Sensemaking.

By Deb Roy.

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We met Deb Roy through a mutual friend. He has an impressive resume, to say the least. This from MIT:

Mr. 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. Deb is also co-founder and CEO of Cortico, a nonprofit social technology organization that develops and operates a conversation platform designed to surface “under-heard” voices and enable deep systematic listening.

Previously, Roy was a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School from 2021-22. He served as Executive Director of the MIT Media Lab from 2019-2021. Roy co-founded and was CEO of Bluefin Labs, a media analytics company that analyzed the interactions between television and social media at scale. Bluefin was acquired by Twitter in 2013, Twitter’s largest acquisition to date. From 2013-2017 Roy served as Twitter’s Chief Media Scientist.

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Whenever we meet people like Deb, we ask them if they would like to write a piece for News Items and/or Political News Items about their work or their view of what’s happening, in their world or in the world. Rebecca Patterson wrote about currencies. Philip Howard wrote about making government work again. Danny Hillis wrote about cybersecurity.

It’s mind-bending that we have reached a point where we have to figure out a way to have normal conversations about important issues. But that’s where we are and that’s what we must do. And that’s what Deb writes about in the essay below.

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