Posted by Derek Slater, Policy Analyst

Broadband deployment in the U.S. is at best disappointing and at worst a crisis. The United States lags behind other countries in broadband uptake per capita, ranked 15th in the latest Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) data. While consumers in Sweden and Japan are starting to zoom ahead with 20 and even 90 megabit/second connections delivered over fiber connections, U.S. consumers pay more for less, with only DSL and cable available in most markets. Some rural areas lack broadband altogether.

At a pre-conference yesterday before the “State of the Net” in Washington, D.C., the nonprofit association EDUCAUSE released a thoughtful proposal for how to achieve a better broadband future:

“[T]his paper proposes the creation of a new federal Universal Broadband Fund (UBF) that, together with matching funds from the states and the private and/or public sector, should be used to build open, big broadband networks of at least 100 Mbps (scalable upwards to 1 Gbps) to every home and business by 2012. U.S. state governors and foreign heads of state have found the resources to subsidize broadband deployment; the U.S. federal government should as well.”

Though some dispute how bad U.S. consumers have it, everyone can agree that the U.S. can – and should – do much better. Deploying faster, universal, and ubiquitous broadband is essential to sustaining the Internet as an engine for economic growth, innovation, and social discourse. Whether or not one agrees with EDUCAUSE’s particular strategy, the paper demonstrates that a clear, concerted national broadband strategy of some kind is required to reach that bigger, better broadband future.

You can read the whole paper here.

Posted by Peter Greenberger, Elections and Issue Advocacy Team

The Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary are behind us, and Super Tuesday is just around the corner. So far in this presidential campaign season, candidates have used the web in new and creative ways - including social networks, maps mashups, geo-targeting online ads and even sending a Twitter or two. While none of these tools can take the place of voters sizing up a candidate up close (bringing to mind the New Hampshire voter who once said she hadn't made up her mind about a candidate because "I've only met him twice"), these new technologies have helped voters get more personally engaged in the political process.

The same is true of ads. TV and radio campaign ads, with their charges and counter-charges, have long been a staple of political campaigns. And increasingly, candidates of all political stripes are using keyword ads on Google and other search engines to help reach voters who care about particular issues. Political candidates used to have to go door-to-door or stand outside supermarkets to recruit potential supporters. Now they can build a base of support more efficiently online, in part by using Google's targeted advertising tools to reach prospective voters directly.

This is a good thing for the political process. We recognize that the nature of political advertising is to inspire debate, and we are committed to fairness and freedom of expression. Last year, we created an elections team to help political campaigns use our advertising tools. And we recently published new guidelines for political ads placed on Google. A few key parts of those policies:

• Editorial Guidelines. Like all AdWords ads, political ads must follow our editorial and content policies (including our trademark policies). Google may refuse any ads or terminate ad campaigns at any time, for any reason, as noted in the advertising Terms and Conditions.

• Fairness. We permit political advertisements regardless of the political views they represent, and apply our policies equally. Just as the Net itself provides space for a thousand political opinions to bloom, Google is committed to being a neutral platform for people to advertise their political messages.
  
  
• No attacks on an individual's personal life. Stating disagreement with or campaigning against a candidate for public office, a political party, or public administration is generally permissible. However, political ads must not include accusations or attacks relating to an individual's personal life, nor can they advocate against a protected group. So, "Crime rates are up under Police Commissioner Gordon" is okay, but "Police Commissioner Gordon had an affair" is not.
  

• Donations. If you're soliciting political donations, your ad's landing page must clearly state that the donations are non-tax-deductible.
  
  
• No misleading ads. As with all AdWords advertisements, political ads should not mislead users (for example, using ad text that leads a user to believe that they're clicking on Dog Catcher Jones' ad when it's really his challenger's ad). Ad text must be clear, easy to read, and descriptive of a candidate or cause.

Political campaigns and candidates with questions about these policies are encouraged contact our elections team. In the meantime, we hope that you'll take the time to learn about the candidates, their views, and who is best prepared to lead our country.

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

NASA turns 50 years old this year, and to help the space agency celebrate its past and look toward its future, our CEO Eric Schmidt spoke here in Washington last Thursday as part of the NASA 50th Anniversary Lecture Series. Here at Google we are particularly appreciative of NASA's work, as data and imagery gathered by the agency helps power tools for our users like Google Earth (and Google Moon). We also have have a long-running partnership with NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley.

