MIT Center for Constructive Communication

📄 At the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) in 🇹🇭 Bangkok, Thailand, CCC graduate students William Brannon, Hang Jiang, Hope Schroeder, and CCC Research Scientist Jad Kabbara presented their work across Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing.  The six-day conference spanned Sunday August 11th to Friday August 16th and featured tutorials, poster sessions, keynote speakers, panel discussions, workshops, and an award ceremony. ➡️ During Monday’s poster session, CCC PhD Candidate Hang Jiang and CCC Research Scientist Jad Kabbara presented their research, Leveraging Large Language Models for Learning Complex Legal Concepts through Storytelling. https://lnkd.in/dycWYwvJ ➡️ In Tuesday's poster session, CCC PhD Candidate Hope Schroeder and CCC Research Scientist Jad Kabbara presented their research on Fora: A corpus and framework for the study of facilitated dialogue. https://lnkd.in/dhWUvWBP. This marks the introduction of the first data set of dialogues from CCC’s collaboration with Cortico available for use in research. Learn more and apply for access to the data here: https://lnkd.in/dJwvDHgZ ➡️ During the TextGraphs-17 workshop on Thursday, CCC PhD Candidate William Brannon gave a talk on his work, ConGraT: Self-Supervised Contrastive Pre Training for Joint Graph and Text Embeddings. https://lnkd.in/dUZ6_wfV  (Learn more about the TextGraphics-17 workshop: https://lnkd.in/dzB-Ttze) More on ACL: https://2024.aclweb.org/ 

👥 Last Monday and Tuesday, ArtSpark Boston and MIT Center for Constructive Communication hosted a community conversation series. In each 60-minute conversation, BIPOC artists, creatives, and cultural workers were invited to share experiences and challenges as artists of color living in the greater Boston area. Each conversation began with a performance from an ArtSpark artist (Tyler Donkoh-Halm, Aaron Hour, Grace Givertz, and Prophet PM) who kicked off the conversation with a musical response. These conversations are part of the 🦻 realtalk@Boston 🦻initiative, a collaboration between MIT CCC and 14 local community-based organizations to explore: How might we transform Boston into Listening City? Representatives from these outstanding organizations are spending the summer hosting community conversations, and inviting local community members to share stories and experiences around living in the city. The realtalk@Boston cohort will reunite in August to listen to one another’s conversations, analyze and make sense of the conversations they hosted, and identify actionable insights that can lead to social change. realtalk@Boston is supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Learn more about realtalk@Boston: https://lnkd.in/evM2N5Bc

Last week, MIT CCC graduate students Belén C Saldías F, Hope Schroeder, Elinor Poole-Dayan, William Brannon, Hang Jiang, and CCC research engineer Doug Beeferman, presented at the 10th International Conference for Computational Social Science (IC2S2) at the University of Pennsylvania. 📃 IC2S2 has emerged as the “dominant conference at the intersection of social and computational science, bringing together researchers from around the world in economics, sociology, political science, psychology, cognitive science, management, computer science, statistics and the full range of natural and applied sciences committed to understanding the social world through large-scale data and computation.” ➡️ Learn more about their research and the conference here: https://lnkd.in/dnQsuxyw

The realtalk@Boston cohort gathered on a sunny afternoon to plan community engagement strategies, reconnect, and share good food! We played Cassandra Lee’s Analogia game to reconnect, too! ☀️ Left to right: Dimitra Dimitrakopoulou (MIT CCC), Marina Rakhilin, MSW (MIT CCC), Hessann Farooqi (Boston Climate Action Network), Richard Claytor (Family Nurturing Center of Massachusetts), Ava Dudani (Boston ArtSpark), Jasmine Bell (Boston CASA, Inc.), Marlon Orozco (The Loop Lab), Jill Stevens (Primary Source), and Caitlin Walsh (Disability Law Center). Do you live in Boston and want to share your experiences of living in the city? Contact Marina Rakhilin, MSW ([email protected]), who will connect you with one of the ongoing conversation projects. Learn more about realtalk@Boston: https://lnkd.in/evM2N5Bc

