June 22, 2004

Google is preparing to publicly release some of its underlying software code, only months before it undertakes a multibillion-dollar stock-exchange float.

The revelation comes as Google considers Melbourne for the home of a regional research and development centre in an effort to triple its global workforce over the next 12 months.

The time has come for Google to "give something back", Wayne Rosing, the company's vice-president of engineering, told students while on a recruiting drive in Melbourne last week.

"There have been a lot of conversations in the company in the past two months about (how) . . . it's time for us to give something back. So our technical director, Craig Silverstein, has started a project to look at all the Google code and start figuring out what parts of it we want to give back," Rosing said.

"I'm not saying we're going to open-source Google, because that would be a little dumb when we have these Microsoft guys making noise," he said, referring to the practice of giving away the raw computer instructions to a software program.

He says it isn't fair for Google to draw smart people from all over the world and "just keep it all for ourselves".

"We need to have the tools out in the universities so the next generation can build on our work, too."

Google is making a policy decision to be more open, said Craig Nevill-Manning, director of engineering at the New York office, the other Google visitor.

"We're encouraging the software engineers to submit papers where it makes sense, particularly where it is landmark work and it is really important that other people know," Nevill-Manning said.

Rosing and Nevill-Manning were on a whirlwind recruitment drive, canvassing postgraduate students from RMIT and Melbourne University on Thursday night before presenting a seminar on Friday.

Google was in town to "assess the local talent", Rosing told the Thursday night gathering. "We could consider opening and looking for sites here. We're looking for a critical mass of talented people."

His audience was mainly software engineering students but the address also attracted some linguistics and statistics students - as well as those who sneaked out of work early in search of a new job with the dotcom star.

Later, Rosing told delegates he was using the night to gauge the viability of a local office and was "very excited" about the turnout of more than 200 people - the same number Google attracted to a similar night in New York.

He said Google will triple its workforce from, 700 to 2100, during the next 12 months.

The next day it was standing room only as Nevill-Manning addressed a 360-seat lecture theatre packed with Australia's industry and academic digerati - including representatives from Microsoft, Sensis and CSIRO - crammed alongside eager postgraduate students.

Google's consideration of an Australian research presence is "another tick in the box for Australia", said Australian Computer Society president Edward Mandla.

"Google is one of the companies that is leading in technology, and I think young Australians who are studying want to get their hands on the latest technologies and help develop the latest technologies.

"We've got to attract multinational companies here to set up research centres and to take advantage of Australia."

Victoria's Minister for Information and Communication Technology, Marsha Thomson, says Google's interest in Melbourne proves Victoria's ICT industry is on the right track.

"The recent Meta report found that Australia was second to India in attracting offshoring work from the US, and Google's interest is confirmation that we are achieving our goal of having a highly skilled ICT workforce," she says.

Source: F-2 Network

        

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