Ottobre, 2021

Eden Hagos grew up in Windsor, Ontario, Canada in a family of East African food entrepreneurs. Her parents ran a restaurant, among other food businesses, and her grandmother sold injera (a sour fermented flatbread). When she moved to Toronto to attend university, Eden “wanted to fit in,” leaving her East African diet and traditions — such as using injera, instead of utensils, to scoop fragrantly spiced dishes — behind.

However, when Eden experienced racism from restaurant staff while dining out for her 26th birthday, her worldview changed forever. “Being denied respect because of my skin color made me ask myself why I had never considered celebrating special occasions at an African or Caribbean restaurant,” Eden recalls. “Why didn’t I cook my cultural foods? I knew then that I wanted to change the way I looked at food.”

Eden traveled the world, attending food festivals and interviewing chefs about Black food and culture. She discovered a gap in the food industry and set out to build a digital community around Black cuisine. In 2015, she launched theBLACK FOODIE website and social media accounts, bringing together chefs, restaurateurs, and other experts and influencers to celebrate what it means to beBlack in the kitchen.

The BLACK FOODIE community onInstagram and Facebook began to grow. As the content got cooking, Eden realized her audience was expanding as well. Two years after she started the community, the BLACK FOODIE team blossomed into a group of three with the addition of Elle Asiedu, Chief Brand Architect, and Kema Joseph, who supports the brand’s PR strategy. The team developed BLACK FOODIE into a cross-channel brand with its website at the center — sharing recipes, stories, restaurant recommendations and food travel guides.

As Google’s Productivity Advisor, I’ve spent a lot of time over the past 18 months advising people on how to be their most productive selves while maintaining their wellbeing and working from home. With hybrid work emerging as a new model for many of us, it’s especially important to get the most out of each place you work.

In our recent Google Workspace Guide to Productivity and Wellbeing, I talked about how you can plan your days, and even create themes for them. For example, maybe Monday is your “ramp-up day” with lots of meetings and collaboration in the office, and Friday is your “consolidation day,” when you work from home and cross things off your to-do list. The guide also gets into the importance of knowing your tools inside and out. With that in mind, here’s a deeper dive on how to make the most of hybrid work with Google Workspace.

Participate from anywhere using Google Meet

Google Meet has a few new features designed especially for hybrid teams, so you can collaborate wherever you’re working from — even if it’s in a different time zone.

Add your location to meeting invites: When you’re responding to a meeting invite, you can let everyone know whether you’ll be attending from the meeting room in the office or if you’re joining virtually. Knowing where people are located helps presenters set up the meeting so everyone can participate equally.

Use companion mode (coming in November): Hybrid meetings often feel like there are two different meetings happening — one in the office and one online. Companion mode lets you join a meeting in the office from your personal device, while using the audio and video systems in the physical meeting room. Companion mode also lets every in-office participant send chat messages, raise their hands for a question and vote on polls.

Start a Google Jamboard: A Jamboard is a virtual whiteboard that lets people brainstorm live with others. It’s a great tool for hybrid collaboration and you can launch it directly in Google Meet.

At Google, we are passionate about helping people get access to information. And as a lifelong basketball fan, I know this is especially important in sports fandom. That’s why I’m personally excited to share that the Google Pixel is the Official Fan Phone of the NBA, NBA G League and NBA 2K League. And Google is each league’s Official Search Engine and Search Trends and Fan Insights Partner. Additionally, Pixel will be the first-ever presenting partner of the NBA Playoffs, joining YouTube TV, NBA Finals presenting sponsor, in the postseason. We’ll combine the best of Google’s Search trends, information, technology, devices and services to help fans go deeper and get closer to the culture, teams and players they love.

Through this multi-year partnership, we’ll work with the NBA to create exciting immersive experiences for fans using our 3D and AR technology, as well as leverage new features that will be announced at our Pixel Fall Launch event. And we’ll continue to provide experiences and information in all the places fans turn to every day, whether that’s Pixel to take pictures of your favorite team in action, Search to check scores and schedules, Google Shopping to find your favorite player’s jersey, or Maps to get to the arena using the most sustainable route.

And for the basketball superfans like me, we’ll also integrate Google’s Search trends throughout the season, showing how fans are searching before, during and after games with real-time data. For instance, did you know that the NBA has been the top-searched sports league in the world since 2004? Or that people who search for the NBA are more likely to search for social justice compared to any other professional sports league?

This week, Kenya is celebrating Mashujaa Day, or National Heroes Day, when we honor people who have made great contributions to our nation and the world. A true son of Africa and one of our heroes is frontline photojournalist Mohamed ‘Mo’ Amin, who moved the world with his extraordinary work and dedication spanning four decades.