In his talk last Thursday, Eric spoke about the importance of partnerships between NASA and the private sector, highlighted some of the geospatial data that NASA research has yielded, and challenged NASA to embrace open, collaborative platforms as the basis for future innovation. Check out the full video of Eric's talk below:

Posted by Peter Fleischer, Global Privacy Counsel

Privacy is a global issue which knows no borders. And as policymakers around the world grapple with how best to protect consumers' privacy online, I'm joining other privacy stakeholders at a European Parliament seminar today looking at what online companies like Google are doing to protect privacy and the need to take an industry-wide approach to these challenges.

At the heart of the privacy debate is a concern around how companies use consumers’ data. There is nothing new about companies using consumer data to offer and improve their services. Think about the mobile phone and supermarket loyalty card in your pocket. The speed in which we are sharing data is unparalleled in our history.

During my remarks today I plan to underscore to the European Parliament our commitment to privacy. We put great effort into building privacy protections into our products and systems. We also have clear privacy policies based on the principles of transparency and choice. You – our users – deserve to know what information is being collected and why, so that you can make informed decisions about the Google services you use. That’s why we created a Google privacy channel on YouTube, why we are sharing with you our submission to the European Parliament, and why we published a booklet that provides an overview of all our privacy policies.

Privacy is an industry-wide issue. Every internet company is taking a different approach to collecting and using user data and so a serious look at privacy requires an industry-wide approach. The Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) published its guidelines in 2000, serving as the benchmarks for the online advertising industry. As technology and practices continues to evolve, it is necessary to reevaluate best practices. For example, in which context should data be considered anonymous and when should it be considered personally identifiable?

The United States Federal Trade Commission published a set of draft principles in December 2007 stressing the need for clear and effective notice to consumers, choice, security and the need for extra protection for individuals' sensitive personal information, such as their sexual orientation or their religious views.

Privacy is a global issue that knows no borders. We need all stakeholders -- governments, businesses, political parties, privacy groups industry associations, and others -- to work together to ensure a global solution.

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

Last night we welcomed a veritable who's who of Washington -- including Members of Congress, think tankers, tech policy geeks, and journalists -- to take the wraps off Google's new permanent office here in Washington.

And what a grand opening it was. Washingtonian magazine called it "the swankiest 'office' party Washington has seen in years." A guest told Politico it was "the best reception I've ever been to in D.C." And FishbowlDC wrote, "Washington is abuzz this morning about last night's party in Google's new DC HQ."

Beyond last night's amazing fete, we're even more excited that our new office here will allow us to tell Google's story more effectively to policymakers. The office includes a large event space for policy talks and seminars, as well as signature Google touches like a massage chair, lava lamps, and a game room (with, naturally, Republican and Democratic foosball teams). This being D.C., our conference rooms are named after "famous" Washington rooms, like the Situation Room, Cabinet Room, and of course, The Secret Undisclosed Location. And we're proud that our new office is in one of the newest "green," LEED-certified buildings in Washington.

To see more of our new office, check out the photos at CNET and Tech Daily Dose. And for you D.C. denizens, maybe we'll see you over here for lunch one of these days.

Posted by Steve Grove, Head of News and Politics, YouTube

(Cross-posted from The YouTube Blog)

It's been almost a month since the results of Kenya's presidential election sparked protests and riots in the East African country. When sitting President Mwai Kibaki won over opposition leader Raila Odinga, claims of a rigged result sent hundreds of protesters into the street, sparking tribal warfare and governmental crackdowns on protesters. The violence has killed hundreds of Kenyans and displaced over 350,000 citizens. Today, Odinga called for rallies in 42 locations nationwide, leaving many bracing for more violence.

Just a few months before the election, Kenya's largest broadcaster, NTV Kenya, started a YouTube channel to broadcast news from around Kenya. Though Kenya's third-world economy affords less than 1% of its citizens broadband Internet access, NTV Kenya's YouTube presence has become a critical way for the Kenyan diaspora to connect with what's happening back home. The channel already has almost 3,000 subscribers and is one of the top 100 channels viewed in the last month on YouTube. The channel documents the death and violence, but it also broadcasts the efforts of the international community to rescue the nation from internal strife, as demonstrated by this playlist:



A conversation amongst YouTubers -- Kenyans and others -- has developed over the conflict there, and the National Democratic Institute (a global nonprofit that provides election assistance in Kenya and other fledgling democracies) has started a channel that documents the election efforts in Nairobi and beyond. This video of an election line in Starehe shows just how thirsty Kenyans were on December 27, 2007, to cast their votes:



While Kenya's future is uncertain, YouTube remains a window into the challenges the country faces – in other words, you don't need expensive satellite TV to catch the news from the region or footage of the chaos.

