Computational Community Design.
How can communities understand, design, and change the social and informational systems shaping their lives?
An agenda for
collective possibility.
Read the agenda We study the connections between personal agency, relationships, and the structures of collective life. Our agenda brings theoretical inquiry into conversation with models, computational instruments, and experiments.
Personal intelligence
A person’s representations, knowledge, and memory—and their ability to understand and control them.
How can people understand and direct their own lives?
Ambient social intelligence
The capacity to recognize relevant circumstances and help members of a group discover opportunities to support one another.
What can a group understand about itself?
Social system design
The roles, rules, norms, and information flows that shape how people relate, coordinate, and participate.
How can people shape the conditions of collective life?
These perspectives can be studied independently or together. Their shared concern is human relationships, agency, and collective outcomes.
Explore our methodsSeven areas of inquiry.
Information environments
How information shapes perception, judgment, and the possibilities people can see.
Agency & self-direction
How people gain meaningful control over their choices and participation in social systems.
Identity & representation
How digital representations influence the ways people are understood by others and institutions.
Communities & institutions
How roles, norms, and shared structures shape relationships and collective life.
Coordination & collective intelligence
How people discover opportunities, share knowledge, and organize action together.
AI-mediated social systems
How intelligent technologies change communication, trust, authority, and human relationships.
Adaptive & life-giving systems
How social and technological systems learn from their effects and evolve with their members.