The world is changing so fast, and Taiwan’s kind of behind the curve, isn’t it?
There are challenges. You’ve got legacy government bureaucracy, red tape, etc., laws.
In all your activities now. Where you see the most progress.
Sweet. What’s working the best in your mind, of the record? I know we’re on the record, but what’s really happening? I’m acting like a journalist now, but what’s the sweet spot?
Can you recommend? Can you suggest? Can you say, "Hey, talk to this guy. Have a meeting with him."
That’s you, right? You’re advising.
That’s what you’re aiming, is to bring a bit of that cake here.
Because that doesn’t have anything to do...
What about private sector?
For Taiwanese only?
Big change.
I didn’t mean to imply you’re not doing anything. It takes time.
More than some, probably. [laughs]
What if I don’t have a Taiwanese partner?
You mean Taiwanese startups?
I’m willing to do it myself, but I think it’s much more collaborative to do it with private sector.
Not yet, because I don’t really have the funds yet.
There’s interest, but there is nobody saying, "Yeah, we’ll help you develop, get some venture capital," or something like that. I’m a little bit stuck on that. I don’t know if you have any advice for me.
When I first sent my link ‑‑ I don’t know if you saw it, but I had a link, Taiwan software development company concept to do VR, film stubs to bring my two worlds together. I haven’t really been able to get any...
There aren’t any jobs necessarily. It’s actually impoverished. It’s kind of weird. It’s like this island by itself.
The tunnel’s been opened. There’s weekend traffic coming in to Taipei. It’s changing on that level. Tourism and traffic.
Some of them failed.
Hsinchu was so successful...
Meaning science park kind of thing?
It’s supposed to be software, but...
I need you. I need somebody to say, or even private sector counterparts, who could say, "Yeah, we think Yi-Lan." Yi-Lan Science Park, what’s going on with that? Not to change the subject, but I live next door to it, and it’s vacant. It’s gorgeous.
They what?
Thank you. That’s a big picture approach to that, but maybe there’s a mayor out there who sees the light, and that wouldn’t be so expecting a windfall, wouldn’t be so greedy to put it in and to be very frank. They would see the advantage of having digital nomads ...
Decentralizing...
Because you’re taking, sort of, national party power away?
You need to offer incentives to...
Mostly entrepreneurial, where they were trying to make money for themselves.
Where would there be an attractive place...? There’s some mayors wanting that. They want to bring it in, but they’re against it. They want...
Outside of Taipei?
That’s Freemont, though, with the houses prices and...
Kind of a squat, right?
I know Freemont. It’s kind of near San Francisco.
You worked in Silicon Valley, right?
It’s, I guess, the idea would be it’s a live‑work space. The graffiti is welcome. It’s alternative San Francisco kind of bohemia ethic. That’s going to scare people away, because, "Oh no way. I don’t have my PhD or my...I’m not capable to do that." But something like this, if ...
It’s incredible. It’s a billion US dollars, right, to build that.
Right.
"There’s a lot of things to see and do. The food is great, and the government allows me to work on my stuff without any kind of threat of deportation and things like that." It doesn’t have to be in Taipei. It can be in Yilan, where I live, or ...
I think the connection to the hub that I believe that Taiwan needs for that software, that digital nomads that land to hear about, word of mouth, to say, "Oh, I think Taiwan is the place to go. It’s cool. There’s people there."
I think that that’s what is sort of like Steve Jobs’ garage, but before that. I like the story here. There was a lot of science and a lot of brains, and I know that there’s abandoned buildings in Taiwan that are just kind of sitting there.
...but it’s gorgeous. It’s stunning. This is where people could go in and engage and even camp. It’s much more on the kind of grass‑roots level. Getting into the ITRI building, it just seems like there would be a wall of paperwork and red tape.
I had this idea of why don’t you or we start something like that, Building 21, and sort of emulate what they did at MIT. The whole idea is...I’ve seen that the ITrI has something in Hsinchu. There’s a very expensive big building, all this great architecture. I’m not sure ...
This is sort of the second half of my presentation, which is something you may or may not have heard about. It’s called Building 21. It was a pretty ramshackle office space that entrepreneurs could go in and move walls and do all kinds of experimentation in the ’50s. It’s ...
But not purely the innovation sector?
Showcasing, right?
TAF is becoming more like a museum?
