Dialogue

The solution Dialogue is an online platform creating critical and continued open dialogues on racism. Dialogue is committed in bringing separated communities together in a safe environment of perpetual discourse. It is devoted to remedy the embedded roots of racism with the tools of language written and spoken, algorithms as well as artificial intelligence. 

 Any person from anywhere, of any religion or color, can enter the platform to ask questions or discuss issues on racism. Questions or statements can be written or recorded vocally onto the interface. An algorithm will match questions with different types of answers, or similar dialogues, resulting in the connection of users. Each language and culture is a unique thought process to express one point of view. The mixture of them all allows us to experience many different points of views from the same angle. 

Dialogue is specifically designed to combat racism through language-based applications. It will recognize languages and their cultural references. A Franco-Senegalese user from Saint Ouen in Paris will have the ability to communicate with a Haitian American in Flatbush, Brooklyn, while an indigenous person in Yakuts, Russia, can listen in or read the transcription. The intimacy of sound and the ability to see where the users are located offers the perspective of a global challenge. Everyone will be able to feel the weight of the problem at hand. The ability to view different angles of the same problem can help formulate the right language to address it. 

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) stipulates that racism and anti-racism is above all, a battle of ideas. With history, immigration, economic and religious displacements, millions of people are ascribing negative meanings to the differences arriving in their communities. There is a resistance to difference, and this barrier is something that language, and lots of it, can break. The dialogue needs to begin no matter how paralyzing it initially appears. 

Dialogue is live, continuous, therapeutic communication. It generates and creates new conversations with a growing dialogue. 

Dialogue allows for text or audio excerpts to be uploaded and transcribed onto its web platform. The participants, who select and read transcriptions, can choose to read the transcriptions in any order desired. Once an author and reader choose their respective entries, they connect and can view each other’s entries. In many instances, one entry will be consumed multiple times by different users. 

The delivery of the audio recordings is organized through software, designed so that readers can communicate with each other, infinitely creating new narratives about the same subject. All readers, times the sum of all the parts, will create thousands of ways to express themselves. The thought process behind each excerpt varies. Its course will answer why the different routes are needed to arrive at the same destination. The linear delivery of common practice is perturbed. It will give us an insight on how racism affects us all.  

Dialogue acknowledges the challenge in combatting racism. As an entity it is launched through the notion that there is a global problem to solve. It will target disenchanted communities of the world as well their counterparts who wish to join the international discourse. Dialogue will begin in its headquarters of New York City. 

As a Franco-American living in New York City, I see it is a multi-cultural and lingual refuge not only for the rest of the country, but the world. The city’s richness can be experienced by a simple, quotidian activity. On my street alone, in Kensington, I hear Russian, Yiddish, Mandarin, Bengali and French all whilst sitting on my stoop. I am exposed to a handful of cultures by simply stepping out into the streets. That alone is a glimpse of tolerance that I identify with. The thought process allows for all ideas and lifestyles to co-exist. In the city, I see people who think differently, look differently and ultimately feel differently. Ideas, identities, and the languages spoken here, flourish. Dialogue will allow challenged communities the opportunity to speak out and have their voices heard. I would begin by hosting workshops, webinars and inviting different people from all communities to direct one. For example, I have worked for the past year, developing a live portrait, of New York City, entitled The Pulse. It is a visual art project with a political core that assimilates device-driven photography, databases or big data, coding, and artificial intelligence. It creates a living, digitally breathing portrait of racial and ethnic diversity in contemporary New York City. This project attracted the attention of La Maison de la Conversation (House of Conversation) in Paris. We are currently discussing the possibility of merging The Pulse with cultures of New York City and their counterparts in Paris to create a dialogue about diversity. 

Dialogue and The Pulse both challenge the idea of a “right” identity. They push the boundaries of race, ethnicity and to whom it speaks. The solutions target the population that feels segregated from society and allows them to confront themselves with others. 

This solution aligns directly with combatting racism in our society. The studies published by the UN offer language and its poor use as a contributing factor to racism. The lack of understanding and expression can lead to misinformation. We have seen the US highly polarized during the last presidential election. The information pouring onto social media could not be more contrasting. If we applied our algorithm of Dialogue on social media during the election, we would understand a lot more about the situation by studying what was not being said. We should never underestimate the power of language and its reach.  

Dialogue is in a concept-stage development. I had applied for another challenge with my Non-for-Profit Transmission NYC It is a support platform for people with MS. It concentrated on the disconnection of author from voice to become a powerful realignment of perspective, offering the ability to truly listen. It serves as a therapeutic platform that allows people to be open about their fears. After this submission, I was contacted three times, twice by Ian Mulholland and once by Amanda Saeli at MIT Solve. In the past three weeks, since the original email, I have tested out the possibilities of using part of the technology in Transmission NYC to apply with Dialogue. My role at La Maison de la Conversation was to bridge the residents of Saint Ouen with a similar neighborhood in Brooklyn so that they could communicate the difficult questions of racism in a different society. 

Dialogue is a live, continuous, communication. It generates and creates new conversations with a growing dialogue. 

Dialogue allows for text or audio excerpts to be uploaded and transcribed onto its web platform. The participants select and read transcriptions, and can choose to read excerpts in any order. Once an author and reader choose their respective entries, they can connect and view each other’s entries. 

The delivery of the audio recordings is organized through software designed so that readers can communicate with each other, infinitely creating new dialogues. All readers, times the sum of all the parts, will create thousands of ways to express themselves in Dialogue. 

At the moment we are speaking to several hundred people in New York City and in Paris. In the first year of Dialogue we will hope to reach in the tens of thousands globally. With racism being a global issue, Dialogue should be in the frontline as a formidable tool for antiracism. 

We have three measurements of success:  quality, quantity and reach. We are in the concept, leaking into pilot stage, meaning our indicators are based on immediate interest. The impact is largely based on the same technology used in Transmission NYC. 

Our team is international, multi-lingual and diverse. We are seeking to build with contractors to eventually hire full-time staff.

Our team is international, multi-lingual and diverse. All of us work as volunteers for other causes such as animal rescue, private tutoring for those who cannot afford it, and developing innovative support groups for the disabled. 

Dialogue serves as anti-racist tool for the international community. One of our greatest assets is our precise use of language and its connection to people. 

I have applied to Solve since it speaks directly to the development of daunting and innovative technology to better humanity. 

Dialogue will need specific technical, legal and cultural experts to survive potential threats. All of these may necessitate a strong financial backbone from the start. As the project grows, so will its people be manning the office(s) in the world. 

Dialogue is its infancy concept/pilot stage and therefore it is difficult to point out specific partners that t would benefit from.

Dialogue answers to advancing health and subsequently producing an opportunity to further a more humane society. There is no doubt that racism and hate are the cancers of all our cultures. The Robert Wood Johnson Prize would put Dialogue on its first map and give us a roaring start.

Dialogue’s use of language as a tool for anti-racism is a crucial step in the right direction. We are applying for this prize, not as an established nonprofit but with the desire to develop with MIT Solve.

Dialogue’s use of AI as a tool for anti-racism is the ultimate qualification for the AI for Humanity Prize.