Wonderful Causality

Before the 2008 presidential election, my first child was born.

When I was with my wife and baby in the hospital, the publisher Ming-Yi Hao of Locus Publishing called and said he had a project and he wished to talk with me. I was overwhelmed by the excitement of becoming a father and were not clear what I had said to Hao. Not long later a wheel-chaired man showed up in the hospital, he inquired if I was interested in creating a website that invited people to make wishes before the election.

I had been insensible to politics, but perhaps becoming a father changed me a little bit. I also intended to experiment on group interactions, so I created this website together with Hao and designer Akibo. This website invites everyone to write down one thing they hoped the government to accomplish most. Each wish would become a star glistening in the dark night. The audience could click "like" if they agreed with the wishes of others, and stars with more "like" would be bigger and brighter.

This website had successfully evoked all kinds of emotions of the public. Most of the wishes had nothing to do with political parties, but they were so important to our everyday life. By the voting day, there were 18,440 wishes presented. Hao published all these wishes and sent them to the president-elected, so the new government would help people's dream come true.

Several months after this event had finished, I found the wish with most "like" was: "I hope there are no potholes on roads." It was funny, on the other hand, it made me feel a little bit bitter.

Another several months later, a pothole repair project commenced in Taipei, which might be out of the wish made through our website. Through participating in this project and the effort of the team, I've made a better world for my new born baby.

The Follow-up Website of the Hope Map: hopemap.net/

http://tw.m.wretch.yahoo.com/blog/HopeMap/11011533