Fork The Government

There's a new and improved selection of premium Planet Money episodes available for listeners, and the show is asking for donations to keep producing high-quality economic edutainment. Howard Wu, a developer hacker in Taiwan, serves as an example of civic tech hackers who use their skills to solve public problems. In Taiwan, where residents must wait for garbage trucks to come to their homes, Wu created an app to track their locations and save people's time. This innovative solution highlights the impact of civic hackers and their dedication to improving communities. To support Planet Money and gain access to their top-tier content, consider making a donation at donate.npr.org/PlanetMoney.

Taiwan's innovative and proactive approach to addressing public problems, showcased through the creation of apps like Howard's mask tracker, has contributed significantly to their success in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. This "hacking" mentality, where existing systems are built upon and improved, has allowed Taiwan to stay mostly COVID-free since April, with only seven local deaths and 56 local cases. In contrast, the US, with a similar population, has had over a million cases and more than 20,000 deaths. Taiwan's success is not solely due to being an island, but rather their willingness to experiment with technology and take chances. The government even adopted Howard's garbage truck tracker and improved upon it. This innovative spirit, exemplified by Howard's apps, has become a symbol of Taiwan's unique approach to fighting the virus.

During the early stages of the epidemic in Taiwan, the government's response was inadequate, leading to a shortage of protective masks. In response, a man named Howard Wu created an app to help people find stores with available masks using Google Maps. The app quickly gained popularity, with over 600,000 users, even among government officials. However, the fee from Google for using their maps began to escalate rapidly, reaching $26,000. Instead of shutting down the app, Howard chose to ignore the bill, demonstrating the power of grassroots innovation and community collaboration during a crisis. This incident highlights the importance of effective crisis management and the potential for technology to facilitate information sharing and resource allocation in times of need.

The power of community and transparency can lead to significant solutions in times of crisis. Howard's experience with the mask shortage in Taiwan highlights this concept. When he faced an exorbitant bill from Google for using their map interface to crowdsource mask availability, he turned to his civic hacker network, GovZero, for help. Among the members was Audrey Tan, Taiwan's digital minister, who offered to negotiate Howard's bill and even suggested a better solution: giving civic hackers access to real-time pharmacy inventory data to create a more accurate and comprehensive mask map. This collaboration between the government and civic hackers ultimately led to the waiver of Howard's bill and the creation of a more effective mask map for the people of Taiwan. Audrey's background as a respected coder and advocate for transparency in government made her an invaluable asset in this situation. This story demonstrates the potential for community and transparency to lead to innovative and impactful solutions, even during challenging times.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Taiwanese government demonstrated exceptional innovation and trust in its citizens by collaborating with hackers to make pharmacy mask inventory public and implementing a digital quarantine system. Audrey Tang, a digital minister in Taiwan, played a pivotal role in bridging the gap between the government and hackers, leading to a virtual hackathon where over a thousand coders joined to create maps showing the availability of masks in real-time. The government's decision to trust civic hackers and make the data public showcased their faith in the community's goodwill and ability to contribute to solving the crisis. Additionally, Taiwan's proactive measures during the SARS outbreak 17 years ago, such as implementing a choice of quarantine locations and digital tracking of phones, further demonstrate the government's commitment to protecting its citizens and adapting to emergencies.

Taiwan's strict quarantine measures and commitment to fighting misinformation online have helped the country contain the COVID-19 virus effectively, resulting in minimal local transmission and economic growth during a time when many other economies were struggling. The fine for breaking quarantine, up to 33,000 US dollars, acts as a strong deterrent. The country's success can be attributed to its government's willingness to collaborate with civic tech hackers, something that is less prevalent in older democracies like the United States. Technologically capable, the US has the resources to implement similar tracking systems, but lacks the political will from high-level government officials to engage with civic hackers. Taiwan's approach to civic tech, particularly in younger and more flexible democracies, has proven effective in the fight against the virus.

The US government's approach to technology development and implementation is traditionally rigid, making it challenging for individuals to volunteer their tech skills without going through formal channels due to security concerns. However, this approach can limit innovative solutions, especially in the realm of civic tech. Taiwan's digital minister, Audrey Tang, advocates for citizens to "hack the government" to improve it, recognizing the value of technology-driven solutions. Despite privacy concerns, she supports time-limited and fair data collection during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. To support this kind of work, consider donating to your local NPR station at donate.mpr.org/planetmoney. This episode was produced by Alexi Horowitz-Gazi and James Snead, fact-checked by Irina Huang, supervised by Alex Goldmark, and edited by Brian Erstad. I'm Darien Woods, and I'm Sarah Gonzalez. This is NPR. Thanks for listening.