Google Think tackles social issues

[Gabby]

Google doesn't just want to just "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," as its mission statement says. It also wants to figure out how to use technology to improve the world under the auspices of its think tank, Google Ideas.
Google Ideas, which launched 18 months ago, is working with the Council on Foreign Relations and the Tribeca Film Festival to sponsor a conference, "Illicit Networks: Forces in Opposition" in Los Angeles this week. The aim is to bring together government officials, tech leaders, researchers and victims to explore how best to use the Internet to cut down on trafficking in humans, organs, drugs, and arms.

"Violent illicit networks represent a trillion-dollar problem that affects every society in the world and claims hundreds of thousands of lives each year. For example, more than 50,000 people have died in the past five years as a result of the ongoing war in Mexico between rival drug cartels," Google Ideas said in a blog post yesterday. "It's clear that illicit networks--particularly those that are violent and coercive like drug smugglers, arms dealers and human traffickers--have a devastating human and financial impact on every nation."

Conference attendees will hear stories from a former Ugandan child soldier, a woman who was seven when she was sold into slavery, other forced laborers and sex workers, and former arms dealers, according to The Los Angeles Times.

The think tank partnered last year with other groups to organize the Summit Against Violent Extremism and launch an online platform called Against Violent Extremism.
Meanwhile, Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org, has given millions in grants to organizations working to eradicate slavery, improve education and other challenges.


http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-574...nd-terrorists/

This is definitely a nice thing to see! I love that Google is working to take a global stance of fighting social issues and problems across the globe. I can only hope it makes a difference before it's too late.

I'm also kind of curious on who is creating the ideas, and what their 'do tank' ideas will hold. We're definitely better off throwing philanthropic ideas than bombs and war tanks

What do you think?

[Dawnshadow]

I think that goodle should fix up the states first and then help the world. :3 (how can you solve problems if your own country is in shambles itself? Google is American, right?)

[Lauren]

I think Google is going for bigger picture here, @Dawnshadow. Our country has problems, but nothing compared to what's been going on in Africa and other third-world countries for years.

[cpvr]

I think Google is going for bigger picture here, @Dawnshadow. Our country has problems, but nothing compared to what's been going on in Africa and other third-world countries for years.

This, I couldn't agree anymore. I wish we could develop those other countries, and get more money flowing in their countries. It's not Google's area to fix the United States, leave that to Congress and the President.

[cpvr]

Here's an update in regards to Google think, and its really good. @Gabby @Lauren
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/na...163314966.html @Neon @Ajax @SpottyWolf @Love

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. - Google, so far, has won the search-engine wars. Now it wants to target international crime, including Mexico's powerful drug cartels.
Eric Schmidt, Google Inc.'s executive chairman, has taken a keen interest in Mexico, where more than 47,500 people have been killed in drug-related violence since 2006, when President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against the cartels. Schmidt recently visited most of Mexico's most violent cities, Ciudad Juarez, where civic leaders asked if he could help.

"Defeated, helpless, these people have been so hardened in their experience with cartels that they have lost battles, and they have lost hope," Schmidt told a conference on international crime this week. "They were looking for a universal hammer to protect them. For me the answer was obvious. It was technology."

Experts told the conference that Mexico's cartels often use more sophisticated technology than law enforcement. Cartel assets include mapping software that tracks the location of police from high-tech control rooms; remote control submarines; and military-grade rocket launchers.

Drug-dealing organizations can intercept satellite feeds, including images broadcast by intelligence agency drones. They run money laundering networks that handle an estimated $25 billion a year in drug profit.

"It's a technological arms race, and at this moment they're winning," said Marc Goodman, founder of Future Crimes, who studies the nexus of technology and transnational crime. "But there's never been an operating system that hasn't been hacked."

Google's immense intelligence assets can be brought to bear on the cartels, Schmidt suggested.

Google's ideas include creating a network so citizens can safely report cartel activity without fear of retribution. It wants to make sharing real-time intelligence easier among police in different regions. It can identify how individuals are connected to each other, to bank accounts and even to corrupt government officials. It can create community Web platforms for citizens to share information and name and shame criminals.

Talk also addressed human and arms trafficking, exploitation of child soldiers, and airport and seaport security.

Mexico's undersecretary of information technology, Francisco Niembro, said his country's efforts to battle cartels are slowly going digital.

Niembro said the government has been developing a Web platform where law enforcement can get a national look at crimes and investigations. Today, he said, 8,500 of Mexico's 36,000 federal police are dedicated to gathering intelligence.

"Something like this would be a dream for many countries," he said. But analyzing the massive influx of data takes sophisticated staffing, he added.

Nancy Roberts, a defense analysis professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterrey, Calif., noted that in Mexico, police officials can tap phones, use tracking devices and tap into computer networks. But that does little unless someone can sort through the evidence.

"Our jobs are making sense of all the data so law enforcement knows how, when and where to strike," she said.

Juan Karate, a former U.S. deputy national security adviser, insisted that cyber connections between private financial institutions and central banks are the "Achilles heel" of criminal organizations "because financial trails don't lie."

But Eduardo Guerrero, a Mexico City-based security consultant, wasn't optimistic that technology alone can disrupt narcotraffickers.

"You should never underestimate the power of these guys," Guerrero said. "They're probably even aware of what's going on here, and will figure out a way to use it to their advantage."

Even Google's Schmidt conceded that better use of information isn't enough.

"I think at the end of the day, there really are bad people, and you have to go in and arrest them and kill them," he said.

The conference in Westlake Village, Calif., was organized by Google's think tank, Google Ideas, and the Council on Foreign Relations.

What does everyone think about that? Do you think Google has the power, and with its partner, to help Mexico's problems with the cartels?

[Corleone]

Of course they have the power, and I like the idea and hopefully they do something about it. The situation in Juarez in insane.

[Organic]

@cpvr

Wow, that's a lot of information and stuff to think about. I had no idea what kind of issues there were there. I also don't have any idea how powerful etc... they are. Google is pretty big. Maybe they can help I just don't know. If all the above is true I sure hope they can!