[open-government] Open Government Data in Taiwan

Fri Apr 19 10:01:37 UTC 2013

Hi all,

Jonathan's article on Harvard Nieman Lab raised some serious discussion
among several friends and I think keeping the discussion in this thread
would be helpful to other stakeholders in this region (APAC) since we've
also learned a lot from other people!

http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/04/how-does-a-country-get-to-open-data-what-taiwan-can-teach-us-about-the-evolution-of-access/

1. Having journalists starting from the vey beginning

In places where data could not accurately reflect underlying bigger
problems, or lack of it hinders broader public participation in decision
making, we had to resort to journalists. In 2009 the emerging open data
communities started talking to smaller, vertical web media channels that
were more aware of the whole notion of open data and open government
movement across the globe, and it's also their interest to report events
organized focused on open data in Taiwan.

After 2 years, we gradually moved to bigger print media, and by that time
abundance of transparent discussions around policies, data portals,
technical standards and several key issues were already there that bigger
guys at media companies could allude to. At least enough reader traffic to
their website justified reporting activities.

2. The big splash happened in cities first

The City of Taipei launched open data portal in 2011, which was the
influence of lobbying from noticeable bloggers and that instantly created
huge interests among developers, especially app developers. An aggressive
rollout plan was carried including contests, incubation program and, one
event was aired on TV (I know you wouldn't believe it, sort of like
American Idol but just don't ask me how it ended...).

Even it was touted as a successful case but in reality it's not. Traffic
and usage to datasets were mostly from inquisitive developers, bloggers and
reporters. But it's not all unfruitful because this big splash accelerated
understanding of real challenges AND is cherished by a lot of stakeholders.
The portal is still alive and is under major transforming in 2013. And
since then Taichung and New Taipei has launched their own portals
accordingly.

3. Community events at very fast pace, and solid engagement with different
stakeholders

On average there is at least one event focused on open data on a weekly
basis in Taipei and some other cities are like one each month, with
different communities taking terms hosting. Privacy groups, start-up guys,
FOIA activists, FLOSS folks, academia, private and public companies.

I am not going to cover all activities in this email but this "agile"
method of public engagement, both done at depth and speed by the
communities was later adopted by Taiwan Computer Association (TCA), Three
open data seminars in last month along! And TCA is also kicking off Open
Data Alliance later this month. This is very unusual as such a large
association (they host Computex) typically wouldn't be nimble enough, but
serval of us are also involved so this create a "pipeline" of accelerated
engagement.

4. Open data policy, cabinet-level support in explicit forms

Workshops, seminars were hosted for government CIOs and IT personnels in
advance of data.gov.tw which is about to surface. A refined open data
regulation was passed on Open Data Day 2013, which was also the culmination
of studies from thinktanks, ministries and invited experts from
communities. Early last year Andrew (data.gov.uk) and Kathy Congrad (GSA)
was invited to give a talk here and that was really a strong push to quite
a lot of people.

Anyway I would like to give my gratitude to some really good journalists
for that they've helped us to frame the debate and the path we've chosen.

-- 

 TH Schee
Co-founder, FERTTA COMMUNICATIONS
M: +886-970-690294, +1-650-4884556
www.fertta.com | @scheeinfo
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