAAAA_s/Jgp59DlQw-g/s1600-h/f_goog_col.jpg\"\u003e\u003cimg style\u003d\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 51px;\" src\u003d\"http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/SuXMVEtwovI/AAAAAAAAA_s/Jgp59DlQw-g/s400/f_goog_col.jpg\" alt\u003d\"\" id\u003d\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396944390888399602\" border\u003d\"0\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Frank Rijsberman, Google.org\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-5957082980475007648?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/5957082980475007648"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/5957082980475007648"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/10/will-genomics-help-prevent-next.html","title":"Will genomics help prevent the next pandemic?"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Jamie Yood"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/00055778979957613057"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"14118214607831869425"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/SuXMVEtwovI/AAAAAAAAA_s/Jgp59DlQw-g/s72-c/f_goog_col.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-8171968325110359084"},"published":{"$t":"2009-10-15T16:36:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-10-15T16:48:29.011-07:00"},"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Pouncing on the iCat opportunity"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"As a relatively new philanthropy ourselves, Google.org continues to explore innovative and sustainable solutions to improving the lives and livelihoods of people in the developing world.  This exploration often brings us into dialogue with many start-up social enterprises and other philanthropies trying to overcome challenges working directly with less advantaged populations.  One such group, \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.lgt.com/en/private_kunden/philanthropie/index.html\"\u003eLGT Venture Philanthropy\u003c/a\u003e, has articulated a recurring theme: organizations with effective and innovative solutions to social and environmental problems often lack the manpower and expertise to implement these solutions in the most effective way, especially during the growth phase.  They have come up with a creative solution: the iCats Program.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eThe iCats Program was designed to bridge the gap between philanthropic organizations or social enterprises in need of professional know-how and resources, and business professionals with the desire to apply their knowledge and experience to benefit the social sector, thus acting as “impact catalysts.” This is how the name iCats was inspired.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eiCats are professionals from all over the world with diverse professional backgrounds who are willing to share their business expertise with carefully selected philanthropic organizations and social enterprises. LGT Venture Philanthropy created a web-based platform to match experienced professionals with specific needs in \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.icatsprogram.com/pages/organizations\"\u003etrusted partner\u003c/a\u003e programs.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eIn 2009, eight fellows are working in organizations in Africa, India, and Latin America.  Peter Shrimpton, CEO of Heart in Capetown notes of the iCAT program, “Your funds may have mobilized us, but it is your fellows who are optimizing our performance. If your funds are the vehicle, your fellows are the fuel.”\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eI wanted to share with you that applications for the 2010 iCat Program are now underway. A fellow works 11 months on-site with a portfolio organization from February to December 2010 and receives regular mentoring from the LGT Venture Philanthropy team. In addition, a 4-day induction workshop brings all fellows together in the Swiss mountains.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eThe fellow positions for 2010 are now online on \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.icatsprogram.com/\"\u003ewww.icatsprogram.com\u003c/a\u003e. Application deadline is \u003cspan style\u003d\"font-weight: bold;\"\u003e26th October 2009\u003c/span\u003e.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Mark Smolinski, Google.org\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-8171968325110359084?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/8171968325110359084"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/8171968325110359084"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/10/pouncing-on-icat-opportunity.html","title":"Pouncing on the iCat opportunity"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Jamie Yood"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/00055778979957613057"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"14118214607831869425"}}]},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-6726904046878082455"},"published":{"$t":"2009-10-08T00:35:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-10-08T00:36:58.932-07:00"},"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Google Flu Trends expands to 16 additional countries"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"If you're like us, you're probably thinking a lot about how this year's flu season might affect you and your community. To help you out, we at \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.org/\"\u003eGoogle.org\u003c/a\u003e are excited to announce the expansion of \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.org/flutrends/\"\u003eGoogle Flu Trends\u003c/a\u003e to 16 additional countries, including much of Europe. We've also made the site available in 37 languages. Flu is a global threat, affecting millions worldwide each year, so we're pleased to make this tool available in more regions and languages.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/tracking-flu-trends.html\"\u003eLast November\u003c/a\u003e, we launched Google Flu Trends in the United States after finding a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms. By tracking the popularity of certain Google search queries, we are able to estimate the level of flu, in near real-time. While some traditional flu surveillance systems may take days or weeks to collect and release data, Google search queries can be counted immediately. Google Flu Trends provides an additional surveillance tool that may help public health officials and the public make more informed decisions about preparing for the flu season.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eIn the past year, we've expanded our coverage to include Mexico, New Zealand and Australia and have continued to see a good correspondence between our estimates and official flu activity data. In fact, our analysis of last season shows that Google Flu Trends had a close 0.92 correlation with official U.S. flu data.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eAn important aspect of Google Flu Trends is that we filter out terms that may be popular because people hear about them in the news. What we do not use in the models is a term like [swine flu] since people are more likely to type that into Google because they want to know more information about it, given the news headlines, and not because they actually have H1N1 or swine flu. For more information about how we built this model, take a peek at this video:\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cobject width\u003d\"560\" height\u003d\"340\"\u003e\u003cparam name\u003d\"movie\" value\u003d\"http://www.youtube.com/v/6111nS66Dpk\u0026amp;hl\u003den\u0026amp;fs\u003d1\u0026amp;\"\u003e\u003cparam name\u003d\"allowFullScreen\" value\u003d\"true\"\u003e\u003cparam name\u003d\"allowscriptaccess\" value\u003d\"always\"\u003e\u003cembed src\u003d\"http://www.youtube.com/v/6111nS66Dpk\u0026amp;hl\u003den\u0026amp;fs\u003d1\u0026amp;\" type\u003d\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess\u003d\"always\" allowfullscreen\u003d\"true\" width\u003d\"560\" height\u003d\"340\"\u003e\u003c/embed\u003e\u003c/object\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eIf you visit Google Flu Trends for the U.S., you'll notice that the flu season is starting early this year. For tips on how to stay healthy this season, please visit our friends at the \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/preventing.htm\"\u003eU.S. CDC\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/healthtopics/Pages/Influenza_A%28H1N1%29_Outbreak.aspx\"\u003ethe ECDC\u003c/a\u003e.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Matt Mohebbi and Dan Vanderkam, Software Engineers\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-6726904046878082455?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/6726904046878082455"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/6726904046878082455"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/10/google-flu-trends-expands-to-16.html","title":"Google Flu Trends expands to 16 additional countries"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Jamie Yood"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/00055778979957613057"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"14118214607831869425"}}]},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-2763460871859312887"},"published":{"$t":"2009-10-07T17:09:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-10-08T08:15:09.518-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"PowerMeter"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Green"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Open enrollment for Google PowerMeter partners"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"The \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.com/powermeter\"\u003eGoogle PowerMeter\u003c/a\u003e team is pleased to announce an important milestone for our product -- open enrollment.  This means that utilities can enable self-serve sign-up for customers to use the Google PowerMeter gadget. More users means improved feedback on our product and this will translate into an improved product experience.  Here's how it works: If your utility has open enrollment enabled for your account, with just two simple steps you can have your usage data transmitted to Google and visible online via Google PowerMeter.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://google.yellostrom.de/\"\u003eYello Strom\u003c/a\u003e, a German utility and our \u003ca href\u003d\"http://blog.google.org/2009/06/german-utility-partners-with-google.html\"\u003efirst partner in Europe\u003c/a\u003e, is fully up and running with open enrollment. All of the customers who use Yello's smart electricity meter - the Sparzähler - can now also view their individual electricity consumption online using Google PowerMeter. With over 1.4 million customers, Yello is among Germany's top ten electricity companies and the very first company to offer commercial smart meters nationwide in Germany since 2008. Yello’s smart meter interacts with a PC to make energy consumption visible for the customer – both in real-time within their own household and online at fifteen-minute intervals.  Expanding the number of customers who can sign up for Google PowerMeter is just one more way this forward-thinking utility is improving access to energy information. As Executive Director Martin Vesper put it, \"We are now offering our customers even more ways to maintain an overview of their electricity consumption with the help of the internet. And when people know exactly what is going on with their energy usage, they can use energy efficiently without sacrificing convenience.\"\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eOther \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.org/powermeter/partners.html\"\u003eGoogle PowerMeter partners\u003c/a\u003e are also working towards open enrollment capabilities. Florida's \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.jea.com/\"\u003eJEA\u003c/a\u003e has built an open enrollment system and is actively rolling it out within their customer base. And National Information Solutions Cooperative (\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.nisc.coop/index.htm\"\u003eNISC\u003c/a\u003e), the latest addition to our strategic partners, is actively integrating Google PowerMeter into their offerings for all Utility Co-ops that they service.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eOpen enrollment and our \u003ca href\u003d\"http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/google-powermeters-first-device-partner.html\"\u003erecent device announcement\u003c/a\u003e mean that even more users can now see their electricity data to save energy and money!