🪴 Quartz 4.0

Digital Social Innovation to Empower Democracy

Oct 18, 202310 min read

https://youtu.be/LscTx6DHh9I?t=416

Digital Social Innovation to Empower Democracy | Audrey Tang - social innovation - digital democracy

Section 1: Introduction and Early Life

  • I, like many people today working on advancing democracy, am an optimist. This strange condition began when I was 15 years old. It was 1996 and I discovered that the future of human knowledge was on the web, and all my textbooks were out of date. So, I told my teachers I wanted to quit school and start my education on the web. Surprisingly, all my teachers agreed with it. A year later, I founded my first startup of many, working on web technologies.
  • Section 1: Introduction and Early Life
  • I am an optimist, as many people today are working for democratic progress. This strange state of affairs began when I was 15 years old. It was 1996 and I discovered that the future of human knowledge was on the web and all my textbooks were outdated. So I told my teachers I wanted to quit school and start teaching on the web. To my surprise, all the teachers agreed. And a year later, I founded one of the first of many startups working on web technologies.

Section 2: Career and Role as Digital Minister

  • Today, as Taiwan’s first digital Minister, I’m putting into practice the lesson that I learned when I was 15 years old: radical transparency, civic participation, and rough consensus. Surprisingly, it’s working and it’s transforming our society.
  • Section 2: Career and Digital Ministerial Roles
  • Today, as Taiwan’s first Digital Minister, I am putting into practice the lessons I learned when I was 15: radical transparency, citizen participation, and rough consensus. Amazingly, it is working and transforming our society.

Section 3: Office and Work Style

  • I want you to look at my office. I’m a teleworking minister, so I can work from anywhere on earth, including here. But this place is special. I meet people every Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Anyone can come here and talk to me, as long as they agree for our conversation to be posted to the Internet. It’s called radical transparency.
  • Section 3: Office and Work Styles
  • Take a look at my office. I am a teleworking minister, so I can work from anywhere on the planet, including here. But this location is special. I meet with people every Wednesday from 10am to 10pm. Anyone can come here and talk with me, as long as they agree to our conversations being posted on the internet. It is called radical transparency.

Section 4: Co-creation and Social Innovation

  • This space itself is a co-creation of more than 100 social innovators who come to me and say, for example, a team of designers or artists, people with trisomy differences, with Down syndrome, and say they look at the world in a very different geometric lens. So how about we make their artwork real and install them as public installations of art?
  • Section 4: Co-Creation and Social Innovation
  • The space itself is a co-creation of over 100 social innovators who come to me, for example, a team of designers and artists, people with trisomy differences, people with Down syndrome. They say they see the world through very different geometric lenses. So why don’t we make their artwork a reality and install it as a public art installation?

Section 5: Self-Driving Robotic Visitors

  • We have had self-driving robotic visitors for three times now, each time for a month or so. These self-driving tricycles from the MIT Media Lab are open source and open hardware, meaning anyone with any knowledge of computer programming or hardware can tinker with them to fit what the society wants.
  • Section 5: Automated Robot Visitors
  • We have hosted automated robotic visitors on three occasions, each lasting about a month. These self-driving tricycles come from the MIT Media Lab and are open source and open hardware. This means that anyone with knowledge of computer programming and hardware can tinker with them as society desires.

Section 6: Social Innovation and Democracy

  • Our president, Dr. Tsai Ing-wen, said two and a half years ago at her inauguration, “Before, democracy was seen as a clash between two opposing values, but from now on, democracy must become a conversation between many diverse values.” In social innovation, we can develop business models that further the social environmental goals, and the government’s role has changed.
  • Section 6: Social Innovation and Democracy
  • Our President, Dr. Tsai Ing-wen, said two and a half years before she took office, “Democracy used to be seen as a clash of two opposing values, but now democracy must be a dialogue between diverse values. In social innovation, the role of government has changed as we are able to develop business models that promote socio-environmental goals.

Section 7: The Sandbox System

  • In Taiwan, we use a lot of very novel regulatory policy-making tools like the sandbox system that makes social innovation possible. A sandbox is essentially an innovator coming to us and saying, “I have this very interesting new idea. It could be about platform economy, could be about FinTech, it could be about self-driving vehicles, you name it.”
  • Section 7: Sandbox Systems
  • Taiwan uses many very new regulatory policy making tools such as the sandbox system. This allows for social innovation. A sandbox is basically an innovator coming to us and saying, “I think this is a very interesting new idea. It could be about the platform economy, it could be about fintech, it could be about self-driving cars, it could be about whatever you want to name it”.

