SAN-CHENG (SIMON) CHANG
Chairman
Taiwan Mobile Foundation
From Open Data to Digital Economy
In late 2012, Taiwan initiated its open data program. In 2015, Taiwan was ranked No.1 globally in the open data initiative by the UK Open Knowledge Foundation (okfn) and carries this world-class honor till today. In the meantime, the Taiwan government started to employ big data technology to study and plan important policies. This effort leads most of the big data projects in the private sector and was recognized as a major milestone in government IT applications.
AI, after dormant for some years, was revived due to the big data technology and processing capabilities of enhanced IT hardware. As the stronghold of world IT hardware supplier for decades, the Taiwan industry, on the other, hand lacks the foundation of good IT application development and is facing tremendous challenge in the upcoming AI era. But building on its successful foundation of government open data and big data applications, Taiwan has a chance to embrace and prepare itself for innovative AI applications in the coming years. Taiwan needs to understand the strategies of major global enterprises in AI development and plan accordingly its policies and actions. The government also needs to work out the plan to interact with and leverage the strength of these enterprises and prepare necessary infrastructures. With intelligent policies and solid implementation, Taiwan would be able to play an important role in the digital economy age.
In late 2012, Taiwan initiated its open data program. In 2015, Taiwan was ranked No.1 globally in the open data initiative by the UK Open Knowledge Foundation (okfn) and carries this world-class honor till today. In the meantime, the Taiwan government started to employ big data technology to study and plan important policies. This effort leads most of the big data projects in the private sector and was recognized as a major milestone in government IT applications.
AI, after dormant for some years, was revived due to the big data technology and processing capabilities of enhanced IT hardware. As the stronghold of world IT hardware supplier for decades, the Taiwan industry, on the other, hand lacks the foundation of good IT application development and is facing tremendous challenge in the upcoming AI era. But building on its successful foundation of government open data and big data applications, Taiwan has a chance to embrace and prepare itself for innovative AI applications in the coming years. Taiwan needs to understand the strategies of major global enterprises in AI development and plan accordingly its policies and actions. The government also needs to work out the plan to interact with and leverage the strength of these enterprises and prepare necessary infrastructures. With intelligent policies and solid implementation, Taiwan would be able to play an important role in the digital economy age.