SMARTCITY TAIPEI

The direct participation of the people in national governance has gradually attracted attention in recent years. The Department of Information and Technology of the City Government of Taipei has promoted the smart city initiatives to incorporate some public policy issues into the public participation practices, so as to better meet the needs of the public and realize the vision of "Open government and universal participation." In order to expand citizen participation in smart city issues, and to incorporate the efforts from academia and research institutes, university teachers and students are encouraged to follow the policy direction of Taipei City to introduce the elements of smart city and public participation into diverse supplementary courses. The industry-government-academia collaboration reinforces the practices where the government raises issues to be brainstormed and resolved by the industry and accepts opinions from all parties as reference for promoting smart city policies and future directions.

The 2020 public participation courses are jointly organized by Professor Nai-Yo Hsiao and Professor Hsin-Chung Liao of the Department of Public Administration of National Chengchi University and Professor Tien-Shen Li and Professor Keng-Ming Hsu of the Department of Social and Public Affairs of the University of Taipei. They offer three courses, "System Thinking and Decision Analysis," "Administrative Statistics" and "Municipality Planning and Development and Urban and Regional Development" and incorporate the 1+7 requirements or open data issues, such as the iTrash project, Taipei Free statistical analysis, parking sharing, parking needs and others. Students are able to combine theories with actual practices through case studies. The Department helps students and teachers study smart city issues and offers analysis results and recommendations, which reflect the City Government's vision in introducing innovation to the public sector. The results of academic and research institutes are incorporated into the development progress of smart city initiatives, helping various agencies promote the related tasks.

In order to present the collaboration and results to the public and showcase the study results from teachers and students at government agencies, the "Public Participation Course Final Results Exhibition" was held at the atrium on the first floor of Taipei City Hall from March 18 to 25, 2021. A total of 18 teams showed various studies of the 1+7 fields. The event attracted more than 500 visitors who also left their feedback, successfully pooling the inputs from the government and academia to promote the development of the smart city.