In order to offer elementary school and middle school students a summer vacation full of technology knowledge, Tainan City Educational Bureau and REDC partnered together offering “OPEN GOV, Happy Moving Forward”. This activity will encourage students in Tainan to care about the city and environment, and develop an international vision.
The director of Educational Bureau, Chen Siou-ping, believes that students need to get their hands dirty, and actually visit, record and analyze the city. Students also need to come up with a solution that will improve the appearance of the city. Chen believes that there are beauties in everyday life if you look closely, and she hopes that through this event, students can share what they discovered in their life with each other.
The chairperson of Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, Chao Ching-hui stated that in the past four years, Tainan City Government has been pushing open data. With the new open data policy, the city government ensures citizens’ right of knowing. We hope to gain trust from the citizens. Currently, citizens can even use the data provided by the government.
Chao also pointed out, in order to achieve real democracy, information need to be open to the public and allow citizens to join the decision making processes. There are three major policies: “Open Data”, “Open Service”, and “Open Decision Making”. With “Open Data”, citizens are able to gain information about tourist sites, city parks and so on; with “Open Service”, citizens are able to report all sorts of problems to the government; with “Open Decision Making”, citizens are able to affect government’s decision making and help carrying out the plans. This digital creative event will help students to stay creative and learn a lot of new knowledge, furthermore, it will let students understand the city and fulfill the spirit of citizen education.
The chief of the Information Center, Educational Bureau, Gao Jhih-jian, further explains this event. There are three kinds of activities in this event. The first is “I am a Reporter!”: with words, pictures and maps…etc, students need to offer a great news. The second kind is “I am a Director!”: students need to make a small film. The third kind is “I am an Organizer!”: With the open data platform, students need to design a useful application and present to the public. The winning application will be released to every citizen. We hope to demonstrate the “Open Government” idea with this events, and encourage students to speak for themselves, respect others and present ideas with creative ways.