Hi everyone,
I'm presenting in class on Friday, so don't forget to come along for out last FTF tut and hopefully some great discussion. Here's what we'll be discussing so you can all come prepared :)
Smart mobs are groups of people who are able to communicate and act quickly using wireless communicative and broadcasting technologies.
“Location-sensing wireless organisers, wireless networks and community supercomputing collectives all have one thing in common: they enable people to act together in new ways and in situations where collective action was not possible before.” (p191)
An example of this phenomenon was Manila residents political demonstration which caused the fall of the Philippines government in 2001 – 20,000 people assembled in 75 minutes through waves of text messaging: ‘Go 2EDSA, Wear blck.’
Activism on this scale relies on many small units of people organising around a shared goal, and using mobile communications to quickly come together from different directions (pp193-194)
Protesters in Seattle against the WTO used “radios, police scanners and portable computers. Protesters in the street with wireless Palm Pilots were able to link into continuously updated web pages giving reports from the streets. Police scanners monitored transmissions and provided some warning of changing police tactics. Cell phones were widely used.” (p193)
Action taken in Seattle and Manila and other places have been termed ‘netwars,’ a mode of action used by both social activists and criminal/terrorist organisations. So there are positive and negative uses of smart mob tactics and technologies.
There is a potential for ‘peer-to-peer journalism’ from phones and other devices used at protests where film footage can instantly be uploaded to the web. (p196)
Smart mob tactics can prompt many people to act and cause ‘massive outbreaks of coorperation,’ which can definitely have positive outcomes, but can also be unpleasant: ‘Lynch mobs and entire nations cooperate to perpetuate atrocities.’ (p197)
Questions for discussion:
What are the implications of ‘peer-to-peer’ journalism that is possible because of mobile technologies? Might this change how traditional forms of media report? Or how we get our information?
How might these technologies be used in positive ways to keep/make governments/corporations accountable to citizens?
How might society change through these mobile technologies?
Are we more connected than ever before? Less connected? Differently connected?
Would receiving a text message like ‘Go 2 Frst Ch, Wear blk’ mobilise you for action?
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