Metagov Seminar - Turning to Trust Experience Design with Dr. Helena Rong

This is a research presentation by Metagov's newest research director, Dr. Helena Rong. Helena is an Assistant Professor of Interactive Media and Business at NYU Shanghai, with an interdisciplinary focus on urban technology, collective intelligence, and digital governance. Her work examines how emerging technologies (blockchains, decentralized AI, urban IoT) can transform collective life and foster new forms of civic trust. She leads research on Trust Experience Design (TXD), intentional communities and digital nomadism, and the institutional challenges posed by the emerging agentic web. Across her projects, she explores how sociotechnical systems can enable more resilient, participatory, and imaginative modes of urban living.

​In her seminar presentation, she will share about her work with a focus around "Turning to Trust Experience Design (TXD): A Manifesto for the Future of Distributed Autonomous Intelligence in the Wild. Helena has previously worked with Metagov RDs on Open Problems in DAOs and the State of DAOs in China report. She has also co-authored the recently published, "The Dao of the DAO: Eastern Philosophies in Decentralized Worlds."

Previously, Helena conducted research at MIT’s Real Estate Innovation Lab (co-authoring the book Value of Design: Creating Agency Through Data-Driven Insights, 2025) and at the MIT Senseable City Lab, working on autonomous urban systems (“roboat” waterborne vehicles for public spaces). As a 2022–23 Technology and Public Purpose Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, she studied decentralized trust-building frameworks and tech policy.

​We are so thrilled to welcome Helena to the Metagov Research Community!