Posts tagged Google
Google on North Korean maps
May 18th
The recent addition of North Korea to Google’s Maps service made up a small part of the company’s presentation to developers at its annual conference on Wednesday.
Brian McClendon, vice president of Google Maps, spoke about adding data and what it meant during at keynote speech at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco.
North Korea had been a largely white area of Google Maps until it started publishing user-supplied data. Now a little information on Pyongyang and some of the major towns is included in the service, although it’s still far from complete.
Curtis Melvin’s North Korea Uncovered, even in the latest More >
Schmidt’s Washington speech on North Korea, Internet and dictatorships
May 13th
Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google, speaks at the company’s Big Tent event in Washington, D.C., on April 26, 2013.
Google has posted video of Eric Schmidt’s remarks at the recent “Big Tent” event in Washington, D.C.
The Google-organized events act as idea summits and have been running for about three years and the D.C. event took place on April 26.
During his speech, the chairman of Google talked about North Korea and the impact that the connected world, and the Internet in particular, would have on authoritarian countries.
“In North Korea we visited with the government, of course that’s all there is in North More >
Eric Schmidt and the North Korean Internet dilemma
Apr 23rd
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has said a little bit more about his January trip to Pyongyang. [Updated: see below]
The “private, humanitarian” mission, as Schmidt termed it, surprised many and saw him turn up in Pyongyang with his daughter Sophie Schmidt, Jared Cohen, head of the Google Ideas think tank, former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson and Kun “Tony” Namkung, a U.S.-based businessman that acts as a go-between in some deals between the U.S. and North Korea.
Schmidt and Cohen, who haven’t said much about the trip since leaving Pyongyang, penned a dual-bylined article in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday about the trip. The article, More >
YouTube zaps another Uriminzokkiri video
Feb 21st
Another Uriminzokkiri video has been removed from YouTube for copyright infringement. This time it’s a propaganda video that borrowed its soundtrack from the video game “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.”
The takedown, confirmed by a message when users attempt to access the clip, comes just two weeks after a previous propaganda video was removed after a copyright complaint by Activision. That video used a computer-generated animation clip from Activision’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.”
The latest removal comes after a copyright complaint from ZeniMax Media, a Maryland-based computer game publisher that puts out the game under its Bethesda Software division.
Uriminzokkiri regularly More >
Schmidt’s Internet message “well received,” says Richardson
Feb 3rd
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt’s message on the importance of embracing the Internet was “well received” in Pyongyang, according to Bill Richardson, a former governor of New Mexico.
Richardson, writing in The Washington Post on Friday, invited Schmidt to accompany him on a private trip to North Korea in January. During the trip, the delegation met with senior North Korean officials.
During our visit, Eric Schmidt, the co-leader of our delegation and the executive chairman of Google, spoke about the advantages of adopting the Internet and increased mobile technology. His message was well-received by officials, scientists and students. — “Time for a Reboot with North More >
Google Maps adds data on North Korea
Jan 29th
Google’s on a bit of a North Korean kick at the moment. Just weeks after its chairman, Eric Schmidt, made a high-profile visit to Pyongyang, the company has added additional detail about the county to Google Maps.
Roads, subway stations, parks and some major monuments and buildings are on the new map, which became available on Monday.
Google typically buys such information from local providers but in countries like North Korea where commercial digital maps are not available, it relies on citizen submissions made through Google Map Maker. That’s exactly how the company compiled this first version of its map.
Look at the More >
Eric Schmidt on his North Korean visit
Jan 21st
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has posted some thoughts on his recent trip to Pyongyang. The comments appeared on his Google Plus page on Saturday, the same day his daughter also posted her impressions of the trip.
The executive’s comments won’t provide any big revelations, at least they shouldn’t to readers of this blog. He generally reiterates that it was a private visit aimed at exploring some of the technology in North Korea and exchanging views with local officials.
On his arrival in Beijing after leaving Pyongyang, Schmidt told reporters he had advised the North Koreans to open up to the Internet. If More >
DPRK officials indicated Internet is inevitable, says Sophie Schmidt
Jan 20th
Sophie Schmidt in Pyongyang, in an image from her blog
Sophie Schmidt, the daughter of Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, has written a comprehensive blog post about her recent trip to Pyongyang and included in her revelations: North Korean officials seemed to acknowledge they can’t keep the Internet out.
The posting is perhaps the most complete account yet of the visit by any member of the group, which went around Pyongyang largely unobserved except by local Associated Press reporters.
In the post, entitled “Sophie in North Korea,” Sophie Schmidt writes about the impressions she got of the city, country and sights she saw on the More >
Ranking Eric Schmidt’s Pyongyang trip
Jan 12th
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt is back from Pyongyang. His visit made headlines around the world, but what about inside North Korea?
I took a look at the main 8pm evening news on North Korean TV to see where the visit ranked. Details of Eric Schmidt’s movements were reported on both Wednesday and Thursday.
Domestic news dominated the news both days, as it usually does. There were many items about workers across the country reacting to and supporting Kim Jong Un’s New Year address. The “Google delegation” news accounted for 30 seconds of the 10-minute bulletin on Wednesday, and 35 seconds of a More >
North Korean delegation visits Silicon Valley
Apr 5th
A delegation of North Korean officials toured Silicon Valley in California, according to several news reports. The group of 12 government employees had been in the U.S. on a 2-week trip organized by the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation at University of California, San Diego.
They spent about 100 minutes inside Google from 10am on April 1. The visit was arranged with “tight security” and journalists were restricted from interacting with the North Koreans, according to a Yonhap News report.
Afterwards, they visited Stanford University for a lunch seminar. It was about industry-university cooperation and was attended by “U.S. experts on More >