I’m very excited about this initiative that has quietly been in the making for close to a year. DemocracyNext is one of the key partners involved in the Central Oregon Civic Action Project that is behind the Deschutes Civic Assembly on Youth Homelessness, together with Healthy Democracy, Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, City of Bend, Deschutes County, Oregon State University, and MIT Center for Constructive Communication. 12,750 invitations have gone out to residents across Deschutes County. After a lottery process to generate a randomised miniature-representation of Deschutes County from those who respond to the letters, thirty people will be given the time and resources to study the issue of youth homelessness, deliberate, and to present policy recommendations to local decision-makers. The assembly will meet for 4.5 days of deliberation, on 14-15 Sept, and 4-6 October; assembly members will receive a stipend of the equivalent of $15 per hour; childcare and transportation costs will be covered if needed. “We’ve all seen the impacts of homelessness on Central Oregon and around the country. Our local governments and service organizations continue to work extraordinarily hard to find solutions,” said Josh Burgess. “Too often, other regions delegate the task of helping homeless youth to a small group of leaders and fail to draw on the rich expertise and diversity of the whole community. The Deschutes County Civic Assembly gives us the chance to involve residents from all walks of life in prioritizing policies and resources, bringing us together around solutions that will be more legitimate and sustainable.” At DemocracyNext we hope that COCAP can help to kickstart a wider dialogue around Citizens’ Assemblies in the United States, known worldwide for its democratic traditions but deeply riven by polarisation, cynicism, and disfunction. Homelessness is an issue faced not just by Deschutes County but by cities and regions around the country; moreover, the county is a “purple” area with a substantial mix of liberal, conservative, and independent voters who need to be able to dialogue and work together. Read more in our newsletter (and subscribe and share if you find it interesting 😊), and link to the COCAP website in comments. Matt Abrams Anthony Broadman Linn Davis Elizabeth Marino Dimitra Dimitrakopoulou Deb Roy

Check out how Cortico’s co-founder, Deb Roy, is transforming online discourse to foster healthier public dialogue. From his personal journey to pioneering work at MIT Center for Constructive Communication, learn about his mission to amplify underheard voices and bridge divides. Don't miss this profile by Project Liberty!

Welcome to CCC, Ali Klemencic! 🎉 Ali is excited to join CCC to build innovative prototypes for use in research and real-world contexts. She was a digital marketer in a former life but is now committed to engineering human-centered software that's deeply rooted in making the world a better place. Proficient across the full engineering stack, Ali has previously built websites displaying cultivated meat growth in smart bioreactors, engineered data pipelines to route environmental complaints to the correct agencies, and developed NLP models for financial data extraction. She holds a master’s degree in computer science and public policy from the University of Chicago and a bachelors in behavioral economics from Tufts University. When she's not coding up a storm, you'll likely find Ali spiking volleyballs, diving into the pages of a good book, or engaging in the noble quest of convincing her cat that the rooftop deck is the ultimate feline paradise. https://lnkd.in/eYSwqrQK

🗣 We’re #hiring a Program Administrator! 🗣 MIT Center for Constructive Communication is looking for a Program Administrator to focus on the design, build, and implementation of the Real Talk@MIT program across campus and stakeholder categories (e.g., students/staff/ faculty, labs/centers/institutes, affiliate organizations, etc.) in collaboration with the Real Talk program lead.  💻 Learn more and #apply here: https://lnkd.in/eRZ6F7vp 🔍 About MIT CCC & Real Talk: The mission of the MIT Center for Constructive Communication (CCC) is to design tools, methods, and systems that connect rather than divide us to create a healthier society.  CCC is undertaking an ambitious, campus-wide effort – Real Talk@MIT – that combines the ancient wisdom of human conversation with digital technologies. CCC’s long-term goal for the program is to help MIT transform into a “listening organization”– one that promotes a culture of respectful dialogue where students,  staff, faculty,  and campus leadership can share their lived experiences across boundaries. The core of the Real Talk system is participation in facilitated, recorded small-group conversations – initially focused on students, and extending to staff, faculty, and leadership – that help to provide a safe and supportive environment for consent-based sharing of personal stories and experiences rather than opinions.  The hope is that these conversations will help to build a culture of listening and dialogue that promotes a sense of shared understanding, empathy, and trust. #civictech #techforgood #hiringnow #jobopening #programmanager #management #higheredjobs #programadminsitrator

➡️ The Tech & Public Policy (TPP) program in the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy is accepting applications for the Fall 2024 TPP Visiting Fellows cohort. 💻🏛️ They are looking for policy experts from diverse communities exploring a range of issues at the intersection of emerging technology and public policy. The application deadline is Monday, June 17 at 5pm ET with notifications to candidates by Friday, June 28. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eNekkdYM  Apply here: https://lnkd.in/eCg-gumv #civictech #applynow

Calling all JA alumni ages 18–29! Ready to be a voice for change? Unleash your potential as a Global Youth Advocate. The Global Youth Advocates program offers a transformative 12-month journey for JA alumni who are passionate about global change. Wherever you are in the world, whether you're an introvert or an extrovert, you can become a certified Global Youth Advocate. Application Deadline: June 16, 11:59:59pmEDT Learn more and apply at jaww.org/youthadvocates. #alumni #advocates #community –with Cortico and MIT Center for Constructive Communication