New Orleans Tamsui is virtually at the end of the line for the vaunted trains of Taiwan to the north of the island, but still hardly an hour outside of Taipei. Nonetheless, the Organizers Forum jumped at the chance to get out of town, if that’s what it took to meet with Audrey Tang, who enjoys a global reputation as a practitioner and philosopher of the role of the internet in politics and public life especially from her time as the first digital minister for Taiwan.
In preparation for the meeting, I read her open-sourced and collaboratively written book, Plurality: The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy. It is an interesting read. Taiwan’s embrace of democracy after martial law ended less than forty years ago and includes the utilization of referenda to determine the will of the people. One highlight reel from the book included more than a half-dozen ways that technology and the internet could be used simply and quickly to determine citizen preferences in full-scale or mini-referenda. Tang argues that there is functionally no digital divide in Taiwan, meaning that virtually everyone has full access to broadband internet, unlike the experience for many lower-income and minority populations in North America. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t techno-ableist issues between the digital native and current generations compared to the post-war and martial law generation, but the possibilities are immense if access and ability can be made equitable to achieve this kind of technological optimism. I could go on and on, but read the book and support the cause.
Much of our dialogue over several enjoyable hours was all over the map. We were especially fortunate that Tang brought her father to our meeting, who added immensely to our conversation. Tang’s parents had also cut a broad swath across the country. Her father had pioneered in advancing the role of community colleges and was a retired professor. Her mother had been a key founder and leader within the so-called Homemakers Union, which carved a critical role even during martial law in environmental and consumer advocacy, which continues now as well. Given this robust history, it was not surprising to hear the senior Tang express his concerns that current Taiwanese generations don’t understand the immense value and need to protect freedom, so hard won after martial law.
Ministers in Taiwan are nonpartisan, as opposed to US cabinet or Canadian ministers. Tang held the post for seven-and-half-years. Her portfolio was broad, dealing with security challenges and hacking from China to the radio spectrum and more. She described it as two-headed, running and advancing the digital infrastructure and applications in the country, but also continually making the case in the Parliament for funding. She argued that was possible to balance during the pandemic because so much of the work could be done remotely on Zoom. With the end of the pandemic, when she had done an estimated 2000 zoom panels, she could see how the job was impossible if she met the both the demands for constant travel to promote the country and its digital programs with the need to also be available to serve parliament. She is now barred by ethics rules for ministers from being part of any for-profit or commercial startup for the next several years. She has lots of offers to speak around the world, but resists all of the travel, as well as academic offers by the score, but most outside of Taiwan. She has been accepted as a fellow to several programs, so unlikely to starve obviously, but clearly needs a big nonprofit organization or foundation to call home to do the work she knows how to do.
Perhaps it was the relaxed time or the setting in a small coffeehouse back room near the train station or the presence of her father or our insistent questions, but it was hard to end the session even after two-and-half-hours. She seemed as interested in our work and perspectives, as we were in hers about everything under the sun.
Later, we all remarked at the frequency of cash-only operations and restaurants in Taipei, why digital payment systems and credit cards were so aggressively resisted. We wished we had asked Tang about that. Meeting with a large radio station operator, we were surprised to learn that none of the radios were transmitting digitally, despite how common that is in the US, even if the listener ship to still finding these niches. Spectrum had only come to Tang’s portfolio late in her tenure, and she seemed to almost argue that terrestrial broadcasting was passé, which surprised us when asking about noncommercial licenses. We wished we had asked more about this.
From such a rich dialogue, we’ll all be thinking of questions and topics we wish we could continue discussing with Audrey Tang even when our visit to Taiwan is a long time in the rearview mirror.
