Google Big Tent
Eric Schmidt, Wael Ghonim, Jeremy Hunt and others gathered at the Grove Hotel in Hertfordshire, UK, for the first of these soon-to-be-regular events discussing technology, privacy and society. Here I've brought together my tweets from the gathering, as well as those of other attendees and some links to resulting stories.
- Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, talked about his faith in the improving powers of technology and took questions from the audience on privacy and regulation.
Eric Schmidt: “We want to be proper members of society, we want to do things that matter.”eg Google Art Project, #bigtentuk- Schmidt on privacy: "who gets to decide is what we are really arguing about. it should not be google." #bigtentuk
Schmidt, Google exec chairman: "We've learned all lessons [about product launches & privacy implications] the hard way" #bigtentuk- Eric Schmidt reckons Google Translate mobile app hasn't had enough attention. #bigtentuk
- Eric Schmidt: "last year’s Android smartphone is next year’s feature phone." Web browsers will empower poorer people. #bigtentuk
- Schmidt says Google "unlikely" to build central face-recog database because cd be illegal but "some company will cross that line" #bigtentuk
Eric Schmidt: "Hopefully countries won't pass laws that are so foolish they force Google to stop operating in those countries" #bigtentuk- Schmidt on "Don't be evil": "I thought it was a joke when i first turned up at the company." Has seen power of it inside company #BigTentUK
FT.com / Media - Google warns against ‘foolish’ legislationEric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, has warned lawmakers in Europe not to pass "foolish" laws that would make the search engine's services illegal, as many policymakers look to increase regulation of online personal data. He said that well-intended regulation could have "unintended consequences" that make it impossible for internet companies to do business legally.
Google boss: anti-piracy laws would be disaster for free speech | Technology | guardian.co.ukEric Schmidt claims search giant would fight attempts to restrict access to sites such as the Pirate Bay Google's executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, warned on Wednesday that government plans to block access to illicit filesharing websites could set a "disastrous precedent" for freedom of speech.- Googler Wael Ghonim created a Facebook page in Egypt which became a focal point for the revolution which eventually ousted President Mubarak's regime
- Wael Ghonim, Googler & Egyptian activist: "Our role I believe was to expose. We were trying to tell everyone what was happening" #bigtentuk
- Wael Ghonim: "cameramen saved the #Egypt revolution - the regime didn’t want to attack the people because they would be exposed." #bigtentuk
- Wael: "internet role in the revolution was very critical on Jan25, maybe 27 but it got less and less important." #bigtentuk
- Wael: jokes about Egypt "revolution" on twitter: "first revolution where the time location & date was preannounced" as Jan 25 #bigtentuk
- Wael Ghonim says he is "kind of scared" that the flagging economy could create a counter-revolution in #Egypt #bigtentuk
