2-1 How to Build a Civic Tech Community?

--- title: 2-1 How to Build a Civic Tech Community? tags: jothon, NDI --- :::success :book: Return to the homepage of the handbook: https://g0v.hackmd.io/@jothon/ctpbook_en "g0v Civic Tech Project & Community Handbook" is licensed under CC BY-NC. ::: # 2-1 How to Build a Civic Tech Community?｜g0v Civic Tech Project & Community Handbook ### Chapter 2: Community Partnerships and Network Development ## How to Build a Civic Tech Community? ![](https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/g0v-hackmd-images/uploads/upload_824e9d311289ccc86153dde82596ab46.png) :::info Civic Tech is a model that involves the use or creation of technological tools to enhance communication, crowd consensus, and citizen participation. It also includes the use of open data to increase government transparency, parliamentary oversight, and government accountability. Civic Tech takes on various forms, often utilizing online platforms, web services, mobile or desktop apps, browser extensions, physical devices, and more. Its primary focus is on civil society and aims to promote the public interest. ::: Building a civic tech community from scratch is a gradual process. Apart from relying on active citizen participation, community builders need to pay attention to the key focus areas at different stages to ensure the community's development and sustainability. Drawing from the experience of polycentric communities like the g0v community, we have identified four stages in the establishment of a project-based community: **Stage Zero** includes clarifying why the community needs to be established, what problems it can solve, and what community goals it can achieve. Once the objectives are determined, the community can move to stage one. **Stage One** focuses on creating a space where events and connections can be established to draw people in the community. It also utilizes social media to share project updates and achievements to attract participants. As the community grows, governance becomes increasingly important. **Stage Two** requires the establishment of community governance guidelines to create a friendly and positive environment. The community should continuously identify and grow the community’s influence to further expand it. Once the community reaches a certain level of maturity, it is time to move to stage three. **Stage Three**. In this stage, a community is encouraged to set up accelerators or incubators, organize relevant competitions, offer financial incentives, and provide educational training to support project development. Additionally, you can start converting the experience of the community into learning resources and models. This can be achieved through the development of online courses, collaboration with schools, and other forms to cultivate digital citizens, reduce the age barrier for civic tech community participation, and expand community involvement. In the following sections, we will share more specific insights into how each of these stages operated in the establishment of the g0v community. ## Stage Zero: Clarifying Community Goals In the early stages of establishing a community, it's essential to clearly define the problems the community aims to address and its goals. Identifying issues and setting goals will determine the community's direction and development. Without pinpointing the problems that need to be solved, a community may struggle to provide valuable solutions and goals, reducing its attractiveness to participants. Additionally, without clear objectives, a community may lose its focus and participants may lack motivation. Clarifying issues and objectives not only contributes to the community's growth but also helps in better attracting and retaining participants. When a community can address real concerns or provide valuable resources and a platform for communication, it will attract more people and foster a more proactive community culture as it addresses issues that matter to individuals. ## Stage One: Gathering Participants ### 1. Creating a Space and Building Connections #### (1) Organizing Events When starting from scratch to build a community, the most direct way to gather participants and establish a sense of community is by organizing events where participants can work together on projects. Simultaneously, it is also important to create information platforms or social media groups, such as Facebook groups, to provide participants with a common space for communication and interaction. If suitable, consider giving the events a specific theme to make them more appealing to the target audience. If there are influential individuals among the event participants (e.g., those with extensive networks or key opinion leaders), leverage their influence or charisma to help more people learn about and join the community. Organizing events should also be tailored to different goals and needs, with options such as physical events, online events, or hybrid events. | | Physical Events | Online Events | Hybrid Events | | --- | -------- | -------- |-------- | | Goal | 1. Enhance communication among event participants 2. Foster connections between event participants and organizers | Reach a larger audience | Accomplish goals of both physical and online events | | Needs | 1. Hands-on activities 2. Deep discussions | Meet the needs with lower or limited budget | Meet diverse engagement requirements from different participants | | Strengths | 1. Immediate feedback 2. Real-time response to participant needs and assistance 3. Build strong connections with higher cohesion 4. Participants exhibit higher levels of focus 5. Possibility to convey sensory experiences 6. Irreplaceable event atmosphere 7. Offer various incentives (e.g., food, souvenirs) 8. Facilitate immediate networking opportunities | 1. Not constrained by location 2. Attract participants from different regions and those with mobility limitations 3. Suitable for individuals with social anxiety 4. Serve as an alternative for emergencies (e.g., pandemics, hurricanes, or other accidents and disasters) 5. Less restricted by participant numbers | 1. Incorporate strengths of both physical and online events 2. Create a broader range of connections with varying intensity and scope 3. Offer greater flexibility in its applicability | | Weaknesses | 1. Subject to geographical and transportation limitations 2. Prone to last-minute cancellations due to unforeseen emergencies 3. Higher cost 4. Need for immediate adjustment of event arrangements based on attendance and expectations (e.g., meal quantity, on-site seating adjustments) 5. Reciprocal constraints between participant numbers and venue size | 1. Participants have limited attention spans and are easily distracted by their surroundings 2. Need for compact event flow design 3. Easy to overlook immediate participant needs or address difficulties encountered during the event 4. More challenging to establish participant interactions 5. Tendency for one-way communication 6. Address low participant interactivity (e.g., participants not speaking or providing feedback) 7. Higher internet requirements for participants 8. Basic equipment (e.g., video, microphone) and related technical setup prerequisites for participants 9. Participant environments and equipment impact the event experience |1. Encompass weaknesses of both physical and online events 2. High manpower requirements 3. Elevated event costs 4. Complex event planning process 5. Greater technological demands and difficulties 6. Participants need to balance on-site and online communication | | Suitable Event Types | All types | 1. Forums 2. Lectures 3. Book clubs 4. Conferences 5. Courses | All types | In addition to setting goals for organizing events or building a community, setting a theme can also be effective in capturing the audience's attention. Furthermore, formats that enable people to quickly absorb information, such as creating cheat sheets, for dummies or short videos, tend to be more attention-grabbing. For the first event, a small gathering is a good approach. Begin by gathering participants, the scale of events can be gradually expanded, and then consider whether to establish a community. #### (2) Establishing a Community Communication Platform and Enhanced Digital Collaboration Tools After the events conclude, to sustain ongoing communication and strengthen or establish additional connections, consider creating conversation-oriented collaboration and discussion tools. It is recommended to set up various channels within the platform to gather users with different interests and needs. For instance, Slack serves as the primary online discussion and collaboration tool for the g0v community. Additionally, the g0v community utilizes digital collaboration tools like real-time collaborative documents and code-sharing platforms for discussions and cooperative work. A. Online Chatrooms: Initially, the g0v community primarily used IRC as the main online chatroom. However, Slack’s function to create multiple channels allowed each project to have its own independent channel for collaboration and discussion. Different community activities and workgroups could also establish channels for collaboration. Consequently, in 2014, the g0v community gradually shifted to Slack as the chatroom, synchronizing IRC and Slack messages through bots. Currently, g0v Slack has 814 channels. As many students use Discord as a chat tool, “g0v Sch001” began to include Discord in, with message synchronization between Discord and Slack through bots. B. Real-time Collaborative Documents: In the early stages, HackPad was used as an online co-editing tool, later transitioning to the more versatile HackMD. Both HackPad and HackMD automatically record the source of each text edit, preserving the contributions of every contributor. HackMD, in addition to sponsoring the g0v community's use, offers the advantage of supporting programming languages, making it user-friendly for engineers and developers. C. Code Sharing Platform: g0v GitHub Since participants in the g0v community contribute to projects in their spare time, ensuring the continuous progression of projects and receiving timely feedback from community partners is essential. To achieve this, the g0v community advocates the "release early, release often" concept. They regularly update their progress on collaboration platforms, allowing other community partners to assist or continue the collaboration. Additionally, making project collaboration data open can accumulate experience and knowledge, as well as a valuable reference for other projects. ### 2. Creating Multiple Self-media Platforms for Promotion and Sharing Achievements In its early stages, the g0v community actively established various external channels for outreach, including an official website, Facebook groups, Facebook fan pages, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, podcast programs, and more. This multi-platform approach allowed the community to reach users from different perspectives. They created content for each platform, shared it with people with interest, and fostered cross-platform connections. For example, g0v Jothon used these channels for pre-event promotion, live event sharing, and monthly updates on recent community activities and project milestones. In addition to promoting on multiple self-media platforms, some projects set up external communication channels. This included building websites and blogs to regularly