Today, I am honored to unveil the project Mo Amin: The Eye of Africa on Google Arts & Culture, which features over 6000 photographs, some of which have not been seen by the world before. It also features more than 50 stories, showcasing the key moments, places and people he documented. It has been created in collaboration with Mo’s son, Salim Amin, and the team at the Mohamed Amin Foundation.

Even though Mo was proud to call Kenya his home, his work, his impact and his reputation transcended national and cultural boundaries. He mobilized the conscience of mankind through his coverage of the squalor and death at a camp in Northern Ethiopia during the famine of 1984. Galvanized by the brutal reality so powerfully witnessed through Mo’s camera lens, governments, celebrities, humanitarians and everyday people all came together to raise money for the famine in one of the most spontaneous and widespread acts of giving the world has ever seen.

What many people might be less familiar with is that, more than anything else, Mo spent a lot of time documenting the beauty, wildlife, culture, people and leaders of his motherland. For more than a generation, Mo used his cameras to bring Africa’s most powerful stories into view.

Much like Africa, Mo was caught up in a tide of change from an early age. From humble roots in Eastleigh in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, he was swept up both by the beauty of Africa’s people and natural heritage and by the turmoil of a continent locked in a wave of independence revolutions and power struggles. And like Africa, his professional journey is a catalogue of beauty and majesty, crisis and chaos, and a deep, resonant passion for documenting and protecting the best of the continent while moving fearlessly forward into an uncertain future.

In my early years, I grew up as part of Kenya’s first presidential family, under the towering shadows of my parents and the political landscape that was new post-independence Kenya. I remember the vintage figure of Mo in his multi-pocketed vest and with cameras slung on his neck as he just barely breached the frontline among a retinue of journalists while covering national events hosted by my late father, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, who was Kenya’s first president. Later, like most of the world, I followed and became enthralled with Mo’s work as he pushed the frontiers of frontline and documentary journalism to bring us stories that touched, moved and inspired many. After Mo lost one of his arms while in the line of duty in Ethiopia in 1991, I was inspired by his fortitude and surprised by how quickly he went back to his duties. When the news broke of his tragic death in the crash of a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines plane five years later, our collective sense of loss as the family of humanity was deep and painful.

Later, I came to know Salim Amin, Mo’s son; we both share the experience of taking on the challenge of continuing in the footsteps of a towering father figure. Because of what we have in common, and also because Mo’s work included his coverage of some of my father’s occasions, I did feel a sense of kinship with Salim when he shared with me his book about some of his father’s finest work, “Kenya: Through My Father’s Eyes.” This book is both a valued part of my personal collection and among my gift items of choice to state and diplomatic visitors.

I like to remember Mo not just as a photojournalist, but also by the strength of his character and his passion for his work. There is something to be admired and emulated in the integrity of someone who strives to do their best not for reward but for the love of expressing all that he has to contribute to the human experience. I think that is Mo’s true legacy.

I congratulate Salim and his team at the Mohamed Amin Foundation for both the excellence of their own journalism and their generosity; the latest installment of Mo’s legacy is now being shared with the world through the Google Arts & Culture platform. Mo Amin: The Eye of Africa features both artistic and journalistic coverage of culture, conflict, political upheaval, wildlife, entertainment, historical observation, and an unparalleled visual chronicle of the daily life of people and places from around the world. For the first time, it includes a machine learning- powered experiment from the Google Arts & Culture Lab which provides an interactive visual chronicle of Mo’s work. This work and Mo’s legacy is at the very heart of Kenya’s heritage and indeed the heritage of humanity.

Tonight kicked off the HLTH event in Boston that brings together leaders across health to discuss healthcare’s most pressing problems and how we can tackle them to improve care delivery and outcomes.

Over the past two years, the pandemic shined a light on the importance of our collective health — and the role the private sector, payers, healthcare delivery organizations, governments and public health play in keeping communities healthy. For us at Google, we saw Search, Maps and YouTube become critical ways for people to learn about COVID-19. So we partnered with public health organizations to provide information that helped people stay safe, find testing and get vaccinated. In addition, we provided healthcare organizations, researchers and non-profits with tools, data and resources to support pandemic response and research efforts.

As I mentioned on the opening night of HLTH, Google Health is our company-wide effort to help billions of people be healthier by leaning on our strengths: organizing information and developing innovative technology. Beyond the pandemic, we have an opportunity to continue helping people to address health more holistically through the Google products they use every day and equipping healthcare teams with tools and solutions that help them improve care.