\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Srikanth Rajagopalan, Product Manager\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-family:Arial;\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-2763460871859312887?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/2763460871859312887"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/2763460871859312887"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/10/open-enrollment-for-google-powermeter.html","title":"Open enrollment for Google PowerMeter partners"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Niki Fenwick"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/13881152948934232359"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"01841543334805306329"}}]},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-1646820352993429584"},"published":{"$t":"2009-10-05T15:43:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-10-06T16:41:21.435-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"PowerMeter"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Green"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Google PowerMeter's first device partner"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-style: italic;\"\u003e\u003cspan style\u003d\"text-decoration: underline;\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003eCross-posted to the \u003ca href\u003d\"http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/google-powermeters-first-device-partner.html\"\u003eOfficial Google Blog\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eToday, we're very excited to announce we have secured our first official device partner. (That means having a smart meter installed by your utility is no longer a prerequisite for using Google PowerMeter!)  For the last several months, a few hundred Google employees have been testing a number of in-home electricity monitoring devices.  Those of us lucky enough to have one of these devices installed in our homes experienced first-hand how access to high-resolution \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/research/energy/downloads/smart-metering-report.pdf\"\u003eenergy use information drives meaningful behavior change\u003c/a\u003e. So we set out to make that data easier for everyone to access and understand by sending the collected data to our \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.org/powermeter\"\u003eGoogle PowerMeter\u003c/a\u003e software.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eThe TED 5000 from Energy Inc. is an energy monitor that measures electricity usage in real-time (TED stands for \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.theenergydetective.com/index.html\"\u003e\"The Energy Detective\"\u003c/a\u003e).  As of today, we're pleased to announce that anyone in North America can \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.theenergydetective.com/ted-5000-overview.html\"\u003epurchase and install the TED 5000\u003c/a\u003e and see personal home energy data using our free software tool, Google PowerMeter, from anywhere you can access the web \u003ca href\u003d\"http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/06/snack-time-with-new-igoogle-for-android.html\"\u003eincluding through iGoogle for mobile phones\u003c/a\u003e.  (If you already have a TED 5000, you can download a free \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.theenergydetective.com/ted-5000-firmware-upgrade.html\"\u003efirmware upgrade\u003c/a\u003e to enable this functionality.)\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eCombined with Google PowerMeter, the TED 5000 device can help you understand your electricity usage to save energy and money.  Energy Inc. is just our first device partner and if you are working for a company that manufactures energy monitors, we'd like to \u003ca href\u003d\"https://services.google.com/fb/forms/powerreaderdevice/\"\u003ehear from you\u003c/a\u003e. Stay tuned for more!\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Tom Sly, New Business Development \u0026amp; Charles Spirakis, Software Engineer\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-1646820352993429584?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/1646820352993429584"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/1646820352993429584"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/10/google-powermeters-first-device-partner.html","title":"Google PowerMeter's first device partner"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Niki Fenwick"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/13881152948934232359"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"01841543334805306329"}}]},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-1493603089939498228"},"published":{"$t":"2009-09-01T14:47:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-09-01T14:54:17.580-07:00"},"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Swine flu near you?"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"Well, there's now an app for that.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eToday Google.org grantee \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.healthmap.org/\"\u003eHealthMap\u003c/a\u003e launched a new iPhone application called \"\u003ca href\u003d\"http://healthmap.org/iphone/\"\u003eOutbreaks Near Me\u003c/a\u003e\" available for free download.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eCurious about what disease outbreaks have been reported in your neighborhood? Or maybe in that city you're headed to for work or vacation? \"Outbreaks Near Me\" empowers users to track and report outbreaks of infectious disease near them in real-time. In addition to following the reports near you with an automatic alerting function, you can even become a disease detective yourself by reporting on outbreaks happening around you. It's the latest and greatest in grassroots disease surveillance.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003ca onblur\u003d\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href\u003d\"http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/Sp2XjztuQ8I/AAAAAAAAA_M/Gv7xT9n69Sg/s1600-h/HealthMapiPhone.png\"\u003e\u003cimg style\u003d\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 134px; height: 201px;\" src\u003d\"http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/Sp2XjztuQ8I/AAAAAAAAA_M/Gv7xT9n69Sg/s400/HealthMapiPhone.png\" alt\u003d\"\" id\u003d\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5376620171583439810\" border\u003d\"0\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-size:85%;\"\u003e\u003cinsert screenshots\u003d\"\"\u003eOutbreaks Near Me pinpoints a user’s location and maps local outbreak reports.\u003c/insert\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cinsert screenshots\u003d\"\"\u003e\u003c/insert\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cinsert screenshots\u003d\"\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eHealthMap co-founder Clark Freifeld explains, \"In releasing this app we aim to empower citizens in the cause of public health, not only by providing ready access to real-time information, but also by encouraging them to contribute their own knowledge, expertise and observations. In enabling participation in surveillance, we also expect to increase global coverage and identify outbreaks earlier.\"\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eHealthMap is based at Children's Hospital Boston.  They launched this new application in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab.  Please read HealthMap's \u003ca href\u003d\"http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT\u003d104\u0026amp;STORY\u003d/www/story/09-01-2009/0005086352\u0026amp;EDATE\u003d\"\u003epress release\u003c/a\u003e for more information.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Corrie Conrad, Google.org\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/insert\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-1493603089939498228?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/1493603089939498228"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/1493603089939498228"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/09/swine-flu-near-you.html","title":"Swine flu near you?"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Jamie Yood"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/00055778979957613057"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"14118214607831869425"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/Sp2XjztuQ8I/AAAAAAAAA_M/Gv7xT9n69Sg/s72-c/HealthMapiPhone.png","height":"72","width":"72"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-603010287105374687"},"published":{"$t":"2009-08-12T14:03:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-08-12T16:43:28.812-07:00"},"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Announcing 14 Geo Challenge Grant Recipients"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"When we \u003ca href\u003d\"http://blog.google.org/2008/10/introducing-googleorg-geo-challenge.html\"\u003elaunched\u003c/a\u003e our \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.org/geochallenge.html\"\u003eGeo Challenge Grants\u003c/a\u003e project last fall, we hoped our small grants program would provide nonprofits with the impetus and resources they need to take advantage of powerful online mapping tools like \u003ca href\u003d\"http://earth.google.com/\"\u003eGoogle Earth\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href\u003d\"http://maps.google.com/\"\u003eGoogle Maps\u003c/a\u003e.  We were, without a doubt, not disappointed.  In fact, we were overwhelmed by the hundreds of exciting and innovative geospatial applications that poured in from around the world, addressing diverse issues from renewable energy resources to education.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eWe are excited to announce that we have awarded grants to fourteen organizations with creative geo applications.  These projects address important problems through creative and scalable geospatial applications.  Grants are awarded either through the Google.org Fund at Tides Foundation or directly from Google.org.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eOver the next six months to one year, these Geo Challenge Grant recipients will launch their projects and open-source all of the data, making both the projects and the data accessible to people all over the world.  We hope these projects will inspire others to use geospatial platforms to address global problems:\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003ctable border\u003d\"1\" cellpadding\u003d\"5\"\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd\u003e\u003cb\u003eGrantee\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003e\u003cb\u003eProject Name\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003e\u003cb\u003eProject Description\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003e\u003cb\u003eAmount\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.aed.org/\"\u003eAcademy for Educational Development\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eData Visualization for Global Education\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eUsing the \u003ca href\u003d\"http://epdc.org/\"\u003eEducation Policy \u0026amp; Data Center's\u003c/a\u003e existing data system, AED will develop new visual tools for better communication of education patterns, inequality, and trends to policy makers and program developers\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003e$21,600\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://appalshop.org/\"\u003eAppalshop, Inc.