or irregularly publish progress summaries and recent objectives. For instance, Cofacts not only established a Facebook group but also maintained a project website, providing real-time updates on progress whilst seeking resources and technical support. :::info ### Tip: Responding to current events can effectively unite the audience In addition to established community goals and activities, initiating specific actions or events in response to current issues can rapidly capture public attention and attract potential participants. It enhances discussion intensity and collaboration density within a short time. #### ｜Case｜“Kaohsiung Gas Explosion Information Compilation" Collaborative Document In 2014, a series of petrochemical gas explosions occurred in Kaohsiung, resulting in 32 deaths, 321 injuries, and the destruction of multiple roads. After the accident, there was confusion in the media and on-site information, with many erroneous or misleading statements and information circulating online. To provide the latest updates, prevent people from entering dangerous areas, and avoid spreading questionable information, the g0v community rapidly came together and created the “Kaohsiung Gas Explosion Information Compilation” collaborative document. It included a disaster relief map, relief information, a list of related fire incident reports, a list of the latest progress and resources needed, a timeline of the Kaohsiung gas explosion, a note of medical and casualty information, a safety message platform (1991), a note of contact information for fire and medical services, a note of shelter conditions, a note of volunteer needs and recruitment for various specialties, a list of free accommodations for disaster victims, an information consolidation from various government agencies, infrastructure repair status, post-disaster assistance measures, a news lis, a compilation of video records, a missing persons section, and continuous updates from citizens. ::: ## Stage 2: Create a Structure ### 1. Continuous Output and Progress Updates #### (1) g0v Jothon: Regularly Summarizing Community Progress and Updates g0v Jothon compiles monthly records of community activities and periodic project milestones. Additionally, they create an annual “Impact Report” that includes activity records from the previous year, insights from community partners, media and academic research, financial statements, and the results of activity surveys. This report provides community partners with a comprehensive overview of the g0v community’s annual activities, achievements, and areas for potential improvement. #### (2) Community Project Shares Recent Records and Goals Each project regularly or irregularly publishes recent activity records on g0v Slack’s project channels, external self-media platforms, blogs, or project websites. They would also share project achievements and recent objectives with the community in the form of short presentations or presentations during g0v hackathons. This approach allows community members to stay informed about ongoing projects, offer assistance where needed, provide feedback, and engage in technical discussions. #### (3) Bi-Weekly Updates of the g0v Podcast Program In 2022, g0v Jothon established a podcast platform to share the behind-the-scenes stories of the g0v projects. They also opened the platform for g0v contributors and project applicants to record episodes, sharing their experiences of community participation and collaboration. The podcast covers everything from the initial inspiration for projects, the collaborative process involving multiple individuals, challenges faced along the way, solutions, and current achievements. The g0v podcast episodes are released biweekly and are designed to be concise, with each episode not exceeding one hour, striking a balance between information density and the average attention span of the audience. The g0v podcast is available on multiple platforms simultaneously, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, KKBOX, SoundOn, Google Podcasts, and more. This multi-platform approach aims to reach a diverse range of users and provide a channel for those interested in social issues, curious about what the g0v community is working on, looking to learn more about the g0v community and social topics, or feeling a barrier to participate in the community. > g0v Underground podcast: https://linktr.ee/g0vpodcast ### 2. Developing and Continuously Amending a Community Governance Mechanism Based on the principle that anyone who identifies with g0v ideology can become a g0v participant, the g0v community strives to create an open and inclusive community with a blurred boundary. The community is committed to transparency and employs a fluid network democracy system for discussions and decision-making. As the g0v community expands and collaborations increase, g0v participants collaboratively formulate or adapt operational processes and governance standards for different projects and working groups. This includes the code of conduct of g0v, suggestions for open licensing of outcomes, publication on the g0v calendar, and the management and governance of various social media accounts and digital collaboration tools. Apart from establishing a common code of conduct, fundamental collaboration procedures, and creating a community atmosphere that is friendly and respectful of each other's boundaries, there is also an effort to foster a beginner-friendly environment. This allows newcomers to have guidance when initially participating in collaboration, to know where documents are located, how to engage, and where to find relevant partners or platforms for assistance when facing issues. The g0v community has also established governance