Smart mob

Abstract: Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution Transforming Cultures and Communities in the Age of Instant Access, by Howard Rheingold, Perseus Publishing, 2002While I was writing this review, my neighborhood had its first "flashmob"-dozens of strangers packing the greeting card aisle at the Harvard Co-op, saying they were looking for a card for "my friend Bill from New York." A few took pictures of the crowd and uploaded them to Web sites. They all seemed to be smiling. The point? None - except to demonstrate that people are bored, and that the technology is here: The network of e-mail lists, bulletin boards, cell phone text messages and Web pages that spread the word of where to go and what to do on a lazy Saturday afternoon.Smart Mobs is about the more serious things people can do when they wed (for better or for worse) technologies of communication, cooperation and coordination - photo phones, pagers, weblogs, wearable computers, wireless networks and what ever comes next in a world of mobile always-on media. Put them together and you also get "moblogs," mobile live reports in words and pictures, posted to Web sites by participants in events, which could include real "news" events.For such a digital guy, Rheingold knows how to put dead trees to good use in a timely fashion. he wrote the first book I read about the dawn of the Internet (Tools for Thought: The History and future of Mind-Expanding Technology, 1985), then plugged a modem into his PC and started getting parenting tips from online neighbors, which inspired his 1993 book, The Virtual Community, just as the World Wide Web started to cause a population explosion in everyone's virtual neighborhood.He got the jump on "smart mobs" in Asia and Scandinavia, where mobile young users of cell phones, pagers and text-messaging were creating their own communication culture, ahead of their Americana counterparts. Smart Mobs discusses phenomena as diverse as digitally-augmented social protests in Manila and Seattle and a Japanese matchmaking service that alerts subscribers to possible dates in the vicinity of their mobile phones. (Position-indicators in phones, like the "digital traces" left behind your credit card transactions, have a dark side that Rheingold also recognizes: "We are moving rapidly into a world in which the spying machinery is built into every object we encounter.")Along with "flashmob" and "moblog" demonstrations, this year brought online community-organizing to the political scene, with Howard Dean's campaign using "meetup.com" calendars and open-source weblog software to bring groups of people, and their checkbooks, together. New heavily-marketed camera-phones are another wave - already making news headlines such as: "Camera Phone Helps Foil Alleged Abduction Attempt."While most of these Smart Mob technologies (and you can pronounce that like the "mob" in "mobile") begin as person-to-person or peer-to-peer ("P2P" for the compulsive abbreviators), they are also about gateways from one-to-one to one-to-many and many-to-many. Weblogs are simply time-stamped Web pages using software that makes it easy to add new items and links to other sites, but the linkage can become a "blogroll" spreading into a web of affinity groups, social circles and - potentially - social movements.Along the way, "peer-to-peer journalism/E is easy to envision, and more than a year ago, Rheingold was already predicting "the power of the Rodney King video multiplied by the power of Napster. …

Abstract: Over recent years, new digital communication technologies have had a big impact on established social institutions. These technologies naturally exert some pressure on modern society. The article reveals such phenomenon as a smart mob, which appeared due to the development of information technologies and social networks and is widespread now. The research shows the evolution of the smart mob and the flash mob as its kind in the way of constructing new formats for mass communication and social group management. Analysing different types of smart mobs, the authors identify four stages of its development: 'creative', 'game', 'business' and 'smart'. Four main stages of the smart mob evolution determine the principles of its organization and the main characteristics. The classic flash mob at its first stage has the principle of artistic creativity, which assigns the flash mob like a work of art. This creative act displays social processes beyond the habitual perception, drawing attention of an external observer to something, presenting this object in a new way by destroying established communication patterns used in everyday life. At the second stage, the smart mob loses its mystery, uniqueness and becomes a mass phenomenon attracting many thousands of participants. The third stage has practical characteristics, a goal-setting matrix for political, commercial and other purposes. At the last stage, the smart mob can evolve to the smart city element that helps to attract attention to a problem and to solve it.

Abstract: Since the year 2003, the term "flash mob" has been studied in various disciplines and was referred to by various media outlets to describe various events. The term "flash mob" originally meant to describe a phenomenon in which a group of people assembles in a public space, perform a seemingly random act, then quickly disperse. This phenomenon was expected to die just like other types of public performances, e.g., the eighties' raves. However, this phenomenon is still alive and became widespread in various forms. Since this phenomenon was new, mentioned in the media, and depended on technology, it is unwise to assume that everyone knows its exact meaning. Many traditionalist flash mobbers become concerned that the global diffusion of flash mobs has diluted their original meaning. So, in this summative, chronological, and by topic literature review article, we explore the disciplines in which this term was used; then investigate its various forms and propose the term "Mob" to be the root term so we can categorize its various forms (branches) and eliminate ambiguities; and prove that this phenomenon still exists. Finally, we try to shed light on what is missing from the literature and what needs to be studied in the future with regard to this topic.

Abstract: Purpose: Study and systemization of the area of interest referred to as “smart technologies”.