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eWise Energy Forums\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eMapping the renewable energy resources in Wise County Virginia to show the opportunity of a sustainable energy future locally\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003e$5,000\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.ashanet.org/\"\u003eAsha for Education\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eInteractive geospatial web-based portal for dissemination of information related to the education of underprivileged children in India\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eDeveloping an interactive geospatial web based portal for dissemination of information related to the education of underprivileged children in India\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003e$6,000\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.cartong.org/\"\u003eCartONG\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eREDD Pilot – Elaboration and displaying of forest gains and losses in two target communities in Vietnam\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eDesigning a pilot system for monitoring deforestation rates for Central Highlands of Vietnam. The project will carry out forest inventories and calculate carbon stocks using models\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003e$25,000\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.e-geopolis.eu/\"\u003ee-Geopolis\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003ee-Geopolis Data Dissemination Project: Urban Growth in Africa and India, 1950-2020\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eEnhancing the quality and quantity of urbanization data for communities of 10,000 people in India and Africa\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003e$50,000\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.esperanzadelbarrio.org/\"\u003eEsperanza del Barrio\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eStreet Vendor Mobile Mapping\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eDeveloping a mapping application and website that will accept multi-user texts to map and update street vendor locations, integrating data into websites like \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.yelp.com/\"\u003eYelp\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.urbanspoon.com\"\u003eUrbanspoon\u003c/a\u003e, and providing information about access to healthy foods to the community\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003e$21,600\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/\"\u003eGreen Belt Movement\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eThe Green Belt Movement Tree Planting Project Mapping in Kenya\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eCreating a web-based system to visualize and monitor the Green Belt Movement supported community tree nurseries and associated tree planting sites in Kenya\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003e$50,000\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.snowleopard.org/\"\u003eInternational Snow Leopard Trust\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eClimate Change Impacts on Snow Leopard Range: Prioritizing Conservation Efforts to Mitigate Human-Wildlife Conflict\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eDisplaying different climate change scenarios in regions of China where the snow leopard lives to prevent human-snow leopard conflict\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003e$5,000\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.kcl.ac.uk/\"\u003eKing's College London\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eMapping the potential of global hydropower to sustain renewable energy demands, the risks imposed by climate change and strategies for adaptation through land cover management\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eMapping the global distribution of dams, contributing watersheds and the role of protected areas and community reserves in providing water-based environmental services to these dams\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003e$25,000\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.mcbi.org/\"\u003eMarine Conservation Biology Institute\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eRenewable Energy at Sea: Best Places for Wind, Wave \u0026amp; Current Generation in US Waters\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eCreating a map of offshore wind, wave and current renewable resources as well as shipping lanes, marine sanctuaries, and aquaculture that will highlight the most favorable areas for development\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003e$5,000\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.prbo.org/cms/index.php\"\u003ePoint Reyes Bird Observatory\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eBiodiversity Futures: Mapping Biological Responses to Climate Change\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eBuilding a dynamic and user-driven online modeling application using existing avian, climate, vegetation, and land use change data to show deviation of avian migration based on climate change scenarios\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003e$25,000\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.rupp.edu.kh/\"\u003eRoyal University of Phnom Penh\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eMapping Healthcare Centres in Cambodia\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eMapping the health centers in the country's capital city (clinics, services, contact info, languages, etc) and using this as the foundation for a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) emergency system\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003e$5,000\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.slwcs.org/\"\u003eSri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eTo develop a dynamic Geo Portal interfaced with Google Earth and climate change data to provide a “one stop shop” Internet database for Asian elephant conservation and to identify individual elephants through an automated identification program \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eDeveloping a dynamic Geo Portal with climate change data to provide a “one stop shop” Internet database for Asian elephant conservation and to identify individual elephants through an automated identification program\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003e$15,000\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.aidsconsortium.org.uk/\"\u003eUK Consortium on AIDS \u0026amp; International Development\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eMapping availability of HIV, AIDS and TB services in Africa\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003eUsing the \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.ushahidi.com/\"\u003eUshahidi\u003c/a\u003e platform, it will map organizations providing HIV, AIDS and TB related services in Kenya and create a tool that enables organizations without experience of mapping to publish data on HIV, AIDS and TB services in their own countries\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd\u003e$40,800\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Adam Borelli, Associate, Google.org\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-603010287105374687?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/603010287105374687"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/603010287105374687"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/08/announcing-14-geo-challenge-grant.html","title":"Announcing 14 Geo Challenge Grant Recipients"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Jamie Yood"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/00055778979957613057"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"14118214607831869425"}}]},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-2520242267116999827"},"published":{"$t":"2009-08-07T12:09:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-08-10T11:11:25.399-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Green"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Cash for a clunker"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"Ever since college, I've been driving the same car: a 2000 Nissan XTerra.  It's been a great car and, after more than 100,000 miles, it has a lot of memories: a ski trip to Lake Tahoe through a blizzard, driving down the I5 to Los Angeles, driving across the entire country and then back!  However, over the last few years I started to feel guilty about the how much gas my car managed to guzzle.  The official stats claimed 19 miles-per-gallon on the highway, but they must have been driving slower than I do because I never saw that sort of mileage.  So, I was excited when the government approved the \"Cash for Clunkers\" program!\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eI talked it over with my wife, and we decided it was time to upgrade to a more environmentally friendly car.  We looked around, and decided to get a Toyota Prius.  After checking out the \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.cars.gov\"\u003eCash for Clunkers website\u003c/a\u003e, I figured out that because the Prius is rated at 50 mpg, well more than 10 mpg more than the 16 mpg my XTerra currently rates, we were eligible for a $4,500 trade-in value through the program.  That made the Prius not only a environmentally friendly choice, but an economically attractive one as well.  We found a \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.cars.gov/dealer/\"\u003eparticipating dealer\u003c/a\u003e nearby and headed over to trade in our clunker.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eAfter a quick test drive and some effective negotiations, we struck a deal and bought the new car.  As always, there was quite a bit of paperwork involved, including a few extra pages for the \"Cash for Clunkers\" program. (Then again, $4,500 is certainly worth a couple of pages of paperwork.) After signing on the dotted line, the car was ours.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eJust today President Barack Obama \u003ca href\u003d\"http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/07/autos/clunkers_continues/?postversion\u003d2009080711\"\u003esigned a bill\u003c/a\u003e extending funding for this incredibly popular program, which burned through its $1 billion budget in just one week.  It's not often you can get something you want, feel like you're doing something good for the planet, and get $4,500 for doing it.  So consider trading in your clunker for a more fuel-efficient model this weekend! \u003cbr /\u003e\u003cdiv id\u003d\"1rfk2\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003ePosted by Jeff Keltner, Business Development Manager \u003c/div\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-2520242267116999827?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/2520242267116999827"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/2520242267116999827"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/08/cash-for-clunker.html","title":"Cash for a clunker"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Niki Fenwick"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/13881152948934232359"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"01841543334805306329"}}]},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-4944589087729645641"},"published":{"$t":"2009-08-06T13:23:00.001-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-08-10T11:11:25.399-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Green"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Turning on the Solar Power Tower"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003ca onblur\u003d\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href\u003d\"http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_sW35VbFrGw8/SntMGqo8_eI/AAAAAAAABps/_suCWA6uafM/s1600-h/esolarxxx.JPG\"\u003e\u003cimg style\u003d\"margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 320px;\" src\u003d\"http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_sW35VbFrGw8/SntMGqo8_eI/AAAAAAAABps/_suCWA6uafM/s320/esolarxxx.JPG\" alt\u003d\"\" id\u003d\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366967058351062498\" border\u003d\"0\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003eIn 2007 Google.org \u003ca href\u003d\"http://blog.google.org/2007/11/investing-in-cleaner-energy-revolution.html\"\u003elaunched\u003c/a\u003e our \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.org/rec.html\"\u003eRenewable Energy Cheaper than Coal\u003c/a\u003e initiative and announced a $10 million investment in the early-stage clean power company\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.esolar.com/\"\u003e eSolar, Inc\u003c/a\u003e.  Yesterday in Southern California, eSolar flipped the switch on what is to be the first solar power tower facility in the U.S. that will enter full commercial operation.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eSuccess here could signal the emergence of a clean energy technology by which we might -- for the first time -- economically harness the sun to produce large quantities of electricity.  And we would be harnessing a massive and, for all practical purposes, inexhaustible energy supply.