mechanisms for media interviews and external presentations, community media posting processes, and information exposure on the official website. Given that the g0v community is both inclusive and open, g0v community partners cannot speak on behalf of other community partners, meaning that each person can only represent themselves and cannot speak for the views and voices of the entire g0v community. To achieve consensus on governance mechanisms, g0v Jothon organizes "Infrastructure Hackathons" in response to community needs. These hackathons enable participants with ideas related to community infrastructure to discuss and collaborate directly. The g0v community was founded with a core principle of “decentralization”. In the g0v Constitution amendment passed on November 4th, 2019, the community recognized its shift towards a “polycentric” structure with projects at its core. The principle of decentralization was revised to “We operate in a polycentric manner, fostering a culture of autonomous contributions.” Nevertheless, the concept of decentralization continues to be practiced in the g0v community, including governance principles such as decentralization of power, autonomy, and self-governance. On the technical part, efforts are directed towards a "decentralized" approach and promoting ease of autonomous open-source contributions. Given the polycentric operational model of the g0v community, as a project gradually expands, it will establish its governance mechanism based on project-specific and collaborative foundations. However, these governance mechanisms must align with the three core values of the g0v community: "Open Source," "Civic Activism," and "Public Spirit." ### 3. Continuously Documenting and Open-sourcing Community Data Due to various personal factors and plans of g0v participants, people can freely join or fade out of the community without much restriction. Therefore, open documentation is essential for various aspects, including the formulation of community governance mechanisms and norms, discussions in project gatherings or working group meetings, and the collaborative process of projects. These records serve as a reference and guides for future discussions or modifications, as well as historical data and knowledge transfer. Storing and opening data allows different stages of community and project development to build upon existing foundations, preventing participants from starting everything from scratch. It also facilitates cross-referencing between different projects or different work items in terms of processes and standards. Additionally, financial details of the g0v community working groups are also openly accessible. Apart from open community data, g0v projects also follow open-source practices. This approach not only gathers feedback and references from various sources but also serves as a "demonstration" or "concept showcase." g0v projects don't need to be in a fully developed state before being released; they can be shared when they have a preliminary concept or framework. This provides the public and the government with a sense of the project's potential and flexibility and demonstrates different ways of thinking or solutions for various public issues. ### 4. Establishing Fundraising Mechanisms and Hiring Community Staff When the g0v community was founded in 2012, it was organized by volunteers to organize and host hackathons. As the community was gradually expanding in 2014, the g0v community formally formed a working group “g0v Jothon” to assist in organizing bi-monthly major hackathons and maintaining the community’s infrastructure. This working group brought together thousands of contributors and became the foundation for stable collaboration within the g0v community. As the workload to sustain community operations increased, g0v Jothon established fundraising mechanisms to attract donations from society. These mechanisms included one-time donations, recurring contributions, and corporate sponsorships. These donations allowed g0v Jothon to continue its work in promoting civic technology within the g0v community. In addition to setting up fundraising mechanisms, g0v Jothon began recruiting full-time staff in 2016, enhancing efficiency in managing community activities and project executions. It also brought together the resources and networks for the community, ensuring that long-time contributors, participants, and newcomers all received the support they needed from the community. To simplify the work and allow community partners and full-time staff to focus on the most relevant matters, g0v Jothon began a collaboration with the Open Culture Foundation on financial matters, personnel hiring, fundraising, and community expenses. Enhancement in financial flows and human resources has reduced administrative burdens on the community. ## Stage 3: Support Projects and Expand Participation ### 1. Assisting Community Projects in Resource Matching #### (1) Organizing Events and Providing Grants Different stages of a project require different needs. g0v Jothon has found that newly initiated projects often face challenges such as not being able to identify problems, trying to tackle large-scale issues, limited solutions, not knowing how to identify the essential human resources and technical expertise requirement, and setting milestone objectives. These challenges can lead to project stagnation. To address this, g0v Sch001, an educational project by g0v Jothon, launched an annual “Sch001 Project Incubation Competition.” The competition provides project templates and experienced g0v contributors offer insights and advice. As a project matures, it encounters increased demands in areas like cloud services, servers, expanded human resources, and