December 22, 2002
"SMART" MIGHT BE STRETCHING IT:
Smart Mobs (On the Media, PBS)Text messaging is transforming us into hive-style animals. Mobs of hundreds, even thousands, controlled by no single person yet with a mind of its own, are communicating and changing the way we transmit news. Whether it's the whereabouts of Prince William in his Scottish college town or political demonstrations in the Philippines, smart mobs are the result of communication information on an unprecedented scale. Writer Clive Thompson discusses the phenomenon of smart mobs with OTM.
Heard this interview today and it was really interesting. One of the things Mr. Thompson said is that within the next year there'll be a disaster in Japan, or somewhere else in the Far East where these devices are prevalent, the first film footage of which will come from bystanders using their image-sending cell phones. His article on Smart Mobs is online here and he actually has his own blog.
Posted by Orrin Judd at December 22, 2002 1:57 PM
Mr. Judd;
This concept is where "Thought Mesh" comes from. "Mesh" is a standard CS term for a web of independent but communicating computing devices. As more and more people become wired and the wiring gets better, we approach a state where memes can run around on a distributed "thought mesh" getting considered, improved and filtered.
Why do we want more mimes running around? Is this some French plot?
Posted by: oj at December 23, 2002 4:06 PMMonsieur Judd;
Oui. Ze blogs, they are just like ze mime, no? Silent, yet annoying, the contents always bumping against inveesible boxes. You, in your simplisme, are but part of ze plot.
Jeff Jarvis, Glenn Reynolds and others have pointed out in the past few months the inevitable phenomena of egalitarian, instantaneous, on-the-scene reporting of events. This is the amazing force of human creativity applied to technologies created for other purposes or unknown purposes. We are producing hard & soft wares faster than we can come up with serious applications for them. Throw them out there and people will devise ingenious uses for them. It is a great time to be alive and it is why the US will continue to surpass and widen the gap with the rest of the world.
Posted by: Kimmon D. Johnson at December 26, 2002 5:36 PM