{"id":4258,"date":"2003-08-05T12:30:50","date_gmt":"2003-08-05T12:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=4258"},"modified":"2003-08-05T12:30:50","modified_gmt":"2003-08-05T12:30:50","slug":"smart-mobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=4258","title":{"rendered":"smart mobs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest technological phenomenon to get the attention of the New<\/p>\n

York Times is "mobbing."<\/a> An announcement spreads around<\/p>\n

blogs, listservs, and bulletin boards: everyone is supposed to show<\/p>\n

up at a particular time and place to do some particular, but random,<\/p>\n

thing, like asking a Macy’s sales clerk for a "love rug" or<\/p>\n

shouting "Yes, Yes!" Thanks to the viral nature of the Internet,<\/p>\n

the idea spreads and people actually show up. <\/p>\n

Are smart mobs "The<\/p>\n

Next Social Revolution?"<\/a> as Howard Rheingold is arguing? They<\/p>\n

certainly fit the current ideal for social organizations: completely<\/p>\n

decentralized, with<\/p>\n

minimal costs of entry and exit, no hierarchy, and no rules. I have<\/p>\n

absorbed so much conventional social theory that I’m very skeptical<\/p>\n

about this ideal. I assume that the creation of public goods is difficult<\/p>\n

and requires a solution to the classic free-rider problem (namely: people<\/p>\n

won’t contribute much of value if the good is enjoyed by everyone else).<\/p>\n

Destroying stuff is much easier. Therefore, I would guess that the new<\/p>\n

phenomenon of "smart mobs" will be used much more effectively<\/p>\n

to destroy than to create. People may show up to shout "yes, yes!"<\/p>\n

(which is funny and costs nothing), but they won’t use "smart mob"<\/p>\n

methods for real constructive action. I also assume that one of the<\/p>\n

trickiest parts of social organization is finding ways to make actors<\/p>\n

appropriately accountable. I don’t see how a smart mob can be forced<\/p>\n

to answer for its behavior. However, all this could be wrong. (I’m very<\/p>\n

"twentieth century.")<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest technological phenomenon to get the attention of the New York Times is "mobbing." An announcement spreads around blogs, listservs, and bulletin boards: everyone is supposed to show up at a particular time and place to do some particular, but random, thing, like asking a Macy’s sales clerk for a "love rug" or shouting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internet-and-public-issues"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}