Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors yesterday called the mobile applications policy of former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) administration unproductive and a waste of taxpayer money.
The Hau administration spent more than NT$36 million (US$1.14 million) developing 56 mobile apps since 2010, of which 24 have already been withdrawn, DPP councilors Chen Tzu-hui (陳慈慧), Lee Ching-feng (李慶鋒), Yan Juo-fang (顏若芳) and Hsu Chia-pei (許家蓓) told a news conference yesterday.
The councilors said that the least practical software was developed for the 2013 National Games in Taipei and cost more than NT$1.4 million to develop, but was available for just 88 days, and had been downloaded just 3,851 times.
The application with the shortest lifespan lasted 65 days and spurred just 135 downloads; the city government created it for a literary event, they said.
Of the 24 applications removed from the market, nine were designed for one-off events, with a combined cost of more than NT$3.8 million, they said.
The least downloaded application — “CooC-School” — was designed for educational services, they said, adding that it drew just 83 downloads.
In addition, information in an app highlighting the capital’s culinary experiences overlapped, with material from one category copied and pasted into another, they said.
The councilors called for an overhaul of the city government’s app policy and said Hau’s administration had failed to evaluate and promote the apps, resulting in low use and poor user experiences.
They said that the former administration squandered public money only to come up with “cloud garbage.”
Meanwhile, Taipei’s Department of Information Technology was accused of failing to make public the cost-benefit analyses of the applications.
In response, the department said the city government had formulated a standard procedure regulating the procurement, marketing and withdrawal of mobile applications, adding that all government units are required to submit a software use report on a monthly basis.
A software review was held every three months by the previous administration, and the city government would order the improvement or removal of underperforming applications, the department said.
The design for the National Games app was complicated, factoring in venue management and the broadcast of competition results, which increased the development costs, the department said.
The CooC-School app was aimed at a limited group of people, which accounted for its download count, the department added.
A tropical depression in waters east of the Philippines could develop into a tropical storm as soon as today and bring rainfall as it approaches, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, while issuing heat warnings for 14 cities and counties. Weather model simulations show that there are still considerable differences in the path that the tropical depression is projected to take. It might pass through the Bashi Channel to the South China Sea or turn northeast and move toward the sea south of Japan, CWA forecaster Yeh Chih-chun (葉致均) said, adding that the uncertainty of its movement is still high,
TAIWANESE INNOVATION: The ‘Seawool’ fabric generates about NT$200m a year, with the bulk of it sourced by clothing brands operating in Europe and the US Growing up on Taiwan’s west coast where mollusk farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells transformed from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and environmentally friendly fabric called “Seawool.” Wang remembered that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin County used discarded oyster shells that littered the streets during the harvest as insulation for their homes. “They burned the shells and painted the residue on the walls. The houses then became warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old said at his factory in Tainan. “So I was
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
Discounted 72-hour Taipei Metro passes are to be offered to China Airlines passengers until Feb. 28 next year, the airline announced today. China Airlines passengers may present their boarding pass for a discount of up to 34 percent when buying a Taipei Metro 72-hour unlimited travel pass. The offer is available to international travelers on international flights bound for Taipei. Within seven days of arrival, travelers can present their boarding pass, passport and proof of flight payment at an EZfly counter in Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport or Taoyuan MRT Taipei Main Station to obtain the discounted passes, the airline said. One 72-hour pass
RSS