September 17: Innovating Citizen Engagement: Taiwan’s Leadership in Civic Technology | Global Taiwan Institute

Tuesday, September 17, 2024 from 12:00PM – 1:30PM (EDT)

In-person and Webcast

Event Description:

The Global Taiwan Institute (GTI) is pleased to invite you to a panel discussion entitled “Innovating Citizen Engagement: Taiwan’s Leadership in Civic Technology.” Taiwan’s civic technology community is at the forefront of defending democracy amid growing threats from disinformation and political interference from China. Through groundbreaking digital solutions, grassroots initiatives, and collaborative efforts, Taiwanese citizens are not only safeguarding democratic values ​​but also promoting public engagement and transparency. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan has demonstrated extraordinary cooperation between the central and local governments, the private sector, and civil society. This unified effort is essential in making masks, organizing quarantine facilities, securing vaccines, and addressing misinformation. Tools developed by civic technology activists, such as the “Aunt Meiyu” chatbot, have played an important role in helping citizens identify fake news. Such achievements have garnered international recognition and acclaim, and made Taiwan a model for other democracies resisting authoritarian pressure.

This event will highlight the critical role of these innovative technologies in strengthening democratic processes and addressing Taiwan’s security challenges. Attendees will hear from leading experts and practitioners about transformative projects that are setting new global standards for civic tech. Join us to gain insights into how these advances are reshaping the future of democracy and public participation, in Taiwan and the wider world.

The event will be live-streamed via YouTube beginning Tuesday, September 17 at 12:00 PM EDT. Questions for the panel can be sent by e-mail to contact@globaltaiwan.org, or through the chat function on YouTube. Please direct questions or concerns to GTI Program Manager Adrienne Wu at awu@globaltaiwan.org.

The Panelists:

Ipa is co-founder of g0v.tw, a civic tech community in Taiwan since 2012. He is a documentary writer and director. He has focused on citizen engagement and public participation for the past 12 years within the g0v community, promoting online collaboration through open source culture between civil society and public institutions. He will publish his second book at the end of 2024, which is about his sociologist father and the intellectual community during Taiwan’s democratization process in the 1990s.

Richard Haddock is the assistant director at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at George Washington University. He is also a member of the UC Berkeley US-Taiwan Next Generation Working Group, where he is conducting a research project on the current state and future prospects of Taiwan Studies in the United States. He has also held positions on the Asia team of the National Democratic Institute, the American Institute in Taiwan’s Public Diplomacy Section, and the US Department of State. Mr. Haddock is currently pursuing a PhD in Public Policy and Public Administration at The George Washington University, focusing on digital democracy and e-governance development in the Asia-Pacific. He holds an MA in Asian Studies from the Elliott School, with a concentration in the domestic politics and foreign policy of East Asia. He graduated from the University of Central Florida with a BA in Political Science and minors in Asian Studies and Diplomacy.

Carol Hsu is currently a senior software engineer at Oyster. Prior to his position at Oyster, he worked as a product manager and engineering manager at Gogolook. In this position, she led the development of the LINE fact checking bot, “Auntie Meiyu” (美玉姨). Auntie Meiyu helps hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese to distinguish between true and false information on LINE. He is also pursuing his MBA at the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester.

June Lin is the senior program manager for Asia-Pacific programs at the National Democratic Institute (NDI), overseeing the institute’s Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Asia-Pacific regional programs to counter China’s illiberal influence. With over eight years of experience in the non-profit sector in the US and Taiwan, Ms. Lin his efforts in the sector of democracy, rights, and governance as an activist in the 2014 Taiwan Sunflower Movement. In 2016, Ms. moved. Lin in the United States and joined the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) as a policy expert focusing on US-Taiwan relations. Before joining NDI, he worked at Freedom House and the International Republican Institute (IRI), focusing on supporting civil society actors in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Uyghur communities. In her personal capacity, Ms. Lin also serves as the Board Secretary of the Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC), and as an advisor to the Doublethink Lab (DTL).

The Moderator:

Ben Levine is a program assistant at the Global Taiwan Institute. He graduated from George Washington University with an MA in Chinese Language and Culture. Ben received his BA from Boston University majoring in international relations, with a functional concentration in international economics and a regional concentration in Asia. Previously, Ben was awarded a fellowship from the Taiwan Education and Research Program at GWU to research Taiwan defense policy and hypothetical US responses. He was also awarded the Huayu Enrichment Scholarship in August 2022, allowing him to spend 9 months in Taipei at National Chengchi University studying Mandarin. His research focuses on Taiwan’s defense policy and various social and economic issues in Taiwan.