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eIn many respects eSolar has turned conventional thinking about solar power tower technology on its head in order to drastically reduce the capital and operating cost of solar thermal power plants. Instead of employing a small number of large and expensive specialty mirrors eSolar takes the opposite approach – incorporating thousands of small mirrors that can be made cheaply in massive quantities. And instead of having to reinforce large mirrors to stand up to high winds, eSolar’s small mirrors have a low profile, reducing material costs including steel and concrete for the mounting structures.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eOf course this massive number of mirrors requires more sophisticated software so they accurately track the sun leading to high heat output and system efficiency.  At Google we’re particularly intrigued with this aspect of the eSolar product -- that is, how the performance of energy technology can be enhanced by information technology. Call it ET meets IT.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eThe eSolar team has taken a giant step toward cracking the code on solar power tower technology. I’m hopeful that just a few years from now we will see this facility – and many more like it – focusing the sun’s energy to produce a brighter future for our children and the planet they will inherit.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Dan Reicher, Director of Climate Change \u0026amp; Energy Initaitives\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-4944589087729645641?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/4944589087729645641"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/4944589087729645641"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/08/turning-on-solar-power-tower.html","title":"Turning on the Solar Power Tower"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Niki Fenwick"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/13881152948934232359"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"01841543334805306329"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_sW35VbFrGw8/SntMGqo8_eI/AAAAAAAABps/_suCWA6uafM/s72-c/esolarxxx.JPG","height":"72","width":"72"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-3850281175757041298"},"published":{"$t":"2009-08-06T09:10:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-08-10T11:11:25.399-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Green"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"The vast potential of energy efficiency"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-size:85%;\"\u003e(Cross-posted from the \u003ca href\u003d\"http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/08/vast-potential-of-energy-efficiency.html\"\u003ePublic Policy Blog\u003c/a\u003e)\u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eIt's no surprise that the cheapest and most available solution to the climate problem is simply to use energy more efficiently. But a \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/electricpowernaturalgas/US_energy_efficiency/\"\u003erecent study\u003c/a\u003e issued by \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.mckinsey.com/\"\u003eMcKinsey \u0026amp; Co.\u003c/a\u003e details just how compelling an opportunity we are missing. McKinsey predicts that an annual investment of roughly $50 billion over the next 10 years would cut energy demand by 23% and yield savings to the U.S. economy worth $1.2 trillion! The energy savings would be equal to taking the entire U.S. passenger fleet of cars and trucks off the road.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eSuch efficiency gains are possible only if we overcome some major hurdles. For instance, most people have no idea how much energy we use in our homes on a daily basis or which of our appliances or devices are consuming the most energy. That's one of the reasons that we created \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.org/powermeter/\"\u003eGoogle PowerMeter\u003c/a\u003e, a software gadget that shows users detailed information on their home electricity consumption. \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/uk/energy/research/pdf/energyconsump-feedback.pdf\"\u003eStudies show\u003c/a\u003e that when people have access to this kind information they reduce their energy use by up to 15%. Greater savings are possible if people use the information to buy a more efficient refrigerator or air conditioner, insulate their home, or take advantage of off-peak electricity rates.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eThe McKinsey report acknowledges that energy efficiency alone won't solve our energy and climate challenges. We must continue to put major resources into low-carbon sources of energy like \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.org/rec.html\"\u003erenewable energy\u003c/a\u003e, and the \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.recovery.gov/\"\u003efederal economic stimulus\u003c/a\u003e, with its tens of billions of \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.energy.gov/recovery/\"\u003etargeted dollars and incentives\u003c/a\u003e, is a good start. But the McKinsey findings are a wake up call. As we enact more comprehensive energy policies, energy efficiency -- and giving people the information, tools and incentives to take advantage of it -- should be front and center.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003ca onblur\u003d\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href\u003d\"http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/SnsBzRNYufI/AAAAAAAAA-U/lmmqFdx2BZ4/s1600-h/Picture-3.jpg\"\u003e\u003cimg style\u003d\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 317px;\" src\u003d\"http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/SnsBzRNYufI/AAAAAAAAA-U/lmmqFdx2BZ4/s400/Picture-3.jpg\" alt\u003d\"\" id\u003d\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366885361246583282\" border\u003d\"0\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Michael Terrell, Program Manager, Google.org\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-3850281175757041298?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/3850281175757041298"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/3850281175757041298"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/08/vast-potential-of-energy-efficiency.html","title":"The vast potential of energy efficiency"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Jamie Yood"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/00055778979957613057"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"14118214607831869425"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/SnsBzRNYufI/AAAAAAAAA-U/lmmqFdx2BZ4/s72-c/Picture-3.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-885063834193677673"},"published":{"$t":"2009-08-03T15:25:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-08-03T15:44:22.156-07:00"},"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Malaria origins revealed"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"An international group of scientists, including Dr. Nathan Wolfe and the \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.gvfi.org/\"\u003eGlobal Viral Forecasting Initiative\u003c/a\u003e (GVFI), \u003ca href\u003d\"http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT\u003d104\u0026amp;STORY\u003d/www/story/08-03-2009/0005070969\u0026amp;EDATE\u003d\"\u003eannounced today\u003c/a\u003e their discovery of the origins of the deadliest form of human malaria - Plasmodium falciparim.  The falciparim parasite is responsible for more than one million deaths each year.  GVFI, a 2008 Google.org grantee, monitors the spread of disease from animals to humans by analyzing blood and tissue samples collected from high-risk humans (bushmeat hunters, live-market workers, and more) and the animals they are in contact with.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eThe finding, documented in today's edition of the \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.pnas.org/\"\u003eProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences\u003c/a\u003e (PNAS), disproves the long-held belief that malaria is an ancient disease that has evolved along with its human hosts for over 5 million years.  Instead, analysis of several new blood samples from chimpanzees in Cameroon and Côte d'Ivoire, has shown that human malaria began as a chimpanzee disease that jumped species (presumably when a human sustained a bite from a mosquito carrying chimpanzee malaria) as recently as 10,000 years ago.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eWhy do we care about the origins of the disease?  Firstly, it demonstrates that interspecies disease transfer has been occurring for millennia, and is not a modern phenomenon confined to our more recent experience with HIV, SARS and swine flu.  We must monitor this important mechanism of disease emergence if we want to catch the next pandemic, for the sake of our health and the health of generations to come.  Secondly, the study has demonstrated that chimpanzees carry a greater diversity of close relatives to human malaria than previously understood.  These could be the source of lifesaving new vaccines or treatments for human malaria.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003ca onblur\u003d\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href\u003d\"http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/SndlNU-9_3I/AAAAAAAAA90/iPC4pto410k/s1600-h/Picture+1.png\"\u003e\u003cimg style\u003d\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 253px;\" src\u003d\"http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/SndlNU-9_3I/AAAAAAAAA90/iPC4pto410k/s320/Picture+1.png\" alt\u003d\"\" id\u003d\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365868760680759154\" border\u003d\"0\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-size:78%;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-size:85%;\"\u003e\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-size:78%;\"\u003eDibamba is a chimpanzee in the Mfou National Park in Cameroon. This individual and other chimpanzees in Cameroon and Ivory Coast were found infected with parasites that show that human malaria originated in chimpanzees.\u003cbr /\u003e(Photo by Matthew LeBreton, Global Viral Forecasting Initiative)\u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Joanne Stevens, Google.org\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-885063834193677673?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/885063834193677673"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/885063834193677673"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/08/malaria-origins-revealed.html","title":"Malaria origins revealed"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Jamie Yood"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/00055778979957613057"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"14118214607831869425"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/SndlNU-9_3I/AAAAAAAAA90/iPC4pto410k/s72-c/Picture+1.png","height":"72","width":"72"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-3196691817953526627"},"published":{"$t":"2009-07-30T16:17:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-07-30T16:21:59.191-07:00"},"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Inaugural class of Global Health Corps"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003ca href\u003d\"http://ghcorps.org/\"\u003eGlobal Health Corps\u003c/a\u003e (GHC) places recent university graduates to year-long assignments with public health organizations. Last night members of the Google.org team were delighted to celebrate the inaugural class of Global Health Corps Fellows as they assembled at the \u003ca href\u003d\"http://med.stanford.edu/\"\u003eStanford University School of Medicine\u003c/a\u003e before embarking on their year-long placements in Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, New Jersey, and Boston. The Fellows met for the first time during a two-week course to prepare them for their upcoming assignments.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eThe Global Health Corps concept was a product of some exciting brainstorming during the \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.aids2031.org/\"\u003eaids2031\u003c/a\u003e conference hosted by Google.org in March 2008.  GHC's 6-person leadership team includes Barbara Bush as President, and two Googlers, Charlie Hale and Andrew Bentley. \"This has been an amazing collaborative effort. We've had an incredible amount of support from a number of partners, and are confident this first class of fellows will have a tremendous impact,\" says Charlie Hale.