Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution

from the changing-times dept

Joe Schmoe writes "...This is the precise opposite of a 1962-style "American Graffiti" world. Then you had to go to a place -- the strip, the drive-in -- to find out what was going on. Now, you find out what's going on by cell phone, and go to the place where it's happening..." A very interesting article about how mobile phones and other wireless devices are helping to create such "smart mobs" on the go. Wherever something interesting is happening, others find out quickly, and go there. It works for social events as well as political gatherings. Suddenly, the ability to bring together large groups of people incredibly quickly, and with little organizational effort brings a lot of power to these "smart mobs". The whole "swarming" effect works in both small groups and large - as whole groups of friends coordinate small things by text messaging.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Denacron, 31 Jul 2002 @ 6:19pm

    No Subject Given

    In Sci-Fi Niven speculated on "Flash crowds" this sounds close.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.