ABSTRACT
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of information and communications technology (ICT) applications have enabled governments and NGOs in Taiwan to enhance social welfare and citizens’ well-being. Here we focus on two selected cases so as to explain how people adopt various changes relating to ICT implementations. The first case is a public e-service, a name-based face mask distribution system and live chat bot that employs the technologies of artificial intelligence and location-based information retrieval. As the need for facial masks reached high levels, chaos occurred. This live chat bot helps citizens to be informed with the necessary information and to be able to take advantage of “smart” living. The second case deals with a positive interpersonal and life orientation training program (PILOT). PILOT is a research programme conducted by the National Taiwan University Children & Family Research Center, which is sponsored by the CTBC (China Trust Commercial Bank) charity foundation. This programme started in 2013 and includes eight series of training programmes for enhancing young people’s positive mental capacity to deal with stress, social skills, making sound decisions (Stop–Think–Go Model) and communications and reducing their use of substances. In 2020, the revised version of the PILOT programme was released and carried out in many regions in Taiwan. It has assisted adolescents under 18 to adapt to the changes of the social environment and deal positively with stress and mindfulness issues. The early results are promising, and they reveal that those who are involved in the PILOT programme have improved their level of resilience and shown less problematic behaviour. The authors share the Taiwan experience in the hope of providing useful information for other societies that suffer from the pandemic at the same time.