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eThe organization strives to improve the quality of health services for the poor by matching talented pairs of recent university graduates from Africa and America with health-focused non-profit organizations.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eAngie Bengtson from Minnesota and Mweya Clement from Tanzania are a duo that will begin their one year assignment with SACIDs (Southern African Centre for Infectious Disease Surveillance) in August.  As Research Analysts, they will develop and improve early warning systems of infectious disease.  Angie and Clement are among 22 promising young fellows chosen from a pool of 1,200 applicants. The fellows will promote cultural awareness while improving healthcare systems in need.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eWe salute the new class of fellows and wish them luck in their exciting new adventure!\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Kataneh Sarvian, Google.org\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-3196691817953526627?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/3196691817953526627"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/3196691817953526627"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/07/inaugural-class-of-global-health-corps.html","title":"Inaugural class of Global Health Corps"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Jamie Yood"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/00055778979957613057"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"14118214607831869425"}}]},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-3799551394964967958"},"published":{"$t":"2009-07-28T21:00:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-07-29T11:02:57.390-07:00"},"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Bugs we get from the animals we live with, or eat."},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"Recently I was in Cambodia with a group of Googlers for \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009063026788/Business/Google-meeting-held-at-Royal-University.html\"\u003e\"Gcamp\" at the Royal University of Phnom Penh\u003c/a\u003e when the country's first H1N1 (swine flu) case was discovered - a \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www1.apan-info.net/vic/Home/VICAdmin/ProductFullView/tabid/1755/ArticleID/12420/CBModuleId/3963/Default.aspx\"\u003e16-year old American girl\u003c/a\u003e on an exchange student visit. The pandemic had traveled the globe and reached South-East Asia. All visitors to the country are now greeted by quarantine unit officers, equipped with paper forms and a fishbowl-like isolation room for suspected carriers, trying to keep the bug out. For years the world feared a possible flu pandemic not traveling to, but coming from Cambodia or one of its neighbors - an H5N1 (bird flu) pandemic that has not happened yet. So far we have been lucky - \u003ca href\u003d\"http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-12/12/content_10495712.htm\"\u003ebird flu is quite deadly\u003c/a\u003e but has not yet been very contagious. Swine flu has quickly become a pandemic but is not yet very virulent.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eWe get many new infectious diseases from the animals we eat or live with - poultry, livestock, wildlife, or insects such as mosquitoes. Some diseases have been around for a long time but we know surprisingly little about them. \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs207/en/\"\u003eRift Valley Fever\u003c/a\u003e, for example, periodically kills people and livestock in east Africa, most recently in early 2007 when \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.who.int/csr/don/2007_05_09/en/index.html\"\u003e300 people died in Kenya, Tanzania and Somalia\u003c/a\u003e. But we don't know where the disease hides between outbreaks, how it gets transmitted, or whether people are getting sick because they get infected by mosquitoes or by handling, or eating, sick animals. Late last year \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.org/\"\u003eGoogle.org\u003c/a\u003e made a $5 million grant to \u003ca style\u003d\"font-style: italic;\" href\u003d\"http://www.icipe.org/\"\u003eicipe\u003c/a\u003e (African Insect Science for Food and Health) and partners to improve the discovery and surveillance of insect-carried infectious diseases, particularly Rift Valley Fever in East Africa. The project will collect an estimated 25,000 insect, wildlife, livestock and human samples and hunt for bugs using state-of-the-art biotech methods. \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.roche.com/\"\u003eRoche\u003c/a\u003e, the health care company, has now donated a \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.genome-sequencing.com/\"\u003e454 Genome Sequencer FLX system\u003c/a\u003e to the project to strengthen the labs of one of the project's partners, \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.ilri.org/\"\u003eILRI\u003c/a\u003e-BecA, biotech center of excellence for East Africa. This is the first second generation sequencing platform to be installed in the region and will significantly increase the project capacity to discover new pathogens.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eThe project will screen the samples with multiplex PCR and/or sequence on the Roche 454 platform and will meet its goals if it finds, within 3 years:\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e   * 5 novel Rift Valley Fever variants\u003cbr /\u003e   * 5 new disease vectors (e.g. insects)\u003cbr /\u003e   * 20 known viruses that are identified in Kenya for the first time, and\u003cbr /\u003e   * 5 novel potential pathogen variants (i.e. 5 new diseases).\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eIf those goals are met then we will be one step closer to predicting and preventing the next pandemic that may come out of East Africa.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Frank Rijsberman, Google.org\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-3799551394964967958?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/3799551394964967958"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/3799551394964967958"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/07/bugs-we-get-from-animals-we-live-with.html","title":"Bugs we get from the animals we live with, or eat."}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Jamie Yood"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/00055778979957613057"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"14118214607831869425"}}]},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-6951935655006154445"},"published":{"$t":"2009-07-22T09:03:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-07-23T16:22:07.218-07:00"},"title":{"type":"text","$t":"The Final Inch DVD - captioned for 19 languages"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"Google.org is pleased to announce that \u003ca style\u003d\"font-style: italic;\" href\u003d\"http://www.thefinalinch.org/\"\u003eThe Final Inch\u003c/a\u003e, a film produced with \u003ca href\u003d\"http://blog.google.org/2008/11/final-inch.html\"\u003esupport from and in collaboration with Google.org\u003c/a\u003e, is now available on DVD.  The Final Inch received a 2008 \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.oscar.com/nominees/?pn\u003ddetail\u0026amp;nominee\u003dThe%20Final%20Inch%20-%20Documentary%20Short%20Subject%20Nominee\"\u003eOscar nomination\u003c/a\u003e in the category of Best Documentary (Short Film).\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eTo facilitate wide global distribution, the DVD has been priced inexpensively and captioned with subtitles for 19 languages.  You may \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002HMDQ3C\"\u003eorder a copy\u003c/a\u003e of the film at Amazon.com.  Purchasers of the DVD are welcome to show the film at educational events and not-for-profit fundraising events targeted at polio eradication.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eGoogle.org plans to donate $2 from the purchase of each DVD, though at least December 31, 2009, to polio eradication partners such as \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.rotary.org/en/Pages/ridefault.aspx\"\u003eRotary International\u003c/a\u003e and UNICEF.  In February of this year, UNICEF issued \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.unicef.org/media/media_48106.html\"\u003epress release\u003c/a\u003e about \u003cspan style\u003d\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eThe Final Inch\u003c/span\u003e that effectively outlines what a crucial moment it is for the polio eradication effort in India.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Gregory Miller, Director, Google.org\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-6951935655006154445?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/6951935655006154445"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/6951935655006154445"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/07/final-inch-dvd-captioned-for-19.html","title":"The Final Inch DVD - captioned for 19 languages"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Niki Fenwick"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/13881152948934232359"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"01841543334805306329"}}]},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-5495198588042970596"},"published":{"$t":"2009-06-30T02:28:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-10-06T16:40:11.992-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"PowerMeter"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Green"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"German utility partners with Google PowerMeter - willkommen!"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003ca onblur\u003d\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href\u003d\"http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sW35VbFrGw8/Sknbdpk3VrI/AAAAAAAABnw/LlbtVX8xh3E/s1600-h/yello+meters.JPG\"\u003e\u003cimg style\u003d\"margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 237px;\" src\u003d\"http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sW35VbFrGw8/Sknbdpk3VrI/AAAAAAAABnw/LlbtVX8xh3E/s320/yello+meters.JPG\" alt\u003d\"\" id\u003d\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353050934529709746\" border\u003d\"0\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003eEarlier today we announced on the \u003ca href\u003d\"http://google-produkt-kompass.blogspot.com/2009/06/yello-strom-wird-erster-europaischer.html\"\u003eGoogle Germany Blog\u003c/a\u003e that \u003ca href\u003d\"http://google.yellostrom.de/\"\u003eYello Strom\u003c/a\u003e is our first Google PowerMeter partner in Europe.  With over 1.4 million customers, Yello is among Germany's ten largest electricity companies and the very first company to offer commercial smart meters nationwide in Germany.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eWhen Yello Executive Director Martin Vesper gave us a demo of the Sparzähler meter a few months ago, it felt like fate -- Yello's solution for making energy information easy-to-access and easy-to-act-upon aligns perfectly with our vision for \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.org/powermeter\"\u003eGoogle PowerMeter\u003c/a\u003e.  The Sparzähler meter's broadband connectivity makes it possible for Google PowerMeter users to see 15 minute interval data nearly in real time. (Its design is also pretty sleek, we think.)\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eGoogle PowerMeter now has \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.org/powermeter/partners.html\"\u003enine utility partners\u003c/a\u003e around the world, large and small -- and each partner shares our goal of giving customers easy access to their own home energy usage information.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eWe hear from utilities around the world that are interested in enabling their customers to use Google PowerMeter. At the moment, we're focused on working with those utilities that can collect a minimum of hourly data (that's 24 reads a day) and deliver it to Google within one day. If you work for a utility with these kind of capabilities and are interested in getting your customers Google PowerMeter, please \u003ca href\u003d\"https://services.google.com/fb/forms/powerreaderutility/\"\u003elet us know\u003c/a\u003e!\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003ePosted by Tom Sly, New Business Development\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-5495198588042970596?