Tag Archives: Google

UN FAO: Google and FAO launch new Big Data tool for all

Business News, Technology,

Anyone anywhere can access multidimensional maps and statistics showing key climate and environmental trends wherever they are, thanks to a new tool developed by Google and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

Earth Map is an innovative and free-to-use Web-based tool to provide efficient, rapid, inexpensive and analytically cogent insights, drawn from satellites as well as FAO’s considerable wealth of agriculturally relevant data, with a few clicks on a computer. Earth Map has also been designed to empower and provide integrative synergies with the federated FAO’s Hand-in-Hand geospatial platform, a more comprehensive tool to provide Members, their partners and donors with the means to identify and execute highly-targeted rural development initiatives with multiple goals ranging from climate adaptation and mitigation to socio-economic resilience.

Its development follows the successful Collect Earth platform jointly developed with Google under FAO’s OpenForis suite of tools, which has already proven useful for forest assessments; land cover assessments and project design and implementation.

Read entire article here

DN: Tine Austvoll Jensen blir ny norgessjef i Google

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For én uke siden kunngjorde Discovery Norge at Tine Austvoll Jensen slutter som administrerende direktør for å bli toppsjef i et annet, hemmelig selskap. I en pressemelding torsdag morgen kommer det frem at Jensen tar over etter Jan Grønbech som ny norgessjef i Google.

– Som et digitalt foregangsland er Norge et spesielt marked, og det er med stor entusiasme jeg tar på meg denne nye rollen. Vi er inne i en helt spesiell tid, men jeg er optimist og tror sterkt at Google og selskapets teknologi kan spille en viktig rolle i å akselerere den økonomiske gjenoppbyggingen i Norge. Min første prioritet vil være å støtte Google Norges ansatte og kunder på alle måter jeg kan, og å hjelpe våre partnere i Norge med å få mest mulig ut av de digitale mulighetene. Jeg gleder meg veldig til å bruke tid på å bli kjent med alle mine nye kolleger og teammedlemmer i og utenfor Norge, sier Tine Austvoll Jensen i meldingen.

Les hele saken her

CNBC: Trump’s hostility toward a digital tax could unite Europe to implement one, lawmaker says

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Taxing tech giants has long divided policymakers, but disagreements with U.S. President Donald Trump could drive Europe to step up levies on companies like Google and Facebook, a lawmaker told CNBC.

France, Austria and Italy are among the European countries that have implemented taxes on the tech companies at a national level, but there’s been a failure at the European Union level to agree on a joint levy.

The political and economic union of 27 countries failed to reach a consensus in March 2019, when four member states vetoed a common tax. At the time, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark and Finland said there should be a broader debate outside of Europe over a digital tax, before the EU implemented its own.

Read entire article HERE.

Forbes: Who Are The 100 Most Sustainable Companies Of 2020?

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A ranking of the organizations doing the most to embrace sustainable business practices was revealed Tuesday at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Compiled by Canadian research firm Corporate Knights since 2005, the Global 100 list ranks corporations with revenue in excess of $1 billion based on key metrics of sustainability, among them carbon footprint and gender diversity.

Topping this year’s list is Denmark-based renewable energy provider Ørsted. The first electricity company to earn the distinction of No. 1 climbed 69 spots since 2018 thanks, in part, to the way in which it has reinvented its business model over the past decade. “They completely revamped their core business from being a pretty coal-intensive utility to being almost a pure-play renewable power provider,” says Toby Heaps, cofounder and CEO of Corporate Knights.

Read the entire article HERE.

Digi: Jan Grønbech går av som Google-sjef

Business News, Technology,

Jan Grønbech har sittet som Google Norge-sjef i 14,5 år. Det er lenger enn noen annen landssjef i Google.

Nå er tiden moden for å finne på noe annet – akkurat hva vet han foreløpig ikke.

Siden oppstarten av Google Norge i 2005, har Grønbech ledet sine ansatte og kunder gjennom perioder med enorme endringer i et mediemarked hvor Google selv har vært pådrivere for sentrale deler av utviklingen, ikke minst innen bruk av maskinlæring og kunstig intelligens, samt et skifte av fokus fra store skjermer til smarttelefoner. I en kronikk i tu.no var Jan Grønbech tidlig ute og kritiserte norske bedriftsledere for ikke å henge med.

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US Chamber, Google Partner on Report Growing Small Business Exports: How Technology Strengthens American Trade

Business News, Technology,

Small business exports currently account for $541 billion and nearly six million jobs in the United States. However, small businesses face several barriers to exporting, primarily foreign regulations, tariffs and customs procedures, and payment collection issues. 73% of small businesses are not aware of digital resources that can help them reach customers around the world. If small businesses had better access to global markets, it could increase the GDP of the United States by $81 billion and add 900,000 new jobs. The report surveyed over 3,800 small businesses across the United States and examined the landscape of small business exporting. In addition, the report provides policymakers with several recommendations to enhance small business exporting and grow the American economy and increase jobs.

Read full report HERE.

