g0v (pronounced “gov zero”) is a decentralized, grass-roots civic tech community based in Taiwan. We advocate information transparency and build tech solutions to promote civic engagement.
Built on the spirits of open source and activism, g0v aims to use technology in the interest of the public good. Our missions are to allow citizens easy access to public information and to empower them to make a change. Substituting the “o” with “0″ in gov, we want to use the power of digital technologies to reform current politics so as to envision a new future of democracy.
Established in 2012, g0v has since hosted over 50 hackathons and two international summits. Thousands of participants from different backgrounds have contributed to hundreds of projects, making g0v one of the biggest civic tech communities around the world.
The g0v summit is a biennial event which focuses on open government, open source collaboration and civic participation. It was established in 2014 by the g0v community. The past two summits have gathered speakers from 19 countries and more than 2,000 local and international participants. The summit is run by volunteers, and it itself is a huge collaborative project of the community. We aim to build an open environment for everyone. Volunteers will help write online shared notes, make livestreaming videos, and do realtime translation, all of these are released under open licenses. Besides formal sessions, we emphasize on “unconference”, which enables participants to host sessions and organize their own summit. As part of the tradition in open source events, the summit always ends with lightening talks when everyone can share their projects on the stage.