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/5495198588042970596"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/5495198588042970596"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/06/german-utility-partners-with-google.html","title":"German utility partners with Google PowerMeter - willkommen!"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Niki Fenwick"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/13881152948934232359"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"01841543334805306329"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sW35VbFrGw8/Sknbdpk3VrI/AAAAAAAABnw/LlbtVX8xh3E/s72-c/yello+meters.JPG","height":"72","width":"72"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-2820358341962796605"},"published":{"$t":"2009-06-29T06:00:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-06-29T09:05:57.120-07:00"},"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Google SMS to serve needs of poor in Uganda"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-size:85%;\"\u003e(Cross-posted from \u003ca href\u003d\"http://google-africa.blogspot.com/2009/06/google-sms-to-serve-needs-of-poor-in.html\"\u003eOfficial Google Africa Blog\u003c/a\u003e)\u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eToday is a big day for the Google Africa team for several reasons. We're announcing an exciting partnership between \u003ca href\u003d\"http://mtn.co.ug/\"\u003eMTN Uganda\u003c/a\u003e, the \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.grameenfoundation.org/\"\u003eGrameen Foundation\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.com/\"\u003eGoogle\u003c/a\u003e, along with the launch of \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.co.ug/mobile/default/sms.html\"\u003eGoogle SMS\u003c/a\u003e in Uganda. This launch makes available the first suite of applications resulting from an endeavor initiated by Grameen Foundation called \"AppLab\" (\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.applab.org/\"\u003eApplication Laboratory\u003c/a\u003e) which began over a year ago. AppLab is designed to develop mobile applications that serve the needs of poor and other vulnerable individuals and communities, most of whom have limited access to information and communications technology.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cobject height\u003d\"344\" width\u003d\"425\"\u003e\u003cparam name\u003d\"movie\" value\u003d\"http://www.youtube.com/v/dPaMe0Nj6zM\u0026amp;hl\u003den\u0026amp;fs\u003d1\u0026amp;\"\u003e\u003cparam name\u003d\"allowFullScreen\" value\u003d\"true\"\u003e\u003cparam name\u003d\"allowscriptaccess\" value\u003d\"always\"\u003e\u003cembed src\u003d\"http://www.youtube.com/v/dPaMe0Nj6zM\u0026amp;hl\u003den\u0026amp;fs\u003d1\u0026amp;\" type\u003d\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess\u003d\"always\" allowfullscreen\u003d\"true\" height\u003d\"344\" width\u003d\"425\"\u003e\u003c/embed\u003e\u003c/object\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eAt Google we seek to serve a broad base of people — not only those who can afford to access the Internet from the convenience of their workplace or with a computer at home. It's important to reach users wherever they are, with the information they need, in areas with the greatest information poverty. Hence the launch of \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.co.ug/mobile/default/sms.html\"\u003eGoogle SMS\u003c/a\u003e, a bundle of mobile services for users to access content on a range of topics. This not only includes traditional services such as sports scores and local news, but for the first time, also includes services such as health and agriculture tips.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eWe are also releasing Google Trader, an SMS-based \"marketplace\" application that helps buyers and sellers find each other, enabling greater access to markets and trade, especially for those who are most excluded today. With these services, we hope to help alleviate some of the information and access to markets barriers for the poor, especially those in rural areas. So when farmers in Iganga want to sell their maize, they can list it on Google Trader and a miller in another trading center can find and contact them to buy their goods (see picture below). If a pregnant woman has a question about prenatal services, she can text her question to 6001 and get a response right away. Now people in any part of Uganda can easily find the information that is most critical to them.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003ca onblur\u003d\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href\u003d\"http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/Skjj0jO_1VI/AAAAAAAAA9U/OF7tFr282LU/s1600-h/africamobile.jpg\"\u003e\u003cimg style\u003d\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 188px;\" src\u003d\"http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/Skjj0jO_1VI/AAAAAAAAA9U/OF7tFr282LU/s400/africamobile.jpg\" alt\u003d\"\" id\u003d\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5352778649080681810\" border\u003d\"0\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eMiller in trading center calling women's farming group in Iganga to obtain maize.\u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eThese activities also represent an important milestone: our first major initiative in Uganda, one of the newest locations where Google is setting up operations. Earlier this year, I joined the Google Africa team to lead our efforts in Uganda, where we want to offer valuable services that address real needs. As East African fiber optic cables begin to connect Uganda to the global Internet community, it is vital that the foundation for a thriving Internet economy also be established. Many impressive organizations are focused on this goal, and we hope to enhance these efforts.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eFinally, this launch represents the team efforts of many local partners, communities and individuals, each of whom played a role in bringing this vision to life. The Village Phone Operators represent our very first set of focus group participants and product development advisors. And the participation of farmers in more distant villages was fundamental in creating the highly local content — created by them, for them, through our local partner \u003ca href\u003d\"http://brosdi.or.ug/index.php?option\u003dcom_frontpage\u0026amp;Itemid\u003d1\"\u003eBROSDI\u003c/a\u003e (Busoga Rural Open Source and Development Initiative), in collaboration with AppLab. While developing the health tips service, students, health workers, doctors and school nurses stepped forward as leaders in their respective areas and turned this humble mission into a reality. Our partners, \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.straight-talk.or.ug/\"\u003eStraight Talk Foundation\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.mariestopes.org.uk/Home.aspx\"\u003eMarie Stopes International\u003c/a\u003e, not only created the content with AppLab based on the input of these many constituents, but forged deep and strong links with the communities where these services are in greatest demand.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eWhen we return to these villages with a product that will be developed through their insights, we want to understand if the service truly is having an impact. To this end, we are conducting a social impact assessment with \u003ca href\u003d\"http://poverty-action.org/\"\u003eInnovations for Poverty Action\u003c/a\u003e, with support from \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.org/\"\u003eGoogle.org\u003c/a\u003e, to build from the knowledge of what users need most, to understand what works best.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eWe hope these services will help a variety of organizations already doing impressive work to reach a broader audience and those with the greatest need, in new and innovative ways, through the mobile phone. This is the first of many exciting collaborative efforts we will be working on to support access to information in Uganda and more broadly, across Africa. So to everyone who participated in this effort, we say \u003cspan style\u003d\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eWebale Nyo!\u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Rachel Payne, Country Manager, Uganda\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-2820358341962796605?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/2820358341962796605"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/2820358341962796605"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/06/google-sms-to-serve-needs-of-poor-in.html","title":"Google SMS to serve needs of poor in Uganda"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Jamie Yood"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/00055778979957613057"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"14118214607831869425"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/Skjj0jO_1VI/AAAAAAAAA9U/OF7tFr282LU/s72-c/africamobile.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-454993634242919997"},"published":{"$t":"2009-06-22T08:19:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-06-22T09:10:15.352-07:00"},"title":{"type":"text","$t":"All for Good: Bringing search, scale and openness to community service"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-size:85%;\"\u003e(cross-posted with \u003ca href\u003d\"http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/all-for-good-bringing-search-scale-and.html\"\u003eOfficial Google Blog\u003c/a\u003e)\u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eWhile many organizations are doing great work to enable community service locally, it's not simple to search across opportunities from a variety of places to find what's right for you. We have some experience finding relevant information from among many scattered sources, and when we learned that President Obama and the First Lady were making community service \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1872152,00.html?iid\u003dfb_share\"\u003ea top priority even before taking office\u003c/a\u003e, we thought we could help make a difference.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eWith our mission in mind, a group of \u003ca href\u003d\"http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id\u003d4839327\u0026amp;page\u003d1\"\u003e\"20%\" engineers\u003c/a\u003e, designers, and program managers from Google and other tech companies began work on \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.allforgood.org/\"\u003eAll for Good\u003c/a\u003e, a new service to help you find volunteer events in your community, and share those events with your friends.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eAll for Good provides a single search interface for volunteer activities across many major volunteering sites and organizations like \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.liveunited.org/\"\u003eUnited Way\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.volunteermatch.org/\"\u003eVolunteerMatch\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.handsonnetwork.org/\"\u003eHandsOn Network\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.reachoutandread.org/about_find.html\"\u003eReach Out and Read\u003c/a\u003e. By building on top of the amazing efforts of existing volunteer organizations like these, we hope to amplify their efforts.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003ca onblur\u003d\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href\u003d\"http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/Sj-ogQh3oOI/AAAAAAAAA80/3WcTUM-OEDI/s1600-h/AllforGoodscreenshot.png\"\u003e\u003cimg style\u003d\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 228px;\" src\u003d\"http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/Sj-ogQh3oOI/AAAAAAAAA80/3WcTUM-OEDI/s400/AllforGoodscreenshot.png\" alt\u003d\"\" id\u003d\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350180154485743842\" border\u003d\"0\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eAnd in the spirit of open data, All for Good has a data API that anyone can use to search the same data displayed on the All for Good site.  All for Good was developed entirely using \u003ca href\u003d\"http://code.google.com/appengine/\"\u003eApp Engine\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.com/base/\"\u003eGoogle Base\u003c/a\u003e, with the full code repository hosted on \u003ca href\u003d\"http://code.google.com/hosting/\"\u003eGoogle Code Hosting\u003c/a\u003e. We'll be inviting developers to contribute to the open source application soon, so stay tuned.