Smart Mobs

The Smart Mobs site features a blog related to the issues covered in Howard Rheingold's latest book, Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. "Smart mobs" are an excellent example of a wholly decentralized approach to the organization and mobilization of stakeholders. Using dynamically updated websites, cell phones, and "swarming" tactics, smart mobs have thus far played crucial roles in the anti-WTO protests of "The Battle in Seattle" and in the toppling of Philippine President Estrada.

Rheingold sees tremendous changes in society as a result of smart-mob technology: "Already, governments have fallen, youth subcultures have blossomed from Asia to Scandinavia, new industries have been born and older industries have launched furious counterattacks."