technical requirements. However, addressing these needs often requires financial support to sustain operations and invest in further development. In 2017, g0v Jothon started the “g0v Civic Tech Innovation Grants” program, aiming to provide financial assistance and accelerate project output to maximize its social impact. :::info ### g0v Jothon's Experience Sharing #### 1. g0v Sch001 - Sch001 Project Incubator Competition Sch001 Project Incubator Competition hosted by g0v Sch001 does not impose any restrictions on project themes. Any proposals that align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as social innovation, education, and public issues, and adhere to the spirit of “open source” and “collaboration,” are eligible for participation. It encourages and ensures a certain number of awards for students. “Incubator” in this context implies starting from scratch. It provides a trial-and-error space for newcomers and students to engage in public affairs and try out innovative solutions while reducing their mental barriers. To encourage participation, the competition not only offers awards in preliminary and final rounds but also provides consultations by g0v contributors throughout the competition. This includes sharing experiences and advice on how to initiate a project and keep it running smoothly. Additionally, workshops are organized to invite g0v contributors to collaborate with competition teams, address challenges, and provide suggestions to optimize project content and direction. #### 2. g0v Civic Tech Prototype Grant Since 2012, the civic tech movement has gained much momentum. g0v, with the motto “Coding for a Better Society.”, initiated its first hackathon event and ignited the spark of civic tech in Taiwan. With the contributions of over a thousand participants, numerous information platforms were created, focusing on open data and open government, aimed at reducing the digital divide and lowering the barriers to civic engagement. These platforms enable informed discussions grounded in concrete facts and enhance awareness of rational public affairs deliberation. This open data and open government movement broke away from the traditional confrontational relationship between civil society and government, creating a new model for interaction between Taiwan's civic society and government. However, the development and operation of open-source tools like these, as well as the community itself, heavily rely on the enthusiastic involvement of volunteers. Over the past decade, the g0v community has generated more than 900 project proposals, with only a few evolving into impactful products. The g0v community believes that promising ideas and designs require sustained development and long-term maintenance to truly effect change and inspire more creativity and growth. To encourage more talented individuals to invest in civic tech and accelerate the incubation of more outcomes, g0v Jothon collects “Civic Tech Innovation Grants” from influential media outlets, technology industries, and non-governmental organizations. They have designed a participation and evaluation mechanism to award projects with potential and those that contribute to the public interest. These grants support prototype development or ongoing maintenance. g0v Jothon, which has been hosting hackathons for a long time, hopes to widespread outcomes through collaboration with technology and socially concerned enterprises and organizations. They aim to go beyond the hackathon format and help more civic tech projects have a real impact, creating a ripple effect and more possibilities. ::: #### (2) Providing Resources such as Venues and Equipment In addition to financial and networking resources, projects often have physical needs such as meeting spaces, event venues, and equipment. Given that the competition prize is limited, offering these resources is crucial for a smooth project progress. Using the g0v community as an example, g0v Jothon provides each project with four hours of venue reservation per month, as well as equipment rental services. ### 2. Transforming Community Experience into Learning Resources and Models Transforming the experiences of civic tech communities into educational resources and models is a key approach to nurturing future digital citizens. As civic tech communities and projects evolve, the knowledge and skills accumulated, such as principles and frameworks for project collaboration, civic tech project experiences and techniques, the concepts and applications of open-source and tech trends, and career development in the civic tech sector, can all be documented and shared as learning resources for new participants. It will help them quickly engage in communities, contribute to projects, and even start their projects. Inviting experienced community participants to create courses based on their experience not only raises the visibility of their projects but also allows participants to refine their skills through teaching. These courses are valuable to new participants and can be incorporated into partnerships with educational institutions as self-directed or formal courses to promote digital citizenship education. Based on the experience of the g0v community, the transformation of g0v Sch001 follows **four steps:** ### (1) Step One: Turning Community Experience into Courses Senior community participants are invited to turn their experiences into courses. The topics covered include collaboration principles, frameworks, project experiences and techniques, open-source, tech trends (e.g., AI, Web3), career development, and digital citizenship practices. These courses are offered online for people to engage in self-directed learning. ### (2) Step Two: Collaboration and Implementation