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eJust as releasing the Maps API led to an surge of independent and creative uses of geographic information, we've built All for Good as a platform to encourage innovation in volunteerism, as much as an end product in itself. We hope software developers will use the API or code to build their own volunteering applications, some even better than the All for Good site!\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eAnd if you want to volunteer your video-creating skills to make a difference, check out \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.youtube.com/videovolunteers\"\u003eYouTube Video Volunteers\u003c/a\u003e, a new platform designed to make connections between non-profits with video needs and skilled video makers who can help broadcast their causes through video.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eAll for Good is a new kind of collaboration between the private, public, and nonprofits sectors to build free and open technology to empower citizens. Similar to the Open Social Foundation, we helped create a new organization called Our Good Works to make sure that the API, the platform, and social innovation that they inspire are supported for the long term. The leadership includes Reid Hoffman, Chris DiBona, Arianna Huffington and Craig Newmark on the board, and the organization aims to build support volunteerism services like All for Good.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eToday the First Lady is in San Francisco calling on Americans to improve our communities by rolling up our sleeves and putting our time and talent towards doing good. You can learn more at serve.gov, where we're proud to power search.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Paul Rademacher and Adam Sah, Engineering Tech Leads, Google\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-454993634242919997?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/454993634242919997"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/454993634242919997"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/06/all-for-good-bringing-search-scale-and.html","title":"All for Good: Bringing search, scale and openness to community service"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Jamie Yood"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/00055778979957613057"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"14118214607831869425"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/Sj-ogQh3oOI/AAAAAAAAA80/3WcTUM-OEDI/s72-c/AllforGoodscreenshot.png","height":"72","width":"72"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-9128745296467804393"},"published":{"$t":"2009-06-05T11:24:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-08-03T15:46:19.069-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Green"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Happy World Environment Day"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"Today is \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.unep.org/wed/2009/english/\"\u003eWorld Environment Day\u003c/a\u003e and I wanted to point your attention to a major initiative that just launched and is supported by Google: The Prince of Wales' \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.rainforestsos.org/\"\u003ePrince's Rainforest Project\u003c/a\u003e, dedicated to protecting the Amazon rainforest. Check out this \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v\u003dboFR2MgaqMo\"\u003evideo\u003c/a\u003e featuring supporters from around the world, including Google's very own CEO, \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#eric\"\u003eEric Schmidt\u003c/a\u003e - and some adorable frogs. Prince Charles \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v\u003da-G-XSRqPWA\"\u003espoke\u003c/a\u003e about the destruction of the rainforest and other challenges of the 21st century at our recent European Zeitgeist. As he has said, \"If we lose the battle against tropical deforestation, we lose the battle against climate change.\"\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Amit Sood, Sr. Product Marketing Manager\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-9128745296467804393?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/9128745296467804393"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/9128745296467804393"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/06/happy-world-environment-day.html","title":"Happy World Environment Day"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Niki Fenwick"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/13881152948934232359"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"01841543334805306329"}}]},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-1513600472340546950"},"published":{"$t":"2009-06-03T07:01:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-06-03T07:14:37.961-07:00"},"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Google Flu Trends for Australia and New Zealand"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"As the flu season begins in the southern hemisphere, we're excited to announce the expansion of \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.org/flutrends/\"\u003eGoogle Flu Trends\u003c/a\u003e to Australia and New Zealand.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eBy using aggregated search data, we've been able to produce estimates of flu activity for these countries in the same manner as in the \u003ca href\u003d\"http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/tracking-flu-trends.html\"\u003eUnited States\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href\u003d\"http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/experimental-flu-trends-for-mexico.html\"\u003eMexico\u003c/a\u003e. We continue to see a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003ca onblur\u003d\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href\u003d\"http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/SiYdJJ3-KuI/AAAAAAAAA8U/zl_mdjK0IxY/s1600-h/historical-au-new.png\"\u003e\u003cimg style\u003d\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 152px;\" src\u003d\"http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/SiYdJJ3-KuI/AAAAAAAAA8U/zl_mdjK0IxY/s400/historical-au-new.png\" alt\u003d\"\" id\u003d\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342990051028380386\" border\u003d\"0\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eWhile some existing flu tracking systems may take days or weeks to collect and release data, Google search queries can be counted immediately. Google Flu Trends is updated daily and may provide early detection of flu outbreaks. We hope that this information complements existing flu surveillance efforts in Australia and New Zealand, and proves useful for individuals and public health responders.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eWe're keenly aware of the trust our users place in us and our responsibility to protect their privacy. Google Flu Trends cannot be used to identify individual users. The patterns we observe are only meaningful across large populations of Google searchers.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eFor those Kiwis and Aussies out there, avoid becoming part of our statistics and get a flu shot! And keep an eye on those graphs if you're curious to see how the flu season unfolds.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Dan Vanderkam, Software Engineer, and Corrie Conrad, Senior Associate, Google.org\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-1513600472340546950?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/1513600472340546950"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/1513600472340546950"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/06/google-flu-trends-for-australia-and-new.html","title":"Google Flu Trends for Australia and New Zealand"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Jamie Yood"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/00055778979957613057"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"14118214607831869425"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/SiYdJJ3-KuI/AAAAAAAAA8U/zl_mdjK0IxY/s72-c/historical-au-new.png","height":"72","width":"72"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-7995978444381545100"},"published":{"$t":"2009-05-20T00:01:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-10-15T16:49:22.609-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"PowerMeter"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Green"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Energized about our first Google PowerMeter partners"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"Apple-style-span\" style\u003d\"font-size: x-small;\"\u003e(Cross-posted from the \u003c/span\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/energized-about-our-first-google.html\"\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"Apple-style-span\" style\u003d\"font-size: x-small;\"\u003eOfficial Google Blog\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"Apple-style-span\" style\u003d\"font-size: x-small;\"\u003e)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003eEarlier this year I blogged about \u003ca href\u003d\"http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/power-to-people.html\"\u003eenergy information\u003c/a\u003e and a tool our engineers developed called \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.org/powermeter/howitworks.html\"\u003eGoogle PowerMeter\u003c/a\u003e, a \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.com/webmasters/gadgets/\"\u003eGoogle gadget\u003c/a\u003e that can show consumers their personal electricity consumption right on a home computer. Our software relies on \"\u003ca href\u003d\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_meter\"\u003esmart meters\u003c/a\u003e\" (or other metering devices) as a data source. Over the past several months we've been looking to partner with utilities that are installing (or have already installed) this equipment in their customers' homes. We're energized by our very first Google PowerMeter partners:\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.sdge.com/\"\u003eSan Diego Gas \u0026amp; Electric®\u003c/a\u003e (California)\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.txu.com/\"\u003eTXU Energy\u003c/a\u003e (Texas)\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.jea.com/\"\u003eJEA\u003c/a\u003e (Florida)\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.rel.co.in/Rel/default.jsp\"\u003eReliance Energy\u003c/a\u003e (India)\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.wisconsinpublicservice.com/\"\u003eWisconsin Public Service Corporation\u003c/a\u003e (Wisconsin)\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.whiteriver.org/highband.html\"\u003eWhite River Valley Electric Cooperative\u003c/a\u003e (Missouri)\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.torontohydro.com/\"\u003eToronto Hydro–Electric System Limited\u003c/a\u003e (Canada)\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.glasgowepb.net/\"\u003eGlasgow EPB\u003c/a\u003e (Kentucky)\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ul\u003eOur initial partners include utilities with millions of customers as well as smaller ones. They are rural and urban, privately held and municipally run. Some are in the United States, others in Canada and India. They all have one thing in common — a desire to serve their customers by providing access to detailed information that helps \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/research/energy/electric-metering.php\"\u003esave energy and money\u003c/a\u003e. For now, Google PowerMeter is only available to a limited group of customers, but we plan to expand our roll out later this year. Our utility partners are leading the charge to make the electricity grid smarter and we look forward to working with them and others.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eIn addition to utilities, we're also seeking partnerships with companies that can enable the implementation of our software. Our first such partner is \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.itron.com/\"\u003eItron\u003c/a\u003e, a leading meter and data management company that serves over 8,000 utilities and is helping some of their customers, including San Diego Gas \u0026amp; Electric, integrate with Google PowerMeter. If you're a utility or company with a smart meter project that might be interested in plugging in to our efforts, visit our \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.org/powermeter/contactus.html\"\u003ewebsite\u003c/a\u003e for more information.