Beyond Discourse Dumpster Fires

Last year some economists documented something both surprising and sensible about social media: many people would pay a lot to keep using their favorite platforms, and they would pay a lot if all those platforms could disappear for everyone. They describe today’s major social media as a “collective trap”: the traffic accident that people regret, but also can’t help but want to slow down and see.

Is there a way out of this?

The Berkman Klein Center’s new Applied Social Media Lab at Harvard University is pleased to host, in person and livestreamed, an afternoon of discussions and presentations of new tools and ideas around civil discourse.

Join us on Thursday, September 12th, 2024, from 1:30-5:00 pm ET for a series of panels featuring leading technologists, researchers, and civil society leaders to learn more about the technological and other interventions the ASML is exploring to foster healthier, more satisfying discourse.

Agenda

11:00 am—12:30 pm >> Pre-event Student Lunch & Learn
A student-focused lunch and learn event, offering an opportunity to connect with BKC staff and representatives from tech-related campus organizations and centers at Harvard.  Discover ways to get involved with the Berkman Klein Center, including research and student work, events, and immersing in the BKC community.

1:30 —2:00 pm >> Opening Remarks & Keynote
Applied Social Media Lab Director Jonathan Bellack introduces the Lab and its mission.

2:00—3:15 pm >> Panel Discussion: How Can We Protect Civic Discourse In an Age of Fracture
BKC Faculty Director Jonathan Zittrain hosts a panel discussion to explore how to reboot social media to foster healthy and thriving human interactions. How can we create and refine spaces and processes where people can share their earnest views without fear, explore common ground, and grow intellectually and personally? Does the answer lie in new technology, new practice, or some combination of the two? What role can the University play in building a healthier future? Panelists include danah boyd, Gordon Pennycook, and Deb Roy.

3:30—4:10 pm >> Nymspace: Anonymous Discourse In Closed Groups
Professor Charles Nesson, founder of the Berkman Klein Center, invites audience members to participate in a demo of Nymspace, an online communication platform that enables pseudonymous discussion in closed-group environments. Nesson has used the tool in his classrooms since 2015 as a complement to face-to-face conversation to improve discussion satisfaction and promote group trust.

4:10—4:50 pm >> Deliberations and Participatory Democracy 
Can technology scale up the deliberative practices that make discourse more constructive? BKC introduces a newly acquired, renamed online video-based discourse platform which will be utilized to facilitate constructive dialogue and collective decision-making. Harvard Law School’s Lawrence Lessig and ASML Product Manager Samantha Shireman present the platform, its aspirations, and what is next for its rollout.

4:50—5:00 pm >> Concluding Remarks
Applied Social Media Lab Director Jonathan Bellack reflects on the day.

Speakers

Jonathan Bellack is Senior Director of the Applied Social Media Lab within the Berkman Klein Center. He leads a team of technologists to invent new social media approaches that center the public interest.

danah boyd is a Partner Researcher at Microsoft Research and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Georgetown University. She is also the founder of Data & Society. She is an academic and a scholar and my research examines the intersection between technology and society.

Lawrence Lessig is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the founder of Deliberations.us. He is the founder of Creative Commons and of Equal Citizens. Larry Lessig works on law and technology, hoping those together might show us justice.

Charles R. Nesson is the William F. Weld Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, Founder of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, and Principal Investigator of BKC’s Nymity project. Nesson also leads a research team working on prison reform initiatives in Jamaica and is working on compiling a sourcebook of teaching materials related to the radical ideal of American Jury, in which ordinary citizens are empowered to decide issues of justice.

Gordon Pennycook is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Cornell University. His research focus is on reasoning and decision-making, broadly defined. He investigates the distinction between intuitive processes (“gut feelings”) and more deliberative (“analytic”) reasoning processes and is principally interested in the causes (a) and consequences (b) of analytic thinking.

Deb Roy is Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT where he directs the MIT Center for Constructive Communication. He leads research in applied machine learning and human-machine system design with applications in understanding large-scale social media ecosystems and designing communication tools and social networks.

Samantha Shireman is a passionate pragmatist who develops technology products that break through the digital walls that divide people into polarized ideological groups. She is currently the product manager for ASML’s deliberation pod, where she works to enable people to engage in deliberation, citizens’ assemblies, and other forms of discourse and collective problem-solving.

Jonathan Zittrain is the George Bemis Professor of International Law at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Professor of Computer Science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Director of the Harvard Law School Library, and Co-Founder of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society.