Audrey Tang has been working on building a future of truly participatory digital democracy in Taiwan through open and transparent communication.
The use of technology and citizen engagement, including innovative tools like collaborative editing platforms and sentiment analysis, can strengthen democracy and solve societal issues in a transparent and inclusive manner.
Deep dives
Creating a Digital Democratic Future
The podcast episode discusses the failures of democracy in the digital world and offers a hopeful vision of a digital democratic future. It highlights the story of Taiwan, where the digital minister, Audrey Tang, has been working to build a listening society through open and transparent communication. The episode explores the use of technology and citizen engagement to strengthen democracy and solve societal issues. It emphasizes the importance of inclusive populism and the role humor plays in countering misinformation. The podcast also discusses the successful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan through digital tools and transparency.
Audrey Tang's Path to Public Service
Audrey Tang's journey into public service began when she helped facilitate open communication during student protests in Taiwan. She installed a system of communication in the occupied parliament that promoted transparency and responsiveness to public demands. This success led to the invitation to build a listening society in Taiwan. Audrey Tang's work focuses on using technology to amplify citizen voices, promote civic participation, and foster consensus building.
Innovative Tools for Democratic Decision-Making
The episode highlights the use of innovative tools in Taiwan's democratic processes. It mentions the WikipediA-style collaborative editing platform for legislation, which allows citizens to participate in lawmaking. The Polis platform enables consensus-building through sentiment analysis and visualization, sorting for unlikely consensus. The discussion also covers the use of open data and citizen-contributed sensors to address environmental issues and enhance public health measures. These digital tools promote transparency, inclusivity, and effective policy-making.
Lessons for Private Tech Companies and Government
The episode raises important lessons for private tech companies and governments worldwide. It emphasizes the need for private tech companies to prioritize responsible information sharing, combat disinformation, and focus on building trust and legitimacy. For governments, it encourages the adoption of digital tools and platforms that facilitate citizen engagement, transparency, and inclusive decision-making. The episode suggests that by incorporating these lessons, a digital democratic future that strengthens democracy and benefits society as a whole can be achieved.
[This episode originally aired on July 23rd, 2020.] Imagine a world where every country has a digital minister and technologically-enabled legislative bodies. Votes are completely transparent and audio and video of all conversations between lawmakers and lobbyists are available to the public immediately. Conspiracy theories are acted upon within two hours and replaced by humorous videos that clarify the truth. Imagine that expressing outrage about your local political environment turned into a participatory process where you were invited to solve that problem and even entered into a face to face group workshop.
Does that sound impossible? It’s ambitious and optimistic, but that's everything that our guest this episode, Audrey Tang, digital minister of Taiwan, has been working on in her own country for many years. Audrey’s path into public service began in 2014 with her participation in the Sunflower Movement, a student-led protest in Taiwan’s parliamentary building, and she’s been building on that experience ever since, leading her country into a future of truly participatory digital democracy.
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