World Oil: Google, Chevron execs say industry must keep up with data transformation, other tech trends

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At the Norwegian Energy Day on Tuesday, March 19, hosted by the Norwegian Consulate General and several corporate sponsors, speakers from Google and Chevron told the audience that the oil and gas industry needs to do more, and do it faster, to adapt to the digital transformation and other related trends. “The oil and gas industry, in my mind, is behind in adopting emerging technology,” said Darryl Willis, V.P. for Oil, Gas & Energy at Google Cloud. Willis is uniquely positioned to comment on the situation, given his position at Google Cloud, as well as a 25-year oil and gas pedigree before that, which includes a number of increasingly responsible roles at BP, plus a 2 ½-year stint at TNK-BP.

Read entire article HERE.

E24: Høyres Heidi Nordby Lunde mener at Petter Stordalens forslag til skatt på digitale tjenester kan bidra til jobbflukt og dobbeltbeskatning.

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– Jeg er ikke prinsipielt mot beskatning av utenlandske selskaper, men jeg må innrømme at dette ikke er spesielt gode forslag, sier Nordby Lunde. 

Utspillet fra Nordby Lunde kom etter at Petter Stordalen denne uken la frem to forslag til Stortingets finanskomité om skatt for digitale selskaper, som Facebook, Google og Booking.com. 

Høyre-politikeren mener at forslagene vil skape et diskriminerende skattesystem, som gjør at vi risikerer at bedrifter investerer i andre land enn Norge.

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Næringsforeningen: Ren energi lokker gigantene

Business News, Energy, Technology, , , ,

IT-gigantene er på vei inn i regionen. Jakten på ren energi er drivkraften. Det kan på sikt få svært positive følger både for næringsetablering og omstilling i regionen.

Det handler i bunn og grunn om behov for strøm, og i høy grad fornybar energi. 

I løpet av året skal Microsoft sitt nye dataanlegg være i drift i Stavanger-regionen, et anlegg som skal serve både et lokalt og internasjonalt marked. 

Ingen vet hvor anlegget skal ligge og eksakt når det vil være i drift, bare at Stavanger-regionen er et av to steder i landet hvor Microsoft har ønsket å etablere et senter. Kanskje blir det på Green Mountains anlegg på Rennesøy, kanskje et annet sted. Plasseringen er fortsatt en hemmelighet.

– Stavanger-regionen og Norge er valgt på grunn av både beliggenheten, infrastruktur, god fibertilknytning og fordi regionen sentralt koblet til i forhold til traseer i verden. Disse dataregionene skal ikke bare serve det norske markedet, men må også sees som et ledd i det globale nettverket. Det vi nå bygger i Norge gjør også at globale selskaper kan flytte data inn i Norge for å nå sine kunder i landet, sa direktør for Azure+Al i Microsoft Norge, Christopher Frenning, på et møte i regi av Næringsforeningen for kort tid siden.

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AmCham Mentorship Program 2016 Summary

AmCham News, AmCham Norway, , , , ,

AmCham has rounded off a successful debut year of the Mentorship Program, where mentors and mentees from eight Patron member businesses were paired across industries to exchange experiences and learn from each other.

Kristian Røkke, Akastor, and Benjamin Kuban, AmCham, at the first Mentorship Program common session.

AmCham Norway introduced the Mentorship Program in 2016 as Patron member benefit, aiming to promote inter-industry dialogue and to provide a platform where young professionals and experienced international leaders can share best practices and gain new perspectives.

The participating companies, all members of the Fortune 500 list, are McDonald’s, AIG, 3M, Citibank, Abbott, IBM, Google and MSD. All participants were therefore paired across from industries to add further substance to the learning experience.

“Direct employee feedback is a gift to any corporation. One of my reflections of this mentoring relationship was around how to harness that information and use it to make positive changes that will also benefit the bottom line,” former McDonald’s Norway Country Director, Lauren Cody said about the program.

Lasting from March 2016 until the end of the year, mentors and their mentees met over the course of eight planned sessions, discussing various themes related to leadership and insight into how to succeed in a top-level business environment.

“I really appreciated the opportunity to discuss career and personal goals with someone outside my own company. Additionally, it provided me with an objective view of various opportunities and values to consider as a whole,” Wenche Setsaas, the mentee representing Citibank said, at the final meeting for the 2016 program, hosted at Google’s offices in Oslo.

Asked to reflect on the Mentorship Program, both mentors and mentees concluded it was a highly enjoyable and educational experience- particularly as the program enabled two-way exchange of ideas.

“On a general note, I valued the opportunity to share my ideas, but also learned from my mentee and learnt about her organization,” Jan Grønbech, country manager of Google Norway, said.

“For me, the sessions were a helpful reminder of some of the frustrations, barriers, as well as motivations faced by talented people in large, complex organizations.

“It made me reflect more about what I can do as a leader within my own business to remove barriers and bring clarity about the why we are doing things in a certain way versus just talking about what we are all doing,” Cody explained when talking about her own experience as a mentor.

The final session, a plenum gathering discussing experiences and ideas for the Mentorship Program in 2017, also featured guest speaker Maalfrid Brath, Managing Director at Manpower Group Norway, who highlighted key employment points and trends.

Host of the closing session, Jan Grønbech, Google, giving a summery the 2016 Mentorship Program.

AmCham Norway is now in the planning-phase of the 2017 Mentorship Program and we are looking to increase the number of participating companies. Please contact us at Didrik.ottesen@amcham.no for more information.