EVENT
Register for our releasing event: Crowdsourcing Watch Bot and Visualization Platform for Monitoring Parliament’s Budget Review Process
As a citizen, have you ever felt puzzled about how members of parliament review government budget? Register for our releasing event for the Crowdsourcing Watch Bot and Visualization Platform for Monitoring Parliament’s Budget Review Process that we are co-developing with Citizen Congress Watch (CCW) and READr. The event will take place on Dec. 10, 18:30-21:00 at A747B Room, 7F, Center for Public and Business Administration, NCCU (No. 187, Jinhua St, Da’an District, Taipei City)! Please click here to register.
Democracy is in crisis globally. Some people have lost faith in democracy because they find it difficult to understand what parliament is doing. For example, the process by which the government’s budget is reviewed by parliament is often too complicated for citizens to understand. Similarly, when a member of parliament or their party decides to cut or freeze an item in the budget, citizens rarely have sufficient information about that. It is also difficult for citizens with different opinions to have a say.
This is why we are working with Citizen Congress Watch (CCW) and READr to develop the Crowdsourcing Watch Bot and Visualisation Platform to monitor Parliament’s budget review process.
This initiative aims to empower citizens to monitor how Parliament reviews the government budget. With the help of technology, every citizen can contribute in a simple way. They only need to operate the bot with their fingers to transform the budget amendment proposals released by Taiwan’s parliament in PDF file format into machine-processable data. We will then use this data to visualise which legislator proposes to cut, freeze or amend what, which government department’s budget is cut and by how much, and how much in total the different departments will be cut by.
Through this, we hope citizens will feel less powerless by knowing they are able to understand and improve the transparency of government and thereby regain their trust to democracy.
In this event, we will not only invite CCW and READr to introduce the initiative but also practitioners from the globe to share their projects for enhancing the transparency of parliament and government budget review process. Hope to see you there!
Tentative Agenda
18:30-18:40 | Opening Greetings
- Ya-wei Chou, Programme Manager, Global Innovation Hub, Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom
18:40-18:50 | What Stops Citizens from Overseeing how Parliament Reviews the Budget, and How Can Technology Help?
- James Kan, Deputy Executive Chief, Citizen Congress Watch
18:55-19:20 | Showcasing Crowdsourcing Watch Bot and Visualization Platform for Monitoring Parliament’s Budget Review Process
- James Kan, Deputy Executive Chief, Citizen Congress Watch
- Zoe Lee, Journalist, READr, Mirror Media
19:20-20:00 | Panel Discussion: Global Perspectives on How to Improve Transparency of Budget Review Process in the Parliament?
Enhancing the transparency of parliament is not a new topic, but when it comes to supervising the budget review process in parliament, citizens face some technical barriers. For example, knowledge of public budgets and accounting is a profession that takes a long time to learn; parliamentary procedures designed for budget reviews can also be complicated; and if parliamentary budget data is not structured and machine-readable, it hinders citizens from monitoring the review process. Current global trends of political polarisation and democratic backsliding also exacerbate the situation. What new challenges should we be aware of, and what new initiatives or ideas can we share?
- Moderator:
Ya-wei Chou, Programme Manager, Global Innovation Hub, Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom
- Panelist:
- Erika Owen, Co-founder, Open Parliament TV
- Thanisara Ruangdej, WeVis, Thailand
- David Cabo, Co-founder and co-director of Civio
- James Kan, Deputy Executive Chief, Citizen Congress Watch
- Zoe Lee, Feature Producer and Data Journalist, READr
20:00-20:30 | Questions and Answer Sessions for The Participants
20:30-21:00 | Networking Time
*We will offer English-Mandarin two-way simultaneous interpretation
About Our Speakers
David Cabo is the co-founder and co-director of Civio, an independent, Spanish non-profit newsroom dedicated to promoting transparency and accountability in public authorities. Since 2012, Civio has stood out for combining data journalism, advocacy, and strategic litigation to drive policy reforms and government accountability. Through information requests and extensive use of official sources, Civio regularly publishes exclusive investigations in critical areas such as healthcare and social services access, lobbying, procurement, public budgets, and algorithmic decision-making in government.
David holds a Master's degree in Software Engineering and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology. Prior to his focus on transparency and data journalism, he spent twelve years as a technology consultant and software developer in the corporate sector.
Thanisara Ruangdej (GG) is the CEO and Co-founder of WeVis, a civic technology group advancing Thailand's participatory democracy through open data. She pioneered Thailand's first tools for data-driven civic monitoring and participation in elections, parliamentary work, and the national budget by improving data accessibility and creating open spaces for public hearings. Beyond development, she collaborates with policymakers and politicians in parliamentary advisory roles to advocate for advanced policies in open parliament and the right to information. She also works with media, researchers, and civil society on advocacy initiatives and is an active member of international networks like the Asia Parliament Monitoring Network.
Zoe is a feature producer and data journalist at READr. She used to work as a weekly magazine journalist with no specific news focus, exploring a variety of topics. In 2017, she joined a team where over half of the members were web engineers and started developing a data-driven mindset. She enjoys the unrestricted nature of data journalism and feels like she is learning something new every day. Her work has been nominated for and received major domestic and international journalism awards, including the SOPA Awards and the Taiwan Sustainable News Award.
James Kan is a governance specialist and Deputy Executive Director at Citizen Congress Watch (CCW), Taiwan’s leading parliamentary monitoring organization. With over seven years of experience in legislative transparency and civic engagement, he participated in developing Taiwan’s first Open Parliament Action Plan and co-developed the Asia Parliamentary Transparency Index with partners across ten countries, advancing evidence-based monitoring frameworks and regional collaboration for accountable and open legislatures.
Erika Owens is Co-Director at Open Parliament TV. Previously, Erika was Co-Director at OpenNews, where she supported a thriving network and created inclusive, caring spaces for the journalism-tech community. Erika also serves on the board of Superbloom and the Movement Alliance Project, has trained as a donor organizer with Bread and Roses Community Fund, and recently completed a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University. She is based in Sheffield, UK and loves nonprofit journalism, people watching, and laughing heartily.
