Portland Antiwar Rally Goes Wireless

from the hello,-smart-mob dept

We've discussed the idea of "Smart Mobs" before and now read Howard Rheingold's SmartMobs blog on the subject regularly. So, it shouldn't be a surprise that there's more evidence every day of the concept catching on. The latest is that anti-war protestors in Portland used text messaging to keep themselves informed as to what was happening where. They used a fairly simple system (involving a human middleman). Anyone who was interested could sign up on the web to receive alerts. Then, anyone on the street could send alerts to a guy sitting by a computer, who would turn around and blast those messages out to everyone on the list - telling them where marchers were headed, or where police were. No matter what your opinion of the protestors are, it is fascinating to watch this type of communication in action.
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
    dorpus, 25 Mar 2003 @ 9:34am

    Witnessed it myself

    I was at the antiwar rally in SF two weeks ago and tailed the Black Bloc anarchists. They had cell phones and walkie talkies. The SF police has decades of experience handling protestors, so they know how to avoid looking bad on camera -- they'd arrest only one or two protestors at a time, avoiding use of batons or tear gas.

    I watched a fascinating choreography of riot police squads split up into 3 or 4 groups and converge on Black Block mobs. The cops knew how to come around a corner to surprise the mob. The mob would panic and disperse, then re-materialize on another street corner. The dance went on for hours, travelling right through the tourist district of SF. It was a somewhat anti-climactic affair. Both sides were locked in a kind of moving stalemate.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    dorpus, 25 Mar 2003 @ 9:50am

    And in Tokyo...

    When I went to a bar tonight, an American who works for "Peace Boat" walked in -- some sort of leftist organization that hosts boat cruises to promote intercultural exchanges. (I laughed out loud when he told me that, which almost led to a fight.) I overheard leftists here saying that the cops are employing the reverse technology, where plainclothes officers blend into a mob and snatch away known troublemakers at the first sign of trouble.


    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.