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Smart Mobs

  
 
tSuibhne
00:14 / 26.09.02
I guess since I'm still a moderator here, I should probably be posting

Has anyone else been reading Smart Mobs? It's litterally become my favorite blog recently. It's a companion to the soon to be released book by the same name. Full of a lot of stuff about social theory and how technology can effect it.

From the book summary:

Smart mobs emerge when communication and computing technologies amplify human talents for cooperation. The impacts of smart mob technology already appear to be both beneficial and destructive, used by some of its earliest adopters to support democracy and by others to coordinate terrorist attacks. The technologies that are beginning to make smart mobs possible are mobile communication devices and pervasive computing - inexpensive microprocessors embedded in everyday objects and environments. Already, governments have fallen, youth subcultures have blossomed from Asia to Scandinavia, new industries have been born and older industries have launched furious counterattacks.

Street demonstrators in the 1999 anti-WTO protests used dynamically updated websites, cell-phones, and "swarming" tactics in the "battle of Seattle." A million Filipinos toppled President Estrada through public demonstrations organized through salvos of text messages.

The pieces of the puzzle are all around us now, but haven't joined together yet. The radio chips designed to replace barcodes on manufactured objects are part of it. Wireless Internet nodes in cafes, hotels, and neighborhoods are part of it. Millions of people who lend their computers to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence are part of it. The way buyers and sellers rate each other on Internet auction site eBay is part of it. Research by biologists, sociologists, and economists into the nature of cooperation offer explanatory frameworks. At least one key global business question is part of it - why is the Japanese company DoCoMo profiting from enhanced wireless Internet services while US and European mobile telephony operators struggle to avoid failure?

The last question is possibly a little misleading. Anyone who was watching DoCoMo's recent launch of 3G technology is aware that the Japenese approach technology in a way that is completly different then how the rest of the world approaches it. No one in the industry was paying attention to sales figures or uses. They were watching the technology. Looking for breakdowns and bugs in the system.

Besides that though, the site is a fun collection of all kinds of links. From articles on "network centric warfare" to the use of technology by anarchists to how the US military has something to learn from Bin Laden. Not to mention bits on the Aula collective and other similiar groups.

As someone who's been intruiged by virtual communities since he got on the 'net 9 years ago (the anniversary of my first email account is sometime this month, the first time I really used the 'net for meeting people was 9 years ago next month). As well as someone who's recently discovered that he were born to be a system theorist (I'm hoping to start on my system engineering masters this winter). This site is fucking gold.

Anyone else into this stuff? Theories? Ideas? Reactions?
 
 
BioDynamo
10:14 / 26.09.02

The Smart Mob is, to my mind, a potential form of democracy, that is, Mob Rule.

(Current favourite quote: "Democracy is best defined as the process of democratization.")

The Mob that is in constant internal communication, that does the decisions concerning itself fluidly, organically, continuously, would be an ideal form of organization, especially if you are trying to organize some sort of rebellious or insurrective activity.

Unfortunately, a lot of insurrection is still hierarchical in nature, partly because then it is more easly controlled and bent to serve particular interests, partly because that's just the way we're used to doing things.

For example the demonstrations in Gothenburg last summer.

AntiFascist Action set up a secret "communications centre" which, using very simple technology, sent out SMS's to people around town, telling them to converge on the Hvitfeldtska school which the police had surrounded.

The people in the "top secret centre" were arrested and sentenced to long prison sentences for "inciting a riot". Absurd statements (the police were the ones who incited the riot!), but lent a certain amount of credibility by the fact that you could draw up a supposed hierarchy with these people at the top of the communications pyramid.

A Smart Mob would have been so completely networked, that when the police were just beginning to surround the space, other people in the vicinity would be aware of this and able to react accordingly. The decisions would be based on the twin principles of consensus ("let's do it") and exodus ("I'm outta here!")...

This would be the ideal. Anyone who has been involved in any mass-level organizing knows how far we are from this...
 
 
grant
13:53 / 26.09.02
so, how do I build a smart mob?

what does a smart mob need?

What technology? What language?
 
 
tSuibhne
14:21 / 26.09.02
It's not really a "put tab a in slot b" kind of thing. It's more a matter of using the technology around you to enpower a group of people. The most common tech is things like cell phones and pagers. Anything that can be used for anytime/anywhere access. Blogs seem to be becoming a major tool as well. Again it's the anytime/anywhere ability of it. Aula collective is even looking into an interface that will allow blogs to be updated via text messages from phones and other such devices.

Recently, when I've been explaining this idea at work, I've been using a much more mundane example that I came across in a Washington Post article. Imagen it's Friday, and instead of calling your friends that afternoon, or early evening, and figuring out what you're going to do that night, you just all go out on your own, or in small groups. When you come across something interesting (a good band, hopping club, whatever you're into) you call/message all your friends and tell them where you are. If they're interested, they join you. This is one of the most basic examples of smart mobs. It's basically a matter of decentralizing decision making to the point that no plan has to be in place, everything can be done in the moment. Any technology that helps that idea, is useable. The fun comes when you start applying the idea to new situations.

oh, and I'd imagen the early underground rave scene can probably be seen as a precurser to smart mobs.
 
 
tSuibhne
14:28 / 26.09.02
grant, read the Aula article referenced above for an idea.

here is the Washington Post article I was talking about that gives a bit more mundane view.
 
 
w1rebaby
17:18 / 26.09.02
There's a rather tiresome Bruce Sterling book that, as usual, has much better ideas than plot/character/interest, that deals with exactly this sort of thing, and with the technology that helps it. For instance, one of the characters has invented "smart bricks" that have sensors and instructions built in, that enable a bunch of completely untrained people to construct a building. You pick up a block and it says "put me over there on top of that one... left a bit... down... right, good. Now go get the one marked A12" and so on.

