Google in Berlin

Last summer, German politicians debated the merits of Google Street View, with some high-level officials vowing to stop the company at all costs.

Eventually, when Google Street View was released at the end of last year, Google famously allowed German residents to opt-out of the service. In other words, people could fill out an online form or send in a letter to blur their house on the website. The effects of that agreement have had industry-wide effects. Starting on Monday this week, Microsoft's Streetside service - a competitor to Street View - is allowing German residents to opt out as well.

But Google has been trying to make amends in Germany ever since. In fact, earlier this year, Google said it would fund a new Internet academic research institute in Berlin. In recent weeks, the search giant appointed the first four researchers, each from top German universities.

'A commitment to Germany'

Google is putting up 4.5 million euros ($6.3 million) over three years to get a new research institute together to look at how the effects and interaction between the Internet and society, on a number of different levels. Many view this new institute as a way to make amends with the German government.

"Well, yeah, it's true," said Ralph Bremer, a Google spokesperson. "I mean that last year in Germany we had a bit of a rough ride. But as I said, I would not use the word appeasement. It's as I said: a signal showing our commitment to Germany, not more, but not less."

The center, which is officially known as the Institute for Internet and Society, will examine a host of Internet policy issues, including regulation of the Internet, cloud computing, data protection across international borders, net neutrality and the economic consequences of public domain.

However, the institute is so new that it's not entirely clear what its role will be in German society.

"I'm not quite sure what it means, we are four people who are determined to develop this into a proper research center," said Jeannette Hoffman, a researcher from the London School of Economics and the Social Science Research Center Berlin, who has also served on a German government Internet committee.

"From my perspective it seems so important that the German-speaking world gets a research center that's totally focused on the development of the Internet," she told Deutsche Welle, adding that Google would not object to findings critical of the company.

The Social Science Research Center Berlin is one of three Berlin academic institutions, in conjunction with the Hans Bredow Institute in Hamburg, which are each sending faculty to the institute.

The institute will formally open in October of this year and will launch with a conference - and in Google-style, the institute's website is still labeled as "beta."

Bloggers question need for institute

However, many German bloggers asked why German universities and research institutes haven't already established a body to carry out this research.

After all, many point out, there are similar centers of Internet academia in the UK, Canada and the US. In fact, Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet at Society was established way back in 1998.

If there's one institution here in Berlin that's already been thinking about the Internet for years, it's the Chaos Computer Club. But the CCC is not an academic institution, and hasn't always gotten along with German government policy.

In 2008, the club famously acquired and published then-German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble's fingerprints as a way to protest the use of biometric data in German identity documents, including passports.

"Definitely the need is there, something like this institute should try to fill that void," said Jens Ohlig, a longtime CCC member, in an interview with Deutsche Welle. "But I think academia just shouldn't point to this one thing and say, 'now that there's this Google Institute, we don't have to think about it anymore.' There should be more and more and more research on the topic as well."

Author: Jonathan Gifford / cjf
Editor: Kate Bowen