2. Flash mob
definitions
history
types of flash mob
related concepts
technology
3. A flash mob
is a large group of people who assemble
suddenly in a public place, perform an
unusual and pointless act for a brief time,
then quickly disperse.
The term flash mob is generally applied
only to gatherings organized via
telecommunications, social media, or viral
emails.
4. First Flash mob
Inventor of flash mob is Bill Wasik, senior editor
of Harper's Magazine.
The concept's creator, a shadowy figure known
only as Bill, started off by e-mailing 50 friends to
gather at a retail store in downtown Manhattan.
More than 100 people converged upon the ninth
floor rug department of the store, gathering
around and asking for a "love rig".
"It's a spectacle for spectacle's sake - which is
silly, but is also, as I've discovered somewhat to
my surprise, genuinely transgressive, which is
part of its appeal, I think," said the mysterious
Bill in an e-mail exchange. "People feel like
there's nothing but order everywhere, and so
they love to be a part of just one thing that
nobody was expecting."
(Bill)
5. The term flash mob is inspired by "smart mob"
A smart mob is a group that, contrary to the
usual connotations of a mob, behaves
intelligently or efficiently.
People to connect to information and
others, allowing a form of social
coordination via:
Internet Relay Chat
mobile phones and
digital assistants.
Depending on how the technology is used,
smart mobs may be beneficial or
detrimental to society.
6. Examples of smart mob
eBay — a collection of users who are
empowered by the Internet and eBay to buy
and sell and maintain the quality control over
all transactions through the rating system.
Text messages that were sent in the
Philippines, which are thought to be partly
responsible for the demonstration that ousted
former President Joseph Estrada.
The 2007 Lawyers' Movement in Pakistan, a
mob with a very specific agenda, moving
quickly dismantling law and order throughout
the country. The 'handlers' or dispatchers
were members of a group formerly known as
Blackwater, and currently known as Xe
Worldwide, in conjunction with the U.S.
Embassy.
7. Common types of Flash mob
A flash mob bang
is a type of flash mob where a
group of people meet in a
specified area pretend to shoot
each other with their fingers
until everyone but one is on the
ground.
The trend owes much to uses of
modern communications
technologies, including
decentralised personal
networking, known as smart
mobbing.
8. Common types of Flash mob Participating cities included
Atlanta,
Boston,
Worldwide Pillow Fight Day
Budapest,
Chicago,
It was a pillow fight flash mob that took place on
Copenhagen,
March 22, 2008. Over 25 cities around the globe
Denver,
participated in the first "international flash mob",
Dublin,
which was the world's largest flash mob to date.
Houston,
Huntsville,
London,
Los Angeles,
Melbourne,
New York City,
Paris,
Pécs,
Portland,
Roanoke,
Seattle,
Shanghai,
Stockholm,
Sydney,
Székesfehérvár,
Szombathely,
Vancouver,
Washington, DC and
Zurich
9. Common types of Flash mob
Silent disco
People gathere with their portable music
devices, and at a set time began dancing
to their music.
In 2006, it was reported that more than
4,000 people participated at London
Victoria station.
This impacted the regular service of the
system enough for the city's police to
begin crowd control and slowly clear
people.
10. Flash mob violence
In Philadelphia the local mobs involve
mainly middle- and high-schoolers.
As many as 2,000 teenagers thronged the
narrow sidewalks, blocked traffic, jumped
on cars and roughed up bystanders.
There were three arrests and multiple
assaults, and many stores and restaurants
closed early amid fears of trouble brewing.
"It's easy to do; it's thrilling, it's
Police monitors social networking sitesand fun, and they can turn on the TV
message boards for early warning of the next day and say, 'I was there."
potential disturbances.
11. Police being silly.
Belarus, a flash mob of citizens met in the
central square and simultaneously ate ice
cream.
The government’s rules prohibited group
public actions. The protesters brought their
cameras and filmed black clad security forces
apprehending them in October Square.
The mission didn’t bring down the
government since the protesters
overestimated how enraged citizens outside
Belarus would at this action, but they did
make the government look foolish.
12. The governments being even sillier.
Governments do the campaign against
word-of-mouth via word-of-mouth.
“There’s been a lot of media coverage
about organized mobs intimidating
lawmakers, disrupting town halls, and
silencing real discussion about the need for
real health insurance reform.
The truth is, it’s a sham. These “grassroots
protests” are being organized and largely
paid for by Washington special interests and
insurance companies who are desperate to
block reform. They’re trying to use lies and
fear to break the President and his agenda
for change."