It was written a few years ago I think... unfortunately I never finished reading it because it was boring me. Does anyone remember what it was called?
 
 
MJ-12
19:30 / 26.09.02
"Distraction," I think.
 
 
unheimlich manoeuvre
13:56 / 06.08.03
from today's Independent
Choreographed madness as internet mobs take to streets.

They came out of nowhere. At exactly 7.47pm last Saturday, a mass of people assembled outside the US embassy on Berlin's central Unter den Linden boulevard. They were wearing silly hats and waving flags. After exactly a minute they popped open bottles of champagne and began to drink "to Natasha!" over and over again. They took pictures in unison. But a minute later they had disappeared.
Those who witnessed the scene were bemused. But this choreographed madness, a flash mob, was harmless fun organised over the internet. The movement, which began in America, is taking Germany by storm.
Mobbers receive e-mails telling them when and where to assemble and are given details as to what they should do. The first flash mob, at Macy's store in New York in June, saw more than 100 people turn up in the department store's home furnishings section. When confused sales staff asked what they were up to, each replied they were searching for a "love rug" for their "suburban commune". The flash mob movement is the creation of Howard Rheingold. Rheingold, who was one of the first to explore the social uses of the internet and has been described as "10 years ahead of the rest of us", has since published a book entitled Smart Mobs - The Next Social Revolution. But many regard the stunts as just a bit of fun.
"I feel like i'm in a bizarre spy movie," one flash mobber said, fishing for his wooly hat and champagne in preparation for the madness on Unter den Linden. "I keep trying to work out who's in on it and who's not. It is about letting yourself go with complete strangers." He added:
"The Germans aren't the most laid-back bunch; but if they can do it, anyone can."
Whether traditional British reserve will wobble in the face of flash mobbing is unclear. The movement has yet to take off in Britain and appears to be having a difficult birth. One flash-mobbing website alerted potential mobbers that the first would be held soon in Birmingham. Another flash-mob pioneer complained he had been trying for weeks to arrange one in London, but no one was interested.

from THIS EUROPE
by Ruth Elkins

anyone know of this being tried in England?
 
 
Bomb The Past
14:13 / 06.08.03
The first UK Mob is being held tomorrow in London. There's groups in Birmingham, Sheffield and Manchester too. Interest in smart mobs (or flash mobs) seems to be exploding across Europe and the US at the moment. These mob groups seem to be resolutely unpolitical though which seems a shame.

I'm becoming increasingly obsessed with flashmobbing and am going to be in London tomorrow to attend the first one over here. Maybe I'll see some of you there.
 
 
unheimlich manoeuvre
22:34 / 06.08.03
my thanks, Dead Flower.

...

your London link may have been this.
 
 
diz
00:35 / 07.08.03
i think i'm going to try to organize a San Diego flash mob, but i'm not sure it will come together. the city's really spread out, and i'm not sure that enough people will be willing to drive for half an hour each way to take part in a ten-minute absurdity.

i'm also not sure i know enough people to get one properly started...
 
 
Perfect Tommy
03:27 / 07.08.03
I know it's odd to crosspost from the Policy, but it seems like the discussion in A group is its own worst enemy... regarding this article of the same name might be relevant here. I guess the main question is: Are the problems raised in "A group..." avoided by smart mobs because of the even greater decentralization and more transient nature of the mobs, or are those problems waiting to pounce?
 
 
Yay Paul
13:00 / 08.08.03
So does anyone know who from the Lith went last night?
I know I was there, at least that's what my brain was telling me.
I had a great laugh, and hopefully got some good pics (there in the developers as we speak).

What I don't get is some of the presses portrayal of it, some of them reported it like it was a bit of fun, but others really didn't seem to like it!

" A 10-minute outbreak of confusion and lunacy brought shoppers in the heart of London's biggest retail district to a standstill on Thursday night."

All I can say to that is, no they didn't !
 
 
unheimlich manoeuvre
15:56 / 08.08.03
i missed the mob. maybe next time?

Smart mob storms London
Act as tourists looking for socks

God forbid this should turn into a media event.
 
 
unheimlich manoeuvre
14:44 / 14.10.03
Mob flash Blaine with mobiles

"The flash mob for David Blaine involved turning up, holding your mobile phone up, having it ring for a minute, then shouting "what goes up must come down!" for two minutes then dispersing very quickly."
 
 
unheimlich manoeuvre
00:19 / 05.10.04
The first rule of Fight Club is...

Wednesday 6th October.
 
 
Miss K
07:14 / 08.10.04
Yeah, but who's been in a virtual Flash Mob? I have, here...
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
23:04 / 09.10.04
Ah, reminds me of the great Barbelith chatroom peace demo of 2001...
 
  
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