Asia Society panel

Examples:

• moedict: gov don’t need to do everything
• election candidate campaign finance digitization
  • first batch: 300k entries, cleared by 10k people within 24hrs
  • impact: foundation for further analysis
• digitization of amis dictionary <-> (English, French, Mandarin), integrated into moedict

Scale: O(1,000) participants

Social movements: 318 Sunflower movement

 - participants can take initiatives on anything he/she is interested in

   - example: contents of service trade deal

   - take away: openness -> collaboration (even among people with different political views / standings / etc)

• challenges: consensus forming, decision making.
  • example: Madrid, 

• http://vtaiwan.tw/: a place for citizens to voice their opinions, form consensus, interact with government organizations, and affect the legislation.
  • example: laws regarding crowd funding with stocks https://vtaiwan.tw/crowdfunding/
  • how to minimize troll?  embedded pol.is for discussion threads
  • potential bias due to digital divide? an open question

6PM  San Francisco

cast live streaming the event

panelist: 

founder of code for india

pakistan: asha risky

code for america: nicole

• introduction of host and panelist
• program manager of berkeley
• each panelist: a few min talking about their organization
• 20 - 25 min discussion
• breakout session: 
• wine & cheese: end at 7:45pm

conference call ~ 25 May

• logistic info
• suggested moderator question

bio: 100 - 200 words

check with clkao: can I be listed as "g0v"?

slides with photos

Questions asked in the panel web page

• What are the mechanisms through which civic hackers bring about social transformation?
  • 我認為至少有兩類機制： （1） 藉由技術降低參與門檻、網路效應擴大市民參與，量變造成質變。（例： campaign financials OCR） （2） 用技術展示可能性，推動政府和社會的演進。（例： moedict）
• What is the impact across the world and, in particular, in Asia?
  • In Taiwan: with a prime minister Simon Chang who’s previously a Googler promoting open data

Suggested moderator questions

1) What is the philosophy, aim and genesis of civic hacking? Generally speaking, what are the goals of civic hacking? To get the conversation started, I would offer these goals: to engage people in their respective communities, connect a global network, and increase government efficiency. What can we add to that list?

• philosophy, aim and genesis:
  • Philosophy: Nobody will do it. Admit it, you’re nobody!
  • Aim: g0v 沒有特別瞄準什麼東西做吧？誰哪裡癢、誰開始搔哪裡的癢。
  • Genesis: Government’s blunt and non-transparent ads「全速展開中」
• 我覺得 "engage people in their respective communities" 蠻符合 g0v 的。
• 個人認為 “connect a global network” 不是目標，而是讓大家互相學習借鏡的過程。
• 與其說 "increase government efficiency"， "government transparency" 似乎是大家更關心的？
• 其他目標？

2) Given the breadth of the panel, let’s discuss hacking across the globe. What campaigns and projects have been successful in your respective countries? What are some examples of successful projects at each organization, and what did you hope to achieve? I’m curious to learn how the campaigns differ across borders and how their success is impacted by cultural factors.

• moedict: government don’t need to do everything themselves (政府想太多的情形）
• election candidate campaign finance digitization: government may only want to do the minimum (政府只求有的情形）
  • first batch: 300k entries, cleared by 10k people within 24hrs （人肉 OCR: 志工版的 mechanical turk）
  • impact: foundation for further analysis
• digitization of amis dictionary <-> (English, French, Mandarin), integrated into moedict

3) Continuing on the vein of cultural differences, the notion of innovation differs from country to country and is quite contextual. Can you elaborate upon the social context in which your organization operates, and how/why tech-based activism arose as a solution?

TW is unique is two ways that made the active civic hacking community possible:

• past decade: open source advocate (~10 conferences each year on open source related topics. COSCUP the largest one is ~2000 people last year)
• constant political crisis amid excellent internet penetration

4) To continue with our discussion of social contexts, what challenges and opportunities exist in different civil societies and why?

5) With the rise of technology-based civic engagement, what local shifts, changes, or adaptations have you witnessed?

• a few regulation debates happened on vtaiwan platform, both online and offline

• 6) One could assume that the coders are drawn from the elite communities...how do you deal with the lack of experience and engagement they may have with the poor or marginalized communities?

• outreach from the tech community is indeed limited, however the g0v hackathons encourage NGOs to participate, who generally have better understanding of issues from different communities.

7) How far are women engaged in these movements as coders. How do you promote it, and what implications does the lack of participation have on the products that get created?

8) What are the limits of civic hacking? What are some challenges it can really be productive in?

9) If you are permitted, can you fill us in on your current or future projects?