more information: https://en.ogpsummit.org/osem/conference/ogp-summit/program/proposal/247

1. e-Participation for Socially Disadvantaged People
Inclusion and diversity in Taipei’s Social Housing deliberation process
1

2. 2
Civic technologists not only, and shouldn’t only, own the technology.
They also have values they pursue and hold on to.
https://about.me/chiahua0515
Email chiahua0515@gmail.com
My experience: Moderated youth deliberative
forums, conducted government research projects in
deliberative democracy; organized internal
workshops for civil organizations and government
agencies; planned and moderated meetings of civic
participation and response to citizen’s demands.
LÜ, Chia-Hua

3. 3
1. Background
• Where the story
began
• My role: coming in as
the 3rd party
2. Barriers to participation
• Accessibility for the
mentally or physically
disabled
• Accessibility for the
general public
3. Barriers to communication
in the government
• Cross-agency
communication
• Dialog that comes back
and forth
• External communications
and responses: traffic light
4.Linking all these together
• Taking down the barriers:
more people needed

4. 4
1. Background
• Where the story began
• My role: coming in as 3rd party

5. Civic Participation
Council, Taipei City
Social Welfare
Department

6. Kick-off Meetings

7. Disadvantaged
Housing Criteria

9. Civil groups’ demand: besides the existing 10%
quota for low-income households, the extra 20%
quota agreed by the Taipei city gov should be
redistributed to minorities

10. Owners
wouldn’t
rent to
↓↓
Elderly lives
alone
Mentally
disabled
Single mom
…
Cannot afford
to rent
↓↓
Economically
disadvantaged

11. Owners
wouldn’t
rent to
↓↓
Elderly lives
alone
Mentally
disabled
Single mom
…
Cannot afford
to rent
↓↓
Economically
disadvantaged
How to distribute housing?
and avoid minorities
fighting against each other?

12. Tainan City Feiyan New Village
Open Decision Forum

13. Meetings moderated by 3rd party

14. Public hearing on the demolition of
historic Mitsui Warehouse, Taipei City
Taipei government Civic Participation Council
Council member from civil society(Chair)

15. Meeting moderated by 3rd Party

16. So…how to do?

17. 17
2. Barriers to participation
• Accessibility for the mentally or physically disabled
• Accessibility for the general public

18. 18
• Accessibility for the mentally or physically disabled
Standard set-up for full accessibility: Text broadcast,
audio transcription, simultaneous sign language
interpretation, audio/video broadcasting
• enable the disabled individuals to express
themselves

19. 1)Text broadcast
19
hackpad

20. 2)Audio transcribers
20
Big font,
Simultaneous,
Word-by-word

21. 3)Sign language
21
Two sign language
interpreters
taking turns

22. 4)Live broadcasting
22
YouTube streaming
Broadcaster

23. So, does that mean barriers don't
exist for the general public?

24. 24
• Accessibility required by the general public, for
everyone
• Together with moderated deliberation, the set-
up allows ordinary citizens to express themselves
without troubles
• A structure that integrates online and offline
deliberation

25. Taipei City Public Housing Distribution Forum
Focuses on minorities such Indigenous and the force-evicted households

26. Meeting moderated by 3rd party

27. Non-stop clarification with participants
Record and compile ideas that are
agreed and disagreed
Coordinating with
sign language interpreter and
audio transcriber
Taipei City Public Housing Protected Distribution
Mechanism for Special Identities (May 29, 2016)

28. Finally, confirming the overall conclusion

29. Cross-agency meeting

30. After the second meeting…
Social Bureau decides
1. Mixed-reality procedure
2. Cross-agency task forces
3. “Hackfoldr” shared bookmarks
One Internal
One External

31. “Hackfoldr”
https://goo.gl/ewP3xh

32. Diamond-shaped Offline-to-Online
Mixed-reality flow

33. Working
Group
Preparatory
Meetings
(Initial Options)
F2F Mixed-
reality
meetings
Online Forum
Consensus
Meeting

34. Local governments collect opinions via
Central government’s (National Development
Council) online platform

35. Besides these, there’s also…

36. Government officials
explaining policies and
deliberation process
in simple words via online
video clips

37. Making the background info public via internet
software with ongoing updates

38. Survey results: stakeholders’ attitude on
this topic→ Open data

39. Agenda Extension

40. Facts for Media

41. “Weak-Weak Empathy”
I bought a small studio in Taipei when I was 24. My son and I lived in the small
studio for over thirty years. It’s an old building so I wanted to take the
opportunity to switch to a better place. But with a kid it was impossible. Those
force eviction problems caused by urban renewal projects in Taipei are just
horrible. The government shouldn’t wait until people protest against it to
handle the problems. Governments come and go, nothing was fixed. When
you take a look, nothing is done in a sophisticated way. This topic is even more
challenging for the mentally and physically disabled community. We
indigenous are minority. But after I heard their problems, I no longer have
intention to fight for the rights to public housing. I feel sad for them. I support
them to get what they deserve to get. Thank you.
Taipei City Public Housing Protection for special identity distribution mechanism civic deliberation
structure

42. 42
3.Barriers to communication in the government
• Cross-agency internal communications
• Dialog that comes back and forth
• External communications and responses

43. Green light
Government agreed &
committed to work on
Yellow light
Need cross-agency
discussion to confirm
Red light
Cannot do this in short
term
Discuss and adjust
every 6 months

44. 44
4.Linking all these…
• Taking down the communication barriers:
need more people to engage in the process

45. Overall:
Accessibility such as text
broadcast and audio transcript
But...true accessibility relies on
how the moderated deliberation is
done and how the online and
offline participation are integrated.

46. Together with the stakeholders
(groups) participation is the key
to long term success
Effective civic participation
requires long term support
and commitment from the
government
Civic participation not only
refers to the Public, so called
non-specific majority
It is ideal, and also one of
the aspects of civic
participation

54. ↓↓
On different topics, at different policy stages,
the relations between the general public,
the stakeholders (or concerned groups),
and the government (possible different opinions
internally) are different.

55. Cannot be solved
by a digital module or internet platform
Not a tech or SOP level problem
↓↓
Need:
Fundamental path shifting
Not only on the tech or tool level
But also
3rd party streamlining
internal-internal & external-external
communications

56. • Difficulties in existing administrative procedure (public hearing,
hearing, environmental impact assessment, urban planning,
cultural assets review, councils) or the administrative routine
• Government’s administrative procedures, lengthy procedures,
level of automation, oversight and evaluation, budgeting,
appointment…etc.
↓↓
• Hard to reach agreement in F2F meeting?
• Internet becomes the fast track?
• How can civic tech integrate with existing admin procedures?
↓↓
• Participation stage working towards the policy development
• Facing government internal operating issues
• 3rd party engagement: different from the government

57. 57
Thank you for your attention
I wish to acknowledge the team from Social Welfare Department
of Taipei City Government and participants from all fields
for the collaboration and Taiwan National Development
Council for creating the internet participation platform
I’d like to acknowledge the contribution of Peggy on the
structure of the presentation and Audrey’s assistance in submitting
the abstract, and Sho’s assistance in translation.