GISEL HISCOCK

Country of Residence: USA

Networth: $500K+

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GISEL HISCOCK is Director of New Business Development for Google.

And her view was – still is – that business is often fleeter of foot and more able to effect change than policy makers or government officials are. Google is much focused on the users, on providing people with access to the information and the tools that they need to make decisions and better their lives. Information should not just be for the wealthy or educated, and Google’s objective is very much to democratise access to information for everyone.

When we launched Google News for mobile in France, we also saw usage spike in central Africa. So we realised that people in Africa and around the world really are looking for news from outside their country.

This initiative is about using information to empower citizens, providers, and policy makers to improve the delivery of essential public services such as education, water, and sanitation. The way we think about it is that there are a lot of resources that go into a very leaky pipe; what Google.org is focusing on is finding out exactly where the leaks are and disseminating this information so that they can be plugged. Through their work, they are leveraging the power to “know” to drive the power to “act” at scale.

We fund research, because with more information, governments can use their scarce resources more wisely and it means people can ask things from their governments they did not know they could ask for.

The advice I would take: Take risks, calculated risks. It is ok to fail as long as you learn from it. There is a big issue in Europe; I think we are afraid of failure. This fear stifles entrepreneurship. Let go of it. Be fearless.

Gisel Hiscock at PICNIC08: What will Google do? from PICNIC Festival on Vimeo.