The Technology and Public Purpose (TAPP) Project works to ensure that emerging technologies are developed and managed in ways that serve the overall public good. What unique opportunities and responsibilities do the public, private, and social sectors have in this collective goal? What can governments do beyond reactive regulation? What business models and practices should startups be pursuing? What strategies can civil society use to bring more voices to the table? Are some norms and practices transferable across sectors? Which aren't?
Join TAPP Project Fellow, Rebecca Williams, in conversation with Taiwan's Digital Minister, Audrey Tang, to discuss their lessons learned from advocating for participatory technologies across sectors in the United States and Taiwan.
About the Speakers
Audrey Tang is a software programmer known for revitalizing the computer languages Perl and Haskell and for building the online spreadsheet system EtherCalc in collaboration with Dan Bricklin. She served on Taiwan's National Development Council's Open Data committee and K-12 curriculum committee, and she led the country's first e-Rulemaking project. She has also worked as a consultant with Apple on computational linguistics, with Oxford University Press on crowd lexicography and with Socialtext on social interaction design. She actively contributes to g0v ("gov zero"), a vibrant community that focuses on creating tools for the civil society with the call to "fork the government."
Rebecca Williams is a Fellow with Belfer Center's Technology and Public Purpose Project where she is researching threats to civil liberties posed by "smart city" technologies. Rebecca has previously worked on data policy and management at the local, federal, and international level for the White House Office of Management and Budget’s Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer, Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Government Excellence, General Services Administration’s Data.gov, and the Sunlight Foundation. She holds a B.A. in Communication from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a J.D. from Western New England University School of Law.
