This is part two of our interview with Audrey Tang, Digital Minister of Taiwan. We discuss the technology behind the Sunflower Movement, which radicalized democracy in the country, and how the Taiwanese government is using Free Software such as Discourse and Polis to enable its ongoing real-time experiment in direct democracy.

Audrey explains the inspiration provided by Bowling Green Civic Assembly, the so-called 'online to offline' model in which a virtual decision-making process helped inform and structure a traditional town hall's agenda.

We dig into Taiwan's evolving approach to participatory democracy, focusing on Audrey's notion of 'conservative anarchy' and the fascinating idea that ordinary people actually share far more consensus than anyone realizes. What could be achieved if we focused policy-making energy on the stuff we can all agree on?

This is the first of a two-part interview with Audrey Tang, Digital Minister of Taiwan. We discuss Taiwan's 2014 Sunflower Student Movement, which marked the first time the country's legislature has been occupied by citizens, and which led to a radical new phase for Taiwanese democracy. 

How have digital networks facilitated the emergence of horizontal power and leaderless organization in Taiwan? Is the continuous participation in Taiwan's ongoing experiment in direct democracy responsible for reducing online trolling and creating constructive digital communities there? And how has the Taiwanese experience, from Sunflower onwards, pointed the way to what's happening right now, in Hong Kong's own Umbrella movement?