Open Source Community and g0v

30-second overview: In 2012, because the government spent a lot of money producing an uninformative advertisement, a group of engineers decided to "fork the government" — changing gov.tw to g0v.tw and redesigning what the government should look like. Eight years later, when COVID-19 broke out, these "amateur" programmers built a mask map in 72 hours, allowing all of Taiwan to query in real time which of 13,000 pharmacies had mask inventory. This was not a government achievement — it was a citizen's victory.

On some night in October 2012, Kao Chia-liang sat in front of his computer watching the government's "Economic Momentum Boost Plan" advertisement, getting angrier by the minute. The government had spent over 40 million NT producing the promotional video, but the content was so hollow he had to wonder: would it have been more meaningful to just throw that money into a drain?

That night, he made a decision that would change Taiwan: if the government can't do it right, we'll do it ourselves.

He changed the "o" in the government's domain name gov.tw to a "0," making it g0v.tw. This simple wordplay symbolized a brand-new concept: fork the government. Like open-source software — if the original version has problems, fork a branch and rewrite a better version yourself.

Forking the Government: A Digital-Era Civic Experiment

g0v is not about overthrowing the government, but about running "parallel" to it — using open-source collaboration to reimagine what government services should look like.

December 2012: The zeroth g0v hackathon was held at Academia Sinica with over 40 participants. The first project rescued the government's "Central Government General Budget" from PDF hell, turning it into an interactive visualization website.

The government's original budget book was a 500-plus-page PDF, dense with numbers and tables that ordinary people couldn't possibly parse. g0v volunteers reorganized this data into interactive charts — click once and you can see where the government is spending your tax money.

📝 Curator's note
g0v's first project choosing to visualize the government budget was no coincidence. The budget is the core of democratic politics — what the government does with citizens' money is something citizens have a right to know. But traditional budget books are designed to be incomprehensible. g0v used technology to crack this "deliberate opacity."

This small experiment proved one thing: government doesn't do it doesn't mean it can't be done. It just means no one has done it yet.

The Sunflower Movement: A Show of Force for Civic Technology

On the night of March 18, 2014, students occupied the Legislative Yuan. The next morning, g0v volunteers appeared on the scene — not to protest, but to "build infrastructure."

No one organized, no one commanded. g0v community participants voluntarily did these things:

• Live streaming: Set up multi-camera live streaming systems so the whole world could see what was happening inside the chamber
• Information integration: Established hackfoldr folders to collect, organize, and verify various information circulating online in real time
• Crowd collaboration: Set up collaborative note-taking systems so citizens not on the scene could also participate in data collection and fact-checking
• External outreach: Provided real-time multilingual translation so international media could immediately understand protest demands

24 days of occupation, fully broadcast in high definition, without a single dropout. In 2014 this was an inconceivable technical achievement. Facebook Live didn't exist yet; YouTube streaming wasn't widespread either — but g0v volunteers using open-source tools had built a live streaming system more stable than professional media.

More importantly, they proved the power of "transparency." Because of real-time broadcasting, everyone could see what was happening inside the chamber, making it impossible for the government to distort events. This model of "using technology to monitor the government" was later studied and imitated by citizen movements around the world.

The Mask Map: A 72-Hour Miracle

In early February 2020, COVID-19 broke out in Taiwan. The government announced a mask real-name purchase system, allowing each person to buy 2 masks per week. The problem: where to go to buy them? Which pharmacies still had inventory?

February 6: Digital Minister Audrey Tang (herself a g0v founding member) announced that the government would release inventory data from 13,000 contracted pharmacies across Taiwan, updated every 30 minutes.

February 8: The first mask map went online.
February 9: Over 100 different versions of mask maps appeared.

These were not projects the government commissioned to tech companies — they were the result of programmers across Taiwan "voluntarily working overtime." Everyone wanted to do their part for epidemic prevention, and what programmers could do was write code.

The most popular versions included:

• Taiwan Mask Map by Howard Wu: Clean, clear map interface
• Are There Masks Left? by netizen kiang: Integrating pharmacy reviews and business hours
• Where to Buy Masks by Finjon Kiang: Supporting voice query functionality

Within 72 hours, Taiwan had the world's most comprehensive mask inventory query system. While citizens of other countries were still queuing up to buy masks, Taiwanese people could already check on their phones how many masks were left at the nearest pharmacy.

⚠️ Contested perspective
Some criticized the government for "outsourcing responsibility to volunteers" and letting the public build the system for free. But the g0v community's response was direct: we weren't exploited by the government — we actively chose to contribute our skills back to society. Moreover, the open-source mask maps were more user-friendly, more innovative, and better matched to user needs than systems the government built itself.

The Magic of Open-Source Collaboration

g0v's operating model is simple: no bosses, no employees, no budget, no office. What it has is a group of people willing to use technology to solve social problems, plus a culture of open-source collaboration.

Hackathon Culture

A large hackathon (dà sōng) is held every two months; participants propose ideas, form teams, and build on the spot. The process is:

1. Three-minute pitch: Anyone can take the stage to present an idea
2. Free team formation: Interested people can join a project
3. On-site implementation: Start building the same day
4. Result presentation: Share the day's progress in the afternoon

No one is rejected, no idea is dismissed. The only requirement: projects must be open-source so others can continue improving them.

