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MDG Monitor Goes Into Google Earth

Doug Caverly — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 21:11:45 +0000

Last week, Google partnered with the United Nations in an effort to end global poverty. It was truly startling to see the two entities together, and all the better since they had such a laudable goal. The partnership may not have been too effective, though, and Google’s done something about that.

A site known as the MDG Monitor was great, thanks to the involvement of Google, Cisco, and the U.N. The one problem was that it was available at MDGMonitor.org, and not, say Google.com – not a lot of people were likely to wander its way.

Now, although Google.com has retained its basic setup, the MDG Monitor has gone live within Google Earth. “You can find it in the ‘Global Awareness’ folder on the left-side panel,” writes Google’s own Megan Goddard in a LatLong blog post. She then gives some background information on the whole project.

“Back in 2000, all of the countries of the world agreed to reach these goals by 2015. We are now halfway there, and while many countries have made excellent strides, there is still a long way to go. The MDG Monitor makes it easy to track the progress, so we encourage you to take a look at the layer and find out more about what governments around the world are doing (and sadly, in some cases, not doing) to improve the health and well-being of their citizens.”

Google’s definitely playing its part – and then some – in all of this.

Cisco, Google, And The U.N. Take On Poverty

Doug Caverly — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:32:07 +0000

Google has partnered with many companies and organizations, but a new development is far larger, and should have much more of a real-world impact, than anything we expected to see: the search giant is now working with Cisco and the United Nations to decrease global poverty.

Cisco, Google, And The U.N. Take On Poverty

This is not something to which either corporation will devote billions of dollars. On the other hand – and investors are likely to be glad there is another hand – the point of this project is to examine attainable objectives as we approach a target date of 2015.

“The MDG Monitor shows how countries are progressing in their efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” states the homepage of a newly launched website. Cisco entered the equation by supplying technical and financial support; Google came in by offering up Google Earth.

Visitors can use Google Earth to learn about various countries’ MDGs. They may also navigate the site through traditional lists or an interactive map, but a large “Launch Google Earth!” logo on the homepage makes the first option more appealing than the last two.

Of course, it remains to be seen how much the site will accomplish. Still, it’s an admirable effort on the part of some powerful groups to fight disease, child mortality, and all the other results of global poverty.