Overview

Groups of students, staff, and faculty in MIT departments, centers, and labs invited, hosted and recorded  small, in-person or virtual dialogues with people in their respective communities (4-6 participants per group). 

During these dialogues, participants shared their lived experiences at MIT, heard the stories of others, and reflected on the connections, tensions, and commonalities that emerged. Stored in a private conversation collection, the recordings were governed by transparent data sharing and access policies by which the individual group controlled the visibility of the transcripts. (We call this the privacy-preserving “community voice trust.”)

 A designated team from each group used the RealTalk Insights Tool to identify themes and patterns in the conversations and map related experiences to the new MIT Values Statement. The experiences each team deemed shareable with the broader MIT community were added to a Realtalk @ MIT Conversation Portal. Through this portal, all members of the MIT community could explore an online collection of stories shared in the community, providing the ability to listen to the experiences of others and explore themes and connections that emerge across both themes and groups.