A smart mob is a group that, contrary to the usual connotations of a mob, behaves intelligently or efficiently because of its exponentially increasing network links. This network enables people to connect to information and others, allowing a form of social coordination. Parallels are made to, for instance, slime molds. The concept was introduced by Howard Rheingold in his book Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. According to Rheingold, smart mobs are an indication of the evolving communication technologies that will empower the people. In 2002, the "smart mob" concept was highlighted in the New York Times "Year in Ideas."
These growing technologies include the Internet, computer-mediated communication such as Internet Relay Chat, and wireless devices like mobile phones and personal digital assistants. Methodologies like peer-to-peer networks and pervasive computing are also changing the ways in which people organize and share information.
Smart Mobs sometimes are manipulated by the dispatchers who control the 'mobbing system' (i.e., those who own the contact list and the means to forward instant messages to a group) and are induced to cause distress and aggravation to individuals who have been targeted or singled out for whatever reason.
There is a tendency to keep the dynamics of smart mobbing 'covert', and not to discuss such incidents on the internet.
Read more about Smart Mob: Early Instances, Relation To Flash Mobs, Examples, Distributed Mobs
Famous quotes containing the words smart and/or mob:
“I never met anyone who didn’t have a very smart child. What happens to these children, you wonder, when they reach adulthood?”
—Fran Lebowitz (20th century)
“The mob is man voluntarily descending to the nature of the beast. Its fit hour of activity is night. Its actions are insane like its whole constitution. It persecutes a principle; it would whip a right; it would tar and feather justice, by inflicting fire and outrage upon the houses and persons of those who have these. It resembles the prank of boys, who run with fire-engines to put out the ruddy aurora streaming to the stars.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)