Throughout the conference, leaders from Google Health will share more about the work we’re doing and the partnerships needed across the health industry to improve health outcomes.

Meeting people in their everyday moments and empowering them to be healthier

People are increasingly turning to technology to manage their daily health and wellbeing — from using wearables and apps to track fitness goals, to researching conditions and building community around those with similar health experiences. At Google, we’re working to connect people with accurate, timely and actionable information and tools that can help them manage their health and achieve their goals.

On Monday, Dr. Garth Graham, who leads healthcare and public health partnerships for YouTube, will join the panel “Impactful Health Information Sharing” to discuss video as a powerful medium to connect people with engaging and high-quality health information. YouTube has been working closely with organizations, like the American College of Physicians, the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Mass General Brigham, to increase authoritative video content.

On Tuesday, Fitbit’s Dr. John Moore will join a panel on “The Next Generation of Health Consumers” focusing on how tools and technologies can help people take charge of their health and wellness between doctors’ visits — especially for younger generations. Regardless of age, there’s a huge opportunity for products like Fitbit to deliver daily, actionable insights into issues that can have a huge impact on overall health, like fitness, stress and sleep.

Helping health systems unlock the potential of healthcare data

Across Google Health, we’re building solutions and tools to help unlock the potential of healthcare data and transform care delivery. Care Studio, for example, helps clinicians at the point of care by bringing together patient information from different EHR systems into an integrated view. We’ve been piloting this tool at select hospital sites in the U.S. and soon clinicians in the pilot will have access to the Care Studio Mobile app so they can quickly access the critical patient information they need, wherever they are — whether that’s bedside, at clinic or in a hospital corridor.

In addition to Care Studio, we’re developing solutions that will bring greater interoperability to healthcare data, helping organizations deliver better care. Hear more from Aashima Gupta, Google Cloud’s global head of healthcare solutions, at HLTH in two sessions. On Monday, October 18, Aashima will discuss how digital strategies can reboot healthcare operations, and on Tuesday, October 19 she will join the panel “Turning of the Data Tides” to discuss different approaches to data interoperability and patient access to health records.

Building for everyone

Where people live, work and learn can greatly impact their experience with health. Behind many of our products and initiatives are industry experts and leaders who are making sure we build for everyone, and create an inclusive environment for that work to take place. During the Women at HLTH Luncheon on Tuesday, Dr. Ivor Horn, our Director of Health Equity, will share her career journey rooted in advocacy, entrepreneurship and activism.

From our early days as a company, Google has sought to improve the lives of as many people as possible. Helping people live healthier lives is one of the most impactful ways we can do that. It will take more than a single feature, product or initiative to improve health outcomes for everyone. If we work together across the healthcare industry and embed health into all our work, we can make the greatest impact.

For more information about speakers at HLTH, check out the full agenda.

Five years ago, I discovered that I had left temporal epilepsy, a condition that causes unprovoked seizures. To manage it, I was prescribed medication. While the medication controls the brain activity, the downside was experiencing fatigue, long sleep cycles, anxiety and nausea. What made the journey harder was knowing that my struggle with this condition had no cause identified, and was an invisible battle with myself.

The conversation about invisible disability is often overlooked, especially at the workplace, because it isn’t outwardly noticeable. I recall feeling hesitant in opening up to others about my struggles because I wasn’t sure if people would misunderstand me or question the legitimacy of my condition. The turning point for me was when I started opening up to a small group of friends, and each time, they would remind me that my condition does not define me. It gave me the confidence to widen that circle of trust.

These conversations became an opportunity for me to help others understand what invisible disability means, and through sharing, I became more confident about who I am in my personal and professional life. At work, I believe it is essential to foster a safe space where people with disabilities can openly share their experiences with others to build a deeper level of shared understanding and awareness. I recently had the opportunity to share my journey with hundreds of Googlers to dispel misconceptions about having an invisible disability. The level of curiosity from Googlers who wanted to learn more comforted me, and it reaffirmed that in an inclusive and supportive culture, I can be my authentic self. My hope is that others living with invisible disabilities can experience a world that’s genuine, understanding, and compassionate.

This Invisible Disabilities Week, I connected with Googlers from Korea and Singapore — Eri and Seokhyun — to share their stories.

Eri Shinose, Global Product Lead, Singapore / US

Could you share more about your condition?

I have undefined diabetes, where my body cannot handle insulin well, causing hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia. I usually have to constantly monitor my insulin and glucose level and eating schedules every two hours, or else I experience dizziness, fatigue, blurry eyesight and nausea. In extreme situations, it may lead to fainting and seizures. The symptoms are primarily invisible, making it difficult to communicate about the problem.