Posted by Prem Ramaswami, Product Manager

More and more citizens are making political contributions online, and the newly launched Google Checkout for Political Contributions is an easy and fast way for candidates to collect contributions from supporters and build new online communities by enabling supporters to embed Checkout contribution buttons on their websites, blogs, and social network profiles. If you happen to be running for national office, there's more information (and a quick process to get started) here. We hope this initiative helps bring regular citizens one step closer to the political process.

Posted by Liz Eraker, Policy Analyst

Google's "hometown" representative in Congress, Rep. Anna Eshoo, visited the Googleplex Friday for a fireside chat with our CEO Eric Schmidt.

With a good chunk of Silicon Valley in her district (CA-14), Rep. Eshoo has been a tireless advocate for promoting innovation and safeguarding the sort of open Internet that enables companies like Google to thrive. In fact, Eric started the conversation by describing one of his early encounters with Rep. Eshoo -- an Internet radio interview he did with her in 1996 at the Democratic National Convention (he didn’t tell her then that they had about a hundred listeners in the audience).

With Google in the constituent seat, our CEO used the opportunity to quiz Rep. Eshoo about some of the tech policy priorities on our plate: the possibility for progress on patent reform this session, the importance of raising the cap on H-1B visas for highly skilled workers, and our shared interest in ensuring the Internet remains a neutral and open platform.

We took the opportunity to celebrate the recent victory in extending the moratorium on Internet taxes -- an issue Rep. Eshoo has championed -- and discussed current trends in technology. It’s not very often that you hear a Member of Congress discuss the benefits of cloud computing (more accessible, less expensive), and the importance of crafting Internet policy so that no one "stands in the way of what a consumer wishes to consume and how they wish to use something." We were impressed.

Eric and Rep. Eshoo also touched on the critical role that the next president will play in shaping policy priorities in Washington in coming years, reminding us all of the importance of our participation in the upcoming election (here at Google, we’ve had lots of reminders of that with our presidential candidate visits to Mountain View and continued efforts to highlight election information through our products ).

With so much going on in Washington these days, of course the conversation spanned lots of other topics, from our strategy in Iraq, to children’s health care, to the partisan environment in Congress. Check it out for yourself:

Posted by Brittany Bohnet, Elections Program Manager

(Cross-posted to Google LatLong)

A few days ago, we announced that Google Maps would be presenting real-time U.S. presidential nomination results for the Iowa caucuses. The map was so popular that we've decided to do it again, this time for the 2008 primary in New Hampshire.

Beginning today, users can direct their browsers to maps.google.com/nhprimary2008 and watch as live results stream in from towns across the state of New Hampshire. As the first official primary of the 2008 presidential race, these results play a large role in guiding decisions for primaries in other states. They may be a determinant of which candidates decide to stay in the race, and which decide to withdraw. It is also worth noting that from 1952, the first year the primary gained its influence, to now, almost every elected president won his party's New Hampshire primary.

If you'd like to take a 3D tour of the results, make sure to check the map tonight for a KML file presenting the results within Google Earth. Either way you view it, we hope you'll join us as we present these important decisions.

Posted by Ginny Hunt, Google Election Program

(Cross-posted at Official Google Blog)

Tonight when Iowans gather in living rooms and high school gyms to take the first step in selecting our U.S. Presidential nominees, Google and YouTube will give you a front row seat.

We're working together with local Iowan media organizations and political parties to bring you real time results and citizen-generated videos from the caucuses –- an up-close and personal perspective in the process to elect the next President.

Iowa caucus goers and out-of-state political pundits alike can upload videos of the Iowa Caucus to YouTube, giving you a direct view into this vibrant political scene. These Iowa Caucus videos can be found at the Des Moines Register's YouTube Channel and span a variety of perspectives from predictions and personal reflections to interviews and candidate analysis.

And starting tonight (approx. 8-10 pm CST), you can use Google Maps to view real-time caucus results by county. The political parties in Iowa will be working with us to publish these results to our Iowa Caucus map as soon as they come in, so that everyone can access results online when Iowans finish caucusing.

To stay on top of campaign coverage, check out the Google News Election section, where you can also find the Election 2008 Google gadget for a one-stop shop to follow the campaign trail.