Talks at Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2024
Audrey Tang, the inaugural minister of digital affairs in Taiwan, is the world’s first non-binary cabinet minister.
As a child, Tang practiced Taoism to moderate all strong emotions to survive a cardiac condition. After attending 10 educational institutions in 10 years, Tang left formal schooling to pursue self-education at age 14.
In her 20s, Tang rose to prominence as a leader in free and open-source software, revitalizing the Haskell and Perl programming languages.
During her 30s, Tang played a crucial role in shaping g0v (gov-zero), one of the most prominent civic tech movements worldwide. In 2014, Tang helped broadcast the demands of Sunflower Movement activists, and worked to resolve conflicts during a three-week occupation of Taiwan’s legislature. Tang became a reverse mentor to the minister responsible for digital participation, before assuming the role in 2016 after the government changed hands.
Tang helped develop participatory democracy platforms such as vTaiwan and Join, bringing civic innovation into the public sector through initiatives like the Presidential Hackathon and Ideathon. Her other accomplishments include shaping Taiwan’s internationally acclaimed COVID-19 response, as well as safeguarding its 2024 presidential and legislative elections from foreign cyber interference.