A. About Sorin A. Matei, the site owner

I Think is a collection of papers, articles, thoughts, and interactive maps edited by Sorin A. Matei, Ph.D., Professor of Communication, Brian Lamb School of Communication, Purdue University.

The content is provided by him, his students, collaborators, and colleagues. Articles address a variety of issues, mostly the social impact of communication technologies, but also digital and spatial humanities, current affairs, and social interaction online.

Dr. Matei was educated at Bucharest University (BA in History and Philosophy), Tufts University (Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, MA in International Relations), and the University of Southern California (Annenberg School for Communication, Ph.D. in Communication). He is currently Professor of Communication at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the founding Director of the FORCES initiative (4S – Security, Strategy, and Social Systems). He studies the relationships among information technology, group behavior, and social structures across a variety of contexts, including national defense and security.

His most recent research, published in the Army War College Quarterly, Parameters, examines the structural requirements of human – AI interaction adoption in national defense applications. Other recent papers propose competencies for strategic technology education, disinformation in great power competition, ethical reasoning in AI, AI and the “golden rule,” “cascading realism,” and mission command.

Structural Differentiation in Social Media studied 10 years’ worth of Wikipedia editing, or 250 million individual contributions to the site. The volume offers a new view on how online groups emerge. It identifies specific evolutionary phases, including a bureaucratic one. The book emphasizes the role of strong, although temporary, leaders for the success of any online project.

He has published several books and tens of articles in the Journal of Communication, Communication Research, Information Society, and Foreign Policy.  His work was funded by the National Science Foundation, Lockheed Martin, and Rolls-Royce, and is conducted in collaboration with colleagues from a variety of campus units, including Computer Science and Engineering.

During his tenure as Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Education at Purdue University, he has created the online MS in Strategy for Security and Strategy Technologies. His teaching portfolio includes  AI Transformation in Organization, Data and AI Storytelling, and Social Media Analytics.

Dr. Matei and his collaborators have also created numerous online scholarly platforms for digital humanities and military data science, including Virtual Omaha, THOR (Theatre of War – USAAF WW2 Strategic Bombing Campaign Data Map), OPMAPS (Operational Maps for Barbarossa), the Global Contest, and Tech Diplomacy games.

Dr. Matei is also known for his media work.  He is a former BBC World Service journalist whose contributions have been published in Esquire and leading Romanian newspapers.  In Romania, the country of his birth, he is known for his books Boierii Mintii (The Mind Boyars), Idolii forului (Idols of the forum), Idei de schimb (Spare ideas),  and as the publisher of Pagini.com (http://pagini.com).