of Digital Citizenship Courses The collaboration and implementation of digital citizenship courses focus on three main paths: school partnerships, teacher training, and camps/workshops. Each year, g0v Sch001 creates project-based courses with high schools and universities to meet their needs. The courses contain five stages: beginner basics, themed lessons, project guidance and implementation, mentorship from experienced g0v participants, and project presentations. After students, trainers, and lecturers complete the course together, course plans and resources are made publicly available. Workshops are also offered to train teachers in project-based learning. Lastly, the “Sch001 for Source Raising” summer camp and various digital citizenship events are held through a hybrid learning model to foster engagement between learners and communities while addressing technology trends. ### (3) Nurturing Digital Citizenship Literacy through Interdisciplinary Collaboration After completing the courses, students who wish to start a project or learn more may join the g0v community directly. Besides, g0v Sch001 actively works with civic tech communities worldwide, such as Code for Japan, for students to share project experiences and learn from these communities across countries. g0v Sch001 also hosts international dialogues and World Café discussions on digital citizenship education to enhance digital citizenship development and global collaboration. ### (4) Step Four: Project Mentorship and Outcome Presentation For students who wish to continue working on projects, g0v Sch001 offers support through incubation competitions. Participants receive guidance to focus on relevant issues and explore solutions, with additional support such as award money, project templates, community feedback, and expert evaluations. These **four steps** systematically transform civic tech experiences into lasting educational resources, spreading digital citizenship literacy far and wide while cultivating new forces for community and project participation. ## Core Principle: Enhancing Community Cohesion and Identity ### 1. Express Gratitude to Community Contributors, Cultivating a Positive Atmosphere There is a special thanks process in g0v whether on projects, publications, or activities. This ritual acknowledges the voluntary contributions of g0v contributors who dedicate their time, energy, technical expertise, and intellectual capabilities to enhance and advance various aspects of the g0v community’s progress and output. :::info #### | Example | Disfactory Presentation ![](https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/g0v-hackmd-images/uploads/upload_a9f96521c00dcd90a3acf70d9859f2ba.png =500x) The g0v community project "Disfactory" includes a list of contributors on their project-related presentations and expresses gratitude to them during g0v events. --- #### ｜ Example｜ g0v Hackath52n Opening Presentation ![](https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/g0v-hackmd-images/uploads/upload_bcb14e7fcbc72e0cf4d0c5043cdd4c95.png =500x) In the 10th-anniversary hackathon (g0v Hackath52n) of the g0v community held in 2022, g0v Jothon listed and thanked all the community partners who supported the hackathon event on-site, including the helpers from previous hackathons. --- #### ｜ Example｜ Cofacts Appreciation Post on Facebook ![](https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/g0v-hackmd-images/uploads/upload_f7ef4ea89db2c5874ace00fcad33738b.png =500x) The g0v community project Cofacts expresses gratitude to all project contributors every week in its Facebook group. They also organize editing meetups every two months where they publicly thank all attendees and contributors on the Facebook group after the event. Users’ contribution records are accessible on the Cofacts official website. --- #### ｜ Example｜ Shoutout Project ![](https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/g0v-hackmd-images/uploads/upload_fd28579cfb75f31043069231ba408ee4.png =500x) The da0 project in the g0v community proposed the "Shoutout Project" to record community members' praise and gratitude for each other in Slack. The records are stored on the blockchain, and users can view all the gratitude records on the system. ::: Creating a positive atmosphere is indeed crucial for enhancing individual achievement and ensuring acknowledgment and recognition of everyone’s contributions within the community. It fosters a sense of belonging and motivates individuals to continue their contributions, knowing that their efforts are appreciated and respected. This, in turn, helps maintain a healthy and vibrant community where collaboration and innovation thrive. ### 2. Yummy Food with Great Fun! In addition to regularly and irregularly organizing various scales and forms of community-free events to invigorate and energize the community, the g0v community also provides free delicious foods and drinks during events (usually pizza, fried chicken, coke, coffee, tea, and caffeine-free beverages), since appreciating delicacies is human nature. This not only allows event participants to replenish energy but also satisfies their taste buds while hacking. The foods and drinks create a refreshing atmosphere where people eat, chat, and collaborate, leading to the generation of projects. g0v contributor Sam published an article in 2022 exploring the "fun" quality within the g0v community. In the article, Sam mentioned: > Although there have been many successful g0v projects, many more projects die or go nowhere. One of the key reasons that can cause the death of a project is a lack of motivation. If everyone has limited time and resources to contribute, projects can often fall through without a strong team pushing