Technology and Social Innovation: A Conversation With Taiwan's Digital Minister Audrey Tang

Schedule

Thursday, March 25, 2021
7 p.m. Moderated Discussion
7:40 p.m. Audience Q&A — Questions welcome via YouTube Live or Facebook Live

Sign up to receive a reminder email about this program:

Sign Up

As countries around the world struggle to handle the coronavirus pandemic, Taiwan stands out as a relative success story with low numbers of locally transmitted cases and only seven deaths in the entire country. One year into the outbreak, Taiwan has fewer than 900 officially confirmed cases, of which a vast majority were imported rather than domestic. A key figure in Taiwan's response, digital minister Audrey Tang attributes the country's success in combating the pandemic to creative use of technology, social innovation, and cooperation throughout the society.

There are many lessons other countries can learn from Taiwan, beyond how to better prepare for the next pandemic or another global crisis. Taiwan's experience with social innovation can serve as an example in new possibilities in deploying "civic tech" to challenge disinformation, encourage trust in the government, and better organize public behavior.

Join Asia Society for a conversation with Audrey Tang, Taiwan's Digital Minister, on the need for digital democracy and open government — and how those very concepts serve the social innovation that helped Taiwan combat the coronavirus.

Audrey Tang is Taiwan’s digital minister in charge of Social Innovation. Audrey is known for revitalizing the computer languages Perl and Haskell, as well as building the online spreadsheet system EtherCalc in collaboration with Dan Bricklin. In the public sector, Audrey served on Taiwan national development council’s open data committee and the 12-year basic education curriculum committee; and led the country’s first e-Rulemaking project. In the private sector, Audrey worked as a consultant with Apple on computational linguistics, with Oxford University Press on crowd lexicography, and with Socialtext on social interaction design. In the social sector, Audrey actively contributes to g0v (“gov zero”), a vibrant community focusing on creating tools for the civil society, with the call to “fork the government.”

Moderator information will be announced.

Asia Society hosts today's leading voices, providing commentary on events in news, society, and culture. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect Asia Society views.

Asia Society Texas Center Business & Policy Programs, Endowed by

Huffington Foundation

Business and Policy programs at Asia Society Texas Center are presented by Bank of America, Muffet Blake, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and United Airlines. Major support comes from Nancy C. Allen, Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen, Nancy Pollok Guinee, and Mary Lawrence Porter, as well as The Brown Foundation, Inc. and Houston Endowment. Additional funding is provided by the Friends of Asia Society Texas Center, a dedicated group of individuals and organizations committed to bringing the best in public programming.

Business & Policy Presenting Sponsors

About Asia Society at Home

We are dedicated to continuing our mission of building cross-cultural understanding and uplifting human connectivity. Using digital tools, we bring you content for all ages and conversations that matter, in order to spark curiosity about Asia and to foster empathy.

About Asia Society Texas Center

With 13 locations throughout the world, Asia Society is the leading educational organization promoting mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships among the peoples, leaders, and institutions of Asia and West. Asia Society Texas Center executes the global mission with a local focus, enriching and engaging the vast diversity of Houston through innovative, relevant programs in arts and culture, business and policy, education, and community outreach.