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003ca onblur\u003d\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href\u003d\"http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/ShQmbMrXJeI/AAAAAAAAA70/teh9cjvaPuw/s1600-h/PowerMeter+screenshot.png\"\u003e\u003cimg style\u003d\"display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 387px;\" src\u003d\"http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/ShQmbMrXJeI/AAAAAAAAA70/teh9cjvaPuw/s400/PowerMeter+screenshot.png\" border\u003d\"0\" alt\u003d\"\" id\u003d\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337933707042301410\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Ed Lu, Engineering Team\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-7995978444381545100?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/7995978444381545100"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/7995978444381545100"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/05/energized-about-our-first-google.html","title":"Energized about our first Google PowerMeter partners"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Jamie Yood"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/00055778979957613057"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"14118214607831869425"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/ShQmbMrXJeI/AAAAAAAAA70/teh9cjvaPuw/s72-c/PowerMeter+screenshot.png","height":"72","width":"72"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-8311874578752252147"},"published":{"$t":"2009-05-13T15:00:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-05-13T15:07:13.310-07:00"},"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Understanding health-related searches"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-size:85%;\"\u003e(Cross-posted from \u003ca href\u003d\"http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/understanding-health-related-searches.html\"\u003eOfficial Google Blog\u003c/a\u003e)\u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eAs we blogged \u003ca href\u003d\"http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/search-experiments-large-and-small.html\"\u003elast summer\u003c/a\u003e, there are lots of experiments running on Google web search all over the world. Today we've started a temporary experiment that some people might find interesting: we're researching how Google users search the Internet when they or someone they know is feeling sick.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eUnderstanding how people search when they're feeling sick is an important problem to solve, as it can help improve projects like \u003ca href\u003d\"http://google.org/flutrends\"\u003eGoogle Flu Trends\u003c/a\u003e, which uses aggregated search data to detect influenza epidemics. Statistics gathered in this experiment may also help Google deliver more relevant search results in the future. For example, someone who searches for [arthritis pain] to understand why an aging parent is experiencing joint pain might want to learn about nearby health facilities and potential treatments, whereas somebody who searches for [arthritis pain] because she is doing a research project might want results about how common arthritis is and what its risk factors are. Rather than make educated guesses about how many users are searching because they're sick, we're running this experiment to collect real statistics. This is not a permanent change, but a short-term experiment. A small percentage of random health-related searches will trigger the poll question.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eFor example, at the bottom of the search results for [headache], some users will see a survey which asks whether they were searching because they or someone they know has a headache:\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003ca onblur\u003d\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href\u003d\"http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/SgtD1lJn00I/AAAAAAAAA7k/TQxv0wQmruY/s1600-h/RUSICK.png\"\u003e\u003cimg style\u003d\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 40px;\" src\u003d\"http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/SgtD1lJn00I/AAAAAAAAA7k/TQxv0wQmruY/s400/RUSICK.png\" alt\u003d\"\" id\u003d\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335432771335082818\" border\u003d\"0\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eSimilarly, if you happen to search for [ibuprofen], a common anti-inflammatory drug, you might see a survey which asks whether you were searching because you or somebody you know is taking ibuprofen:\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003ca onblur\u003d\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href\u003d\"http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/SgtEF68slxI/AAAAAAAAA7s/1plxziq16uE/s1600-h/RUSICK2.png\"\u003e\u003cimg style\u003d\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 40px;\" src\u003d\"http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/SgtEF68slxI/AAAAAAAAA7s/1plxziq16uE/s400/RUSICK2.png\" alt\u003d\"\" id\u003d\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335433052064356114\" border\u003d\"0\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eData collected in this survey will be aggregated across thousands of users. Survey responses will be stored together with the original search query, but will not be associated with email addresses or other personally identifiable information. Survey data will not be used for advertising — it will only be used to help Google improve health-related search results and to help refine public health trends based on aggregated search queries, much like Google Flu Trends. You can learn more about how Google protects users' privacy at our \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.com/privacy\"\u003ePrivacy Center\u003c/a\u003e.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eFor more information, please take a look at our \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.org/about/flutrends/feeling-sick-faq.html\"\u003eFAQ\u003c/a\u003e.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Roni Zeiger, MD, Product Manager and Jeremy Ginsberg, Software Engineer\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-8311874578752252147?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/8311874578752252147"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/8311874578752252147"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/05/understanding-health-related-searches.html","title":"Understanding health-related searches"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Jamie Yood"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/00055778979957613057"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"14118214607831869425"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Qw6iwZD4gMQ/SgtD1lJn00I/AAAAAAAAA7k/TQxv0wQmruY/s72-c/RUSICK.png","height":"72","width":"72"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4164790564632732056.post-1606306239018219182"},"published":{"$t":"2009-05-07T12:39:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-05-07T12:52:25.228-07:00"},"title":{"type":"text","$t":"New resources for non-profit and humanitarian mapping"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-size:85%;\"\u003e(Cross-posted from \u003ca href\u003d\"http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-reserouces-for-non-profit-and.html\"\u003eLat Long Blog\u003c/a\u003e)\u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eOur friends at \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.mapaction.org/\"\u003eMapAction\u003c/a\u003e have created a great new publication. Their Field Guide to Humanitarian Mapping was produced \"to help humanitarian organisations to make use of mapping methods using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and related technologies\". You can \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.mapaction.org/images/stories/publicdocs/mapaction%20field%20guide%20to%20humanitarian%20mapping%20first%20edn%20low-res.pdf\"\u003edownload the first edition for free\u003c/a\u003e (3.2MB PDF).\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eWhile the free field guide is designed to help organizations doing emergency work, it is relevant to many other organizations, and anyone looking to take advantage of geospatial tools and methods like GPS technologies for collecting data, free \u0026amp; open-source GIS software such as \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.mapwindow.org/\"\u003eMapWindow\u003c/a\u003e for processing and analyzing data, and \u003ca href\u003d\"http://earth.google.com/\"\u003eGoogle Earth\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href\u003d\"http://maps.google.com/\"\u003eGoogle Maps\u003c/a\u003e for visualization and display.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eEarly last year, MapAction published a \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.mapaction.org/images/stories/google_earth_and_its_potential_in_the_humanitarian_sector.pdf\"\u003ebriefing paper\u003c/a\u003e (1MB PDF) on the use of Google Earth in the humanitarian sector.  Since then, we've added several new features, like imagery acquisition dates and \u003ca href\u003d\"http://earth.google.com/tour.html#v\u003d3\"\u003ehistorical imagery\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href\u003d\"http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2009/02/google-earths-flying-tour-bus.html\"\u003etouring\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href\u003d\"http://earth.google.com/tour.html#v\u003d4\"\u003eocean\u003c/a\u003e, and free \u003ca href\u003d\"http://earth.google.com/userguide/v4/ug_gps.html#gps\"\u003eGPS data import\u003c/a\u003e, all of which help users to visualize, share and explore their places and data in new and exciting ways.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eAnother great new resource is \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page11657.cfm\"\u003eA Nonprofit's Introduction to Google's Online Mapping Tools\u003c/a\u003e, recently posted on TechSoup by Chris Peters and Mano Marks.  It provides excellent advice on how organizations that have data to display can effectively use Google Maps and Google Earth for outreach and advocacy.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eSome more handy Google Earth and Google Maps resources include:\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e * \u003ca href\u003d\"http://earth.google.com/outreach\"\u003eGoogle Earth Outreach\u003c/a\u003e (website with examples and tutorials)\u003cbr /\u003e * \u003ca href\u003d\"http://maps2.humaninet.org/mapping-resources/\"\u003eMaps 2.0 Resources\u003c/a\u003e from \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.humaninet.org/\"\u003eHumaninet \u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e * \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.humaninet.org/maps2/mc-google-earth-final.pdf\"\u003eA Rough Google Earth Guide\u003c/a\u003e (872kB PDF) form \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.mercycorps.org/\"\u003eMercy Corps\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eFinally, Google has a full suite of free tools available to non-profits on the \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.google.com/nonprofits/\"\u003eGoogle for Non-Profits\u003c/a\u003e page.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan class\u003d\"byline-author\"\u003ePosted by Christiaan Adams, Google Earth Outreach\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003e\u003cimg width\u003d'1' height\u003d'1' src\u003d'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4164790564632732056-1606306239018219182?l\u003dblog.google.org' alt\u003d'' /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/1606306239018219182"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4164790564632732056/posts/default/1606306239018219182"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://blog.google.org/2009/05/new-resources-for-non-profit-and.html","title":"New resources for non-profit and humanitarian mapping"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Jamie Yood"},"uri":{"$t":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/00055778979957613057"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$extendedProperty":{"xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","name":"OpenSocialUserId","value":"14118214607831869425"}}]}]}});