Collaboration Tools

• Slack channels: Daily discussion and information sharing
• GitHub: Code management and version control
• HackMD: Collaborative documents and meeting records
• Trello: Project management and progress tracking

Three Core Principles

1. Open source: All project code, data, and documentation is public
2. Decentralization: No hierarchy; anyone can start a project
3. Action over talk: "Talk is cheap, show me the code"

💡 Did you know
The g0v community has a tradition: every hackathon prepares "little squirrel" stickers. If it's your first time attending, you get a little squirrel sticker. This design hints: even if you're a newcomer, you're welcome to contribute just a little bit — like a squirrel collecting acorns, every small contribution matters.

Key Projects and Social Impact

Over eight years, the g0v community has produced hundreds of projects, many of which have directly influenced government policy and how society functions.

Legislative Yuan Deliberation Transparency

The Legislative Yuan's proceedings records previously existed only as text; ordinary citizens found it very hard to understand what legislators were actually doing in the legislature. g0v volunteers built the "Legislative Yuan Deliberation Transparency" platform, providing:

• Live streaming: Live broadcasts of Legislative Yuan sessions
• Speech records: Statistics on each legislator's speeches and searchable content
• Voting records: Results of votes on important bills
• Bill tracking: Complete process from introduction through third reading

The result: legislators started caring about their "data." Attendance rates, question numbers, bill proposal counts — numbers nobody paid attention to before now had websites tabulating them automatically. Elected representatives discovered their every move was being monitored, and their behavior began to change.

vTaiwan: An Experiment in Digital Democracy

In 2014, g0v partnered with the government to launch the vTaiwan platform, allowing citizens to participate in the policymaking process. The most famous case was the Uber controversy:

2015: Uber's operations in Taiwan triggered protests from traditional taxi drivers. The conventional approach was for the government to decide unilaterally, but vTaiwan provided a third path: letting all stakeholders have online dialogue to find a win-win solution.

After months of online discussion and in-person workshops, a "diversified taxi" policy emerged, both protecting the rights of traditional taxi drivers and allowing innovative service models to exist.

This was the first time Taiwan used "digital democracy" to resolve a policy dispute.

Promoting Open Government

g0v's advocacy directly influenced government policy:

• 2012: Government budget visualization project promoted the government to open budget data
• 2013: Legislature transparency project led to live broadcasting of Legislative Yuan proceedings
• 2014: After the Sunflower Movement the government committed to amending the Government Information Disclosure Act
• 2015: vTaiwan platform became an official government channel for policy participation
• 2016: Audrey Tang became Digital Minister, bringing g0v experience into government

International Influence and Connections

g0v's experience has influenced not only Taiwan, but has inspired civic technology movements worldwide.

The Code for All Network

g0v is a founding member of the Code for All international network, working closely with Code for Japan in Japan, Code for Korea in Korea, Code for America in the United States, and other organizations.

2019: The g0v summit was held in Taipei, with civic technology communities from over 30 countries gathering in Taipei to share experiences and technology.

International Cooperation During the Pandemic

During the 2020 pandemic, g0v's mask map experience was learned from by other countries:

• Italy: Rome version mask map
• Germany: Berlin version mask map
• United States: PPE map (personal protective equipment)
• South Korea: 마스크맵 (mask map)

g0v volunteers also proactively helped other countries build similar systems, sharing Taiwan's epidemic prevention technology experience with the world.

Challenges and the Future

As an "organization without a boss," g0v faces the challenges that all open-source communities encounter.

Project Sustainability

Many g0v projects are the product of "momentary inspiration" and lack long-term maintenance. The mask map was very active during the pandemic, but gradually had no one maintaining it after the pandemic ended. How to keep good projects running sustainably is g0v's biggest challenge.

Participant Fatigue

Eight years of high-intensity volunteer participation has caused some early contributors to begin burning out. How to attract new blood, how to make participation more sustainable — these are problems the community needs to face.

Government Relations

g0v's relationship with the government is delicate: simultaneously cooperating and monitoring. When the government actively embraces open source and digital democracy, g0v's "confrontational" role becomes blurred. How to maintain independence and critical spirit within cooperation is an ongoing challenge.

Disinformation and Information Warfare

In the age of information warfare, the principle of openness and transparency can also be exploited. How to stay open while avoiding becoming a channel for disinformation propagation is a new challenge.

An Experiment Still Ongoing

In 2012, the moment when Kao Chia-liang changed gov.tw to g0v.tw, he was only trying to express his frustration with the government. Twelve years later, g0v has become part of Taiwan's democracy and an important force in the global civic technology movement.

This experiment has proved several things:

1. Technology can be a tool for civic participation, not just a means for commercial gain
2. Open transparency is more important than government efficiency, because transparency brings efficiency
3. A small frustration can change the world, if you're willing to act on it
4. Forking the government is not about overthrowing it — it's about proving a better possibility exists

In this era of democratic backsliding, g0v reminds us: citizens are not users of government, but co-creators. What the government does poorly, we can do ourselves. What the government does well, we can help do better.

This is not a revolution that has ended, but an experiment that continues. Every hackathon, every new project, every line of code is answering the same question: in the digital age, what can democracy look like?

The answer is still being written, and everyone willing to contribute is an author of that answer.

References

• g0v Official Website
• g0v GitHub Organization
• g0v hackfoldr Collaborative Folder
• Code for All International Network
• vTaiwan Digital Democracy Platform
• Democratic Participation in the Digital Age: From the Sunflower Movement to g0v
• TED Talk: How Digital Innovation Can Fight Pandemics and Strengthen Democracy
• Mask Map Developer Interview

Related Topics

• Semiconductor Industry (zh only: 半導體產業): Taiwan's technological strength base
• Mini Taiwan Pulse: 2026 civic technology personal open-source practice — using TDX open data + Three.js to draw Taiwan as 3D light tracks