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The smart mob is a new form of social coordination made possible by the usage of modern technology, in particular the Internet and wireless devices (e.g. mobile phones, PDAs). A "smart mob" is a group that, contrary to the usual connotations of "mob", behaves intelligently or efficiently because of its exponentially-increasing network links. Parallels are made to, for instance, slime moulds.

According to the author, examples of smart mobs are the street protests organized by the Anti-globalization movement.

Another example is text messages sent in the Philippines that are thought to be partly responsible for the demonstration that ousted former President Joseph Estrada. Examples of such a text message read "Wear black to mourn the death of democracy", "Expect there to be rumbles" and "Go to ESDA". See "The Pager Revolution", an article in TIME magazine.

1 See also

• Collaborative software
• Collective intelligence
• E-democracy
• Flash mob
• Internet democracy
• Recommendation systemRecommendation systems retrieve information on the basis of users' tastes. This process relies on taste vectors and has become popular in movie recommendation systems and for telephone sales in which a caller who might buy bath towels will cause a compute
• Virtual communityA virtual community is a group whose members are connected by means of information technologies, typically the Internet. Similar terms include online community and mediated community . The term "virtual community" is attributed to the book of the same tit

2 External links

• Howard Rheingold site