CAIRO: In a roundtable discussion organized by Google last week, Scott Rubin, head of Communications and Public Affairs for Southern & Eastern Europe, said the company is here to provide the tools to build a new Egypt.
The roundtable discussion titled “Horizons of the Media Industry in the Arab World,” brought together media professionals and was attended by Rubin as well as two other Google executives; Wael Fakharany, country manager in Egypt and North Africa and Samir El-Bahaei, government affairs manager for the Middle East and North Africa.
The roundtable aimed at understanding the needs of the press in Egypt and assessing how the media scene has changed post Jan. 25.
“Google’s primary mission is to organize information and make it accessible,” Rubin said.
"The revolution in Egypt further demonstrated the entrepreneurship and innovative spirit that exists in Egypt" said Rubin.
Rubin explained the role of Google during the internet blackout during the 18-day uprising in Egypt. A few Google engineers spent a weekend building a tool called “Speak2Tweet,” which allowed users to post updates on Twitter by leaving voice messages via phone.
Furthermore, Rubin highlighted the importance of Egypt and the MENA region to Google. Google created a local version of Youtube for Egypt that includes the most viewed and popular Egyptian videos.
“We saw the need and were supported by Google’s Egyptian team,” Rubin said, adding that Google now offers 14 other products in Arabic.
Attendees from the media included Online Journalists’ Syndicate General Secretary Abu Bakr Khalaf, Vice Dean of Graduate Studies and Research at Cairo University’s Faculty of Mass Communication Bassiouny Hamada, Editor in Chief of news website Masrawy Khaled El Baramawy, Business Today magazine writer Amr Aref, the Egyptian Gazette Editors Sally Abdel Rahman and Alaa Kodous, CNN journalist Lauren E. Bohn, Al-Masry Al-Youm Online Managing Editor Noura Younes and Akhbar Al-Youm Journalist Abeer Saady.
Suggestions, comments and questions from attendees covered different topics.
Khalaf said that while Google offers many useful features, many people do not know how to ue them. “I have seen many people in Tahrir Square during the revolution with good videos but they didn’t know how to upload them,” he said.
Khalaf also complained of the huge amount of data on the internet, calling for a method to organize and curate this information.
“We suffer from an overload of information in Google but to curate information limits accessibility and that’s why we can’t do it,” Rubin said, “However, we definitely need more organization.”
“Currently, on average 35 hours of global content is uploaded to Youtube per minute each day. In the Middle East this figure is around 1 hour with Egypt representing 30 percent of the uploaded content. Furthermore, around 25 million search queries are submitted by Egyptians each day,” Rubin added.
Hamada explained that the faculty of mass communication has established a new Online Journalism department in addition to offering a Master’s degree in Online Journalism. Hamada suggested that Google contribute to these programs.
“[Google] can definitely help through applications and tools to increase the quality of education and enhance students’ skills,” El-Bahaie said.
Rubin denied any intention for Google to venture into the field of reporting and broadcasting news.
“Google has a clear mission which is not subject to change,” he said.
Rubin also responded to inquiries about Google’s strategy with regards to censorship and control of the uploaded content.
“We only take out illegal content [child pornography], computer harmful content (malware) and content in violation to copyrights,” he explained, “Apart from these three categories we don’t prescreen content or stop any user from uploading data. This is part of the freedom of speech that Google advocates. Any content that is removed afterwards is taken away upon users’ requests and passes through a specific department following certain regulations and guidelines.”
According to Rubin, Google will hold an event called “G-Day” in Egypt next October, where they will “meet entrepreneurs and people with interesting ideas and support them. We held our first-ever event of this kind in Saudi Arabia, called G-Saudi Arabia where 50 percent of the attendees were women,” he said.
Responding to a question from Daily News Egypt about the major obstacles Google is facing to spread internet usage and Google tools in the region, Rubin said, “Education is our major and first obstacle.”
