Google has selected the final 16 public policy ideas from their big ideas contest. You can see the full range of ideas here. This type of work is important to me because ideas frame our understanding of the world and drive our behaviors.
The ideas that resonated with me are:
- encourage positive media depictions of engineers and scientists (Neal note: ala the Intel commercial)
- create a transportation system that enables electric cars to run on a rail-type system (Neal note: imagine the beauty of highways paved in grass with thin rails)
- partner with banks and technology companies to increase the reach of financial services across the world (Neal note: ala Paypal)
- create an advanced health monitoring system (Neal note: ala Google Health)
Reading this list makes you realize just how phenomenal a company Google is. 22% profit margin allows Google to think big-picture and drive projects that will change the world. Cool. It’s easy to imagine how all these initiatives will help Google’s central mission to “make the world’s information searchable.”