I would love for you to do that.

You’ve already committed on tape, that you’re willing to do a part two for this interview to continue, because I want to get involved into more details about what happened with g0v, Sunflower Movement, going in and sitting in into the parliament, and your role as a digital minister as ...

It’s a wonderful way to frame it. You have been through a very interesting journey and the work you’re doing is envied by many. We’re going to end our conversation here.

I have no doubts of that, but I’m curious to know why you chose this poem.

I want to go back to this poem on this page here, which I don’t know if you remember it, because I’m putting you on the spot a little.

OK.

Yes, because I see Chen Wei Yen, I believe.

It’s funny, because the way I read it here, I thought it was part of the poem.

Yes. That’s the first thing I wanted to do, was confirm that is in fact you, and on this page is what appears to be a very beautiful poem. Is this something that you wrote in that 2008-2012 period? If not when was it written? What does it represent for?

You have been very eloquent in describing the work you did. I’ll give you an example. I’m going sort of chum the waters a little bit here. In the research that I did, I came upon a very interesting website that I think is probably yours. Audreyt.org.

This is where our first episode is going to end. It’s when you guys sort of stone the best deal as it were. For the next five minutes, I want to talk about that that period of time between 2008, 2013, 2012, before you got involved with g0v. What were ...

Around 2013, you retired from your work, but during the 2008-2013, is that when you started getting involved with the Sunflower Movement? When did that start happening and the genesis for it?

Before we get to what happened in your parliament, and we only have about 10 minutes left of your time, so I don’t think we’re going to get a chance to do a full dive. I’m actually going to ask if maybe we can do a part two recording perhaps, ...

I want to get the chronology right, a little bit here.

You spent a lot of time in San Jose and Taipei creating this startup. Did you have like an exit strategy? Did you sell the company?

You know what, based on your personal history of the accomplishments you’ve had, I wouldn’t be surprised if you help create couchsurfing.org.

You spend quite a bit of time in San Jose creating this startup.

19 years old. You’re from another country, you’re in the United States now. Your English is probably better than when it was when you were 14 and 16. How was that journey like in terms of - you’re not just trying to live now in San Jose, you’re trying to ...

Going back to San Jose, you created this startup, how old are you approximately?

How would you classify yourself between the two? Do you just jump between both or you feel very strongly about one over another?

From my understanding, there’s a bit of a subculture that there’s very strong and stringent free software people and open source people, and there’s a very big demarcation line within those communities.

Say that again, secure scuttlebutt?

What did you create?

Oh wow. Again, during your teenage years here, and you’re already a CTO, is that when you moved to Silicon Valley to work on those?

14 , 15 being asked to write a book. That’s impressive.

How old were you at this time?

How old are you this time?

Tell us about that.

OK. Let’s go back to those early days again, you just left school, you are doing some research work, and you founded an IT company. Am I wrong?

Same, there you go.

A sidebar to this conversation. This will be the little bit about me. I have been a Civilizations fan since Civilization I in 1991. That’s the only game I played, the only video game I play is Civ.

Cypherpunk. Sorry. I apologize, cypherpunk.

You would, right?

You link the two very closely together, and correct me if I’m wrong that would you consider yourself also a cyberpunk like one of those ‘90s cyberpunks?

That was something that was interesting while I was preparing for this interview, that in a lot of your talks, you’d mentioned how Taiwan was freed, pretty much the same time the Internet was becoming popular.

You have taken a very strong approach to government and activism, and in civic engagement. Were your parents influencing you at all in terms of how you…?

Now, from my understanding, your parents were both journalists?

We have a timeline, 1995 here, you are given cover from your school to get out of school. How did your parents react to that whole thing? I’m assuming they were very supportive?

That’s actually a really unique story in and of itself. Is that something that’s common in Taiwan for…

You were too smart for your school teachers and your fellow-classmates, and at the age of 14 you dropped out and started your own IT company. Tell us about that.

[laughs] Most people know of your work beginning with the Sunflower Movement and g0v, but I want to start our conversation before that. You are, at least according to my research, a certifiable genius, someone with 180plus IQ, and you are actually a living case of the Albert Einstein School ...

To top it all up, even though she’s currently the digital minister for Taiwan, she officially retired about five years ago. Today, we’ll take an in-depth look at Audrey herself, and how she’s been able to accomplish so much in so little time. Hello, Audrey, and thanks for joining us.

She isn’t just a public servant. Audrey has a very rich international work history. Her influence ranges from coding to Silicon Valley startups to research, and even grassroots activism that helped to transform a government. She was able to do all of this before she was 40.

Hello and welcome to “Stories from the OpenGov,” a podcast dedicated to telling the stories about what open government and open data look like. My name is Richard Pietro. Today, I am joined by Audrey Tang, the Digital Minister for Taiwan.