Jen O’Malley Dillon
Executive Director
Democratic National Committee
13. Related concepts. Collective inteligence.
Collective intelegence relates to smart mobs and to any flash mob coordination.
Collective intelligence is a shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and
competition of many individuals. Collective intelligence appears in a wide variety of forms of
consensus decision making in bacteria, animals, humans, and computer networks.
Collective intelligence is enabled by the rise of Web 2.0. Users are able to generate their own
content.
According to Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, collective intelligence is mass collaboration. In
order for this concept to happen, four principles need to exist. These are openness, peering, sharing
and acting globally.
14. Related concepts. Culture Jamming.
Culture jamming is a different way to look at
common things. Using mass culture and create
awareness.
Culture jams re-figure logos, fashion statements,
and product images to challenge the idea of "what's
cool," along with assumptions about the personal
freedoms of consumption.
Culture jamming is usually employed in opposition to
a perceived appropriation of public space, or as a
reaction against social conformity.
Prominent examples of culture jamming include
the adulteration of billboard advertising by the
BLF and Ron English and the street parties and
protests organised by Reclaim the Streets.
Culture jamming sometimes entails transforming
mass media to produce ironic or satirical
commentary about itself, using the original
medium's communication method.
15. Related concepts. E-democracy
E-democracy (electronic democracy) is a form of
direct democracy that uses information
technologies and communication technologies and
strategies for political and governance processes.
E-democracy aims for broader and more active
citizen participation enabled by the Internet,
mobile communications, social networking and
other technologies.
Internet is a many-to-many communication
medium.
Radio and television are few-to-many.
Telephones are few-to-few.
The lower cost of information exchange on the
Internet, as well as the high level of reach that the
content potentially has, makes the Internet an
attractive medium for political information,
particularly amongst social interest groups and
parties with lower budgets.
16. Flash mob tehnologies. Viral emailing.
A viral email (also known as a "pass-along email") is
a certain kind of email which rapidly propagates
from person to person, generally in a word-of-
mouth manner.
A 2004 study into viral email behaviors identified a
number of reasons as to why people may pass along
emails. Most of the emails that were passed along
involved humor, although other factors - such as
the presence of naked pictures and warnings about
crime - were identified as being significant.
In viral marketing, the aim is to spread awareness
about a product offering.
A number of websites are dedicated to collecting
viral emails, these include Viralbank and Bore Me.
17. Flash mob tehnologies. Social networking software. Twitter, Myspace, Facebook etc.
Protests in Moldova
On April 6, 2009, 10,000 protesters
used Twitter to mobilize out of thin
air to protest the communist
government, in a protest that began
peaceably and turned violent.
Protesters created their own
searchable Twitter tag so other
would-be protesters could learn of
the impending protest.
18. Flash mob tehnologies. Collaborative software.
Collaborative software is a concept that greatly
overlaps with computer supported cooperative
work (CSCW)
Software systems such as email, calendaring,
text chat, wiki, and bookmarking belong to this
category.
It has been suggested that Metcalfe's law — the
more people who use something, the more
valuable it becomes — applies to these types of
software.
There are three primary ways in which humans
interact:
conversations (simple exchange)
transactions (exchange money for goods) Examples include
collaborations (In collaboration alteration development of an idea
of a collaboration entity) creation of a design
achievement of a shared goal.
Collaboration cannot take place in a
vacuum, it requires individuals working
together in a coordinated fashion, towards a
common goal.
19. Flash mob computing.
Flash mob computing (or a flash
mob computer) is a temporary ad-
hoc computer cluster running
specific software to coordinate the
individual computers into one single
supercomputer.
The first flash mob computer was
created on April 3, 2004 at the
University of San Francisco using
software written at USF called
FlashMob
20. Flash mob - everyone can do it
for fun
for reason
for change
21. List of resources
Wikipedia on flash mob
Culture Jamming
Smart mob
flash mob bang
collective intelligence
Social_contract
E-democracy
Critical_mass
Flash mobs: a new social phenomenon?
Smart mob storms London
Pillow fights go violent
Manhattan Mob Meets Its Maker
Viral email
Collaborative software
Flash_mob_computing
Trivial technologies (Twitter, Flash Mobs) have power in non-democratic countries
Flash Mobs Demonstrate Power of Technology, But May do More Harm Than Good
Technology Helping City Deter Violence, Flash Mobs
