The Executive Yuan will be hosting a conference at 9 a.m. on April 28 at the Taipei International Convention Center to gather the public's input on the preliminary draft of Taiwan's white paper on smart Internet.
Vice Premier Chang San-cheng will be presenting a special report and hosting general discussions, while Executive Yuan ministers without portfolio will be conducting small group meetings in their respective fields. The Executive Yuan will also invite representatives from industries, schools, think tanks, civic groups, online communities, and central and local governments to discuss the white paper.
The meeting will be attended by some 240 participants from local governments and civic groups for social welfare, culture and environmental protection. These include the pro-transparency website g0v.tw; the Association of Digital Culture, Taiwan; and the TaiwanRich association for entrepreneurship.
The white paper took over three months to compile, said the Executive Yuan. Through a combined "virtual and physical" approach, the National Development Council (NDC) has been using a public policy online participation platform to solicit feedback from netizens while linking with other social media platforms (such as vTaiwan and Facebook). Thirteen physical meetings have also been held to gather public input on five major topics contained in the white paper. With contributions from ministers without portfolio, scholars and experts in the field, online communities and government officials, the preliminary draft of the white paper has been completed and will be discussed and confirmed at tomorrow's meeting.
To bridge the distance between online users and in-person participants, the conference will be streamed live on the LIVEhouse.in service. A message board will also be available during the event to facilitate interactions and exchanges. Citizens are welcome to "participate via keyboard," whether by personal computer, tablet or smartphone.