the idea forward. As is the case with many types of activism, burnout is a constant and perennial threat for g0v and g0v participants. Fun is thus a way to keep people motivated. If hackathons are fun, the logic goes, people will be more likely to keep coming back, and the community will continue functioning. > > （……） > > As described earlier, fun also serves as an identity marker. The fact that g0v events are fun helps separate them from formal government operations or workplace settings, thus maintaining the “decentralized community” g0v atmosphere. （Reference：[FUN POLITICS AND THE POLITICS OF FUN IN TAIWAN’S G0V COMMUNITY](https://taiwaninsight.org/2021/05/20/fun-politics-and-the-politics-of-fun-in-taiwans-g0v-community/)） ![](https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/g0v-hackmd-images/uploads/upload_62621e840e40181c30572176b587e3bf.png) > Photos by Alvin, 粽子, cjchengtw, 簡就可 CC BY 4.0 The g0v community does not enforce all projects to have tangible outputs or all participants to contribute actively. Instead, it values the emotion of every participant and hopes that everyone who joins the community can find participating joyful and is willing to participate continuously. The most important aspect of a community is to have “people,” as people create projects and projects lead to hackathons. ### 3. Launching Community Merchandise and Skill Stickers To enhance the sense of community participation and ritual among the g0v community partners, occasional charity sales and skill stickers are introduced. - **Charity Sales:** g0v is a non-profit community, and its primary source of funding relies on public donations. Charity sales feature items such as baseball caps, slippers, eco-friendly chopsticks, and sticker collection books. These merchandise items help visually establish a sense of community identity and collective belonging. - **Skill Stickers:** g0v community partners come from diverse backgrounds, interests, and expertise. The idea behind creating "skill stickers" is to make it easy to inquire about the manpower and skill needs for projects during hackathons. It also encourages community partners to improve different skills and collect various stickers. Additionally, some projects have their custom stickers, such as "g0v Sch001" and "Disfactory," among others. ![](https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/g0v-hackmd-images/uploads/upload_320fd8f6a3f1ef200d97a33b452251ab.png) ### 4. Lowering the Barrier to Participation The motto of the g0v community is: ***"Don’t ask why nobody is doing this. You’re that nobody." Because “nobody” can do anything.*** This motto has two key points: (1) The need for someone to identify the problem. (2) No need for one person to do it all. g0v participants come from diverse backgrounds, each with different professional experiences and interests in various social aspects. Joining a "civic tech community" may seem intimidating to newcomers, especially those without a technical background. However, not every small task within a project requires expertise in information technology. Contributions may involve offering opinions, design, translation, research, text documentation, data and map analysis, image and video creation, copywriting, and more. Collaborating on a project often requires participants to contribute their unique skills, complementing each other to achieve goals that would be challenging for a single individual. The starting point for a project is identifying the problem to be solved. Subsequently, project ideas are proposed, plans are made, tasks are divided, and skill requirements are clarified. Project initiators do not need to personally undertake all tasks; instead, they seek interested collaborators from the community. The g0v community does not force participants to join specific projects or make contributions; everyone is free to join any project, change, or leave at any time, and there is no necessity for tangible output. It's normal for projects to be put on hold or no longer updated. How to initiate a project in the g0v community: (1) Proposing and recruiting partners at g0v hackathons. (2) Sharing ideas on the g0v Slack channel, discussing with community partners, and recruiting manpower. (3) Participating in project incubation competitions and other activities. For newcomers who are attending the g0v community event for the first time or just starting to use g0v's digital collaboration tools, the g0v community provides beginner guides and step-by-step technical tutorials. If you encounter any difficulties or have questions, you can always ask for help or seek assistance on the g0v Slack channel. The g0v community promotes a positive, joyful, and actively supportive atmosphere, so there's no need to worry about receiving unfriendly responses. :::warning 【Check List】 - [ ] Stage0: Clarifying Community Goals - [ ] Stage1: Gathering Participants - [ ] Creating a Space and Building Connections - [ ] Organizing Events - [ ] Online Chat Rooms - [ ] Real-time collaborative documents - [ ] Code Sharing Platform - [ ] Creating Multiple Self-media Platforms for Promotion and Sharing Achievements - [ ] Stage2: Create Working Structure - [ ] Continuous Output and Progress Updates - [ ] Developing and Continuously Amending a Community Governance Mechanism - [ ] Continuously Documenting and Open-sourcing Community Data - [ ] Establishing Fundraising Mechanisms and Hiring Community Staff - [ ] Stage3: Support Projects and Expand Participation - [ ] Assisting Projects in Resource Matching - [ ] Transforming Community Experience into Learning Resources and Models ::: ----

Read more

g0v 社群小松果

g0v hackath65n 大松合作單位與貢獻者 Contributors & Donors

Passport to the g0v universe

揪松團擺攤方案：器材、互動、口語說明內容