Section 8: Discovering Regional Needs

  • I tour around Taiwan every couple of Tuesdays or so. On Wednesdays, people come to Taipei, our capital city, and on Tuesdays, I travel around Taiwan. The greatest thing about Taiwan is that we have broadband as a human right. So anywhere in Taiwan, if you don’t have 10 megabits per second of Internet bandwidth, it’s my fault.
  • Section 8: Finding Local Needs
  • I tour Taiwan every Tuesday. On Wednesday people come to Taipei, our capital, and on Tuesday I tour Taiwan. One of the most wonderful things about Taiwan is that we have broadband as a human right. So no matter where you are in Taiwan, if you don’t have 10 megabits per second internet bandwidth, it is my fault.

Section 9: Public Demonstrations and Consultations

  • Whenever we have a public demonstration of the self-driving vehicle or some green energy and things like that, we run a consultation to get each other’s feelings, whether this is acceptable to the society, the emerging technology, after a year.
  • Section 9: Public Demonstration and Consultation
  • Every time there is a public demonstration of a self-driving car, some green energy, etc., we do a consultation to get a mutual sentiment a year later as to whether this emerging technology will be acceptable to society.

Section 10: The Polis System

  • Usually, we run an AI-moderated conversation. This is called Polis. It’s anopen-source tool, meaning just like the self-driving vehicles, anyone can take and modify it to their liking. This is the consultation map that we had when we moderated the Uber case, the first case that I handled in 2015.
  • Section 10: Police System
  • Typically we have AI moderated conversations. This is called policing, it is an open source tool and like self-driving cars, anyone can handle and modify it however they want. This is the consultation map we had when I moderated the first case I handled in 2015, the Uber case.

Section 11: The Power of Consensus

  • Using Polis, we can see clearly that most people agree with most of their neighbors on most things. By giving people a reflection of the rough consensus they actually had, we can put those into regulation first, while tabling or deferring the legislation of the divisive issues.
  • Section 11: The Power of Consensus
  • With polices, we can clearly see that most people agree on most things with most of their neighbors. By giving people a reflection of the broad agreement they actually had, we can incorporate them into regulations first and defer or postpone legislation on divisive issues.

Section 12: The g0v Initiative

  • There is one of the largest civic technology community in Taiwan, called g0v. For each of the services of the public service that people don’t like or think is too boring, g0v made it so that they become an interactive map you can drill down to the particular budget item that you care about and have a real-time conversation.
  • section 12: g0v initiative
  • Taiwan has one of the largest civic technology communities called g0v. For each public service, g0v allows people to have real-time conversations about what they don’t like, find boring, or think is missing by making them into an interactive map, focusing on specific budget items.

Section 13: The Air Box Experiment

  • A recent example of g0v is the air box experiment. In Taiwan, people care about the air quality. About two thousand people individually purchased some small devices, IoT devices called air box, and it measures air quality for less than 100 euros.
  • Section 13: Air Box Experiment
  • A recent example of g0v is the airbox experiment. In Taiwan, people care about air quality. About 2,000 people individually purchased a small device, the Airbox, which is an IoT device and it measures air quality for less than 100 euros.

Section 14: The Presidential Hackathon

  • Every year we run a Presidential Hackathon. Everybody can propose any idea. Each idea is shuffled into a trilingual team of data scientists, domain experts, and public servants. Five teams every year win the prize of no money, they get a trophy from the president herself and a presidential promise that whatever the proof of concept is in the next fiscal year, our government will implement the idea as the public service.
  • Section 14: Presidential Hackathon
  • Every year we organize our Presidential Hackathon. Anyone can propose an idea. Each idea is shuffled into a trilingual team of data scientists, domain experts, and public officials. Each trilingual team then submits their pitch to the President at the end of the three-month co-creation process. Each year five teams receive awards and they get a trophy from the President himself. And that trophy is a projector. When you turn on the projector, it projects an image of the President himself handing you the trophy.

Section 15: Conclusion and Job Description

  • When we see Internet of Things, let’s make it an Internet of beings. When we see virtual reality, let’s make it a shared reality. When we see machine learning, let’s make it collaborative learning. Whenever we hear that a singularity is near, let us always remember the plurality is here. Thank you so much.
  • Section 15: Conclusion and Job Description
  • When we see the Internet of Things, let it be the Internet of Being. When we look at Virtual Reality, let’s make it Shared Reality. When we look at machine learning, let’s make it collaborative learning. When we talk about user experience, let’s make it about human experience. And whenever we hear that singularity is near, let’s always remember that plurality (Plurality) is here. Thank you very much.

This page is auto-translated from [/nishio/Digital Social Innovation to Empower Democracy](https://scrapbox.io/nishio/Digital Social Innovation to Empower Democracy) using DeepL. If you looks something interesting but the auto-translated English is not good enough to understand it, feel free to let me know at @nishio_en. I’m very happy to spread my thought to non-Japanese readers.

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