Event

Register for Civic Tech and Digital Citizenship Education Workshop Co-organized by g0v jothon and FNF before June 4!

G0v jothon, g0v Sch001, and FNF Global Innovation Hub will co-organize Civic Tech and Digital Citizenship Education Workshop Co-organized by g0v jothon and FNF in Berlin (Deutscher Caritasverband e.V. Haus der Deutschen Caritas, Reinhardtstraße 13, 10117 Berlin-Mitte) on June 5, 14:00-16:00 (GMT+2). Please click here to register before June 4!

*The language used in this event will be English.

Why Do We Hold this Workshop?

We use digital services provided by our governments every day; for example, tax filing systems, driving license applications, or flu or COVID-19 vaccination appointment systems. They make life convenient, but sometimes they could be badly designed and inaccessible to some citizens. In this scenario, citizens usually feel they are in a passive or disadvantageous position. The lack of technology expertise and opportunities to participate in the public procurement process to establish these public digital services deter citizens from using their voices to improve those services.

The participants will be required to follow The Chatham House Rule. Anyone can share anything that anyone said during the workshop, but everyone is not allowed to reveal the identity of who says that.

In addition, when technologies, such as AI and Web 3, are fast evolving and bring both positive and negative impacts to everyone, young people or even general citizens will need a new digital citizenship education that can empower them to harness these technologies. Such education should enable young people to use technologies to create digital solutions to problems in their lives and for social good and to understand and prevent the risks behind these technologies, such as cyber security, data protection, bias and malicious use of generative AI, addiction to social media, etc.

In order to tackle these problems with citizens, we are going to hold this workshop by sharing g0v, Taiwan’s biggest civic tech communities, and g0v Sch001’s successful practices with you.

Founded in 2012, g0v gathers people with technology expertise and people without technology background but with a strong commitment to democracy, freedom, human rights, environmental protection, and social good to co-build many successful digital solutions and collaborations with Taiwan’s government. For instance, vTaiwan, the digital participation platform for deliberation of technology laws and digital mask-map during the outbreak of COVID-19 are encouraging examples to show citizens and governments can work together to optimize the quality of public services and approaches for people’s participation. The “Thaubing Footprint environmental data visualization website,” initiated by the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance (GCAA)  and Disfactory Project initiated by Citizens of the Earth, Taiwan (CET), are examples of how civil society can actively make use of technology for their advocacy by collaborating civic tech communities such as g0v. Both are featured by FNF Global Innovation Hub’s Innovation for Democracy Cafe,

In addition, g0v also initiated g0v Sch001 in 2019, a borderless and free online “school” offering students digital citizenship education that may not exist in normal high schools. The g0v Sch001 has initiated around 65 courses to teach students what is AI, Web 3, NTF, DAO, and all kinds of emerging technology. Students will learn these technologies not only from the technical aspects but also from the aspects of democracy, privacy, human rights, project management, and collaboration, because g0v Sch001’s goal is to establish a comprehensive digital citizenship literacy education for students. Finally, students will not just passively listen to lectures, they will be invited to propose their civic tech projects for social good, and g0v will offer its professional members as mentors to incubate their projects.

What Can this Worksop Offer Me? 

You will be the first one in the European Continent to learn, use, operate, and contribute your ideas to g0v’s g0v Civic Tech Project & Community Handbook. The handbook not only records the experience of how g0v established its own community, all kinds of successful civic tech projects, and its models for collaborations with governments or civil society members. Furthermore, the handbook turned those experiences into operable and useful kits and checkboxes that everyone can use to guide themselves to establish their civic tech communities, civic tech projects, or collaborations with governments.

Also, founders and contributors of g0v Sch001 will come to the workshop to share their experiences and lead the discussion on what kind of new visions and contents of digital citizenship education we should provide to the youth and citizens. They also designed a new workshop kit for this workshop, and hope that you can offer your feedback to help them to improve the kit and make it globally and sustainably usable.

To sum up, Ms Isabel Hou, former chairperson of g0v jothon and one of the founders of g0v Sch001, and Ms Tiff Lin, contributor of g0v Sch001, will lead you and all the participants to learn how to:

1. Start your civic tech project/community with guidance.

2. Co-build the civic tech collaboration models within the community and government

3. Explore more possibilities to promote digital citizenship education 

The tentative agenda is as follows:

2:00-2:05    Introduction of FNF

 Céline Nauer, Project Advisor, FNF Global Innovation Hub

2:05-2:25   Development and Case Study of Civic Tech in Taiwan

 - g0v introduction

- The experience and impact of Taiwan government’s collaborations with civic tech community, the governments ‘policy about civic tech development, and the relationship between the government and civic tech community in Taiwan

- Sch001’sexperience of promoting digital citizenship education in Taiwan

Isabel Hou, co-founder of g0v Sch001 and former g0v jothon chair
Tiff Lin, Contributor of g0v Sch001

2:25-2:35    Q& A

2:35-2:45    Introduction of How We Are Going to Start Discussion

2:45-3:55    Group Discussion: 

The participants will be separated into two discussion groups to discuss the following questions:

• How does the government cooperate with the civic tech community/project in your country?
• How to develop a civic tech community/project?
• How to promote digital citizenship education?

3:55-4:05   Closing & workshop participation impact survey

Meet our speakers and facilitators

What Do I Need to Do in this Workshop?

Your participation and feedback will be a very important basis for g0v jothon and Sch001 to improve the g0v Civic Tech Project & Community Handbook and their new strategies for developing digital citizenship education. Until now, the Handbook only collects the experience and feedback from participants in Taiwan and Asia, and g0v jothon really hopes that they can collect the perspectives, experiences, and feedback on civic tech and digital citizenship education from European participants. Your feedback or any contribution of opinions and ideas will be anonymously collected, summarized, verified, and edited, and thus become the basis of new content to improve the Handbook and make it more usable in a global context.

Who Should Participate?

Anyone who wants to know how to make digital public services more participatory and transparent to the citizens, how citizens can use technology to create digital solutions for problems in society, democracy, freedom, and human rights, and who wants to enhance digital citizenship education for the youth and general citizens to help them navigate this era with fast-evolving technology development, please feel free to register.

However, due to the limitation of space, we may prioritize the following participants’ admission:

1. Civic tech community members, contributors, and participants, 

2. People working in government agencies; for example, civic servants in local government, directors in ministries related to digital topics, education, and digital democracy, and participation, and

3. Educators such as teachers in high schools or universities and trainers for digital citizenship education or digital literacy. 

If we still have spaces, we are happy to accept participants other than the above target audience.

However, please also note that due to space limitations, we will have to select participants.

We will send the confirmation email to accepted participants, and participants need to present the email to our colleagues on the event date as admission. Only participants with the confirmation emails will be allowed to enter. Therefore, please check your email box and register as early as possible.

How to Register?

Please fill in this registration form before June 4, 2024! Should you have any question, please email to yawei.chou@freiheit.org

Learn more: https://g0v.hackmd.io/@jothon/2024Berlinworkshop (Event page)